Apple Discontinues Last iPod Model

REHL 1.x didn’t make it any easier… not gonna lie, it put me off Linux for a long while.
Reminds me of why I hated macs for the longest time because system 6/7 era was so horrible I still have computer PTSD from getting the bomb all time lol. CTRL-ALT-DEL is a pc meme but that stupid button on the top of the keyboard on macs got a lot of use.
 
Still have my 6th gen ipod, Works okay still, but a few of the buttons are hard to click now. Still also have 2-3 Zunes laying around the house. (Only 2 are functional at, as one needs a battery)
For my current music listening needs i have an Astell and Kern SR25 i'm using. (VERY nice sound for me)
Also have a AK70 MK2, but i need to send it out to get the battery replaced as it's gone bad.
 
Still using a 160gb classic around the house on my bose dock and in my older jeep. Swapped out the battery on it a couple of years ago and its still going strong.
 
Still have an early touch and a Nano, but never had one of the HD models because I just never had THAT much music.....people who absolutely needed 80,000 songs freak me out, I'd spend most of the time wearing out the "Next Track" button.....but hey, you do you song-obsessed people :)
iTunes to this day is probably the most problematic software I have installed, and I honestly don't even know why I have it installed.

If people are wondering why they are discontinuing this thing, someone else mentioned it above: There are simply too many iPhones out there available used.....I have 3 Iphone 5S's sitting here in a drawer unused with 16 gigs each that make perfect iPod Touches....plus its got a functioning GPS.....and a better camera. And you can get them for a song. Plus there are probably some carriers that will still support them, and even if not, iphone 6's and 7's used are in the same dirt cheap bracket...certainly you'd be wiser getting one of those versus a new ipod at this point in time, the GPS alone would seem to make it more valuable.
 
You don't hit any button when you've got that many songs. You largely just hit shuffle and let it do it's thing, and hit skip if you don't like the next song.
 
Yes definitely, the other brands were very niche and marketed toward "PC users" if you know what I mean.
I very much know what you mean. They were treated more as computer accessories than personal electronics, and the emphasis was on spec sheets rather than making your life easier. In hindsight, that's ridiculous — the MP3 player was supposed to be the Walkman of the 2000s, why would any good company approach it like they would a PC sound card?
 
I very much know what you mean. They were treated more as computer accessories than personal electronics, and the emphasis was on spec sheets rather than making your life easier. In hindsight, that's ridiculous — the MP3 player was supposed to be the Walkman of the 2000s, why would any good company approach it like they would a PC sound card?
A lot of it was down to storage. MP3 players at the time were a joke when it came to it. They also had laughable interfaces. Again, where the iPod was a game changer was at least putting a more normal screen on the device.

Yes, there was minidisc, but that was overcomplicated outside of the Japanese market.
 
You don't hit any button when you've got that many songs. You largely just hit shuffle and let it do it's thing, and hit skip if you don't like the next song.
....right......the next track button i was referring to. I've had too many songs on a device before, particularly irritating when driving, and having to constantly hit next..next..next...then you realize you're better off making mix-tapes/playlists and suddenly you aren't carrying 80k songs anymore, you're carrying 400. I digress, everyone is gonna be different...I never had walls of CD racks but i know some people who were into collecting music the way we here collect expensive PC add ons then immediately start looking at the next thing being released while playing the exact same games over and over :D
 
Actually I had a Rio back in the day ...one of the first ones that transferred through the parallel port. Yeah the software was a little cumbersome, but it wasn't really much different than itunes when it came around for the sync side of things. It was slow as molasses however and yeah the UI was ass. Extra steps? Nope.

I will not deny that what apple had at the beginning was a little ahead of the competition. Same as the iphone. They were just saying the first to do it is all. If they hadn't, someone else would have.

And then we got to the era of a simple drag and drop in explorer. No software needed. Made itunes irrelevant unless it was your preferred way of buying music.
You know what I mean. A lot of those early rival MP3 players were designed as if they were aimed squarely at the engineers that built them. And "slow as molasses" and "UI was ass" are pretty important. Apple succeeded precisely because it took most of the pain away: having to wait ages for transfers, wading through clunky UIs on both the computer and player... you get the idea.

I'd say Apple was a few years ahead of the competition. Many of those early conspicuous iPod rivals (Dell DJ, anyone?) were still pretty awful. And being first is still important. Remember, the MP3 player market was already fading by the end of the decade... Apple got to dominate a market for nearly all of its existence.

File system drag-and-drop is certainly helpful in some ways and for some people, but I don't think you really get it. Everyday users, people who aren't technically inclined (and shouldn't have to be), need something easier than that — they don't grok file systems, they don't carefully organize their songs in folders and they don't painstakingly edit ID3 tags for ripped songs. They just want to know they can play that latest album, and it's much easier to simply tell them to plug in and wait half a minute.

Remember, the iTunes Store dominated digital music sales in its heyday and was instrumental to 'killing' CDs. Why? Because it was easy; click a button and you got a song or album that could be on your iPod within moments. Why did streaming take over? Because it's even easier. As enthusiasts, we often forget that the tasks we think are simple enough are a hassle for someone who hasn't grown up tinkering with tech. For something as basic as music, your focus should be on enjoying your tunes, not managing them.
 
A lot of it was down to storage. MP3 players at the time were a joke when it came to it. They also had laughable interfaces. Again, where the iPod was a game changer was at least putting a more normal screen on the device.

Yes, there was minidisc, but that was overcomplicated outside of the Japanese market.
Yeah most had an interface no different than a Discman, which seems fine at the onset because that was copied essentially from a Walkman. But those had the “benefit” of being pretty lite on content 13 tracks or so.. 99 (101) with Short Music for Short People but that’s a huge outlier. Apple at least attempted something that would let you choose between albums and artists in an intuitive way. The wheel was kinda shitty, but nobody struggled with using it.
 
Still using a touch screen nano, it’s in my garage plugged into an old Altec 2.1 setup. Love that it’s got an FM tuner. Apple sent it to me as a replacement for an earlier version that was recalled(?)... don’t remember the details.
 
Still using a touch screen nano, it’s in my garage plugged into an old Altec 2.1 setup. Love that it’s got an FM tuner. Apple sent it to me as a replacement for an earlier version that was recalled(?)... don’t remember the details.
I still somewhat regret not buying the 6th-gen iPod nano, with a touchscreen and a clip. It was the dream iPod for exercise (small, wearable but still full functionality), and some people even used it as a proto-Apple Watch with aftermarket bands. By then I was mostly using my iPhone for music, but I could've used the nano for my running!
 
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