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RIP iPod - Apple discontinues the iPod

Maiden Voyage

Gold™ Member

Since its introduction over 20 years ago, iPod has captivated users all over the world who love the ability to take their music with them on the go. Today, the experience of taking one’s music library out into the world has been integrated across Apple’s product line — from iPhone and Apple Watch to iPad and Mac — along with access to more than 90 million songs and over 30,000 playlists available via Apple Music.
“Music has always been part of our core at Apple, and bringing it to hundreds of millions of users in the way iPod did impacted more than just the music industry — it also redefined how music is discovered, listened to, and shared,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “Today, the spirit of iPod lives on. We’ve integrated an incredible music experience across all of our products, from the iPhone to the Apple Watch to HomePod mini, and across Mac, iPad, and Apple TV. And Apple Music delivers industry-leading sound quality with support for spatial audio — there’s no better way to enjoy, discover, and experience music.”

The original iPod, introduced on October 23, 2001, was the first MP3 player to pack a mind-blowing 1,000 songs and a 10-hour battery into a stunning 6.5-ounce package.
The first iPod mini is shown.

iPod mini, introduced on February 20, 2004, brought everything users loved about iPod into a smaller design at just 3.6 ounces.
iPod nano (2nd generation) is shown.

iPod nano (2nd generation), introduced on September 25, 2006, offered a thin design, a bright color display, six stylish colors, and up to 24 hours of battery life, and put up to 2,000 songs in users’ pockets.
The first iPod touch is shown.

iPod touch, first introduced on September 5, 2007, brought the revolutionary Multi-Touch interface that made iPhone a hit to iPod with a gorgeous 3.5-inch widescreen display.
iPod nano (7th generation) is shown.

iPod nano (7th generation), introduced on September 12, 2012, was the thinnest iPod to date at just 5.4mm and featured a 2.5-inch Multi-Touch display.
iPod shuffle (4th generation) is shown.

iPod shuffle (4th generation), introduced on July 15, 2015, offered a sleek design with up to 15 hours of battery life, 2GB of storage good for hundreds of songs, and a VoiceOver button to hear a song title, playlist name, or battery status.
iPod touch (7th generation) is shown.

iPod touch (7th generation), introduced on May 28, 2019, features the A10 Fusion chip, enabling immersive augmented reality experiences and Group FaceTime, along with 256GB of storage.
Among the incredible ways to enjoy music across a range of devices, including a wide variety of models from the new iPhone SE to the latest iPhone 13 Pro Max, iPhone is the best device for streaming Apple Music or storing an entire music library on the go. Apple Watch and AirPods are the perfect companion, allowing users to access over 90 million songs right from their wrist, starting at just $279 with Apple Watch SE. iPad starts at just $329, comes with a more powerful chip, larger display and the latest iPadOS features. And for the best way to enjoy music at home, HomePod mini is just $99.

An incredible music experience is integrated across Apple’s product line — from iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods to HomePod mini, iPad, and Mac.
 

Trunx81

Member
RIP. I had the second generation back in the day and the first shuffle (the gum pack). Both had their batteries die on me, but till then, they were great companions. But I fully understand why apple is closing the curtains. It was nice while it lasted. Technology has moved on. Kids nowadays will never understand the joy of a game Boy or an iPod.
 
Very sad news. I've never owned a cell phone in my life. I have had every version of the ipod touch, and currently use the latest model. It is a red one with an inscription from Lonesome Dove on the back. I guess it will be with me for a very long time, but I was hoping for an upgrade. I'd post a picture of it, but it is my only camera.

We Don't Rent Pigs!
Uva Uvam Vivendo Varia Fit
 

mclaren777

Member
I've been using my Sony Walkman five days a week for the past 14 years. I even bought a backup in case it ever dies.

x158A8008GB-f.jpeg


However, I bought my wife a seventh-gen iPod Touch last fall and it was remarkably hard to find it on Apple's website. I remember having to Google search for its store page.
 
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Bitmap Frogs

Mr. Community
End of an era.

For those who care, Sony still makes mp3 walkmans to this day. Might be something to check out if your current iPod conks out and don't wanna go the ebay route.
 

AJUMP23

Parody of actual AJUMP23
It changed music and violated Jobs agreement with the Beatles allowing him to use the company name Apple. .99 a single was a big deal.
 

NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
“An incredibile music experience”

dCd0o1A.png


Sorry, but if you’re into the old-school system of ripping and uploading your own music onto a DAP, Apple has been the worst possible way of doing it for a long time.

I’ve had many issues with iPods, but there was a time when they were kinda worth the effort. Now the market is absolutely flooded with devices that can play music with better quality and infinitely better ease of use than any iPod ever released. I do miss the click wheel sometimes, it was such a slick interface.
 
I had an iPod mini in my college years. Worked great but after a year or so the battery would just die. Charge it 100% and it would die after playing one song.

also itunes back then was a piece of shit software.
 

Rival

Gold Member
I have a video iPod from 2006 that still works docked on little speaker thing in my bedroom. I haven’t used it mobile in quite some time though so I don’t know if the battery still holds a charge. My first iPod back in like 2003-04 was the U2 special edition one that was black and red. It really was a game changer back in the day.
 

Laptop1991

Member
I've got an IPod touch 5th gen, that i used to use a lot, then Apple stopped supporting it and i couldn't use it with a couple of Bluetooth speakers i bought, even worse they wouldn't let me download an older version of the soundcore app that would have worked with the speakers, so i stopped using it and use my phone now instead,

This type of restrictive control is one of the reasons the IPod wasn't selling and the price probably also, the sound was excellent with it as well.
 
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Maiden Voyage

Gold™ Member
Very sad news. I've never owned a cell phone in my life. I have had every version of the ipod touch, and currently use the latest model. It is a red one with an inscription from Lonesome Dove on the back. I guess it will be with me for a very long time, but I was hoping for an upgrade. I'd post a picture of it, but it is my only camera.

We Don't Rent Pigs!
Uva Uvam Vivendo Varia Fit
I used a Touch + Google Voice for years without a cellphone. Life was grand.
 

nightmare-slain

Gold Member
the ipod was discontinued long ago. the ipod touch was only an ipod in name. it was nothing like the shuffle, classic, nano. when the touch first came out year it was new exciting direction but for the last 10+ years it's basically just been a tiny iPad or dumbed down iPhone that people bought for their kids until they were old enough for an iPhone. i'm surprised Apple kept it alive this long.

it's still sad to see the end of the iPod brand though. what an era that was! i remember sitting with my friend sharing earphones listening to music on her green iPod Mini in 2004. my first iPod was the OG Nano and I also had the other Nano which was a tiny little square thing that clipped onto your clothes! Kinda like a shuffle but with a screen. I bought an iPod Classic in 2008 which i didn't have long cause someone stole off me. After that I got my first iPhone the 3G.

iTunes was something special back then. It's crazy to think how much the iPod + iTunes changed music. I prefer streaming but will always feel nostalgic for those days in the 00's.
 
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Mattyp

Gold Member
“An incredibile music experience”

dCd0o1A.png


Sorry, but if you’re into the old-school system of ripping and uploading your own music onto a DAP, Apple has been the worst possible way of doing it for a long time.

I’ve had many issues with iPods, but there was a time when they were kinda worth the effort. Now the market is absolutely flooded with devices that can play music with better quality and infinitely better ease of use than any iPod ever released. I do miss the click wheel sometimes, it was such a slick interface.

Used to be literally the easiest solution ever? iTunes on windows gen2 & up of iPods I used and just drag and drop, click upload 🤷🏻‍♂️

Dedicated players have been dead since Spotify regardless, truely an actual answer to piracy.
 

NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
Used to be literally the easiest solution ever? iTunes on windows gen2 & up of iPods I used and just drag and drop, click upload 🤷🏻‍♂️

Dedicated players have been dead since Spotify regardless, truely an actual answer to piracy.
Used to be the easiest solution ever… until Apple started selling music.

When I switched to an iPod Touch, I had to re-tag all my music because suddenly your tracks were sorted in a different way. Used to be enough to use the same album name + album artist to have a compilation show up as a single album. After iTunes Store became a thing, you had to check the “part of a compilation” tag on every track of a compilation, otherwise you’d get as many albums as there were artists in the compilation. And the tagging menu got a lot of submenus where it all used to be so much simpler.

Deleting tracks from your device also became a matter of navigating a sub-menu or two too many. All because Apple started assuming that the music you had on your (ie, their) device should come from their store and be stored online too, because of course they would. Same reason why their official Music app was never compatible with anything lossless that isn’t Apple Lossless.

And how about iTouch dropping all buttons except for the volume buttons, putting everything on the screen, which makes you have the screen on for longer, thus burning your battery much faster?

I’ll also mention the absolutely appalling look of the Music app starting with iOS 9 (iirc). Only time in my life I reverted to a previous firmware on an Apple device. My last iTouch is still on iOS 8.

Dedicated players are far from dead. The market is more active than ever, precisely because it’s Apple that dropped the ball so fast and so hard on their music player when streaming became a thing and they found the way to make money out of it.
 

TheMan

Member
Once they introduced the ipod touch that lacked tactile buttons, it felt pretty pointless. Every person on this earth has a smarthphone and they can all play music so why get a gimped lookalike with less functionality?
 

Trogdor1123

Gold Member
I had a shuffle which was great and a mini with a colour screen that I used to put doctor who videos on when I was on the treadmill at the gym.
 

TransTrender

Gold Member
I won an original iPod Video 60GB that lasted me like over a decade before the drive completely shit the bed.
After that I got an iPod Touch and I liked the overall hardware design because of the small thin form factor, good battery, and high data storage but what killed it was interfacing with Windows. It got to the point of workarounds, hacks, and third party apps just to fucking load music on this thing and they even stopped working so I gave up. If that were still working I eventually would have dropped it because of the fucking OS and my old retired beat as fuck Android devices are significantly more useful for the role.
Like right now I have two of my old Android phones which are just loaded with music and media with great battery life during playback and those are my traveling media players.
Overall yeah, super cool devices, it makes sense they're gone, and iOS sucks.
 

Codes 208

Member
It lost its charm once they basically turned it into an iPhone without the phone, those earlier generations ones were the best.
I personally preferred the touch model over the classic design if not only because they had wi-fi capability so i could listen to my songs on youtube prior to when spotify was a thing. (Plus internet access in general. The ipod touch and iphone felt way ahead of their time)
 

Spaceman292

Banned
Very sad news. I've never owned a cell phone in my life. I have had every version of the ipod touch, and currently use the latest model. It is a red one with an inscription from Lonesome Dove on the back. I guess it will be with me for a very long time, but I was hoping for an upgrade. I'd post a picture of it, but it is my only camera.

We Don't Rent Pigs!
Uva Uvam Vivendo Varia Fit
Are you like 90 years old?
 

Maiden Voyage

Gold™ Member
Prospectors are buying them out and relisting them +$200 already
I would love to get a classic one with custom mods. They're too expensive though.

 

lachesis

Member
Just dug mine out & rocking with Greenday's American Idiot (lol)

9Ne9wDX.jpg


Still works fine. I actually am surprised it's still turning on and holding the charge.
I replaced the battery a few years back, but I only charged once and forgot to charge.

Gotta try to do something more permanent with this... and maybe try to clean the all the surface scratches. :(
 
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