iPod The iPod is dead.

[tentales]

I don't invalidate the choices that others make, but they are not my choices, and while repeating ad nauseam that the iPod 'is dead' is one thing (and - as someone who suffered two very dead iPod classics on account of the flaws of the old HDD spinning disks committing suicide while still under warranty, I am not blind to the structural failures of that device), adding that lovely online sneer 'deal with it' is just tiresome.

Now, get this: I am not interested in using an iPhone as an audio device; for one thing buying an iPhone when not intending to use it as a phone, strikes even me - and I am profligate with money - as a criminally stupid thing to do.

I don't want a phone; I want a device that will play my music. While I can accept commercial imperatives, I do not care if the demands of fashion and commerce include rentier models and touch pad screens. I don't much care for either, even if they are the future.

Moreover, although I already have an iPod Touch, I am not actually a fan of the touch screen. Yes, it's cool. But I prefer (perish the thought) physical buttons.

I cannot stand the iPad - I had two iPad minis, both maxed out to their respective years, and couldn't stand using them. One I used, and gave away, to a brother who got married last year.

The other, a maxed out mini (128 SSD, retina screen etc etc), went as a Christmas present to my other brother, whom I am very close to. Unfortunately, his car was broken into four weeks ago, the passenger window of his nice new Volvo smashed with a crowbar, and my wonderful Christmas present to him, the maxed out iPad mini, was feloniously removed by some urchin with a penchant for petty theft an eye for opportunity.

My question was rhetorical. If others don't think like me, well, they don't. This is not something I will lose much sleep over; I am not a fashionista, in anything.

Besides, and I don't doubt that Apple has no desire to meet my needs; with regret, I will look elsewhere (and no, not an iPhone; I want a device that just plays music, and I have no intention of paying stupid money for a device that has bells and whistles.)

For music, I want high quality, superb build, no video nonsense, and minimal distraction. And I like physical buttons. 'Deal with it'..

I was trying to be constructive, but clearly you took it the wrong way and even ignored my suggestion for the Pono Player, which was meant in earnest. I do respect your choices. No iPhone for you, we get it.

 

[tentales]

I don't know what to say to this at all. It's downright ridiculous that you would defend someone paying much more for a device and not fully utilizing its most marketed feature over buying something more sensible.

With your logic, why not just get two 32 GB iPhones instead of one 64 GB one while we're spending money like cavemen. Airplane mode both of them and tape them together as one portable device. Money isn't an issue, right?

Your analogy is ridiculous. I was talking about one device maxed out. Fact is there is no 128GB iPod currently available and buying an A5 device today is not a wise decision anyhow. There's also no more iPod classic unless you want to spend the equivalent of an iPhone 6 price on it for new on eBay.

Apple has ignored the iPod for the A6, A7 and A8 generations and cancelled the iPod Classic, I have little faith that they would ever build another dedicated music player. The iPhone is it. It's most "marketed feature" is actually the camera IMHO, the phone is a given, but not the main reason people buy it. A lot of us use it for texting, email, internet and playing music in addition to pictures & video. I stream my large library via bluetooth audio in my car from my iPhone.

You can find that ridiculous if you like, but you're deluding yourself if you think Apple would introduce a 128GB iPod at half price of the same sized iPhone. Not gonna happen!

 

[Dark Void]

buying an A5 device today is not a wise decision anyhow.

Why? It handles media playback and web browsing just fine.

The iPhone is it. It's most "marketed feature" is actually the camera IMHO, the phone is a given, but not the main reason people buy it.

The main reason it is purchased is because it is a PHONE that also has other capabilities. How is it not the main reason people buy it? If it wasn't, they wouldn't overpay for it, or purchase it with a service contract from a cell phone company. "Just got my 2 year AT&T monthly serviced camera!" ... sure.

A lot of us use it for texting, email, internet and playing music in addition to pictures & video. I stream my large library via bluetooth audio in my car from my iPhone.

I understand why smartphones exist and why they are the choice for most people, but you're not understanding the other side of the spectrum and you're also not understanding why it is foolish to purchase an iPhone outright if your sole wish is to have a local storage media device.

You can find that ridiculous if you like

I will.

if you think Apple would introduce a 128GB iPod at half price of the same sized iPhone. Not gonna happen!

Never thought this or stated it. I can see it happening though because it doesn't. have. cellular. capabilities. How is this not registering? Whether or not it is Apple's agenda to cater to this market of users is not for anyone here to say but I don't understand how you can't fathom the idea of owning anything other than an iPhone as a portable media device.

You can argue all you want that it is superior and while it does offer the same or similar iOS and playback experiences and storage capacities as the iPod (even though the iPod is generations behind) - it just doesn't make sense to buy one. I don't care if you're crapping dollars - it makes literally no sense to go out and purchase an iPhone as a media device for triple the cost or more of an iPod Touch when you have no intentions of using standard SMS messaging or making phone calls for the majority of users in this market. Period.

I realize people will do what they want for their money, and I won't dispute that or label it as incorrect. - "I want to purchase an iPhone 6+ outright for its larger screen as my sole media device" is an example of this, but making sense is a completely different story - a story that is all relative to the user anyhow. What I will argue, however, is this is NOT something that a majority of users in the market of a modern dedicated media playback device would be willing to do. Purchasing an iPhone outright just for its WiFi, or music/video playback is what most users would view as a foolish venture EVEN if the current iPod Touch is generations behind.

 

[tentales]

You can argue all you want that it is superior and while it does offer the same or similar iOS and playback experiences and storage capacities as the iPod (even though the iPod is generations behind) - it just doesn't make sense to buy one. I don't care if you're crapping dollars - it makes literally no sense to go out and purchase an iPhone as a media device for triple the cost or more of an iPod Touch when you have no intentions of using standard SMS messaging or making phone calls for the majority of users in this market. Period.

You can put words in my mouth all you want, but this thread asked the question "Is the iPod dead?"
And I'm firmly in the "Yes it is!" camp. Not because I want to be, but that's the reality of the market.
If you had read my past posts more carefully you would know that I advocate having the choice of a dedicated music player, sadly that won't happen. You're obviously in denial that the iPod is being phased out and the iPhone has taken it's place. There are other choices for dedicated players out there.

Argue, stamp your foot and email Apple customer service please. The # of users wanting a separate device for playing just music is minute compared to the overwhelming majority of users that want a phone, a camera, an iPod, etc.. all-in-one device. Yes, Apple is milking it and charging more for it, but you and I are not going to change market forces and business economics.

 

[rhoydotp]

You can put words in my mouth all you want, but this thread asked the question "Is the iPod dead?"
And I'm firmly in the "Yes it is!" camp. Not because I want to be, but that's the reality of the market.
If you had read my past posts more carefully you would know that I advocate having the choice of a dedicated music player, sadly that won't happen. You're obviously in denial that the iPod is being phased out and the iPhone has taken it's place. There are other choices for dedicated players out there.

Argue, stamp your foot and email Apple customer service please. The # of users wanting a separate device for playing just music is minute compared to the overwhelming majority of users that want a phone, a camera, an iPod, etc.. all-in-one device. Yes, Apple is milking it and charging more for it, but you and I are not going to change market forces and business economics.

Sadly, I agree with you. Future generations of Apple Watch is probably what is going to replace the iPod Nano/Shuffle once it gets to a point that it doesn't require having an iPhone for it to work.

 

[DakotaGuy]

Sadly, I agree with you. Future generations of Apple Watch is probably what is going to replace the iPod Nano/Shuffle once it gets to a point that it doesn't require having an iPhone for it to work.

I hope the pricing changes on the Apple Watch then because as it stands it is MUCH more expensive then the Nano or Shuffle.

 

[Yaxchian]

i need the ipod for sports. iphone is too big.
really love my nano collection using inears from westone for so many years
hopefully, there'll be an update for ipods soon, apple music is great -> i want to have the playlist on my ipods.
capacity on the watch is too low for music and there are no bluetooth inears available from westone or shure.
i'm really worried, loving ipods, great inears and music

 

[Traverse]

I suppose that you can consider it, "lesson learned".

I'm not into digital renting/purchasing. Approximately 1/3 of the music that I have on CDs have been removed from the jewel cases to save space. I saved the cover art, inserts, CD, etc. and donated the jewel cases. Same with DVDs. I have a fixed amount of space in my "media vault" (a closet dedicated to the storage and display of my physical media). Discs that don't fit, are placed in binders (with the cover art and inserts).
.

You sir, have inspired me to dig out my old CD cases for eventual display. I have bought about 40% of my music on iTunes. I'm in grad school now, but when I'm finally working I see myself re-purchasing my music as disks if for no reason other than to have a physical bookshelf of music.

I may even re-rip it as lossless. I just use iTunes 256bit now because I'm not an audiophile and it saves space. I'd like to upgrade, but the monumental task of re-ripping thousands of songs, rebuilding playlists, and manually re-entering meta data like plays and rating seems daunting.

 

[SkyBell]

I gave up on the iPod years ago. It really is sad; I've owned 10+ of them, at least one of each sub-family they ever made. Even to this day, I believe the iPod is a fantastic music device; some models are great for video as well. But this does nothing to change the fact that my generation, even though we grew up with iPods, has long since relegated them to "Remember when?" status. (Although just the other day I saw a teenager rocking an iPod Classic - that was nice!) Add that on top of the fact that Apple still charges ridiculous prices for the amount of storage you get - they more or less priced themselves out of a dwindling market, and it's apparent they don't care.

Personally, I've gone for a Sansa Clip+ - super portable, cheap, and even though internal storage tops out at 8 GB, the microSD slot allows up to an additional 64 GB of space. Not to mention audiophiles seem to love it, for reasons that are beyond my limited knowledge of that...stuff.

 

[Slix]

I may even re-rip it as lossless. I just use iTunes 256bit now because I'm not an audiophile and it saves space. I'd like to upgrade, but the monumental task of re-ripping thousands of songs, rebuilding playlists, and manually re-entering meta data like plays and rating seems daunting.

While slightly off topic, when you try to import a CD that is already imported in iTunes, provided that the names of the songs and artist and albums are the same as the ones in your library, it will ask you if you want to import them again, or import over the tracks, which retain the meta data, plays, playlists containing them, etc. The only thing I think it changes is deleting the lyrics, for whatever reason, but for most people, it's not a big deal. I just happen to have lyrics for most of my music inputted.

 

[Traverse]

While slightly off topic, when you try to import a CD that is already imported in iTunes, provided that the names of the songs and artist and albums are the same as the ones in your library, it will ask you if you want to import them again, or import over the tracks, which retain the meta data, plays, playlists containing them, etc. The only thing I think it changes is deleting the lyrics, for whatever reason, but for most people, it's not a big deal. I just happen to have lyrics for most of my music inputted.

REALLY!? Thank you so much for telling me that! I didn't know! That alone will push me to re-rip my music because loosing the metadata for 2000 songs was daunting!

Thank you!

 

[Aspasia]

Well, I'm glad it hasn't been completely killed off. While I have an iPad and iPod Touch 5, I will be buying a Nano or Shuffle (not sure which yet) just because it's smaller and easier to carry while I train on the water in my kayak.

 

[WilliamDu]

Thanks for the nice, long, enjoyable reply.

No, I don't use mine for video - I have only ever used it for music from my iTunes library which has thousands of pieces of music - from hundreds of CDs - ranging from medieval, through Baroque, and various forms of classical music, through jazz, trad, rock & roll, Latin, pop, easy listening, and so on.

Actually, if you are a music lover, (as I am) and have a library built up over a few decades, it is quite easy to amass hundreds of CDs and thousands of songs. But no torrents, or videos, ever.

Ah, in 2011 you were a Senior in High School?

Well I left my equivalent of High School (I'm not from the US) a few decades ago. When I left my version of High School, the CD had yet to be invented……..so, I very much doubt you'd be classed as a 'wannabe geezer' quite just yet.

But I agree entirely about the business model of renting rather than owning. It is something I have massive reservations about, and am most reluctant to embrace it under any circumstances.

Been enjoying following you and Dark Void for a while. My Classic so far has about 120GB repeated on my 27" iMac, dual external HDs and regularly burned DVDs.
Mostly from ripped CDs, iTunes and vinyl now in boxes in the basement. Includes most of Borodin, Chopin, Dvorak, the Bachs, Mozart, Ponchielli, Glazunov, Verdi, Puccini etc. Te Kanawa, Bartoli, Leontyne Price opera, Country, Jazz, Dixieland, Blues, old mid to late 20th century classic pop, Count Basie, Lloyd Webber, Armstrong, Brubek, Doc Watson, Joni James, Eartha Kitt, Blossom Dearie, Louis Prima and Kealy Smith that I used to enjoy in the Taft Grill in NYC in the 50s etc. Listened to Leontyne, magnificent the night her Daddy died in Constitution Hall in DC last century.
Not sure what to do when my Classic dies, but at 84, it may outlast me. Apple going down the tubes with the Beats and Apple Music crap.
I started on Apple in '84 with Little Mac and worked up through generations with Jobs type hardware. Left high school in '49.
Cook, Cue, Ives and Company sliding Apple downhill into the "modern" youth, metal, racket stuff and the new cloud, subscription world. None of that noise on my hardware.
iTunes short on hard to find stuff but their collections of classical stuff is reasonable investment. The Astell and Kerns gear just too high priced for me.
I own my music and listen to it wherever and whenever I wish, including on my 128GB iPad Air 2 occasionally. Panasonic EarPods and my Classic put me to sleep with my CPAP frequently.
Good to hear I'm not the only dinosaur around.

 

[Mendozart]

I've loved the ipod since day one. I currently own a couple minis, 30g video (which I swapped in a 100gb drive), and a 3rd gen touch. I do like how itunes lets you pick what you want on each individual device. I'm also old school, still buy cd's and upload them to itunes. I just recently got an iphone 4s 32gb for cheap, which I am using as a phone, and downloaded 2200 songs. When I end up getting another phone down the road, I will still use this 4s as another listening device. I do hope that Apple continues to make the ipod.......long live the ipod! ;-)