iPod discontinued by Apple

My main monitors in my office are a pair of 23" Cinema Displays. The old ones that were first released in 2006. The 1920x1200 ones. I always wanted one and my old work was throwing out a pair of them. They're absolutely brilliant and the colour reproduction is still outstanding, even if they're inefficient by modern standards. I have a pair of 24" Iiyama displays and although they're much lighter and run a lot cooler and brighter but the colour is nowhere near as good. The old Apple ones just have a bit of magic about them.
 
When they pushed out Steve early on, he didn't forget that and then played everything close to the chest when they lured him back. As a result, Apple is filled with amazing people who can execute some very complex ideas and visions, but there's no one there with the creative vision for them to execute. Look at everything they've put out since he died, it's just bigger, smaller, shinier, or in a new box/case but none of it contains any real innovation.
No!
A counter-example? The M1 processor. A huge leap forward in computing power, especially in terms of scalability and performance-per-Watt.
Yes! They're still pushing boundaries and making great hardware all around. I'd argue that the pace of technological change has to slow in general and for everyone... until the next quantum leap happens. Hard to know what that kind of a leap could even be like right now. But something will come along and change everything again. (If we're alive to see it!)
 
The M1 was a quantum leap forward. Even Qualcomm are saying that they're unlikely to have anything even vaguely equivalent until at least Q4 2023, at which point the M1 will be three years old. I remember reading the independent benchmarks using a base MacBook Air M1, running non-native applications through a translation layer and still getting equivalent performance to a high-end i7 running native x64 code at a much higher TPM.

Absolutely bonkers how good those processors are. Your Ultra is going to be one Hell of a machine when you get it. Absolute barnstormer.

The prospect of genuine twenty-hour battery life and that kind of performance in a laptop that small and light is very exciting to me. My Dad has an M1 MacBook Air - a higher-end model - and it absolutely kills anything else I've used. Including my 10th-Gen i7 Lenovo E14 that I use for work that doesn't cost all that much less.
 
My main monitors in my office are a pair of 23" Cinema Displays. The old ones that were first released in 2006. The 1920x1200 ones. I always wanted one and my old work was throwing out a pair of them. They're absolutely brilliant and the colour reproduction is still outstanding, even if they're inefficient by modern standards. I have a pair of 24" Iiyama displays and although they're much lighter and run a lot cooler and brighter but the colour is nowhere near as good. The old Apple ones just have a bit of magic about them.
I still have a few of those in service, but I'm slowly retiring them. I've also got some of the 27" Cinemas, too, that are still bright and sharp and gorgeous. Probably better than my new Studio Display, from what I've heard.
 
The M1 was a quantum leap forward. Even Qualcomm are saying that they're unlikely to have anything even vaguely equivalent until at least Q4 2023, at which point the M1 will be three years old. I remember reading the independent benchmarks using a base MacBook Air M1, running non-native applications through a translation layer and still getting equivalent performance to a high-end i7 running native x64 code at a much higher TPM.

Absolutely bonkers how good those processors are. Your Ultra is going to be one Hell of a machine when you get it. Absolute barnstormer.
And they are already talking about the M2 and M3 in the next couple years.

I'm certainly expecting the Ultra will blow me away... whenever I actually receive it.
 
For those of you mourning the loss of the iPod, may I suggest the Sony Walkman:

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I've had this particular one for about 4 years. I bought it from my daughter, who had it for a year or two before that.

As you can see it still works, and is still on its original battery too.

I absolutely LOVE those little guys.......rugged, solid, beautiful to use and look at.

They sound phenomenal.

They last for years and years!
 
Yes, that’s true, but as I said I’m apparently a niche user. I have preferences for how I use my devices. Phone is mainly for calls, texts, maps, and a few apps.(And internet when I’m out and need to quickly look something up.) But I prefer to browse on a larger screen like my desktop or iPad. No music on my phone either. I don’t like wearing earbuds. I use my iPod mainly in the car, because it’s big enough to hold all my music, and it interfaces perfectly with the car.

It’s the way it is these days, that everything is more ephemeral than ever. But Apple has really lead the way in ruthlessly forcing us to change and adapt to constant new hardware and senseless tweaks in their various UIs.

But ultimately I’m always pragmatic about things, and it’s clear that at some point I should just buy a phone with 256gb, and transfer all my music to it. But it won’t interface with my 2010 Mini anymore. Huh… guess I’ll have to buy a new car that’ll work with my new phone.

Here’s the whole point: I’m an intelligent guy who likes to find devices and ways to use them that work in my life, the way I want them to. More and more, I am not able to choose the way I use them. The choices get narrower and get taken away too quickly. Apple has really pushed that business paradigm on the world, and it’s hard not to get pushed along with it.

I think we are the same technology guy....
 
Yep had one for years - sat in a base station that hooked up to my stereo. Just started using it less and less till it just sat. Things get old and easily replaced-like me dagnabit. Like this.
 

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I absolutely LOVE those little guys.......rugged, solid, beautiful to use and look at.
They sound phenomenal.
They last for years and years!
I know! And Apple killing them all off is the same exact thing as killing a buncha really cute bunnies!!!!!
 

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I had no idea anyone would even buy a stand-alone mp3 player anymore.

Every smartphone can do what an mp3 player did. And it also makes phone calls!
 
I had no idea anyone would even buy a stand-alone mp3 player anymore.

Every smartphone can do what an mp3 player did. And it also makes phone calls!
I am poor. I listen to my iPod in my 20-year-old car, where I hook it up to the stereo through one of those cassette-type things with a cord attached. (Today many of you learned that they still make those things.)
I have no way of hooking up my phone to my car's sound system. It's possible I could buy something which would work, but since my cigarette lighter is the only charger in my 20-year-old car, and it doesn't work anymore, it would run my phone down quickly. Whereas my iPod and phone can both last many, many hours on a single charge.
 
I am poor. I listen to my iPod in my 20-year-old car, where I hook it up to the stereo through one of those cassette-type things with a cord attached. (Today many of you learned that they still make those things.)
I have no way of hooking up my phone to my car's sound system. It's possible I could buy something which would work, but since my cigarette lighter is the only charger in my 20-year-old car, and it doesn't work anymore, it would run my phone down quickly. Whereas my iPod and phone can both last many, many hours on a single charge.
I do this too. The Walkman I posted, it's in the wife's new car right now. Her stereo has an aux port and a usb port. My car has the tape thing too. It goes in there also.

I can listen to whatever I want without interruption. Yesterday I listened to a mix of Tupac and NWA. No radio station is gonna do that. I could stream Pandora, but it might try to play stuff I dont wanna hear.

I'm a huge fan of the stand alone mp3 player.
 
I run a bunch of music apps on the one I bought very recently and that's all I need it for. Cheaper than a phone and I much prefer to just have them separate.

But hey, why would they stop their stupidity now?

I personally haven't really chosen Apple. My preferred apps simply don't run on anything else.
 
I personally haven't really chosen Apple. My preferred apps simply don't run on anything else.
This is what I was getting at, above… it’s a little disturbing when you don’t have a full range of options re: the devices and apps you choose, or need to use, because the technology just marches on, heedless of us. Makes me envision a possible future where we’re more slaves to the tech than users. Some would say we’re already there.
 
I'm with the others who didn't know they were still making them.
 
We've owned many different iterations of the iPod but once we subscribed to Spotify then later Apple Music, we ditched them. My music collection had gotten too big for the latest one I had so it was perfect timing to switch to streaming music. Apple Music integrates well with the tracks I have locally that are not on Apple Music so I have my entire collection in the cloud to stream from my phone. The iPod was a revolutionary device, but it's time has past for most people.
 
I just heard the news. Apple has discontinued the iPod. What do you think about that?

I have an iPod Nano (believe 4th generation, color and model in the pic below) which i used for years. Stopped using it when it bought my first car and started using my mobile phone as my 'music on the go' device. The battery is dead and won't recharge anymore, otherwise i would still occasionally use it.

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Think that more and more people use their phones these days the device for music. I have an Samsung A51 which has 128 GB on internal memory, more than enough for me!
So i guess that's one of the reasons Apple stopped making them. End of an era, but technology races on :)
 
Oh I hear you - I use a dedicated iPod 160gig in my car. So no, I'm not suggesting using your phone for this - I'm saying you can use a different phone as a replacement device for an iPod - as I will do once my iPod Classic dies. There's no reason to have to use any of the other functions of the phone - just use it as an audio player.

My point being that I don't really see it as a narrowing of choices as just a consolidation of features that keep prices down. One all purpose device tends to be cheaper to a mass produce then multiple single feature devices.

.... Though as I write this, I can say I know how well a phone-as-ipod will interface with any car's built-in stereo system. I can control my iPod tuck in the glove box via controls on my car stereo and can browse the song directory, etc. from the car's screen. That's just plug and play with the iPod - it may not be with the phone... though I would be surprised if it wasn't.
I tried using an ipod and and iphone through the aux in my truck stereo, it sounded ok but not great, I then tried using a usb stick, and, the sound difference was huge. I used that method since 2008. I don't know what made the difference but there was a significant difference in sound quality.
I have the option to use satellite radio but I hate to wait for commercials and then hear something I don't really care for. I prefer to have a usb stick with selected tracks that fit my taste. You can put hundreds of tracks in a 64 Gb stick and if you run out of space, the sticks are really cheap. I don't use my phone to listen to music and if I am home I have multiple other devices I can use including a 160Gb Ipod and also an ipod touch that seldom get used now.
 
I tried using an ipod and and iphone through the aux in my truck stereo, it sounded ok but not great, I then tried using a usb stick, and, the sound difference was huge. I used that method since 2008. I don't know what made the difference but there was a significant difference in sound quality.
I have the option to use satellite radio but I hate to wait for commercials and then hear something I don't really care for. I prefer to have a usb stick with selected tracks that fit my taste. You can put hundreds of tracks in a 64 Gb stick and if you run out of space, the sticks are really cheap. I don't use my phone to listen to music and if I am home I have multiple other devices I can use including a 160Gb Ipod and also an ipod touch that seldom get used now.
I don't use my iPod in the car through the AUX in (analog audio input) but just connected directly to USB - the car just recognizes the iPod as a USB storage device - just like it would a USB stick. The iPod's audio jack is a headphone jack, thus getting the level matched to best accommodate the AUX IN would be necessary to achieve the best sound - noise if too soft, distortion if the iPod is set too loud. Direct inject via USB would certainly be more "plug and play".
 
I've got an old ipod touch, like 1st or 2nd gen. It still plays music... That's about it. It won't connect to the internet anymore, it won't pull up apps anymore, the freaking calculator won't even work anymore. The factory charging wire shorted out, turned black, and almost caught fire... I contacted apple and they said, "Yeah, that's common with our lightening chargers. Sorry, you are past your warranty. Can we process an order for a brand new iPod?" I promptly told them which one of my appendages they can kiss.
With apple's SOP of intentionally 'updating' their ios as rapidly as they can to make their 'old' devices obsolete merely months after they are released (sometimes before they are even released), I'm surprised I even was able to get the 2-3 years out of it I did before it stopped doing 95% of it's functions.
I'm fine with my $150 Android phone and $200 windows laptop.
 
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