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Apple's iPod Classic Refuses To Die
Nerval's Lobster writes A funny thing happened to the iPod Classic on its way to the dustbin of history: people seemed unwilling to actually give it up. Apple quietly removed the iPod Classic from its online storefront in early September, on the same day CEO Tim Cook revealed the latest iPhones and the upcoming Apple Watch. At 12 years old, the device was ancient by technology-industry standards, but its design was iconic, and a subset of diehard music fans seemed to appreciate its considerable storage capacity. At least some of those diehard fans are now paying four times the iPod Classic's original selling price for units still in the box. The blog 9to5Mac mentions Amazon selling some last-generation iPod Classics for $500 and above. Clearly, some people haven't gotten the memo that touch-screens and streaming music were supposed to be the way of the future.
What will end up happening is that those $500 iPod Classics will stay in their boxes and be sold for $3k a few years down the road. Same kind of thing happened with old NES/Gameboy Games, etc. If they wanted a music player without a touch-screen, well, there are hundreds of those not made by Apple. The people that want these are hoarders and price manipulators.
while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
The reason is simple. It's an ignored niche.
I have 1tb of music. I want to most of this on one mp3 player. Yet nearly every mp3 maker has moved to flash memory or sd cards. To slim down my music collection to 8gb is absurd. So people like me have to stick to their old spinny disc mp3 players. 80gb is better than 8...
Majority of people stream their music these days. But there are still a few of us audiophiles that rather listen to higher quality junk directly from their file trees.
Call me old fashion, but get off my lawn... and make a 500gb mp3 player pleeeeeease.
It's not just the Classic that's missed. I like the size and convenience of the Nano, but despise the newest generations with their touchscreen interfaces. I use my Nano 5g walking and driving. I like that I can easily hit play/pause or skip without having to take my attention away from what's in front of me.
nostalgia only goes so far; you can't make a mass market product on nostalgia alone. They sell what, 50 million iphones every 3 months? A few thousand nostalgia seekers wouldn't even be pocket change inside the pants of a rounding error.
Plus the people seeking the mini hard drive storage capacity will be mollified in a couple years when iphone flash memory capacity reaches 256 - 500 GB.
I have a Gen 3 (firewire, not usb) that I've repaired twice (replaced battery and headphone jack) and I'm about to repair for a third time (another battery and a hard drive). It does what I need, holds a massive amount of music, and I find the interface quicker and more intuitive than my daughter's Touch.
Could it be that Apple is having its "Windows XP" moment? That the Classic design was good enough that people just didn't see the reason to upgrade? (And doesn't this run counter to the Apple culture of "abandon your gadget when the next incremental improvement comes out"?)
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
...and that was great when I got it, but it's gotten a bit on the small side actually. Apple wants me to upgrade, they need to produce a bigger unit. Current store only has them up to 64MB. I'm certainly not going to downgrade just to get a newer unit.
"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
I not long ago purchased a Transend MP870. Accepts microSD cards, plays OOGs, records FM radio, is pretty tough, isn't buggy and the battery really does last. Great device.
I get it, I did the same thing and bought 2 refurbished Sansa devices for more than the retail price of a new one. Why? Because they work great with Rockbox. Not to mention there's no stupid touch-screen interface! I can control these blindly while driving.
As long as there are still rockbox updates for the iPod Classic, they are viable.
I have a collection of music that is unavailable from streaming services or iTunes, and I'm not going to just give them up. Stuff that I ripped from CDs or vinyl. Not everything is available for streaming.
You are welcome on my lawn.
They Touch (or iPhone) are awful as portable music players. There are a lot of people who still want a dedicated little device that will hold a ton of music and fit in their pocket.
There are lots of old technologies like this. Hell, I still have a little portable AM/FM radio for when I walk the dog and want to listen to the Blackhawks or Bulls game. Like I'll be doing in just a few minutes when the 3rd quarter starts.
You are welcome on my lawn.
There is a select group of people that do indeed want to pick up some buggy whips. You just have to visit the right night clubs.
XDInd
with physical buttons, you dont have to look at it to know where your inputer is on the device.
lose != loose
There is a lot of stuff out there (cars, gym equipment, for example) with connectors for the original iPods. Apple, being the %$#! they are, of course, changed those connectors, so newer Apple devices don't work with the existing ecosystem. There's an adapter for my 2004 car that works quite well with an older iPod, but nothing new. If I want to bring my library to that car, it must be in an older iPod (no USB port).
designers took away buttons, switches, faders & knobs they can still be used as a valid interface, they are not obsolete any more than a piano is, they are also foundations, physical hid elements are cool, the indented click wheel being one of them.
80 gig hard drive, 12 hour battery life, and you can work the controls by touch. Last time I checked, the IPod Touch didn't have any advantages except apps, so there isn't much point if you already have a data phone.
You can build one right now, but it won't be cheap:
- Any android phone with microSD and removable back that has a "thick" back plate available for extended batteries.
- A 512GB SD card.
- A microSD-to-SD cable
In the near future Sandisk will probably be able to cram a hole TB in an SD card and Android phones with 128GB/256GB internal storage are coming.
> Apple has in fact turned into the exact kind of company they used to claim they railed against. The cookie cutter mass produced, locked down, conformity based ideal that the old '1984' ad was railing against. Their job culture was most likely always like that, but especially with all the new 'segregated temp employee' churn machines it has only gotten worse.
Exactly. That's it in a nutshell. We have met the enemy and he is us.
To carry this further, you can imagine Apple devices eventually be offered in those impossible-to-open hard molded plastic shells hanging up near the checkout counter. If the device is MEANT to be a throw-away, doesn't that just SCREAM "commodity"? Can Apple have it both ways? Boutique business model with disposable products? I'm thinking, not for long.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
One of the key features keeping the classic alive is also potentially its use in cars. For the longest time, even when I had an iPhone, I maintained an iPod Classic, because its UI was much move navigable one-handed while driving, to drill down to find a particular playlist, or artist, or whatever. You could, by feel alone, figure out what you were doing in many cases, only glancing at the unit to determine when to hit the select button, etc.
It wasn't until I had a car which actually integrated my iPod into its in-dash entertainment system that I finally stopped worrying about that.
Look on eBay for parts; you can upgrade your device to 240GB. It's pretty easy to do, for the most part.
Yes, it's very trendy to get a new phone every year. And yes, it's fun to laugh at those neanderthals and troglodytes who have *gasp* last generation's iPod.
Now trace all those discarded electronics to their end-of-life graves and see how we're poisoning the environment with arsenic, plastics, cadmium and other toxic chemicals, all just to satisfy our craving for shiny things.
I would be proud to own a 12-year-old piece of electronic gear that still functions and does what I need. I have a five-year-old phone (Nokia N900) and bought my daughter's iPod third-hand for $30; it plays my music just fine. No plans to replace the phone or the iPod any time soon.
Now, there are few users ipod because there iphone
Man cua
Wouldn't it make more sense to buy a non-hard drive based player that takes SD cards, now that SD cards are available with larger capacities?
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
I am not surprised by this at all.
My music collection alone is 78GB (and, yes, it's all ripped from CDs I own). The digital copies of movies I've collected over the years is 200GB.
With a Classic with 160GB of storage, I can have my entire CD collection, and a bunch of movies.
Killing the product was shortsighted, because finding something with that much capacity is pretty difficult.
Unfortunately, my Classic is no longer with me, which is annoying. No fancy touch, no apps, no OS to update (and probably break the device) ... none of the crap, just a big honking iPod which held a ton of stuff.
But, apparently companies are only interested in the new hotness, even if the old school model is still a fine product.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Despite having had a phone and tablet, I still use my sandisk sansa e200-series mp3 player daily. I've owned the newer sansa clip, fuse and fuse+, but I just keep going back to an e-series... the perfect device for me, with rockbox installed. It's small, and tactile, and has fantastic battery life, and microSD slot. The design is a sort of clunkier miniature iPod classic. I can operate it completely (rockbox has voice menus) in my pocket without looking, or from a lanyard hanging around my neck. I also use the sleep timer, and variable speed play back (for audio books) a lot.
And there were years when you could get these things pretty cheap on ebay, because in the ipod/ipod touch frenzy, only an enlightened few seemed to want these things. Well, the enlightened few (mostly rockbox users) still cling to this device, but they are getting harder to find... and in recent years the price is going up. Though they are still usually well under $100; sometimes even under $50. I have a couple of them hoarded for myself. I fear the day when they break down (i've gone through a few of them) and I can find no more sources.
Though, also I earnestly have hoped through the years that something better could come along. I hoped my android devices, with suitable software, would take over... but they have not managed it. The ability to operate the thing blind, it's size and battery life, (and the handy lanyard attachment spot!) just keep it in use...
Rockbox also runs on ipod classic, and I've considered many times getting an iPod classic to run rockbox... it seems like they'd work similarly to my sansas, but they (like most apple products) are just too damned expensive. Also bigger and heavier.
They Touch (or iPhone) are awful as portable music players.
No, no, you're confused. The revolutionary ergonomics of the clickwheel control that Apple told us was the most natural control ever ceased to be any good as soon as Apple developed a touchscreen that could sell apps where they get a 30% cut.
Keep It Simple Stupid. The thing is a tank compared to the new models, and has a considerably larger capacity. Why the hell would anyone want to 'upgrade' to a shittier model? Until 2 years ago when I picked up my Galaxy S3, I was still rocking a flip phone. Why? Because most networks didn't have enough stable 3G coverage, and I wasn't sold on the durability of a touchscreen phone. Until Apple comes out with an actual upgrade to the iPod line, I'm quite happy to continue using my 5th gen Classic.
When was the last time you upgraded a mechanical watch? Computers are different I admit because performance and other features change frequently but the idea is kind of the same: the thing can be effectively locked down but as long as you get enough value out of it over the course of its life you don't care that you can't upgrade it. If you are willing to spend $1000 a year on gadgets say then you might be willing to spend that on a Mac every few years. Throw away the old one (more realistically hand it down to a family member or sell on eBay) for all you care. It isn't very environmental which Apple likes to hype up all the time but there it is. Most people don't know how or couldn't be bothered to do upgrades. They want to buy the latest shinny within their budget and use it till they no longer want it.
Or university frat parties, oh how I miss those days. Nothing quite like flogging demos from girls you've just met.
I agree. I'm a bit of a gadget boy too. I use my phone just for a phone and maybe 5 texts a month. I have an iPod, iPad for watching shows on my train commute, Kindle etc. I lost my kindle and tried reading on my phone and iPad: lasted a couple months and then I just had to get another eReader. When gadgets do one things they have to do them well or people will just stick with their phone/computer.
.. with the hard drive replaced with an equivalent weight/volume of ssd storage would be amazing.
No you're wrong the 1.8" hard drives are no longer available from Toshiba.
Hell, I still have a little portable AM/FM radio for when I walk the dog and want to listen to the Blackhawks or Bulls game.
The Sangean DT-200X is a sweet pocket radio. 19 presets, physical buttons that can be operated without lookig, and it can pull broadcasts out of the ether with no net.
High capacity music/video players may be too small of a business for Apple, but a huge business for the right startup. A slightly larger device with a laptop hard drive can easily hit 1TB capacity. Even horse buggies are still a profitable business. This one will be big enough to support thousands of jobs for decades to come.
I have heard of people using them in workplaces that do not allow personal networkable devices in the building for security reasons.
Pfft, I've replaced the headphone jack on my 80gb classic probably more than half a dozen times :) Drive still pulling strong. The LCD is starting to go, after I dropped it the umpteenth time.
But I like how people say the classic is antiquated, meanwhile, I don't have to take mine out of the pocket to go between tracks or change volume. Yeah, I guess I can be stuck with a set of earbuds that have the necessary buttons for play/pause/next, and I can try to hit those tiny rocker volume buttons on the side. But I think I'll stick with my choice of headphone and analog volume control. Not having those buttons also means the cable won't keep getting caught on my collar all the time.
I was trying to build up my credit card's rewards points to get a new 80gb Classic and retire my 2007 model as my car media drive. Works well with the Sony head unit. Got up to 25k of the 33k points needed only to find out that the Classic was removed from their list.
I use the DT-400W. Have owned Sangean for years. It's got a little speaker for when I'm shaving and it's tough as nails. I've dropped it countless times, it lasts forever on a pair of AA batteries and pulls in the stations like a boss.
For some reason, mobile phone apps like iHeartRadio or TuneInRadio don't carry the local sports teams' games, but my radio gets them no problem. Sometimes, I even prefer listening to games on the radio to TV, when the announcers are really good like the team that does the Blackhawks. Or I have the game on TV with the sound turned down and the radio on with earbuds.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Unix philosophy. Do one thing and do it right. Same reason I have an old school e-Reader instead of an Amazon Fire. I also own a stand alone calculator and digital camera. Trying to put everything into one Tricorder type device is not the future yet. Unless your future is one device that does 10 things sub-par.
I agree with you on the camera, but the e-Reader? I use old-school paper-Readers. My copy of Flatland does one thing, and does it right. I own a stand-alone calculator, but I have no idea where it is. The graphing and scientific capabilities of my laptop and my phone outpace my calculator by miles. And the convenience of the smartphone-as-calculator shouldn't be overlooked. It's like a suped-up version of the late 1980's calculator wrist-watch, but not a fashion faux-pas.
Bluetooth works but it sucks for music quality and you only have rudimentary controls on the head unit. Most of it has to be controlled from the device itself, which is dangerous when driving. Plus, this drains the phone battery unless you charge it at the same time.
Most modern cars have USB ports, but it's a little more complicated to create playlists on memory cards.
The Apple iPod interface is a mainstay in many modern cars. You have full integration with steering wheel controls and most head units. In addition, the iPod gets power from the same interface, so you are not draining your phone battery.
I use Microsoft Media Player because I love it's automatic play lists and I hate iTunes. I bought the MgTek DOPISP add-in to enable synching with iPods. With the iPod Classic 160GB, I can sync my entire music library plus podcasts,
Have your touchscreen device in your pocket, start a song, find a song, go back in a song, forward in a song, change the volume, skip a song, cue, pause all without looking at it. Even with uncompressed audio it holds hundreds of songs.
... just has a warmer sound.
From the look of things, this is already happening:
http://www.terapeak.com/blog/2...
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
I use an old touchscreen phone - ZTE F930. Infinite amount of storage potential with its microSD slot, built in speaker, music through bluetooth option as well if I want it, 3MP camera with video, I can even still make emergency calls on it (no SIM in it). Oh, and it charges using a standard miniB USB (which I can tether for data as well) and has a standard 3.5mm headphone jack. Oh, and 2.4 inch screen - that plays video at VCD resolution and framerate. Not the biggest in the world, but a: it's designed as a budget phone, b: if I wanted a phablet I'd've bought a Galaxy Tab, c: I don't want a phablet, d: it's the perfect spec for an ipod killer that makes even diehard ipodders who've seen it go "Dafuq is that!?".
Phone cost me £35 new and boxed in 2010.
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
I used to have an 80 GB iPod up until about a year ago. I was able to load up a whole boatload of movies, and connect it to a TV using an RCA cable that plugged into the headphone jack.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
I never understood why they didn't allow the use of these as "portable hard drives". Apple only marks up their iPads $100 per 32 gigs. They could sell 2x the i-devices by simply adding some bluetooth support.
PS: I don't reply to ACs.
Apple is selling you a platform; and ideology. The hardware is merely a vessel to carry and express it. The fact the hardware is throw-away is inconsequential to the aforementioned core philosophy that Apple espouses to the market. For example, the "cloud" represents the method now.
Life is not for the lazy.
512GB or 1TB in a SD card feels uneasy and who knows about the performance.
At this point you could have a low end but real SSD on short M.2 form factor (which can have PCIe 1x or SATA interface), which is not a stretch given we used to have 1.8" HDD.
Have a USB3 interface to the computer even and now you can write at about the reading speed of your HDD. I hate how slow it is to write music to a thumb drive!, esp. when you're waiting on it before leaving the place.
Real computer-grade storage on your MP3 player or mobile device makes the issue of navigating the tracks etc. go away. Scanning the tags or indexing can happen very fast and the SSD controller does all needed to keep latency down and have the flash not die. We have 256GB for $100 today and soon you can have one controller chip plus one (or two) flash chip made of stacked dies.
The message is clear: once people find a UI that works for them, they dont want some other shite forced on them
Disclaimer: I use MediaTomb and a Samsung Note 3 for my music. Its not great! I can believe there is better, but I am not buying Apple or Sony
Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
> When was the last time you upgraded a mechanical watch?
False argument, as you should know. I've *repaired* (not "upgraded") a mechanical watch many times. I have a pocket watch my wife gifted me when we were married 21 years ago, and I've replaced the *battery* in it countless times. You can't even replace the battery, the *battery* fer chrissake, in a modern Apple laptop. I still have my grandfather's pocket watch, with a genuine Radium dial, which has been in the shop an unknown number of times in the last 70 years, and it still keeps good time. (Although it's getting hard to find a watchmaker who will go near it...) It's not a matter of "upgrades". It's not a matter of having "the latest and greatest". You entirely miss the point. It's about the device you have, right now, doing the job just fine, and wanting it to *keep* doing that job.
Watches tell time. Newer watches are going to do what, tell time in a different way?? New ipods, are going to, like, what, make the music sound DIFFERENT?
Disposables like batteries and stress points like connectors (and wind stems) should be replaceable, and people should want to replace them instead of throwing out the device, *if*, mind you, the device is in any way decent. This is the dichotomy -- if the device is truly innovative, one should want to keep it. If it's meant to be thrown away after a few months, how innovative could it have been? You can't have it both ways.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
I still wish I had my stolen 12gb classic. That shit was the shit. No iTunes needed.
Apple is selling you a platform; and ideology. The hardware is merely a vessel to carry and express it. The fact the hardware is throw-away is inconsequential to the aforementioned core philosophy that Apple espouses to the market. For example, the "cloud" represents the method now.
Maybe I'm too old for this. That in no way works for me.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Likewise. I have no interest in platforms or ecosystems. I just want something that does what I bought it to do essentially indefinitely (assuming repairs as required)
Some people over on Apple.com forums are claiming that the hard disk that went into the iPod classic isn't being made anymore and that Apple therefore was essentially was forced to discontinue the product, because they couldn't find parts for it. Obviously they could try to find another supplier, make the hard drives themselves, etc., etc., but I guess the ROI wasn't there for them to bend over backwards to keep it going.
vi ~/.emacs # I'm probably going to Hell for this.
I'm still using my iRiver H320. It works perfectly, has plenty of space on the mini HD and I was able to replace the battery about a year ago.
Nice physical buttons that can be navigated without looking.
Standard 3.5mm plugs.
Presents as mass storage on USB.
Handles mp3, Ogg-Vorbis, Flac, Wav and some vid formats (can't remeber which - never use them)
I still use an Ipod Gen5 with RockBox, because a) it works and b) I get to use an open source firmware, which means I don't have to worry about whether $BIG_VENDOR has bothered to support OGG/FLAC/etc files.
Admittedly technology is moving on, but from the standpoint of a device that does one thing and does it well the older Ipods with RockBox do just fine. Why upgrade just for the heck of it?
Heck, i've still got an old iRiver T30 tucked away somewhere that takes AA batteries, which I'm not inclined to get rid of either... small, functional, and does the job.
As computer technology matures, hopefully we'll start to see at least some boutique shops crop up whose goal is to make the IBM Model M keyboard equivalent of things like music players - I'd gladly pay a premium for a device engineered to last 30 years instead of 3.
"I object to doing things that computers can do." -- Olin Shivers, lispers.org
I think you may be confusing buggy whips with buddy whips.
In any case, as a software developer I can't see the appeal for a buggy anything. You'd think they'd have worked out the problems and released Whip 2.0 rather than creating a whole industry around a poor product. No wonder they went out of business...
Log in or piss off.
Other posters address the issue of repair-ability. But I will point out that while computers (and related devices, such as Ipods) may soon be something that people rarely, if ever, upgrade (and therefore there is no significant market for making them upgradeable), that does not address the issue the poster you replied to made.
That poster asked the question, how does a "boutique" vendor compete once they have turned their product into a commodity? They are going to discover they have the same problem which Schick and Gillette have. They both spent a lot of time and money convincing men to buy disposable razors. Then they discovered that it was hard to compete when a razor was something someone bought and threw away after a week or two. They are now spending large amounts of money to convince people to buy their razors with replaceable blades.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
You obviously have never heard of the Amish, or of those who make money offering carriage rides.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
Someday you'll get the memo, when you're old and grey, that just because you're old does not mean you're no longer functional. Or maybe you'll just go impotent...
That's one of those new fangled wireless receivers, isn't it? The new wireless technology really rocks. I understand there are TV sets now where you only have to attach power.
A device can be innovative but that doesn't mean that it won't be improved upon with the next version, or have knockoffs that are just as good a couple years later.
You might have replaced the watch batteries yourself I suppose but would you replace the watch stem? As long, and this might be a big if, Apple continues to offer battery and other repairs, just that you have to get a tech do it for you, what does it matter if the ram is soldered in, or you need special tools to get at the battery etc? It is part of the cost of owning the device, you want to do things yourself by something else. You want a one piece screwless gadget then that is what you get whether Apple or someone else. Personally I can't stand laptops so I don't suffer from the battery issue. But I also can't stand doing computer upgrades so I don't care I can't get into the box either. Generally by the point that I start thinking I'd like more ram or what not the CPU socket has changed, SSDs have came out, etc: some major hardware advance that I'd still not be able to take advantage of with my current motherboard. I'd rather spend the money towards a new box that has USB 3, SSD, higher clocked system bus (insert whatever new coolness is out in the few years between when I got the box and I start feeling it is slow) etc than piss it away adding another 8GB of slow ram to my old piece of crap. Especially since my labor is worth a lot and I don't otherwise enjoy the process of shopping for computer parts and installing them.
But "throw away" != "commodity". Jewelery, cars for the vast majority of people, etc are rarely upgraded after purchase. You keep them as long as they meet your needs with the occasional and often professional assistance to keep it in working order. Not being able to get into the iPod doesn't mean it can't be fixed, it just means you have to pay Apple or someone that knows what they are doing to do the work for you. But a lot of people because of the nature of tech will by the time the device starts having problems be already wishing they had the latest and greatest so a lot will chose to spend the $200 towards the next laptop or whatever rather than repair the existing obsolete one. It is the same thing with luxury cars, with the exception of the person that likes to play with them as a hobby generally you don't upgrade major parts (engine, transmission, suspension etc) because next years model will likely have other parts that are upgraded that you can't easily replace (like better seats, new dash layout, better controls for the power windows etc).
You can have brand loyalty and a premium price even if your product is consumable. It is like that with most luxury goods. Take fine wine it generally won't get you any drunker, still is single use etc, or people buying Gillette disposable razors rather than their grocery stores brand. But people will still pay a premium for a nice Bordeaux because of the real or imagined qualitative difference between a generic. Apple is that company in electronics. Someone might just pay an extra $1000 for a retina screen iMac versus a "lesser" brand (without as good of a screen at the moment) and be willing to toss it out (or more likely gift it, repurpose it as a media server etc) in 3-5 years without ever trying to upgrade it. If that 3-5 years of "premium product" is worth the price difference to me I don't care that the device is landfill afterwards where as I could have ecked out another couple years with upgrades on a generic ugly product.
Another part where Apple often wins is in how simple their product line is. You go to the PC market and you start having to compare things like: is another front USB3 port worth not having wireless ac support? How about 8GB of ram, 512GB SSD and win home vs 16GB Ram 3TB HDD and win pro? etc. you end up in an acrynonoum soup that most people don't care about. With Apple it is basically: do you want a decent device for a fair bit of money, or a pretty decent device for a crap load of money all in a pretty package. It is an A or B decision versus drawing out the decision process which with electronics generally means: I'll wait a bit because new thing X (say Broadwell) is just around the corner.
> It is part of the cost of owning the device
The cost (being unrepairable) is too great. This is why I still have a gen 3 ipod, which is relatively easy to service, and why I abandoned Apple as a platform to run the adobe suite (necessary for my job) a few years ago. I kept my G4 going for long after Apple wanted me to pay an exorbitant price for a shiny new replacement, but when it came time for a bump in performance (mostly an increase in memory), I went back to Windows, in a PC I assembled myself, (using an enclosure I happened to have sitting around from 2001) because I just couldn't buy into the wasteful, disposable, glassy-eyed trendy, Apple culture. Mind you, I hate Windows, and I have serious problems with their business model, but it runs the Adobe suite, and that's the main point -- it's not the hardware or the OS, but what it does that's important. Similarly, my Gen 3 ipod still plays music just fine.
If that's the cost of owning a newer Apple device -- all potted and unrepairable, meant to be thrown away when the next incremental improvement becomes available -- then I'll pass, thanks. But as always, your mileage may vary, and that's fine. If you want to line up in the rain to waste money on replacements that only represent tiny improvements, I won't stand in your way.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Usually it is major improvements for me. I buy shinny but I use the hell out of them. My current computer is a late 2008 iMac. The one before that was a 1998 PIII 450. I'm thinking about a new computer earlier than normal now because: a) I started a few months working from home 2 days a week and having comparable hardware would mean I could clone the code base and compile locally rather than use VPN, and b) I'm making crap loads of money that I'm not otherwise doing anything with. Even this "early" upgrade will be about a 2X speed improvement in the CPU, 5-10X on my usb devices, and about a 10X on the disk performance (my disk has always sucked not sure why but I get 30-40MBps out of the 1TB drive in my box, SSDs are easily in the 500MBps range).
Anyways I buy fairly high end when I buy but not very frequently and can live with the same hardware for a long time. I get my new gadget fix every 1-2 years from work and sometimes get a laptop from them to take home too (though not for the last 6 years). Since I buy high end generally their isn't support for more RAM on the mobo, the GPU slot is filled with a fairly high speced card for its generation and new generation cards will need a new bus (ex my PIII 450 had a AGP if I remember correctly which went away before (in my mind) the computer became "slow") etc. So closed but fairly maxed out box works just fine for my uses.
I have a 60GB iPod with all of my music and podcasts in my bedroom still getting daily use. And there is an original U2 iPod unused in original shrink wraped box in my cupboard.
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There are a lot of music systems where the iPod Classic is the “media.” Could be in a car or a home or a DJ setup. There is a spot where you attach an iPod Classic full of music and you are good to go. If you don't have an iPod Classic, then you have to do some re-architecture of that music system. So this post-retirement demand for iPod Classics is very much like if Duracell discontinued a particular battery. You would see people who have systems that use that battery go out and buy a bunch of them in order to extend the lives of those systems for the next few years.
I wished I could use non-Apple firmware. I am currently using Whited00r. I also dislike having to use iTunes even if it is a (thi/3)rd party software.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Except not, because they're already dead, which is depressing. If mine ever dies, which it will, because hard drives do that, I'm *screwed*.
I will admit that I don't need a large local hard drive when:
* I can get unlimited data
* I can get it anywhere on the planet
* It is *reliable* anywhere on the planet
* I can get it for free or close to free
Obviously none of those things are even remotely close to true right now, and none of them are likely to become true anytime soon. Until then, I would like all my music with me while I'm driving in the car, without having to pay out the rear for it, without it losing signal, and whether I'm driving around town, or 300 miles out in the middle of nowhere.
But nobody sells them anymore, so I'm kinda screwed when this one dies. (I don't have an iPod - the largest they went up to is 160gb, if I recall correctly. That is *not big enough*.)
So not the way of the future. Its nice and all but it doesnt compate to having your own music library. A good way to discover new music so you can add it to your library but i wouldnt ever replace it with music streaming
For a simple music player the ipod classic still has the superior design. For simple volume control and song skiping that circle touchpad was far easier to use than a touch screen. I kind of wished the iphones would have one on its back.
That is why I didn't join one just went to the parties: skip the hazing and go straight to the parties that have girls.