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Apple

The iPod is Dead 134

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
An anonymous reader shares a report: Last October marked 20 years of the iPod. It's a remarkable run in the cutthroat, always-iterating world of consumer electronics. And while it's undoubtedly true that life hasn't been particularly fruitful for the music player in a product lineup that includes various iPhones and iPads, the beloved music player has somehow managed to hang on. That is, until today.

Apple this morning announced that the iPod is dead. That is, as much as a particular gadget can ever be dead. Rather, it will shuffle off this mortal coil slowly, remaining for sale while supplies last. So if you were considering purchasing one for any reason, buy now or forever hold your peace. The iPod's death has been a protracted one. I can hear those "the iPod was still around?" posts clogging up the comments section as I type this. The iconic clickwheel model, which later gave rise to the Classic, was discontinued back in 2014. The Shuffle and Nano, meanwhile, were killed off three years later. Until today, the seventh-generation iPod Touch stubbornly clung to life, three years after its debut.
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The iPod is Dead More

The iPod is Dead

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  • iPod is a dud (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Tuesday May 10, 2022 @12:54PM (#62519814)

    Says slashdot when it was released.

    https://slashdot.org/story/01/... [slashdot.org]

    • What it was really missing was ITunes. Sure it was, without wireless. However it was rechargeable unlike the nomad which u had to keep buying AA batteries for. It was more compact too. But then the nomad came out a year before the iPod. The biggest deal though was that with the iPod and iTunes Store musicians felt their work couldnâ(TM)t get pirated. Before iTunes and FairPlay, most people got their music illegally off Napster, IRC, or Kazaa or something like that. The iTunes Store, introduced in mid

      • Re: iPod is a dud (Score:5, Informative)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 ) <slashdot.worf@net> on Tuesday May 10, 2022 @04:24PM (#62520678)

        However it was rechargeable unlike the nomad which u had to keep buying AA batteries for.

        The Nomad Jukebox took 4 AA rechargeable batteries. In the box, it came with 8 so you could have a set charging and a set already charged. It could also charge the batteries within the unit.

        It was highly not recommended to use alkaline batteries for it because they'd drain in no time (the hard drive gobbled so much power when it spun up that the batteries were very inefficient - the use of rechargeables was necessary as they could handle the power draw far more gracefully).

        That still didn't lead to awesome battery life though - you were looking at maybe a few albums before needing to swap batteries, versus something like 10 hours on an iPod.

        • The Nomad Jukebox took 4 AA rechargeable batteries. In the box, it came with 8 so you could have a set charging and a set already charged. It could also charge the batteries within the unit.

          It was highly not recommended to use alkaline batteries for it because they'd drain in no time

          Yup, exactly. Since the Sega Game Gear became a thing it doesn't make any sense to be using single use batteries, instead of rechargeable batteries and/or power banks for any portable electronic device.

          (Personnal fun fact, Sega's own power bank [segaretro.org] was compatible with my first portable CD player, I didn't need to fork extra money for the vendor's (Philips if I remember?) special powerbank).

          By the time portable MP3 player came out a decade later, using single use battery would be stupid for anything but a few lo

    • The first thing I read is "Lame? 5GB is more than my MP3 collection". Wow we lived in a different time back then.

      I see some other gems too. "virtually no UI wizardry that might define it as an Apple product". That comment didn't age well since Apple literally defined their UI around this product design for generations to come.

      And my favourite after asking if people have iTunes, Firewire and are willing to spend $400 on an Apple product: "There is Apple's market. Pretty slim, eh? I don't see many sales in th

  • Of course it's dead... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Ecuador ( 740021 ) on Tuesday May 10, 2022 @12:55PM (#62519820) Homepage

    No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.
    No wonder it's dead!

    • Imagine, a tech product that ONLY stayed in the market for 20 years - totally failed product! /SMH

  • Should keep the iPod Nano at least (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Gavino ( 560149 ) on Tuesday May 10, 2022 @01:00PM (#62519844)
    I have an iPod Nano from several years ago, and it's a great lightweight device perfectly suited for active use, like jogging, or in the gym like on the crosstrainer, rowing machine or treadmill. It was handy as it clips to one's shirt and is not bulky like a phone. It's also good in the gym as everyone in the gym is paranoid (and rightly so) about people filming each other... which is why women's-only gyms exist, but I digress. No one suspects anything funny with the little iPod Nano.

    Anyways a few years ago I had to get an Android phone (for reasons I won't go into - don't argue I had to), and I still kept my trusty iPod and my Apple Music subscription for that usage. I guess if Apple don't want me as a customer in the music business I'll happily ditch them and find an equivalent Android type portable music device and sign over to Google Music or whatever they have, or some portable device that hooks into Spotify.

    This will mean that my only remaining Apple device now is my iPad. I guess I might as well flog that off on eBay and just purge Apple fully from my digital life. I think what Apple don't realise is you pull the pin on one thing, and creates a domino effect on other things. Oh well, fuck 'em.

    • II still kept my trusty iPod and my Apple Music subscription for that usage. I guess if Apple don't want me as a customer in the music business I'll happily ditch them and find an equivalent Android type portable music device

      This indirectly brings up my bigger questions in terms of this announcement:
      1. when will iTunes stop supporting iPod syncing (corollary: when will iTunes for Windows stop being supported), and
      2. when will the iTMS stop selling per-track downloads and move to subscription only.

      A friend of mine gave me their 'tech junk drawer' a while ago, which contained an old iPod Nano. Another friend gave me one of those iPod alarm clocks. Both had the 30-pin dock connector, so I grabbed a cable out of my own tech junk drawer and found that the iPod happily allowed me to upload music to the device, despite it being ancient by Apple terms (iOS5 or 6, I think). The App Store is pointless; none of the apps support an iOS that old. But for the out-of-the-box functionality, it hums along just fine, even with current versions of iTunes.

      If, up until yesterday, there was only one iPod left in active production and support, iTunes not giving me an error when connecting a decade old player is a happy puzzle. It's entirely possible that iTunes is itself in maintenance-only mode, so nobody's spending the time to cut out support of old players. Whether that's out of intent or laziness is anybody's guess.

      To that end, my point is basically that, at least for the foreseeable future, Apple is unlikely to remove iPod syncing functionality, so I doubt your Nano is going to lose its ability to sync songs and playlists. In terms of finding an Android-based portable music device...good luck. Samsung discontinued their Galaxy Player series years ago. Sony still has a handful of their Walkman branded units on Newegg, but they're pointlessly expensive. The only company seeming to still make MP3 players anymore is Sandisk, and they're 2GB units that seem to be simple drag-MP3-to-folder models.

      Thus, I submit that the best course of action once your Nano crosses the rainbow bridge is to grab a 2-3 generation old phone and throw some bright colored nail polish on the camera area. Your inability to film anyone will be highly visible, you'll reduce e-waste, spend less than the $1,200 Sony thinks someone is spending on a Walkman, and you can still sync it with iTunes if you're sticking with Apple, or you can get an older Samsung phone and do the same thing on the Android side.

      • The library management features of iTunes (or Apple Music on the Mac) applies to current iPhones too. Same music player app runs on both devices too. It will probably be quite a while before that changes since they are still the "music" phone in a sense.

        Smartphones have filled the needs of the iPod Touch. I would go back and buy an iPod Classic with 128GB of flash storage if that became available. It's nice just having a single device with an offline music library.

        I'm an Android phone user but there sim

        • For what it’s worth, it’s apparently feasible to replace the HDD in an iPod Classic with an m2 SSD or a CF card. Along with installing a fresh battery, you could keep your iPod going for quite a while. Might eventually have to start using 3rd-party software for library management though because I’m sure at some point Apple’s software will lose that capability.

      • It's entirely possible that iTunes is itself in maintenance-only mode, so nobody's spending the time to cut out support of old players.

        Despite iTunes being discontinued on Mac, it's entirely possible to sync to a two decade old 1st gen iPod through Finder.

    • The iPod nano has a camera, the shuffle didn't.

      • The iPod nano has a camera, the shuffle didn't.

        There are 7 generations of Nano, only the 5th gen had a camera. I had a 1st gen (no camera), and then 6 years later (2011) Apple recalled it and gave everyone a 6th gen (no camera, Apple Watch-ish form factor). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod_Nano [wikipedia.org]

    • It's also good in the gym as everyone in the gym is paranoid (and rightly so) about people filming each other.

      Is this really a thing?

      WTF would anyone want to film someone in the gym?

  • Only their money engine is dead (Score:5, Insightful)

    by argStyopa ( 232550 ) on Tuesday May 10, 2022 @01:05PM (#62519850) Journal

    I still have a few 1st gen (500m and 1g) Ipod shuffles lying around, and they work just fine.

    And they don't even need to phone home, report my music choices, report my location, nor sell my data to marketers to function, either.

    Imagine that!

    • Re:Only their money engine is dead (Score:4, Insightful)

      by RogueWarrior65 ( 678876 ) on Tuesday May 10, 2022 @01:36PM (#62519946)

      And you own (in theory) every piece of content on it instead of renting it. That's probably one hidden reason why it died. Personally, I want to slap every business school that pushes the subscription business model upside the face and head. It's gotten so bad that not only is a traditional business doomed to failure without some sort of rental income stream but also everyone is leaking money continually and they don't realize it. That, IMHO, is a big contributing factor to runaway inflation.

    • And they don't even need to phone home, report my music choices, report my location, nor sell my data to marketers to function, either.

      Funny enough, no device actually "needs" that. They just do it in the background without anyone on this planet outside of a few Slashdotters giving even one iota of an f, much less the other three letters of the word.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      I have a 3rd Gen iPod. The battery is long dead. I think I replaced it once, there are pry marks on the case.

      Even if I replaced the battery, it's pretty useless. Needs special software to load the music. It's FireWire only for changing, and I don't have any FireWire ports. USB can transfer data, but it kills the battery fast.

      The sound quality is not great either. The headphone amp is quite weak.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dohzer ( 867770 )

      And to transfer files, they don't even need me to install iTun.... oh wait. Sadge.

  • I've got three iPod classics (5th Gen) and they work great. Especially with an SD card adapter loaded with 128GB cards. iPod may be 'dead' from a new releases/Apple perspective but man, there are so many out there that are still great. And cheap. And modable.

    https://www.youtube.com/c/Dank... [youtube.com]

  • Rather, it will shuffle off this mortal coil...
    .

    I see what you did there...

  • I've always thought that, for the specific use case of navigating your own large music library, the iPod scroll wheel was an amazing interface - far superior to the list-driven interfaces we have on our phones now.

  • Good riddance (Score:3)

    by fred6666 ( 4718031 ) on Tuesday May 10, 2022 @01:26PM (#62519916)

    Death to music players using proprietary formats / software (iTunes) in order to work.

    • You can hate iTunes all you want, but AAC/M4A was never proprietary.

      • And I'm not talking about the codec. I am talking about the fact that you pretty much need iTunes in order to use the iPod. And they also had their proprietary charging port. 2 huge fails.

        • ...I am talking about the fact that you pretty much need iTunes in order to use the iPod. And they also had their proprietary charging port. 2 huge fails.

          Yeah, I was a fan of WinAmp and CDex but found iTunes, whatever weird glitches it had, worked just as well or better. I'm pretty sure I had iTunes rip CDs in MP3 format but that was a long time ago. Maybe I used CDex for that and just imported into iTunes.

          Nevertheless, my iPod mini worked well and sounded good. If you didn't care about "proprietary", it was a really good product and beat the stuffing out of contemporary competitors. What killed it was smart phones and streaming, not any competition from oth

        • Im sorry, which charging port would you have wanted over the life time of the iPod, exactly?

          USB?

          Micro USB?

          Mini USB?

          Nano USB?

          USB-C?

          Yes, Apple had proprietary charging ports - a total of three over the entire lifetime of the iPods existence, the earliest one of which *was* a standard (Firewire), and the cables for the other two could plug into standard USB chargers.

          Meanwhile, who the heck knows what your USB-equipped device came with - that was one of the hellish things about USB, there were so many connector

          • which charging port would you have wanted over the life time of the iPod, exactly?

            These [wikipedia.org] have been around forever.

            • So your answer is another connector which also has dozens and dozens of sizes and is an even worse idea?

              Ok then.

              • It's a connector which is cheap, versatile, extremely common, and is still in use today. I already have a few (you may as well), but I can still pick up a new 6V coax charger for under A$10 at electronics shops, gas stations, even supermarkets, whereas Apple are still charging A$29 just for their proprietary 30-pin to USB cable alone, and even more for a charger to go with it.

                To me as well as the OP it's pretty clear which was the worse idea for charging.

          • Using firewire was a mistake as well, because nobody had a firewire port on his computer.

            Any of these USB would have been fine. They could have started with mini USB, moved on to micro and then USB-C and I wouldn't have complained.

      • Wasn't so much AAC but Apple's DRM that they later removed (and yes I do blame the record companies for them having to use DRM in the first place).

        • Apple skated a fine line with even introducing the iPod. They waited until the initial makers like Diamond got all but destroyed by the RIAA, and by the time Apple decided to announce iTMS, they had enough money and clout to actually get the RIAA to back off their demands.

          One of my first "MP3" players was a Sony one that was shaped like a pen, and I purchased another that used MagicGate memory sticks. Great form factor... but the software that you had to use to get music onto that was atrocious. Dependin

      • You can hate iTunes all you want, but AAC/M4A was never proprietary.

        At the time the iPod was popular AAC very much was "proprietary" in that the only AACs which were actually available were through iTunes and were locked down with Apple's own Fairplay DRM.

        So while you're right that the format itself wasn't proprietary, its a distinction without a difference to the end user who was very much locked into their Apple device to play them.

        • Only on music bought from the iTunes store, for which you can blame the record companies.
          AFAIR audio CD tracks ripped to files as AAC didn't have any DRM.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Lexicon ( 21437 )

      These got rid of proprietary formats years ago, as Steve Jobs made it his mission to open them up. One of the few things he did which I agreed with. See his "Thoughts on Music" treatise on the subject which led to the industry opening up.

      https://web.archive.org/web/20071223160841/https://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic/

      iPods don't require iTunes either, there's a ton of other software options as Apple didn't close this part of them either.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_iPod_file_managers

  • And in 20 more years, we'll still be calling our episodic audio programs a "podcast". Even as the technology is buried in a landfill, it's impact on society will remain.

    • No reason to change it. You still "dial" a phone and "hang up" at the end of a call. And "turn on" the lights.

      • No reason to change it. You still "dial" a phone and "hang up" at the end of a call. And "turn on" the lights.

        You hang up a phone, too. I'm trying to imagine this "turn on the lights" being anything than the physical switch. Was there a time when it was a turn dial?

        • When they were gas lamps.

        • It was briefly a white (on) and black (off) button that you pressed. Intuitive until you get to making a 3-way switch in order to have more than one switch control the same lights.

          We still buy record albums and tape our voice and music. The metaphors we use are going to outlast the technology. When was the last time any of us used an actual file folder, like in a big office cabinet? The metaphor for folders in our computer means we're doing it virtually every day.

          • When was the last time any of us used an actual file folder, like in a big office cabinet?

            Oh I do...

            I still keep dead tree copies of a LOT of important documents (usually in addition to a digital copy I make of it for backup).

            And for reading, things I need to refer to, and reading for pleasure, once again, I prefer dead tree hard copies.

            ON the reference things, I can easily mark notes in the margins, etc.

            Ever since I was in school, on books and notes where I'd made notes, during tests or other times o

            • For me my filing cabinet is a once or twice a year visit rather than a multiple times a day thing.

              I mark up my PDFs for roleplaying sessions digitally with my mouse or graphics tablet. And assemble my own references with bookmarks across multiple documents or splice in the pages if I need something a little more long time. Back in the old days I'd print out pages I needed and drop them into a 3 ring binder, usually with those sheet protectors from the office store. Same workflow in both the digital and dead

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by kenh ( 9056 )

              When I travel I staple paper copies of itinerary, reservation confirmations, car rentals, dinner reservations, etc. into a Manila folder and toss it in my luggage. Yes, I have copies on my phone, but a paper backup can be easier to find rather than flipping thru my inbox.

        • You hang up a phone, too. I'm trying to imagine this "turn on the lights" being anything than the physical switch. Was there a time when it was a turn dial?

          Rotating dimmer switches for lights in a room....

        • Also - when do you hang up a phone? Do you still have a vertical wall-mounted phone?

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by kenh ( 9056 )

            Did office desk phones cease being a thing? See any Cisco voip desk phone...

            • The function is called "hang up" but you're no longer literally hanging anything. Most desk phones are horizontal and you're just laying the receiver on top of the switch. And phones no longer have rotary dials, but pushing the buttons is called "dialing."

  • Is there any decent iPod shuffle replacement on the market? I'm talking really small with a clip on the back, that supports AAC/M4A audio (no DRM) and especially playlists. No screen is a bonus, since you don't need to look at it to use it - which is a requirement when it's clipped to your t-shirt collar.

    • SanDisk clip mp3 player. works quite well only problem is the cheapo headphone jack. It remembers podcast /book location unlike some of the others. format support is weak in the model I have had for many years now... but the problem with finding something better is one that actually remembers playback position.

      • Funny since the reason I'm looking for a replacement is a defective headphone jack on my iPod shuffle.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dohzer ( 867770 )

        Mine is still kicking, many years after. Not sure what you did to your headphone jack, but probably just replace the jack.

        • Not sure what happened either. As for replacing the jack, have you seen how that thing is assembled? It's a custom headphone jack, even iFixIt doesn't have that for sale.

  • I found an iPod in my junk drawer a few years after moving (AKA "I forgot I had it"), then out of curiosity I ordered a cheap 30 pin USB cable, loaded it up with MP3s, and plugged it into my car stereo - instant 60 GB music bank in my radio.

    Sure, the battery no longer holds a charge, but the USB cable can power the unit in the center console bin, and I never need to touch it.

    I think this is a great option now that cars no longer have CD players, and the radio integration is brilliant (2015 Dodge RAM P/U).

    Ye

    • I found an iPod in my junk drawer a few years after moving (AKA "I forgot I had it"), then out of curiosity I ordered a cheap 30 pin USB cable, loaded it up with MP3s, and plugged it into my car stereo - instant 60 GB music bank in my radio.

      Sure, the battery no longer holds a charge, but the USB cable can power the unit in the center console bin, and I never need to touch it.

      I think this is a great option now that cars no longer have CD players, and the radio integration is brilliant (2015 Dodge RAM P/U).

      Yes, you could store all that music on your cellphone instead, but buying extra GB of storage on your cellphone gets expensive fast...

      I've tried this at times, but to be practical on a daily basis, I'd need to be a car stereo system that will overlay audio sources:
      1) Play/control music from a connected iPod.
      2) Also your phone GPS and voice apps to play directions, traffic warnings, and call audio without having to switch sources at the head unit.

      I'm not an automobile gearhead, so I'm sure there's some pimp-my-ride way of making this happen, but it hasn't been an option on any of the cars I've tested/purchased in the past 10 years. You hav

  • Confused (Score:2)

    by kenh ( 9056 )

    Wired said the iPod was cancelled back inn2014:

    On Tuesday, September 9, 2014, Apple finally killed off the iPod. After almost 13 years on the market, the iconic portable music player was retired without fanfare. The pocket-sized device with the click wheel and a small color display simply disappeared from Apple's online storefront just as the products that were announced that dayâ"the Apple Watch and the iPhone 6â"were being added.

    Soon thereafter, reports circulated that new-in-box models of the last iPod bearing that original designâ"then called the "iPod Classic"â"were selling on internet auction sites for at least double the retail price. Clearly, some people were not ready to face up to a future that felt inevitable: a move away from vast collections of MP3 files stored on dedicated music players and toward a world of streaming music delivered over the air for a $10 monthly fee.

    Source: iPod Modders [wired.com]

    With current cellphones priced around $1,000, a lower-priced music/video player should have a place in the market.

  • I have the commercial song in my head right now ("Hello, hellooo (Hola!)"). I recently pulled out the U2 iPod I had bought for my wife when they first came out (and came with waaay too many U2 songs)... and the thing still works. The battery doesn't hold a very big charge anymore, but I can still hear that little hard drive spinning up, which just seems weird now to think there is a teeny-tiny hard drive in there.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by kenh ( 9056 )

      1.8" HD, you can upgrade to an SD or SSD drive for a few bucks, and replace the battery too - and you don't have to transfer all the U2 songs if you don't want to...

  • I've used a lot of iPod Touch devices over the years. They're great for:

    • iOS test devices — keep one running every major version of iOS for compatibility testing
    • Cheap NDI network cameras (with a $20 Ethernet adapter)

    With the iPhone SE starting at a whopping $430 compared with just $199 for the iPod Touch, neither of those two things is practical anymore. The cheapest iPhone is more expensive than actual dedicated NDI|HX cameras, and the higher price of phones means that a lot of developers will end

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by drnb ( 2434720 )

      iOS test devices — keep one running every major version of iOS for compatibility testing

      And for the current version of iOS for devs that have Android. Or any that would rather not test on their personal device.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dgatwood ( 11270 )

        iOS test devices — keep one running every major version of iOS for compatibility testing

        And for the current version of iOS for devs that have Android. Or any that would rather not test on their personal device.

        And beta builds of iOS and....

  • Get ahold of an iPod Classic, stick one of those after-market SDXC boards in there, and plug in four 512GB cards. It's what I did. Now you have a player that can hold more music and audiobooks than any same person would need, plus the device is considerably lighter, and the battery lasts way longer.

    Don't have that much audio? You also now have a (slow) external hard drive, for carrying around a giant software, photo, and movie archive as well. Get a short Micro-USB to 30pin adapter and stick it onto ano

  • My favorite streaming music station is inoperable today. I'm using my iPod right now. I can play two month's worth of music on it without repeating a song. When the internet craps out (which is does frequently where I live and cellphone coverage is abysmal), it's iPod time.

    The only reason Apple says it's dead is because they want to fleece customers with their Apple services.

  • I've got the latest 128Gb iPod Touch and for me, the killer is the ability to download any tracks from Apple Music so they are available when I'm out and about offline. I've got a lot of my own MP3/FLACs but when the iPod dies, this will probably remove 2/3rds of my "library" when I'm out and about.

  • The problem is, if you look up on Amazon, iPod equivalents running Android sell for $50 or so.

    No, its not Apple, its not iOS. But its 25% of the price. Less than that if you take account of the fact they come with more memory and support flash memory cards. And will allow the player of your choice to be installed.

    There is no doubt that the Touch is a better personal computer, and probably a better interface to the music. But its so much more expensive that it cannot be viable in the market.

    A phone, even

  • For a while it was modern, then it was viewed as obsolete, then it became retro.

    I still use a 1st gen iPod Mini on a regular basis. 3rd or 4th battery at this point, replaced the click wheel from a cannibalized one, and swapped out the 4GB HDD to a 64GB SD card. Regardless of the modern/obsolete/retro argument, I've always felt that the size, aesthetics, UI, and sound quality has been ideal for me. Frankly, I think the interface of the iPhone's music player is terrible by comparison.

    The trend seems to b

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