I have featured my Ipod Nano quite a bit in the past - blow all that out of the water now. I noticed Rockbox before but did not consider it for myself. Firstly, it did not support my model yet and secondly, why do I need to add an open source firmware, things are going fine as they are?

However, now I have tried it I am absolutely converted. Regular readers will know I am not usually gushing about software products and usually find at least a few things to moan about, so you can excuse me this one post, my normal (cynical) service will be resumed shortly.

Rockbox is an open source operating system for portable media players, and they have ported it to a couple of dozen players, including mine, the Ipod Nano (1st generation). It knocks the socks of the existing firmware. I've been using it for two weeks now, and it is now a permanent fixture in my digital life. Rockbox is mature, having been under constant development for 6 years. It has all the features the legacy firmware has, and loads of other groovy stuff - its like the Amiga of MP3 players, loads of people are making homebrew themes and plugins for it.

The Install

There are loads of in-depth manuals, so you have to pick the correct one for your mp3 player. However, the install itself is over rather quickly. There is also a #rockbox channel on Freenode if you really need someone to hold your hand. You can install from (at least) Linux, OS X or Windows.

You move the relevant files onto the Ipod - again a different set for each mp3 player, then you run a little program called ipodpatcher. Apart from a few lines of disclaimers, licences and so on; it went something like this:

[INFO] Scanning disk devices...

[INFO] Ipod found - 1st Generation Nano ("winpod") - /dev/sdc

Do you wish to install the rockbox bootloader? (y/n) :

[INFO] Bootloader installed successfully.

That was it. The controls reflect a normal mp3 player, so having dwelt in Apple land for so long, it took me a few minutes to master, but stick with it, it is quite rational. For safety, the default theme is a slightly blank one, so you will probably want to change it for another.

There does not seem to be a screenshot of the theme that I am using, I have no idea how to take a screenshot of my Ipod, sorry about that, so above are some other themes which have not one thing in common with mine! It just goes to show the power of rockbox!

Fully Reversible

Rockbox runs in a dual-boot arrangement. If you start the Ipod with the hold button off then you get Rockbox. If you start it with the hold button on then you get the legacy Apple firmware. So the original Ipod firmware is always available, but I have not used it once during the last two weeks, all my existing songs are available in Rockbox, so I probably never will again!

Rockbox is fully reversible, you can delete a couple of the files and your Ipod will be the same as it was before. However, I can see no reason why you would ever want to go back, except perhaps in preparation for selling your Ipod on.

Five things Rockbox has done for me

• Now my Ipod is drag and drop like any other USB device. I can plug my Ipod in, stick the files on, then eject the Ipod. It is how nature intended it to be. Now there is no need for me to mess around with the dumb Ipod database, (although Rockbox will support that if you want to carry on with existing Ipod programs such as gtkpod or iTunes).
• I have 15 sound codecs supported, including Ogg Vorbis and FLAC support. Yup that's right, I can play ogg vorbis on my Ipod Nano, helping me in my ogg mission!
• I have really enjoyed the document reader. I just move text documents onto my Ipod and then read them on the bus. There is an advanced JPEG viewer also.
• There is an on-screen keyboard that allows me to create and edit playlists. I can also use it make notes with the bundled text editor. I even got all web 2.0 for a while and started tagging everything.
• I have been playing the colour games which are surprisingly good looking. Frozen Bubble, Doom, a really good chess game, minesweeper, pong, Sudoku, blackjack, an arkanoid/breakout clone. My old mobile phone was a Sagem, and it had a really cool Qix clone called 'megabox conquest', indeed it was the only good thing about the phone. Sadly the charger died and I missed playing the game on the bus. I almost wet myself when I found the game on Rockbox under the name Xobox.

Five other features you may like

• There are other (more serious) plugins besides the games. I have been busy with the games, but I did try out the calculator and metronome.
• You can make the screen look how you want. Not only is everything customisable, including the all important now-playing screen, but there are also lots of pre-made themes available to download or you can make your own with the GIMP - let your imagination run riot.
• What surprised me most was that it the music sounds different. The sound quality is audibly clearer, with far less of a growl at the low end.
• The Real Time Clock means the Ipod will actually keep the correct time for a change, and there are clocks and stop watches etc.
• You can also make the Ipod speak to you if you are visually impaired. As well as voice commands, so you can control your Ipod Nano using speech.

So there we go, at the moment I think it is the bees' knees, if after a few weeks I turn into grumpy git about it then I will let you know!