Audio gadgets - so many features apple never got

I still use my 1st gen ipod nano. The reason: it runs Rockbox.

Rockbox is alternate firmware for a whole lotta players, like the apple ipods. There were many players for a while that had the same architecture, so a group of opensource hackers wrote rockbox to run on the lot. iRivers, Apple, Sandisk, Samsung..

Doom on my ipod nano:

These days, they’ve far exceeded apple’s own firmware. Rockbox has Stephen Hawkings -style menu reading, great for the blind, but also handy for anyone who is too busy/lazy to pull their ipod outta their pocket to read the screen.

My ipod plays doom, bubblebobble, bejeweled. It plays oggs and flacs so i don’t need to waste time converting to mp3 or re-ripping. There’s themes, plugins, games, screensavers, book readers. There’s lotsa reasons to try out rockbox, especially if you have an older player.