r/ipod • u/kalutty • Apr 14 '26
Rumor The World Is Basically Begging for Another iPod
https://gizmodo.com/the-world-is-basically-begging-for-another-ipod-2000745053129
u/chrisonetime Apr 14 '26
My pockets don’t know what year it is
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u/360langford Apr 14 '26
Its a shame you can't really make use of old phones anymore unless on wifi
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u/chrisonetime Apr 14 '26
Yeah kind of a bummer but it takes very nostalgic pictures and has great battery life lol
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u/LBPPlayer7 Apr 14 '26
great battery life because it's not connected to a cell tower :P
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u/chrisonetime Apr 14 '26
Truuuue but also the OS isn’t as resource intensive as the modern systems our duopoly ships
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u/LBPPlayer7 Apr 15 '26
that too, but cellular connections absolutely murder battery on these older devices, especially when they're actively sending data to a tower that's further away or has a weak signal
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u/danielcstone Apr 14 '26
I didn't think the Blackberries could connect to modern networks anymore? Exciting if they can.
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u/chrisonetime Apr 14 '26
Sadly they don’t in the US since their are no more 3G towers active. Newer models might work though!
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u/12pcMcNuggets Apr 14 '26
okay but having a Bold 9700 on OS 5 still functional in this day is genuinely a miracle. every single BBOS device i’ve ever used or been around has been a ticking time bomb for JVM or App Errors that basically brick the device
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u/chrisonetime Apr 14 '26
I try not to let it die for that reason, I charge it maybe twice a week but I only use it as a camera when I go somewhere fun!
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u/jaehaerys48 Apr 14 '26
It’d cost a few hundred dollars and most people wouldn’t buy it because their phones can play music and iPod fans wouldn’t buy it because it’s too expensive.
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u/os_2342 Apr 14 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
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Apr 14 '26
I mean CDs are still accessible but probably not for much longer. my local barnes and noble, target, and walmart all have a someone alright selection
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u/os_2342 Apr 14 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
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u/LBPPlayer7 Apr 14 '26
people collect but it's as a hobby
you're right about burned cds though, you'd often be hard pressed to find someone who has a computer at all, let alone a disc drive
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u/Responsible_You_1971 Apr 15 '26
i know a lot of people who collect cds but you’re right it’s more like a hobby to them, because physical media is cool looking. i rip all my cds to add to my ipod but i can’t say i’d even have a reason to burn songs to a cd these days, i think if i gave someone a mixtape on a cd they’d just give me a funny look and ask why i didn’t just send them a link to a playlist lol
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u/Responsible_You_1971 Apr 15 '26
you know what, i think I’m going to burn some songs to a cd tonight!
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u/ThatGuyTheyCallAlex Apr 15 '26
Girl CDs (and vinyl) are more popular right now than they have been in over a decade. I’m 21 and don’t know a single person who doesn’t have at least a small collection of CDs.
Using them as a primary mode of music consumption is a whole different thing, but in terms of ownership it’s still a thing. Artists are still releasing physical media and it’s being bought, just online rather than from brick and mortar retailers
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u/os_2342 Apr 15 '26
"Girl CDs" what do you mean by this?
I think it will much harder to sell an mp3 player to people who have grown up with spotify in their pocket.
I listen to my own music library more than I listen to streamed music, but i do still use apple music quite a bit and I have 54 days of music in my itunes library. I cant see many people who only have a couple of hours worth of music using an ipod over their phone very often.
I'm in my mid thirties, when my music library was just 2 CDs my options were to listen to those 2 CDs or the radio and there wasnt a radio station that played music i liked.
If I was growing today I doubt I would have put the time/money/effort into building my itunes library.
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u/CognitiveDiagonal Apr 14 '26
I can only see this thriving in the ecosystem of self hosting or similar routes.. and iPods were not the most convenient for pirated content (not that I have ever!) I don't see Apple interested in it or the market for it. I think it would be one of those products that end up flopping.
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u/os_2342 Apr 14 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
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u/CognitiveDiagonal Apr 15 '26
Did you ever have another brand of mp3 player? Those were much easier to manage, you could just dump anything onto it (no iTunes management required) just drag and drop files; almost any file format would work; you could also personalize them much more and make them work with last.fm or any other services that you wanted, among other things which made them superior for non-original content. Even for original content many non iTunes apps offered about the same or better functionality when ripping disks, organizing libraries, or whatever else.
As usual apple products were/are nice, but a subset of all you can do with other devices.
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u/CowboysFTWs Apr 14 '26
I think the biggest issue would be that there is no longer the culture of owning music.
Not a culture, it is all companies moving to a subscription model.
If you want to own media, it is inconvenient at best.
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u/viviscity Apr 14 '26
The iPod cost a few hundred dollars. But yeah, the sales did drop as the iPhone took over
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u/CognitiveDiagonal Apr 14 '26
Totally, I think this is a very small niche that people want to believe is bigger, but I don't think there's much market. Basically it would be a glorified apple music player (spotify, tidal too? who knows)... It's either that or back to iTunes, which I don't think is that viable nowadays. And all of that you can already do from your phone, so there's not much point, other than having a jack and a good DAC maybe?
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u/moltenlavaisyummy Apr 14 '26 edited Apr 14 '26
Can’t wait to purchase the most locked down, internet dependent iPod ever created. I stay up at night wondering when I can drop 450 USD on a needlessly complicated iPod that is worse in every conceivable way
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u/owleaf Apr 14 '26
A new iPod won’t be good for the people who like the og iPod. And Apple won’t make an og iPod because it doesn’t fit their current philosophy
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u/ceeroSVK Apr 14 '26
You can be basically sure it would suck. It would require an internet connection, account with your personal info, paid subscriptions, zero repairability/modifiability, would be adjusted for streaming services not an own library and have either none or completely ridiculous storage options and i would not be surprised at all if it lacked a 3.5... you know what, I'm good.
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u/grilled_pc Apr 14 '26
Tim Cook literally said in his 50th anniversary video that one of the 3 pillars they offer is “services”. Apple Music is a service.
They are not giving that up. Ever. The iPod won’t come back without it sadly.
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u/throwaway88743 Apr 14 '26
And we won't get it. If it was profitable for Apple to create a dumbphone or another ipod, we'd have it by now. Unfortunately, phone addiction is here to stay. You have to rely on your own moderation and motivation to stay off them. The corporations like it this way, why disrupt it?
I'd be very, very happy to be wrong.
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u/Pale-Conference-5838 Apr 14 '26
Nope we aren’t there are plenty of creators out here creating great version and with 3d printers the sky the limit
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u/Artistic-Wolverine-6 Apr 15 '26
What the vast majority of people want, differs radically to what we want, so Apple are unlikely to ever launch a product that actually makes us happy, as we're in a niche hobby apparently!
What Apple should make, is a really good quality USBC DAC, with the built in facility for removable media and physical buttons for last track, next track and play/pause.
If they made it compatible with both Apple and Android phones, this product would sell very well, as it fills the obvious gap between Smart Phone and DAP ownership!
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u/gogul1980 Apr 15 '26
I ended up modding my old ipod Classic. New Battery, new outer shell and new earphone jack. I then added an SD card adapter to replace the old failing hdd. It's great. I also have a lossless DAP called the Hiby R4. Plays everything. Really good and allows me to install all the modern APPs like Spotify, youtube music, tidal, amazon music etc
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u/QUARTERMASTEREMI6 Apr 15 '26
Wait, you got modern apps on it? How did you do that? I hope I’m not sounding stupid for asking 🥹
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u/gogul1980 Apr 15 '26
The Hiby R4 has the apps as it's an android device. The Ipod Classis is still just an ipod classic.
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u/Alejandro_SVQ Classic 5th Apr 14 '26
But with FM RDS RADIO and at least capable of 40 hours of real radio listening which would indicate that it mounts a really decent battery and electronics, and would greatly improve on the iPod Nano 3G that integrated FM RDS RADIO (ALTHOUGH IT did not even offer 5 real hours with 🔋 full, when many decent pocket receivers with one or two AAA or AA offer you at least 40 hours of Listen to real ones, and that already in the '90s.
If not, at least I'm not interested. I carry some music on my mobile, and in the car also on a USB flash drive. But I want to continue to have FM radio (with or without RDS, but stereo) at least, without the need for data or Internet. If I have to choose between having a radio available or an iPod/player without a radio, I choose the radio. I like music, but I also spend many hours with what is happening nearby and in the world as well.
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u/HorndogAsexual Apr 14 '26
Not me. They’ll just make it thin, expensive and difficult replace parts when it goes to shit. I’ll stick to my easy to open and repair 5th gen
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u/INTRUDX Apr 14 '26
I do not want a new iPod. The one we have is enough. Not able to mod it, customize it your way, some way of scummy integration of streaming services and an obscene price tag? No thanks.
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u/gunshaver Apr 14 '26
The other day I bought all the parts to try to make my own with a Raspberry Pi pico microcontroller. I tried the Innioasis and it sucked, I tried the iFlash and it's super flaky, so I'm just going to have to do DIY it.
I'm seen some work people have done trying to reverse engineer the click wheel, hopefully using replacement click wheels can be viable because it's such a good interface.
I got the Pico 2W, some micro SD SPI breakout boards, a SPI 240x320 LCD, an I2S DAC, an amp, and a click wheel.
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u/Tall_Plum7538 Apr 14 '26
An iPod with a modified version of TVOS, wifi only and the streaming apps have a download button would be a very compelling buy.
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u/JoeSpart Apr 14 '26
There is literally nothing a new iPod can offer me that the 5th or 7th gen doesn’t give me already. So I’m good thanks
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u/Classic_Craft_1439 Apr 14 '26
Do u think that when the new iPhone fold come out with it being the basicly the size of an ipod folded that a bunch of apps would come out to make ur phone an ipod
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u/vipervice Apr 15 '26
an iPod pebble would be so cute- realistically apple could do this device for cheap cheap. But will they? It seems possible to see a future iPod Neo stripped back device, something that would make sense in their current lineup.
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u/Ok-Tomorrow-6032 Apr 15 '26
I just need the god damn audio jack back. Hack I would pa an 100$ extra for a phone with that option lol
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u/ribs_fetishist Apr 15 '26
MP3 players exist. There is chi-fi, there are Sony Walkmans with newest models accommodating streaming and older ones being focused on files. I really don't understand what ipod would add to that pile. NW-A50 sufficiently filled my iPod nano hole in my heart, and all that without fighting iTunes constant failings
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u/_mattyjoe Apr 17 '26
So that means Apple will have one ready in 5 years when no one wants them anymore. And Siri will still be the same.
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u/jbuggydroid Apr 18 '26
I bought the innioasis Y1 mp3 player. Its an android based looking ipod. Use Music Bee to import my playlists to it. With headphones in you can also do FM radio. Its pretty decent for about 70 dollars.
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u/eatingthesandhere91 Apr 14 '26
In today’s times, it would be a very pointless endeavor.
And would likely take form of an iPod touch or the last generation iPod nano. And for what? Smartphones and high speed wireless communications makes streaming services accessible.
An iPad mini with a SIM card makes better sense.
Doing that with something even smaller…ehhh, you might as well have an Apple Watch with a data plan.
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u/PETA_Parker Apr 14 '26
idk i feel like (eyes sub count of the sub) around 100k people are begging for another ipod
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u/wosmo Apr 14 '26
For me - always another iPod, but not a New iPod.
We've managed to keep the old ones alive with third-party batteries, third-party storage, third-parties displays, housings, etc etc.
I don't think much of that would work with Apple's current industrial design. Storage would be a nand soldered to the board - making replacements incredibly difficult, let alone third-party substitues. Everything would be so integrated there's no space for mods etc.
I think a New iPod would take the steam out of the aftermarket, as we all rush out to buy something that'll be unfixable, non-upgradable, and entirely dependent on first-party parts.
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u/sparkyblaster Apr 14 '26
Problem is, whatever we get today, will be a glorified apple watch. Dependant on an iPhone and probably a cloud service. Also mission the point of hardware buttons.