It's been around for a while but I recently discovered a software that can replace Apple's Operating System on the iPod. Why? To make it more functional. Not that it'll cook breakfast or be a more active replacement for a spouse... Or even send emails or access the GPS to tell you where in the world in Carmen Sandiego. But what it can do is make file and music transfer a lot easier since it makes the 'Pod behave more like a hard drive than Apple's positively insane file system. And it can make the screen look like this.
This is the Vista Theme for those who haven't seen anything like it before, and there are more which look even better.
Add the options of using the device as a PDA (though typing involves scrolling through character by character), playing Games (maybe Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego, tetris for sure), easy file organisation a la the Creative Zen (as drive:\Artist\Album as opposed to F004 or whatever inane naming system the 'Pod already uses).
The only problem is I'm dead scared of hacking the iPod. Fooling around with Windows is not an issue. You can tweak, pull, rip to shreds anything at all and still get back to some bare bones version with only a bad memory of the incident. With the 'Pod I'm just not sure if I'll lose the 20GB of music, which is backed up somewhere but it's a Himalayan task to get all of it back and together with the proper tagging and album art and whatnot.
So here's the dilemma. To Rockbox or not to Rockbox.
This is the Vista Theme for those who haven't seen anything like it before, and there are more which look even better.
Add the options of using the device as a PDA (though typing involves scrolling through character by character), playing Games (maybe Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego, tetris for sure), easy file organisation a la the Creative Zen (as drive:\Artist\Album as opposed to F004 or whatever inane naming system the 'Pod already uses).
The only problem is I'm dead scared of hacking the iPod. Fooling around with Windows is not an issue. You can tweak, pull, rip to shreds anything at all and still get back to some bare bones version with only a bad memory of the incident. With the 'Pod I'm just not sure if I'll lose the 20GB of music, which is backed up somewhere but it's a Himalayan task to get all of it back and together with the proper tagging and album art and whatnot.
So here's the dilemma. To Rockbox or not to Rockbox.
