Sansa Clip+ Rockbox Mod
Since I have been working at the cell phone repair shop, I have come to value open source even more than usual. Also when manufacturers give the consumer the ability to either quickly and easily replace broken parts or install custom firmwares should be a definite selling point to the average consumer. Now some of you may be thinking, I don’t care about installing custom firmwares or taking apart my gadget to fix it. The point here is not that you will do it, the point is that you can or have the option. Manufacturers who put these options into devices are not only looking out for the well being of the consumer, but are keeping some of these gadgets out of the landfills. The problem today with a lot of gadgets are they are either limited by software only or designed to be a disposable device.
The Sansa Clip+ has been of interest to me for sometime, but the lack of Unicode support (particularly CJK font support) and AAC playback kept me away from purchasing one. This particular Sansa MP3 player seeemed like a great deal, they are selling for around $25-35 on Amazon and come with a wide range of features. But thankfully while I was searching the web for a cheap alternative MP3 player option, I stumbled across this custom firmware that installs overs the Sansa default firmware. This custom firmware added in all of the features that I saw missing in the original Clip+ firmware, so I decided to purchase it a month or so ago. The install process is a simple click away and can be installed on a wide range of MP3 players. Just make sure you follow the user/ install manual to a very last detail.
As you can see above, my Sansa Clip+ now has CJK font support. Though my Japanese and Korean is minimal, I still enjoy listening to Japanese and Korean music. The song that was being displayed in the picture above was by one of my favorite Taiwanese bands. Now before I end this post, I would like to fill you out on some details that I did find lacking in the installation/ user manuals for the Sansa Clip+. If you want to install the CJK font package to display Chinese, Japanese or Korean script, you need to download a theme called “YellowBarDynamic-Unicode”. After you install this theme, it must be in use or active in order for the fonts to display correctly, so if you were to change the theme, you will loose the ability to view CJK fonts.
The Sansa Clip+ has crashed a couple of times after the installation of this firmware, but for the most part it has been stable. I like how the folder structure that can be customized on the device, how it is multi-platform and the fact that it has an FM radio that can record live radio. Anyways I just want to encourage individuals out there to do some research on the devices you purchase! Go out and be an informed consumer! So these customers that we don’t just purchased items on impulse or because of brand recognition. We as consumers demand good quality, decent prices, and flexibility!
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