Rockbox

Tired of your iPod’s same old bland interface? Want to be able to adjust base, treble, and other playback settings? How about some games other than the limited set Apple pre-installed or offers for $5 a pop?
Check out Rockbox, a free open-source alternative firmware for iPod and other portable music players. Installation for the iPod is very simple. First, enable disk access to the iPod in iTunes. Then either use the automatic installer, or simply unzip the Rockbox files into a directory on your iPod (just like you would a flash drive), then run the patch program to update the firmware loader.
The one drawback to installing Rockbox is that it won’t be able to read the music files you’ve placed on your iPod using iTunes–at least, not without some additional work. But if you have spare storage space, you can load files specifically for Rockbox and switch between it and the original Apple interface whenever you want to. Both firmwares can coexist on your iPod without interfering with each other. I’m currently using the original firmware for listening to music, and Rockbox for playing chess.