iPod Nostalgia (2003 - 2007) - Or, feeling growing pains at 26.

I never owned one, partly because I was sure I'd lose it. I did eventually buy a $10 Slick MP3 player at a discount store. The only music on it is what I put on when I got it and since then I've used it once while shoveling snow a few years ago. When I was a college sophomore in the fall of '82 I used a walkman (Panasonic version) all the time, walking across campus between my dorm and classrooms. The tape that got the most play had Men At Work's Business As Usual on one side and Supertramp's Famous Last Words on the other.

P.S. Could someone please tell me where the last thirty three years went?

 

I love and still use my old iPods. The scroll wheel interface still has many advantages over a touch screen, and most importantly, no need to worry about the cloud messing up your music files. I borked my iPhone's music library last year after the Apple Music fiasco. Luckily I had a backup and now I make sure iCloud Music Library is turned OFF on all my Apple products.)

I prefer a dedicated music player and I'm sad that Apple killed the iPod Classic a while ago. I much prefer listening to music without having annoying notifications interrupting me all the time (yes, I know I can turn on Do Not Disturb, but I always forget to do so).

Here's an article I enjoyed a few years ago:

Don't Call My iPod Classic "Classic" »

 

Updating my 160g "Classic" right now. I have an iPhone 6 and Bluetooth in the car but prefer to use the iPod most of the time. Still works great, sounds good, and I don't have to worry about iffy cell coverage for streaming (I live in the sticks).

 

I mostly used iPod for podcasts. In fact I think 2006 was when I most listened to podcasts than any other year or years combined. I was living/working/studying in a foreign country and I think listening to radio podcasts of my home country (or my native language) helped me stay up to date on news and "local" issues. And I won't deny it, but travelling in the bus every morning, while commuting to school, work or both, and always wearing those small headphones, "sheltered" or isolated me from the city's population with which I rarely made contact. Not a good practice I know, especially if my goal was to integrate and adapt to the culture and lifestyle of my new country of residence.

Anyway, I don't listen to podcasts anymore but I do iPhone streaming. I've installed applications of several radio stations but I've found hard to retrieve past or historical episodes. Seems as though the iPhone is suited to listening to the "here and now" since apps I use rarely permit access to older content. I know I can also download podcasts to an iPhone, but I've grown used to equate iPod use to podcast listening, t's probably a hard habit to break. iPhone may provide immediate, real time radio station listening, but the signal is subject to random wifi occurrences and wifi stability as I move, which is not the case with podcasts where the only variable or interruption is remaining battery power.

I have to say that I've never liked the touchscreen interface, to this day I detest it. Personally I could have carried on with just a clamshell mobile phone circa 2005 and a separate, accompanying iPod shuffle, would have been happy with just those gadgets.

 

You're 25 and you remember a time when the Internet wasn't popular? Say what?

 

The Walkman is where it all started for me. My mother put headphones on me when I was baby so that I wouldn't cry. I think I was about two. And I had my pick of Phil Collins, Queen, The Doors, and a couple other tapes. It's definitely the format I feel the most attached to. But the iPod does feel wholly "mine." Because time is relative. And back in the early 1990s, they were teaching me how to used cassettes and CDs. And then in the early 2000s, I was teaching them how to use their mp3 players.

 

Of course! The internet wasn't a thing in my household until years after it American Online was a thing. And because I'd always had an interest in technology, I was still raised learning how to use and properly load typewriters, use turntables, use cassette players. I was raised in a family that was slower to adopt new technology, so I really did get the best of both worlds. I'm forever grateful for that. I feel like if you took a twelve year old today and thew them in the forest with a map and a compass, they would die in days.

 

I recently had to retire my 4th generation 60gig iPod Classic because it stopped working completely. But I remember when I first saw the iPod(2nd generation) at CompUSA and I wanted one but couldn't get one because it was only Mac compatible and my computer didn't have a Firewire connection. A few months later, I got a new high end Dell and the 3rd generation iPods came out with limited Windows compatibility. So I bought one. My Dell had 2 Firewire ports and Windows XP and the iPod was bundled with MusicMatch software because there were no iTunes for Windows. I wish Apple had kept Firewire for connection because it was virtually trouble-free for synching over USB2. I still have a 2nd generation 4-gig iPod Nano that I use in my car, 1st generation iPod Shuffle USB stick and 5th-gen 32-gig iPod Touch. Now I wish Apple would bring the Shuffle Albums function back to iOS music player.

 

Oh, CompUSA. What a strange, strange store.

 

Has anyone gone the iFlash (Tarkan) route? I got my eye on their dual SD adapter and would like to get some impressions on the service and the product before I part with the money.

 

I've never used their services, but you could do it yourself and save a lot of money. It's really not that hard to do.

 

I do intend to install it myself, just wanted to know if the merchant is trustworthy, expedient, and if the product is solid and overall a good value.

 

I have, on my 5.5G 30GB iPod. Took some time to arrive here as he's in the UK I believe.

Worked exactly as expected and I used a PNY 256GB card for it. Biggest problem I had is that a small number of iPods come with a Hitachi drive, not a Toshiba, and that Hitachi uses a different connector. I actually emailed Tarkan about this before I figured out the problem and he responded to me pretty quickly. Plus if memory serves he offered a return / refund if I wasn't satisfied.

It's a fairly easy fix which is to grab a Toshiba connector off eBay...I think mine was like 5 bucks. Then just pop out old / add new and you're in business.

 

Thanks.

Can one tell which drive is inside without having to crack the shell open? Like, a serial number?

 

Good question. If you can get it into MSC mode the HDD may show up in Device Manager / DiskUtil. Or if you use Rockbox already on your iPod, you can go into the debug settings and the HDD model will show up there. From what Tarkan mentioned in my email, it sounds like the Hitachi drives are pretty rare so you may not even be affected.

You'll know if you have a problem as the ribbon for the Hitachi is thicker than the Toshiba so you won't be able to connect it to his adapter. The knucklehead that I am, I sat there for like an hour beating by head as to why I couldn't get it to connect.

 

I prefer having a separate device for music. My wife and most other people seem to prefer the convenience of having only one device to carry. Therefore having everything in the smart phone is quickly becoming the norm. As history has proven repeatedly cost and convenience trumps quality every time. The average person doesn't care about fidelity.

I think it's a shame, I'm thinking about going with a Pono player now.

 

I ordered the SD card adaptor from Tarkan and installed it myself. There are guides on iFixit for opening various iPods and various tools you can get to ease the process. The 5th gen iPod video 60GB I upgraded was said to be one of the easier iPods to open. I have to say, opening the thing requires a steady hand and a lot of patience, and the internal ribbon cables are very small and very fiddly to tinker with. If I was to do it again I would want a decent magnifier. I didn't find it particularly easy.

Be warned, the later iPod Classics are said to be incredibly difficult to open without causing damage. I'll only attempt to open mine if and when it fails.

 

don't know if it's still offered but a few years ago Redwine Audio offered their "iMod"--80 gig iPod drastically tweaked to give phenomenal performance. Couldn't mod higher than 80 gig due to size of the iPod. Had one for several years and wow, did it sound great. Maybe find an 80gig online and ask if they still do it?? Don't know.

 

Er...what is an "iPod"?



Actually I did a lot of development work with iPod/iPhone for BMW, Benz, Honda, Toyota. So you'd think it would feel sentimental, but actually not at all. Maybe because I changed out of that field entirely.

It's really much more convenient to just stream from the phone. The only reason I still use my iPods and Sansa Clip Zip is basically when going running, or on a plane.

 

Streaming is okay. I mean, it has its place for sure. But for people with limited data plans, it's not ideal.

 

just visited the 'bay and found many "new" 160g iPods with 90 day Apple warranties. Wonder if they're legit. Selling for mid $300 which is a lot of lettuce for a discontinued player

 

I just found a 1st gen iPhone from 2007. It's been sitting in a drawer for a few years. For fun, I plugged it in. It still holds a charge. So, I restored it and made a bunch of custom TVBR AAC Q50 files of my favorite stuff and started putting it on there. It sounds shockingly good considering the file sizes. I figure I'll use this for work, as it's more convenient that plugging in my phone and having to run across the room every time I get a text or call. It's an 8gb so I just need to be a little picky about what I put on.

It did make me miss the simplicity of my old 60gb iPod with no other features.

 

My ipod classic died last year after about ten years of service hd as been replaced twice in the past three years wasnt going to do it again
I dont use much public transport these days so I dont really miss having that much music in my pocket - I use my iphone from time to time
but always found the sound was never as good as the ipod

 

I'm still a Zune user. All told, I have a Zune 30 Gb, Zune 120 Gb, Zune HD 16 Gb, and Zune 64 Gb. Yeah, I know I went a little crazy, but I really enjoy the Zune Pass subscription system (192 Kbps WMA DRM), which was subsumed by Xbox Music, and most recently Microsoft Groove. For $10 a month (or $100 annually) I can download and sync for offline listening on four different devices including any of my Zunes (I still use three) and at least one computer. It used to be three music players and three computers, oh well.

I found I can no longer stream on any of the devices, including the computer using Zune software. But I can stream on Groove on the web or using the Windows 10 app with the same computer, so I use it to check out the music I want to download using my ancient, but still available, Zune software, then syncing that music to any of my devices.

(In all honesty, I did have to upgrade from my ancient Windows Vista computer for the syncing, but I only spent $130 for an Acer Revo Build with 32Gb flash RAM drive.)

I do miss the higher quality bitrates, but mostly I'm listening on little office speakers or okay headphones, so it's okay. For the convenience and variety of having some 25,000 song available at a moment's notice, it works for me. When I stop paying the subscription or the service ends, however, it all goes away.

 

Only ever had the same 160gb iPod Classic that is still going strong - it's full of lossless files, and really only used in the car. We also have a little iPod Shuffle that my wife loves to use when working in the yard and exercising. Never had music on my phone. I just always preferred a separate device for music.