Rockbox

Rockbox is an alternative firmware for many MP3 players, including the iPod.

It has some advantages over the original firmware in a few ways:

It can play more audio formats (FLAC, OGG, MIDI, etc)
Its visual appearance can be customized
- For example, this theme adds the release year to the While Playing Screen.
When connected to a computer, it appears as a simple USB drive. One can just drag-and-drop music files onto it. In contrast, the original firmware requires either iTunes or macOS Finder to copy music to the device.

It also has some disadvantages:

It was not designed by Apple for the mass market, so it has some quirks
- The controls are less intuitive than the original firmware.
- The themes are community-sourced (even I have made one), and vary wildly in aesthetic and quality.

Controls

The controls on Rockbox differ from the original firmware.

TODO: Finish this section.

Here's how we'll refer to the buttons in this section: