5th Gen iPod

Atomic Clover Green front plate / Center button/ Black chrome back

Speck clear hard case for 60gb model

iflash quad (512GB of Samsung Pro Plus micro sd’s)

3,000mah battery

Black dock bezel and headphone jack/lock button

Kokkia i10 Pro Bluetooth (AirPod Pro 2 compatible)

RockBox (One Bit VFD theme)

Got this 7th gen for 120, I already love this thing.

I’ve just cancelled my Spotify account after 5 years.

Over that time I’ve spent £600 just to rent my music. Ok, it’s quick and easy to find and play music but I just wasn’t happy about it. I could have owned a lot of music for that money.

So, I’ve bought a second hand iPod Classic 5.5 and started curating my own music. I’ve downloaded all of the mp3s from my newer vinyl albums where possible and ripped the CDs I own. Next job is to rip some of my older Vinyl to see if it sounds ok.

I might upgrade the 80gb hard drive to a 256gb SD drive and get a new battery while I’m at it. This is my first iPod and it’s so intuitive and sounds pretty sweet.

Anyone else dumping Spotify?

Just finished my first iPod Classic 7 mod! 🎉

• iFlash Quad with 512GB SD • 3800mAh battery LG 405570 • Taptic Engine from iPhone 7+ • New thin back panel • Sanded and polished front panel • A couple of coins added for extra weight

Of course, I accidentally ripped the battery connector 😅, but managed to solder it back successfully. I was a bit scared to do the mod at first, but comments from the local community encouraged me. It wasn’t that hard after all! Feeling super proud of this one.

Box was opened but everything still minty fresh inside. Shoild I try to power it on

7th gen slim with trans purple faceplate, 2000mah battery, and iFlash quad. Everything on this sub/YouTube almost scared me out of disassembly on this gen but ended up being way easier than expected! Crazy stoked on this thing.

A few weeks back a buddy was kind enough to build this out of extra parts. 3000mah battery and an iflash quad. I successfully flashed 384GB for storage and installed Rockbox. I was excited to see an OP-1 theme on Rockbox and thought it’d be cool to build out the rest around that. EOE order came in the mail yesterday. Super pleased with the results. Going to do some mods on the Porta Pros next to tie the whole thing together.

A continuation of turning a 20 dollar Galaxy s4 into an iPod mod.

I got Apple Music working, needed to put my own keys in and sign the OS with them. Disabled root, but root adb passed by just fine and Apple Music accepted it.

I had to figure out how to force Apple Music into this landscape mode but it seemed like it was designed with it in mind.

I’m ripping through this stuff with codex, it’s just really good at modifying builds and doing build cycles with adb and frame buffer captures.

The click wheel will be very interesting, I might look for a laptop like track pad and add software to make it simulate click wheel actions with a cut up tactic engine from a iPhone 7 to simulate clicks.

Very sexy looking in 2026 I wish Apple would make this for real.

Dead battery but otherwise mint 5th gen with all original and unused accessories. Seller almost thought she was overcharging at $24. This goes to show you that this community isnt as known as people think and that one's trash is other's treasure.

I'm sure you are all familiar with these concept designs (Obviously not mine) But this is almost a perfect representation of a modern iPod Classic, The video this came from was very dramatic by removing a ports and wireless charging. I think this concept would be perfect if it included USB-C and a 3.5MM Jack, The box is great and so is the software. I have more ideas but I'm too lazy to write.

I more in-progress that I'll share as well, the two outer iPods have already been gifted.

Red, 6th gen 120gb + 3000mah
Grey, 7th gen 1tb + 3000mah
Black, 7th gen 256gb

I'm working on haptic mods and custom backplates (powder coating) for my next iPods.

Had enough of Spotify.

Found this community.

Dove head first into it, and rebuilt this girl.

My favorite is the taptic engine mod! All AliExpress parts.

I have a massive lossless library, so this has now replaced my HiBy DAP. I even found my old Koss PortaPros for full nostalgia!

It’s beautiful. It deserves to be used, freed from its 20 year incarceration.

I pod Video thick back 5th gen build

iFlash-Sata v10

Transcend MTS430S – 1TB

3000 mAh battery replacement

3D printed case Designed by

Printed by

3dPrints4Vans.com

~ No, it's not vibecoded ~

Finished testing my custom build with custom coverflow, screen transition logic, headphone remote controls, etc. Release coming soon with a detailed usage description, though everything is pretty intuitive there, but due to the large number of added features it’s better to explain them)

Coverflow caching happens entirely on the device, from song metadata, but you can also use album covers from a folder attachment with the songs (if you don’t sync music through iTunes).

For now support is guaranteed for generations 6-7, will add support for 5 soon, I don’t have a device for testing, so it’ll have to be either through emulation or "blindly," but gen 5 support will be implemented.

Release coming soon✌🏻

Edited*

About the approximate release timing:

I really want to put everything together nicely and make a presentation to explain some of the new features etc., so it'll take a little time. I was thinking of making a similar presentation to the one I made for my LookAtMe (if you're interested - you can check it in my post history, it's there), but even that took me 2 days of work, because I was coming up with the design, descriptions etc. from scratch. This time there are a few (significantly) more features than just in the themes I was making, and my friend is convincing me to make a full video, so I think it'll take about a week. + I still need to set up a GitHub with a detailed description, check that all the source code is clean (Rockbox publishing rules, and I also want to be honest, because the project simply wouldn't exist without them).

Overall, I hope to get everything done within a week, depends on the irl work too.

A note for the "it's all made by AI" crowd (this really got to me, because I put a lot of work in here) — all my themes I make from scratch manually, from design to code. This project is a little more than just a theme, and to implement it I was studying developer forums on the Rockbox website, documentation, how the system code works etc. Absolutely everything here was designed without AI involvement. The only way AI was used here — as a tool for learning code logic and checking the code I was writing, and not at all for designing something or writing without me. For about a month I was studying how the system works, implementing code, testing and fixing bugs. And it's very strange that some people are so certain that if you create something — it's not enthusiasm and curiosity but AI. If you can't do something without AI — it doesn't mean others can't) Cheers♥

Update: Rockpod Apple2026 — Stable Release 1 is out

I started this project because I recently picked up my first iPod Classic, a 120GB 6.5 gen, and while I loved the hardware immediately, both the stock OS and most Rockbox themes felt way too dated to me. I wanted something that still had the flexibility of Rockbox, but felt more like a clean, music-first iPod OS designed in 2026.

I’m not really a developer, I’m a designer, but I know my way around vibe-coding tools and ended up going way too deep on this while stuck at home sick. I started from Rockpod and used the Interpod theme/WPS as a major reference point, then rebuilt a lot of the UI/UX from there using Apple Music references, SF Pro fonts, and SF Symbols.

The goal wasn’t just to make another theme. I wanted to streamline Rockbox, remove a lot of the clutter, and make the whole thing feel much more intentional and cohesive.

This is the version I want the post to reflect now. It rolls together the earlier beta work and the latest release changes into one much more complete Apple2026 build.

A few of the bigger things in this version:

• redesigned Apple Music-inspired UI/UX carried across the main menu, Music, Database, Files, playlists, and Now Playing instead of just being a skin on top

• overhauled typography with SF Pro, improved font handling, two-tier list density, and less filename clutter in tracklists

• rebuilt icon system with higher quality Apple-style symbols, larger playback/repeat/shuffle indicators, and a much cleaner status layout in WPS

• rebuilt Quick Screen into a more Apple-style control surface with a centered wheel, brightness up/down, shuffle/repeat on the sides, and horizontal brightness/volume bars

• custom navigation / user-flow changes so back/menu behavior feels much more natural, including better context-based returns from Now Playing, cleaner Files behavior, restored chevrons, and a more intentional Library shell

• more music-focused menus with less clutter and less unnecessary bloat, including the reorganized root menu and the Extras section for Files, Plugins, Shortcuts, and Recording

• improved Cover Flow integration and better continuity between menus, tracklists, and playback, including cleaner re-entry from Now Playing and less broken-feeling transitions

• refreshed Now Playing / mini-player presentation with rounded art treatment, pill-shaped bars, larger status icons, cleaner speaker icons, and the restored Lossless badge

• Lyrics / LRC is now the default short Select action on Now Playing on a clean install, while long Select still opens the context menu

• dynamic album-art colors are still there if people want to experiment with them, but they’re off by default now because the neutral white shell just looks better and behaves more consistently that way

There are still a few things I want to keep pushing later. Quick Screen can still be a little unstable in some contexts, some WPS return / hold behavior still needs more validation, and stuff like year display, codec info, center button seek, broader language support, and a more complete LRC / WPS flow is still on the list. But overall this is the first version that feels like the Apple2026 build I was actually trying to make.

Note: Please organize your Music folder using the format Music / Album Artist / Album / Song.

Also, huge thank you to u/2trickdude for Rockpod, because this build would not exist without that base. His work already added some seriously major stuff, especially:

• MFi digital audio output, which lets the iPod bypass the internal DAC and send audio to external accessories through the dock connector

• a major Cover Flow rebuild that feels much closer to Apple’s original UI

• SSD/iFlash-aware power management with a lot of smart behavior built in

That work is a massive part of why this project was even possible.

Download Now!

Going to have to pause development for a bit - I burned through my API credits faster than expected and need to wait for the monthly reset. I'll be back at it soon though. In the meantime keep dropping feedback, almost everything in this update came directly from stuff people pointed out after the first release, so it's genuinely helpful. If you've been enjoying the build and want to throw a few bucks my way for coffee (read: API credits so I can keep doing this), there's a Ko-fi linked on the GitHub repo. Absolutely no pressure, I'm just glad people are excited about this project. More updates coming soon!

Normally theese go around 170-200$ here (Turkey)

I somehow found it for such a cheap price fully working!

1TB, 3800mah Battery

Have never been much of a fan of clear but I can't lie it does look awesome, added Custom Bluetooth board to it aswell, keeps functionality of the lock button aswell as being able to turn Bluetooth on/off, leaves room for a 2000mah battery which I'll be getting soon, overall works great!

Found one on eBay with upgraded flash storage, new battery, screen, and shells! So stoked.