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Who's Actually Buying iPods These Days?

birchtree.me

61–70 of 82 posts

Re: Who's Actually Buying iPods These Days?

#61
post #3

No mention of the iPod classic. I guess not many people bought them. I absolutely love my classic. It has every song instantly accessible wherever I am. I use it every single day. It's a shame there's no standout replacement. Sure, you need to spend longer curating your music collection, but the reward is a far more permanent collection of music and playlists which acts almost as a time capsule for your emotions. Plu…

Well, you can get a 128 GB iPod touch, but it's pretty expensive.

Re: Who's Actually Buying iPods These Days?

#62
post #58
post #16

The best iPod was discontinued immediately. It's square with a screen on it, this one: http://www.zdnet.com/i/story/61/18/017591/zdnet-ipod-nano-si... Giant clip dominates the back, just large enough of a screen to choose or control music, and just enough space to store way more than I need. I travel a lot, it's great to have a separate music device. I can listen to music and not have to worry where my phone is. I ca…

> I also don't understand why anyone wants to use their phone as a music player. The idea of that sounds needlessly awkward and they'll fill their device's HD up with largely useless music. My primary use of my phone is as a music player. The second biggest use is as a camera. Between those two (and considering a lot of the music is streamed), the device's storage is never a problem. What about it sounds awkward? To…

Just a nitpick here, for me simply having phone and internet counts as 24/7 passive usage because people can call/text/email. It's like a mailbox, I'm always using it.

Re: Who's Actually Buying iPods These Days?

#63
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I also don't understand why anyone wants to use their phone as a music player. The idea of that sounds needlessly awkward and they'll fill their device's HD up with largely useless music. My primary use of my phone is as a music player. The second biggest use is as a camera. Between those two (and considering a lot of the music is streamed), the device's storage is never a problem. What about it sounds awkward? To…

Just a nitpick here, for me simply having phone and internet counts as 24/7 passive usage because people can call/text/email. It's like a mailbox, I'm always using it.

I suppose you could say that, although I get few texts and previous few phone calls, and my phone email is on manual pull.

Re: Who's Actually Buying iPods These Days?

#64
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Nanos from the mid-2000s were pretty solid. I think I still have an 4GB one somewhere that worked the last time I looked. Perfect for taking to the gym or hiking. An updated version with the same specs would probably be too cheap to produce now, with Flash so dramatically cheaper. Could you build one for $20?

Check out the Sansa Clip. Up to 8GB, should be around $40 now, TINY (1.36 x 2.16 x .6"), good sound, small OLED screen, controls on the front which can be pressed through jeans, small enough to throw into you hood or under your collar or clip to the top of headphones. Also, mass storage mode so you can drag-and-drop files or set up a script to cp all your newest torrented music to it when you plug it in.

I have one of these. Well, two, because I wrecked one by dropping it in the toilet. They're currently discontinued, but you can still buy refurbished or used ones.

The best part is that it you can install Rockbox. Rockbox is such a beautiful piece of software.

I am fiercely protective about my Sansa Clip. I only paid around 35$ for it, but it's way more valuable to me than that now that they are getting difficult to find.

Re: Who's Actually Buying iPods These Days?

#65
post #16

The best iPod was discontinued immediately. It's square with a screen on it, this one: http://www.zdnet.com/i/story/61/18/017591/zdnet-ipod-nano-si... Giant clip dominates the back, just large enough of a screen to choose or control music, and just enough space to store way more than I need. I travel a lot, it's great to have a separate music device. I can listen to music and not have to worry where my phone is. I ca…

> I also don't understand why anyone wants to use their phone as a music player. The idea of that sounds needlessly awkward and they'll fill their device's HD up with largely useless music. You can't run something like Spotify on it without a cell receiver, at which point you've pretty much got a phone.

Well...wifi. Which is what iPod Touch has.

Re: Who's Actually Buying iPods These Days?

#66
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Nanos from the mid-2000s were pretty solid. I think I still have an 4GB one somewhere that worked the last time I looked. Perfect for taking to the gym or hiking. An updated version with the same specs would probably be too cheap to produce now, with Flash so dramatically cheaper. Could you build one for $20?

Check out the Sansa Clip. Up to 8GB, should be around $40 now, TINY (1.36 x 2.16 x .6"), good sound, small OLED screen, controls on the front which can be pressed through jeans, small enough to throw into you hood or under your collar or clip to the top of headphones. Also, mass storage mode so you can drag-and-drop files or set up a script to cp all your newest torrented music to it when you plug it in.

Sadly the batteries are crap and it dies pretty quickly from sweating, which makes it a bad workout companion. Also a note - the newest Clip Zip with color screen has much worse sound, better to opt for older Clip+.

Re: Who's Actually Buying iPods These Days?

#67
In the days of CDs, there were units that would hold ~100 CDs vertically on a turntable, rotate the correct CD into position, grab it with a robotic arm to lay it on a traditional CD reader, and play it. [1]

My grandfather had ~5 of these 100-disc CD changers, fully loaded, in various rooms around the house. Plus wall-to-wall bookshelves, many of them packed with CD cases.

A CD is 700MB of audio. Let's estimate, conservatively, that he owned 800 CDs. That's 70 gigs of audio. He wasn't exceptional in terms of music library size. That's who buys iPod Classic: people with more than 32GB (or recently 64GB) of music who want it all in one player.

iPod Classic also lives basically indefinitely (mine is at least 6 at this point, still works perfectly and the battery life is measured in weeks) and can be operated entirely by feel. Nothing ruins music while falling asleep like having to look at a bright backlit LCD screen to change the song and getting sidetracked into Facebook.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-PD-F908-CD-Changer-Discontinue...

Re: Who's Actually Buying iPods These Days?

#68
post #16

The best iPod was discontinued immediately. It's square with a screen on it, this one: http://www.zdnet.com/i/story/61/18/017591/zdnet-ipod-nano-si... Giant clip dominates the back, just large enough of a screen to choose or control music, and just enough space to store way more than I need. I travel a lot, it's great to have a separate music device. I can listen to music and not have to worry where my phone is. I ca…

Conspiracy theory: the form factor was changed because it was too similar to a watch -- and Apple was in the early stages of planning the (much more expensive) Apple Watch. Notice that the Micky Mouse watch face - now present on the Apple Watch - was only present on that one version of the nano.

I know several people who wore that iPod as a watch - at least one case was explicitly manufactured as a wristband. Got discontinued pretty quick, though

Re: Who's Actually Buying iPods These Days?

#69
post #15
post #3

No mention of the iPod classic. I guess not many people bought them. I absolutely love my classic. It has every song instantly accessible wherever I am. I use it every single day. It's a shame there's no standout replacement. Sure, you need to spend longer curating your music collection, but the reward is a far more permanent collection of music and playlists which acts almost as a time capsule for your emotions. Plu…

> It's a shame there's no standout replacement. Sure, you need to spend longer curating your music collection, There's not even that much curating needed with modern storage capacity. SD cards are cheap, large, and so the only limit is how long I wait for FLACs to transcode down to AACs. > Plus it always lets you access all your music, regardless of reception, data, record company politics Exactly. I can't fathom why…

>SD cards are cheap, large

Getting a smartphone with an SD card slot these days requires some compromise. The iPhone has never had one. Galaxy S6 and Nexus 6 are arguably the current Android flagships setting the standard for quality, and neither of them have SD expansion.

There are people with more than 64GB of music at CD quality who don't want to transcode it down.

Re: Who's Actually Buying iPods These Days?

#70
post #17

Why don't people get it? They are ipods. Besides the ipod touch, they are bought to play music. If I would use my phone to play music the battery would be dead by noon. If it rains while im on a run, I only risk 120€ not 500-900€. Not to mention that an ipod is WAY lighter (12.5-31g) compared to a smartphone (130g). Which makes it less iritating when you carry it in your pocket.

Rain shouldn't really affect your smartphone, unless it's poorly built. My Nexus 7 fell into a stream of water , getting completely submerged while turned on, and it didn't even shut off. Opening it up revealed it was completely dry, despite the case being snapped on. Friends have had similar experiences with their Moto G, a Wiko and a cheap non-branded tablet.

Yeah it's surprising how well built are phones nowadays. I was running/cycling with a Nexus phone which I exchanged yearly and there never were any issues. Then when I got a Garmin FR110, I went for a Sandisk Clip MP3 player, who was dead in one month due humidity/wet conditions. Bought a cheapo Android phone who will stay on Kitkat forever and sticking with that instead.
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