Death of the iPod (Everyone's buying vinyl)

[Scott Dolan]

Agreed, xybert!

With a Wi-Fi connection, the iPod Touch is like having a miniature computer in your hands.

Even without it the Touch is pretty astonishing.

Edited September 15, 2014 by Scott Dolan

[RogerF]

As the technology marketeers move the goalposts every 6 months or so I am always a couple of generations behind - at least. Whenever I hit upon a good solution, things change or "improve". I have my collection on vinyl, CD and a large proportion of the entire collection (but by no means all) on a "back up" iPod Classic. For mobile listening I use my iPod Nano (8gb) or my iPhone 4S (again 8Gb). But going on holiday I take my "collection" on the iPod Classic. For me this represents an ideal solution. So yes the only other way to improve this for me would be an iPhone with a 500Gb storage capacity (iPhone # 10?). Otherwise this is all fine as is. But the technologists aren't going to stop there. You do know that within 10 years we'll all have to have implanted receivers to pick up our Spotify library bluetoothed to a cochlear implant in our ears. I personally can't wait!!!

[Scott Dolan]

The Classic is 13 y.o.

I'd call that a pretty nice run.

[David Ayers]

Strange to think the iPod itself has gone the way of the home stereo...

[Scott Dolan]

But it hasn't. They just have it the ability to make and receive calls and now call it an iPhone.

[.:.impossible]

Exactly. Putting all of your music files on their iCloud makes your entire digital collection accessible at all times if connected to a cell or wifi network. There are recurring costs associated with this, and that is why we are being pushed in this direction.

[Scott Dolan]

What do you mean by recurring costs? ICloud is free.

[A Lark Ascending]

I imagine it is obselete because not enough people want that capacity.

Usually some non-major firm arrives to plug the gap and accommodate the minority market. Hard to do with something tied right in with Apple.

I'm going to have to experiment with using the iPhone connected to Spotify, Amazon etc whilst on the move. If it's anything like mobile internet/e-mail signals then its going to mean constant interruptions.

Not to mention the poor battery life of the iPhone. Nothing like the iPod which is remarkable.

Edited September 19, 2014 by A Lark Ascending

[psu_13]

iTunes match, which is the Apple service for making music that you did not buy at the iTunes store available to you online, is not free. It doesn't cost all that much compared to owning a few $400 large iPods ... but it's not free.

Edited September 19, 2014 by psu_13

[Bol]

I have a 6G 160gig IPod Classic that I love very much, especially when I travel, and it's been having some problems that led me to think that I may need to replace it soon. Then 2 days after the recent Apple announcements, I found out that iPod Classic was discontinued. I panicked and scoured the web and local stores. Most places said they no longer have any, but a kindly manager of a local Radio Shack found one 7G 160gig at a distant store and requested that it be sent to her store. Meanwhile, I ordered another one on the Best Buy website. (Apparently, some guy had been driving around the SF area and buying up all available 160 gig iPod Classics, presumably to sell on eBay or such.) I thought at best, I would get one of two in, and in fact received a message from Best Buy shortly after my order saying that they no longer have it. But both arrived in the last 2 days. Now, I have a big dilemma. Do I return one of them? (I hadn't realized that the 7G is so much thinner than the 6G.)

Edited September 19, 2014 by Bol

[JSngry]

As the technology marketeers move the goalposts every 6 months or so I am always a couple of generations behind - at least. Whenever I hit upon a good solution, things change or "improve". I have my collection on vinyl, CD and a large proportion of the entire collection (but by no means all) on a "back up" iPod Classic. For mobile listening I use my iPod Nano (8gb) or my iPhone 4S (again 8Gb). But going on holiday I take my "collection" on the iPod Classic. For me this represents an ideal solution. So yes the only other way to improve this for me would be an iPhone with a 500Gb storage capacity (iPhone # 10?). Otherwise this is all fine as is. But the technologists aren't going to stop there. You do know that within 10 years we'll all have to have implanted receivers to pick up our Spotify library bluetoothed to a cochlear implant in our ears. I personally can't wait!!!

Agree. What makes the 'technology' so frustrating is not completely the constant parade of new stuff, but the fact that the "old" stuff (2 or more years 'old'!) becomes obsolete and unusable for any number of reasons. It's like the old concept of planned obsolescence has come back to haunt us.

It only becomes unusable if the hardware breaks or if you lose the supporting software. That's why I'm still using iTunes 10 for my Classic, at some point I started hearing about changes/eliminations/etc and I just said, ok, here's where I hold it, right here where everything works how I like it. For what I need it to do, it ain't broke, so I an neither fixing nor replacing it. Unless the device breaks or Apple's installed some stealth self-destruct thingies in the code, I'm good to keep on keepin' on As Is unless and until.

[.:.impossible]

What do you mean by recurring costs? ICloud is free.

The best things in life are few.

https://www.apple.com/icloud/

And I'm not just referring to iCloud. Spotify and other subscriptions require recurring monthly payment, along with constant data transfer courtesy of megaton telecom.

But yay for progress.

[Jim R]

We've been Apple customers for about 25 years, but I want nothing to do with geniuses choosing songs for me, or imaginary clouds, or being a lemming who has to pay a monthly fee to listen to my own fucking music. I began to realize that trouble was brewing when iTunes went steadily downhill and started adding useless features and taking away the good ones. I used to automatically upgrade all my Apple software, but I finally learned my lesson after downloading and installing iTunes 11. It was a bitch to revert back to version 10, but I managed it.

I'm not much of a phone guy, and have never had an iPhone (my wife and our daughter and son have them). I have two 150 gb ipod classics and a 2nd generation ipod touch (which I rarely use anymore, since getting an iPad last Christmas). I can't sync my iPad with my outdated version of iTunes, and it's somewhat less useful since I'm not participating in the cloud thing, but I love it anyway for e-mail, web browsing and games (my eyes were getting too old for the ipod touch anyway) when I'm away from the iMac.

If and when the cloud becomes necessary for all Apple customers, I'll find another way of doing things, even if it means going back to my MiniDisc players, writing letters, and using paper maps.

[Scott Dolan]

What do you mean by recurring costs? ICloud is free.

The best things in life are few.

https://www.apple.com/icloud/

And I'm not just referring to iCloud. Spotify and other subscriptions require recurring monthly payment, along with constant data transfer courtesy of megaton telecom.

But yay for progress.

Spotify is also free if you don't mind the commercial breaks and lower streaming bitrate.

At the end of the day if you want something better than the free service offered, then you have to pay. I'm not sure why that is so outrageous.

[Shawn]

I've been using Spotify since the original trial started in the US, most of the time I've used the free version, I've upgraded a couple times to the paid version but it wasn't a significant improvement...and hearing an ad occasionally doesn't kill me...so I just save the $9 a month and use the free version.

[A Lark Ascending]

I don't think anyone can quarrel with paying in whatever the way the vendor requires for something you don't have.

The point about the iPod Classic/Cloud thing is that once you have purchased the iPod you no longer pay to hear the music you have already bought. If it is on a cloud then you pay to access it indefinitely.

So the cloud (as run presently) is not just another technological advance. In the process of moving on we have lost something that an admittedly small number of us rather value.

Maybe cloud costs over time will prove cheaper than the substantial outlay for an iPod Classic.

I'd relish being able to carry everything on one device. I'm still not convinced I'd get uninterrupted music - unless clouds download the album temporarily in full when accessed so interruptions in service have no effect. In Britain we still have lots of dead areas and places where signals come and go.

[David Ayers]

Re. storage - that costs you money ANYWAY - the hardware is also not free and is much more likely to fail than the cloud - in fact it inevitably DOES fail. Cloud storage isn't obligatory - and there are of course other options than Apple - but storage is never free....

[.:.impossible]

What do you mean by recurring costs? ICloud is free.

The best things in life are few.

https://www.apple.com/icloud/

And I'm not just referring to iCloud. Spotify and other subscriptions require recurring monthly payment, along with constant data transfer courtesy of megaton telecom.

But yay for progress. Spotify is also free if you don't mind the commercial breaks and lower streaming bitrate.

At the end of the day if you want something better than the free service offered, then you have to pay. I'm not sure why that is so outrageous.

This requires a data plan with your telecom provider.

Is the free version available for mobile devices?

[Scott Dolan]

C'mon, brother.

You're going down a rather silly road here.

Yeah, if you didn't use Cloud storage or stream via Spotify, you'd have neither internet or a data plan.

Seriously?

You're manufacturing outrage.

Edited September 20, 2014 by Scott Dolan

[Indestructible!]

I have a 6G 160gig IPod Classic that I love very much, especially when I travel, and it's been having some problems that led me to think that I may need to replace it soon. Then 2 days after the recent Apple announcements, I found out that iPod Classic was discontinued. I panicked and scoured the web and local stores. Most places said they no longer have any, but a kindly manager of a local Radio Shack found one 7G 160gig at a distant store and requested that it be sent to her store. Meanwhile, I ordered another one on the Best Buy website. (Apparently, some guy had been driving around the SF area and buying up all available 160 gig iPod Classics, presumably to sell on eBay or such.) I thought at best, I would get one of two in, and in fact received a message from Best Buy shortly after my order saying that they no longer have it. But both arrived in the last 2 days. Now, I have a big dilemma. Do I return one of them? (I hadn't realized that the 7G is so much thinner than the 6G.)

Let me know if you want to part with one of them.

[.:.impossible]

There is no outrage. I'm trying to help you understand why the people here who have expressed an interest in owning and carrying multiple classic iPods, as opposed to an iphone with iCloud and spotify accounts, prefer their methods.

Some folks do not want to own a cell phone. Others own a cell phone, but do not want a data plan. Then there are those who just want to do things their way.

[Scott Dolan]

I already understood when MG explained it earlier.

But, the fact that the people you describe are such a niche market explains the exact reason Apple discontinued it.

Edited September 21, 2014 by Scott Dolan

[.:.impossible]

Recurring charges. Constant revenue. Two of the reasons that I believe motivate decisions to discontinue products that don't require IP addresses.

Doesn't really matter what I think, but I can understand why people are uncomfortable with the shape of things.

[Niko]

A requiem from wired, never owned one amd can't really connect with all the sadness, but the text is pretty good...

[Jim R]

I already understood when MG explained it earlier.

But, the fact that the people you describe are such a niche market explains the exact reason Apple discontinued it.

I have to agree with Impossible on this one. Apple doesn't follow trends or even customer needs in the traditional sense, they lead. They decide what the customer needs, and the customer says: "Cool- I need that". They don't react, they dictate. They clearly plan things in advance, including the idea of discontinuing products and software along with a new replacement strategies and updated versions. Just like the trend with some Adobe software, where you have to lease it instead of owning it, Apple is looking for the recurring charges/constant revenue. Obviously, there are a majority of people who can and will enjoy and benefit from the cloud concept, but I'm still not understanding why some of us music fanatics, whose collections are measured in thousands (or tens of thousands) of albums as opposed to thousands of songs (or perhaps hundreds or even dozens of songs, for the average consumer on the cloud), and who have spent enormous amounts of money over the past few decades amassing huge collections, would now desire to pay a fee to access their music. Is it really that much more convenient that it's worth paying more money on top of the huge investment that was already made? I'm probably over-simplifying, but that's how I basically see it.

I always feel alienated when Apple talks in terms of buying "songs". That has never been what we do, has it? Maybe those of us old enough to have bought 45's or even 78's, but for the most part, we don't shop for "songs", we shop for albums. Between that and things such as software that allows us to let a "genius" select what we're going to listen to next, I know I'm not in Kansas anymore. I prefer to stay in Kansas.

I still love my iMac and my iPad and my iPod classics, but I want to make my own decisions when it comes to most things- especially music and how I listen to it.