New uses for old iPods?

December 2, 2015 9:10 AM

We have two old iPods that we're no longer using. Is there anything fun that my 12-year-old can do with them?

I mean, other than just use them. They both still work. One is a Nano second generation. The other is a Shuffle third generation.

Can they be made to...I don't know, do something else?

posted by BlahLaLa to Technology (8 answers total)

Rockbox works on a Nano 2nd gen. I have one of those! It works.
Here's the list of plugins. Here's the plugin programming guide. I've been thinking about making a 2-factor auth (TOTP) plugin for that :D
posted by floatboth at 9:28 AM on December 2, 2015 [2 favorites]

Buy cheap speakers and leave them around as room music systems? They just don't do that much, unless you bought any of the rare games for the Nano.

Or, you know, mail them to meeeee! :7)
posted by wenestvedt at 9:38 AM on December 2, 2015 [1 favorite]

I have a pile of them. I basically use them for audiobooks, and as room noise (with speakers).
posted by answergrape at 9:41 AM on December 2, 2015

Best answer: My number one use for this is in car music that person gets to choose. It's independent of your smartphone/tablet/whatever if you want to use that to read stuff or something in the back seat(or a million other reasons), and the battery is independent of the phone.

ipods are also nice when you're doing homework or otherwise working and want background music, but don't want your whole phone right there that can be a distraction blackhole. I actually know quite a few people using them again for that.
posted by emptythought at 1:43 PM on December 2, 2015

I like them as dedicated music players. Super handy for making dance videos, seeing as I generally use my iphone to record video and need some other device to actually produce the music being danced to.
posted by aecorwin at 2:47 PM on December 2, 2015

If you don't have a plan, donate them to a local museum, school, etc. They can be really useful still to places without the budget to buy latest-generation stuff, and sometimes they just want devices to play atmospheric music on.
posted by Miko at 8:40 PM on December 2, 2015 [1 favorite]

Old iPod Nanos are great to keep in the car with some music or podcasts on them. I have a couple for my car, one at work so i don't have to deal with filling up my phone. Or throw them on ebay That's where I get mine. I love that they are nice simple machines. (sorry, this is still just an answer to 'use them.') Can you put any games on the nano? Or does it have some games on it already?
posted by hydra77 at 9:18 PM on December 2, 2015

Response by poster: Okay, music player it was, and music player it will remain.
posted by BlahLaLa at 12:25 PM on January 1, 2016