Rockbox firmware. If you guys don't know about it, they have been a little group that makes custom firmwares for all different players, iAudio, Archos, Creative, and now iPod.
"ckbox for the iPod 4G, Color, Nano and Video models all have a wide range of codec support - MP3, Ogg Vorbis, Musepack, FLAC, AAC, ALAC, AC3 and WavPack are all supported in Rockbox. Additional music playback features include gapless and crossfading, as well as a five-band parametric equalizer to fine-tune sound output. iPods also get ReplayGain support for volume level normalization, and a large number of plugins, including games, applications, and "demos" - have some fun when you've got some free time to kill, open files with the text viewer, make use of the stopwatch, view some JPEG photos, or turn your iPod into a desktop clock. On-The-Go playlist creation and adjustment, full file bookmarking support and much more."

http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/IpodInstallation#a_Download_rockbox_zip_for_your

Sorry for the slowness of the site. But let me tell you it is so worth it.

i'm just posting here because this seems cool, and to make buck feel better. mostly the latter though.

It intrigues me, but i want to see someone else run this before i give it a shot. If anyone else here trys it, post what you thought of it.

why wait? firmware can't ruin your ipod to the point at which you can't fix it on your computer with no knowledge of code.

tyvm, for a very long time I thought it was impossible to get gapless playback

I don't have an iPod but I know ppl who would like this

I have been using it for a couple months, and the only thing I really don't like is the decreased battery life. They have yet to do any optimization, so I expect it to improve later. The battery life indicator doesn't seem to work, and the interface is a little rough and takes some getting used to.

The good:
Plays a bunch of other file formats, including .ogg
supports gapless playback
drag and drop file transfer
updating the firmware consists of downloading the latest version, and unzipping it to the root directory of your ipod
ludicrous amount of options
ludicrous number of extra applications
option to boot apple firmware

I dislike the terrible interface (typical "open source" junk).

Doesn't support iPod mini /_\

I think it supports the 2nd gen Mini.

To be fair, almost every great interface is open source. See Windows Skins, KDE, Gnome, Blackbox, Geoshell, PSP skins, etc.

Warranty=dead

It also makes my iaudio sound worse.

Lose.

[QUOTE=Dj Yoshi]KDE, Gnome, Blackbox[/QUOTE]
You're just proving his point...

Not really. KDE is almost exactly like windows, interface-wise, Gnome may not be the best frontend but it's got simplicity, and Blackbox is an acquired taste, but if you like it it's very very sexy.

I know you said you have an iaudio, but for ipod cant you just reset it to factory defaults?

[QUOTE=Dj Yoshi]Not really. KDE is almost exactly like windows, interface-wise, Gnome may not be the best frontend but it's got simplicity, and Blackbox is an acquired taste, but if you like it it's very very sexy.[/QUOTE]
I like KDE a lot more than Gnome, mainly because Gnome seems to be a real inconvenience to use. I still haven't figured out how to edit the applications menu in Gnome 2.x. Why can't I just right click to edit shortcuts?

Yeah, you can boot into apple firmware if you want. And you can just restore with factory defaults. It just defaults to Rockbox when you install it.

Even if it works on my mini, I suppose this firmware can't read already existing MP3's?

Rockbox totally freaked out on me last night. Started skipping songs all by itself until it hung up searching for an mp3. I'll stick to apple firmware for now.

It can, but due to Apple's directory structure, it will just show folders with the names like "F01" "T23" and such.

/_\

Not if you switch to ID3 tag databasing (which is kinda buggy but it works, you just have to remember to manually update it every time). To remove the Rockbox bootloader just reflash the iPod with the iPod updater.