iPod New iPod Classic for its 20th anniversary in October 2021

[poked]

I still have my purple iPod nano from like, 2005. Loved that little sucker, I miss being able to buy and play music and just do whatever I was doing. Now it’s all subscriptions, ads, etc. Whose waiting for them to get rid of the Music app entirely since it only generates revenue from a one-time purchase? ?

 

[yabeweb]

Those players currently exist... just not from Apple. I recently purchased a FiiO M7. Although it is Android-based, the hardware is very good, and the sound quality is noticeably better than any of the older iPod Classics.

I know, I have successfully using a Fiio X3 first gen since it came out, it would be nice to have an apple one, it would be a lot more polished.

 

[Traverse]

Those players currently exist... just not from Apple. I recently purchased a FiiO M7. Although it is Android-based, the hardware is very good, and the sound quality is noticeably better than any of the older iPod Classics.

My biggest problem with any of this third party players is the lack of smart playlist support (or really poor basic playlist support).

I listen to my library through playlists and after 12 years I doubt that will change. There are apps such as Dapper that claim to be able to sync basic iTunes playlists to some type of players, but no smart playlist or play count support. For other players, playlists depend on you manually creating a .m3u file and software is often so buggy or nonexistent.

Still I've been looking at the FiiO M6 or Cowon Plenue D line for a very long time.

 

[sracer]

My biggest problem with any of this third party players is the lack of smart playlist support (or really poor basic playlist support).

I listen to my library through playlists and after 12 years I doubt that will change. There are apps such as Dapper that claim to be able to sync basic iTunes playlists to some type of players, but no smart playlist or play count support. For other players, playlists depend on you manually creating a .m3u file and software is often so buggy or nonexistent.

Still I've been looking at the FiiO M6 or Cowon Plenue D line for a very long time.

I make heavy use of smart playlists as well. I export the lists into folders, transfer those folders to the player and then play them on the player. Not ideal, it is a static snapshot, and doesn't work for smart playlists that rely on play counts, but I find that dealing with those limitations is better than using devices that lack dedicated physical buttons and a lower quality DAC.

The best solution, IMO, would be for Apple to produce once again a dedicated player. "That ain't happenin'" so we deal with it the best we can.

 

[Falhófnir]

There are finally some (sketchy?) rumours floating around for an updated iPod Touch later in the year (September with the iPhones?) so that's probably about as close as you'll get. The good thing is it's a rumoured redesign, so more than just a new chip in the ageing design.

 

[Traverse]

There are finally some (sketchy?) rumours floating around for an updated iPod Touch later in the year (September with the iPhones?) so that's probably about as close as you'll get. The good thing is it's a rumoured redesign, so more than just a new chip in the ageing design.

If they would implement the volume + playback control button set up that was used on the 7th generation iPod nano that would be a massive improvement.

My biggest gripe with the iPod touch (and I’ve owned both the 6th and two 7th generations) is the terrible battery life. I believe they can only fit a 1000Mah battery in it which is less than half of the iPhone 12 and 40% smaller than the iPhone SE.

With a new chassis I hope we get a larger battery.

 

[philrock]

At this point, I will take anything. My daughter will be 9 this year, plan on a phone at 12. One more generation should carry her through.

 

[thefourthpope]

Every bit of music, ever, could appear in the list using the click wheel but it would take ages to narrow down what you’re looking for.

If Siri were better you could add that as a search feature when long pressing the home button. But that’s as big an “if” as the idea of the dedicated iPod coming back.

 

[thefourthpope]

At this point, I will take anything. My daughter will be 9 this year, plan on a phone at 12. One more generation should carry her through.

My 9 y/o just bought her iPod touch as is loving it. I’m just happy Apple continued offering *something* like that.

 

[philrock]

My 9 y/o just bought her iPod touch as is loving it. I’m just happy Apple continued offering *something* like that.

Agreed! My kiddo has a 6th gen here and a 7th gen at her mom's. The 6th gen is on it's last leg and I would be much happier if I could replace it with a 8th gen but will do 7th if need be.

 

[sracer]

What is the appeal of an iPod Touch over something like a 2nd gen iPhone SE? A 32GB Touch is $199, and a 64GB SE can be bought for $199 no contract from StraightTalk. It doesn't require to be activated, is more powerful, and has significantly better battery life.

 

[Prof.]

You can get similar products on Etsy.

 

[Traverse]

What is the appeal of an iPod Touch over something like a 2nd gen iPhone SE? A 32GB Touch is $199, and a 64GB SE can be bought for $199 no contract from StraightTalk. It doesn't require to be activated, is more powerful, and has significantly better battery life.

Nothing really. I have found myself tempted to pick up an iPhone SE from my company’s “employee appreciation“ store. The fact that it has the older design with the home button actually makes it more appealing for this vintage niche. I personally wish it didn’t have the phone piece, but I don’t have to activate that. The only real hold out has been that I just like having a headphone jack. The adapter is fine, but if there is the faintest hope of an iPod touch with a headphone jack I’m willing to wait.

in my head canon, the only reason the iPod touch would get updated at this point (especially with a new design) is for Apple to justify its existence with the lossless music streaming component of Apple Music. In order to do that they would need to supply a headphone jack if this was to support that super high resolution lossless. I personally don’t care about lossless, but I absolutely love that idea.

You can get similar products on Etsy.

This will be blasphemous, but despite how innovative the click wheel is, it really scales poorly to large libraries. It’s perfect to scroll through a short list of playlists and just shuffle music, but navigating a large library, trying to find a specific album, or trying to search for a song is just tedious.

I Believe it was an incredible and idea before touchscreens, but touchscreens are vastly better as long as you have physical playback controls to them.

 

[iOzzie]

I would love one, local storage + Spotify + Bluetooth + Digital and Analogue outputs (maybe via included dock again?)...

Won't happen, but I wish it would!

 

[philrock]

What is the appeal of an iPod Touch over something like a 2nd gen iPhone SE? A 32GB Touch is $199, and a 64GB SE can be bought for $199 no contract from StraightTalk. It doesn't require to be activated, is more powerful, and has significantly better battery life.

Do you know how big the hands of an 8 yo are? I have considered a SE but the size (and weight) of the phone plus a case to handle the additional drops would make it huge. Phones are designed for adult hands. I do agree a SE is better in all aspects other than that.

 

[Apleeseed84]

What is the appeal of an iPod Touch over something like a 2nd gen iPhone SE? A 32GB Touch is $199, and a 64GB SE can be bought for $199 no contract from StraightTalk. It doesn't require to be activated, is more powerful, and has significantly better battery life.

I ponder myself this question as I kind of browse into older iPod classic sales, as much as an iPhone se or an iPhone 12 Pro could easily fill my needs with everything you mentioned, at the end of the day Apple Music player and customization in comparison to a dedicated music player or video such as an iPod is night and day, that click wheel magic, the settings, detailed song info, versus preset settings that I despise with a passion, everything is so preset now days that funnily enough is like someone mentioned recently to be honest, we used to focus a lot on our media content back then than we do now.

I have 265gb worth of music now and I’m like huh, I would had blown through it back day, now I’m like meh set it on random, streaming really has changed the way we do things now, but partly the reason why I completely miss having iTunes visualizers ??
At this rate I would legit purchase an iPod touch if the rumors are true for this year ??

another fun fact about the click wheel is the fact I’m finding my self going through the motions of just running my fingers through my Apple TV remote as if I was using an iPod lolol Hey maybe the fact that we got the wheel back for the remote should tell us something tanglible, I’m not even kidding that if apple legit releases something like that in October I’m buying it hands down ?

 

[IllinoisCorn]

I fully support this. Unfortunately I just don’t see how it’s possible since music is all cloud based (excluding myself from this, still keeping things local on principle against subscription models but that’s a separate discussion).

With everything going to subscription models I don’t see an easy way to type to search what you’re looking for. Every bit of music, ever, could appear in the list using the click wheel but it would take ages to narrow down what you’re looking for.

Apple Music killed your dream.

 

[Feyl]

I like the idea of this very much. Would buy an iPod like that right away.

 

[Apleeseed84]

the more i think about this rumor or fake hype, the more I wish it to be true now, spent like an hour looking at ipod classics, if they release a dedicated music player in 2021 i'm all for it and would buy it faster than the new iphone 13 lolol seriously.

 

[SanderEvers]

the more i think about this rumor or fake hype, the more I wish it to be true now, spent like an hour looking at ipod classics, if they release a dedicated music player in 2021 i'm all for it and would buy it faster than the new iphone 13 lolol seriously.

Only problem with dedicated music players is that 99% of the people "just use their phones". There is only a very small niche market. And yes, even Apple knows that.

Apple keeps the iPod touch around as a child's first iOS device, for simple games and music. And also iMessage and FaceTime.

There is almost no market for a dedicated music player, or it would be something exclusively aimed at audio-fanatics.

 

[Spock]

What is the appeal of an iPod Touch over something like a 2nd gen iPhone SE? A 32GB Touch is $199, and a 64GB SE can be bought for $199 no contract from StraightTalk. It doesn't require to be activated, is more powerful, and has significantly better battery life.

Companies use them for inventory control and POS systems. They are a pretty useful device, I think the scanning devices are why Apple hasnt changed the form factor in so long.

 

[retta283]

Companies use them for inventory control and POS systems. They are a pretty useful device, I think the scanning devices are why Apple hasnt changed the form factor in so long.

Noticed this in public this summer a few times. First time I had seen an iPod out in years and they were all business use. I see a ton of iPad minis being used in similar fashion, I suspect a large part of why that thing still exists is for business use as well. I love both my iPods and my iPad mini, but they have such niche markets now that it wouldn't seem reasonable for Apple to keep them just for that niche...

 

[bgsd_4332]

Would buy one in a heartbeat! This especially makes sense for those of us who have an enormous music library that you want to take everywhere. Oh, you DON’T require an internet connection to play music. ?

 

[philrock]

Would buy one in a heartbeat! This especially makes sense for those of us who have an enormous music library that you want to take everywhere. Oh, you DON’T require an internet connection to play music. ?

This is another reason I like it. My kiddo likes a dozen or so songs that she plays over and over (and over) that I would like to buy and sync to her iPod so she can play wherever (and with earbuds lol)

 

[Walrus Man]

Got fed up waiting for an updated Touch so bought an SE2 with 128Gb that was discounted due to being an opened box, but new, and it was actually brand new. Cost me £300 (RRP is £449). The 7th gen 128Gb touch would also have been £300, so a no-brainer to get the SE2 instead.