My first “mp3” player was a
Rio Karma because it had a 20GB drive and played Ogg files. It broke around the time Rio's owners were
getting out of the player business. So I reluctantly switched to an
iRiver iriver H320 - reluctantly because, whilst it played Oggs and had a 20GB drive, it didn't do gapless playback. I've lived with the annoying jump between tracks for a while now, through a couple of firmware updates that did little more than add a
very limited video playback feature after Apple viddied up it's iPod.
The other day though, I saw a link - on Waxy or Kottke I think - for the
Rockbox, an open source replacement for the firmware
with gapless playback. The H3x0 version is allegedly “only for developers” but seems pretty decent even now (and includes a version of
Bejeweled). They even do iPod versions for those afflicted by that device...
“Rockbox for the iriver iHP100 series, H100 series, and H300 series features a very wide range of codec support and sound configuration! Supported formats include MP3, OGG, FLAC, AAC, ALAC, AC3 and WavPack. Rockbox for these irivers also features gapless playback and crossfading! A five-band parametric equalizer allows fine-tuning output, ReplayGain support allows you to normalize your volume levels, and a large amount of plugins (games - many in full color on the H300 series - applications, and "demos"
allow you to have some fun when you're bored, or put one of our multiple applications to use: open files with the text viewer, time yourself with the stopwatch, view some JPEG photos, or turn your iriver into a desktop clock with the clock plugin. On-The-Go playlist creation and adjustment, full file bookmarking support, Recording and FM Recording with a variety of settings and features are more key points of Rockbox for the iriver iHP-1x0, H1x0 and H3x0 series.”
Rockbox . Main . WhyRockbox
Update: added a video of Bejeweled being played