Rockbox 3.0 Released. Quietly.
by Lisa Hoover - Sep. 24, 2008Comments (15) | Trackback URL- Related Blog Posts
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Three years after its last major release, Rockbox 3.0 is now available. This popular app is a great open source solution for replacing the firmwear on many types of portable media players including Sansa, iRiver, Archos, and iPod.
Rockbox's developers say that the most important changes to the software won't be particularly obvious to the average user. "The first players supported by Rockbox decoded MP3 files using a chip specifically for this purpose. This made things a lot simpler for Rockbox, but also limited the amount of formats supported to variants of MPEG audio. Newer players don't use this approach, and as such, it was needed to expand Rockbox to do sound decoding in software on these players. This opens up the possibility of supporting a lot of different file formats, which is of course exactly what we did! "
Other changes include a new installation tool and support for SWCODEC targets.
In addition to an all around great app, developers have also had a hand in making the features of the Archos Jukebox MP3 player accessible to visually impaired and blind users.
Surprisingly, hype surrounding this release is relatively minimal for such a useful alternative to simply tossing out old MP3 players. As LWN's Jon Corbet points out, "Now would seem like the time for the project to begin its hype campaign with lots of screenshot-heavy articles on all of the features this major release will bring. Evidently the Rockbox developers have some strange ideas about actually working on the code, though; they haven't gotten around to the promotional side of things yet."
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I still don't understand the advantage of replacing my firmware on my iPod w/ RockBox...No one has listed out any real advantages of swapping out the existing firmware which btw works great. And there's always the downside of risking your music collection while sync'ing, missing out on apple updates, etc. etc.
Maybe I'm missing something but can someone explain why I would want to use this??
http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/WhyRockbox lists a few.. The major reasons are: - no itunes - much more codec support (oog, flac, mpc, wma, etc) - file based browsing (or databse if you prefer that) - it can double as a external hard disk (not MTP like some of the OF's force)
Rockbox is great, solid firmware that is extremely powerful and flexible. Perfect for a geek who likes to feel he has control over his gadgets. Is a bit like having admin rights on your PC and no longer letting MS put things you don't want onto it.
I've been using Rockbox on 4 different players for the past 5 years. I wouldn't accept anything less now.
Rockbox is great, solid firmware that is extremely powerful and flexible. Perfect for a geek who likes to feel he has control over his gadgets. Is a bit like having admin rights on your PC and no longer letting MS put things you don't want onto it.
I've been using Rockbox on 4 different players for the past 5 years. I wouldn't accept anything less now.
@ #1 devme
I'm not sure how you got the idea that syncing risks your music collection. I can't think of any technical reason that might happen. Something worth mentioning is that by default, Rockbox is set up to dual-boot with the Apple firmware. You can still update the Apple firmware, it just requires reinstalling the Rockbox bootloader afterwards. The only updates Apple has made that I'm aware of are bug fixes.
Some reasons why I use Rockbox on my Ipod Nano and would never consider going back:
- no need for Itunes or any other synching software. Drag and drop any file onto the player and play it. - file-based and index-based navigation - true gapless playback and crossfading/mixing functions - plays more file formats I would need to convert (like ogg + mp2) - great playlist management (even while playing) - user defined forwarding/rewind speeds - screen font size can be changed. - pitch! (you can change the playback speed like a turntable - this is great for workouts, when you need the beat to match your sport activity) - optional spoken interface: If you're blind or want to operate your player while driving a car, you do not have to look at the screen.
And for the Iriver/Archos models: Reliable recordings features that do not crash after a few hours...
Sweet. That's the modded theme I made a few years ago.
Completely forgot about Rocbox up until today.
I've got a 2nd gen nano I'd like to try out on Rockbox. My one question is: Would I still be able to use the microphone attachment to record voice? I use it when I'm rehearsing a show to help learn songs & dialogue mostly. Not often, but a few times a year. Basically, can Rockbox record; can it recognize the mic; or will I need to reboot into the Apple OS to do that?
Thanks!
if i wanted my ipod to look as ridiculous as windows, i would have plagued my world with Vista 95 or whatever you backwards people use
@tulsidas: no, ipod support stops at the 2007 80gbs (the 5.5g). sorry.
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