How to iPod in 2023?
January 18, 2023 10:30 AM Subscribe
Apple has discontinued the iPod. Can I still make use of an ipod from ebay? Ideally i would just use it as a dedicated device for audiobooks and spotify in a dark bedroom at night.
Realistically, how long can i expect to have access to ipod technology if I get an old one now? What is the best model to ensure the lengthiest-possible access?
I agree that an old iPhone is probably a better bet, but will note that I have babied along a classic iPod for years now because I used it to play music in my car. I had the battery replaced once, and its charge still isn't the best ever, but it is ticking along and works alright for plugged into the car's USB port purposes. I've switched to just using my iPhone now though because it's more convenient in terms of syncing.
However, you say you want to use it for Spotify. The iPod Classics do not have Wifi capability; the iPod Touch does. Short of some hacky workarounds, I don't think you can get Spotify music offline onto an iPod Classic, there are DRM issues involved. So again, for this specific use, you would want an old iPod Touch (though I'm honestly not sure if one will support the Spotify app), and if you're going to the trouble to find one of those, you might as well just get an old iPhone, which will also be more likely to have a sufficiently updated iOS to run the Spotify app. You might even know someone who has an old iPhone gathering dust in a drawer, so you could get it for free.
posted by yasaman at 10:58 AM on January 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
However, you say you want to use it for Spotify. The iPod Classics do not have Wifi capability; the iPod Touch does. Short of some hacky workarounds, I don't think you can get Spotify music offline onto an iPod Classic, there are DRM issues involved. So again, for this specific use, you would want an old iPod Touch (though I'm honestly not sure if one will support the Spotify app), and if you're going to the trouble to find one of those, you might as well just get an old iPhone, which will also be more likely to have a sufficiently updated iOS to run the Spotify app. You might even know someone who has an old iPhone gathering dust in a drawer, so you could get it for free.
posted by yasaman at 10:58 AM on January 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
You can use an iPod from eBay to play audio files (I believe .mp3, .aac/.m4a, .wav, Audible, Apple lossless, probably some I'm forgetting)--most people who do that use iTunes software on a PC or Mac to load files onto them. The current version of iTunes works just fine for this, but don't install any new versions until you verify they have this capability.
(There are other ways to do this, but they're mostly at least a little bit kludgy and probably won't be supported forever.)
An older iPod can also be made to run the open-source Rockbox firmware, which has some advantages (support for some other filetypes, no iTunes requirement, seems to do better with very large drives/databases) and disadvantages (UI is an acquired taste, getting it working is more fiddly).
If you're looking for an iPod on eBay, you'll find a lot of them with new batteries, and some of them with SSD upgrades--both of these are probably a good idea if you want this to work as long as possible--this old comment has a tiny bit more information about that.
If my priority was longevity, I'd probably look for an iPod Classic from the 5th or 6th generation. There's at least some demand for these, so, for the time being at least, you'll have availability for replacement batteries. I'd be tempted to go with a Shuffle, because it has fewer moving parts and no screen, but experience suggests that, provided an iPod isn't physically damaged and doesn't contain a spinning-disk drive, the battery will most likely be the thing to go first.
As noted above, though, iPods won't do Spotify. And as others have said, there's a good chance that looking for a forever iPod might be an outdated solution--for many people's use cases, you might be better off with an occasionally-replaced series of old phones.
posted by box at 11:54 AM on January 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
(There are other ways to do this, but they're mostly at least a little bit kludgy and probably won't be supported forever.)
An older iPod can also be made to run the open-source Rockbox firmware, which has some advantages (support for some other filetypes, no iTunes requirement, seems to do better with very large drives/databases) and disadvantages (UI is an acquired taste, getting it working is more fiddly).
If you're looking for an iPod on eBay, you'll find a lot of them with new batteries, and some of them with SSD upgrades--both of these are probably a good idea if you want this to work as long as possible--this old comment has a tiny bit more information about that.
If my priority was longevity, I'd probably look for an iPod Classic from the 5th or 6th generation. There's at least some demand for these, so, for the time being at least, you'll have availability for replacement batteries. I'd be tempted to go with a Shuffle, because it has fewer moving parts and no screen, but experience suggests that, provided an iPod isn't physically damaged and doesn't contain a spinning-disk drive, the battery will most likely be the thing to go first.
As noted above, though, iPods won't do Spotify. And as others have said, there's a good chance that looking for a forever iPod might be an outdated solution--for many people's use cases, you might be better off with an occasionally-replaced series of old phones.
posted by box at 11:54 AM on January 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
If you're asking about software/itunes - your ipod doesn't ever need to touch the internet, let alone itunes.
Drop a copy of sharepod onto there (you can open ipods as USB storage devices). You can then drag and drop mp3 files to sharepod to load them onto the ipod.
If you're asking about hardware support/repairs then I'm afraid I couldn't say.
posted by Lorc at 1:37 PM on January 18, 2023
Drop a copy of sharepod onto there (you can open ipods as USB storage devices). You can then drag and drop mp3 files to sharepod to load them onto the ipod.
If you're asking about hardware support/repairs then I'm afraid I couldn't say.
posted by Lorc at 1:37 PM on January 18, 2023
I bought a "refurbished" iPod Classic with a new drive and battery off ebay a while back for around $150. When it came it was clear it was knock-off hardware - but it does appear to be a genuine iPod board inside and controller, because it works just like the old ones. Feels cheaper though.
I would say unless you have a very compelling reason to specifically want an iPod, go with one of the other devices. An old phone will do everything the iPod does and more; you could probably even load up an e-reader with audiobooks. I keep a handful around for this reason, especially with headphone jacks.
I'd look up a phone like an iPhone SE 2nd gen (this is the phone I actually use) because it runs the current version of iOS, syncs with every app and service, and will be supported for at least a few more years before you have to do anything different like sideload audio files on it.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 2:11 PM on January 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
I would say unless you have a very compelling reason to specifically want an iPod, go with one of the other devices. An old phone will do everything the iPod does and more; you could probably even load up an e-reader with audiobooks. I keep a handful around for this reason, especially with headphone jacks.
I'd look up a phone like an iPhone SE 2nd gen (this is the phone I actually use) because it runs the current version of iOS, syncs with every app and service, and will be supported for at least a few more years before you have to do anything different like sideload audio files on it.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 2:11 PM on January 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
My iPod nano from 2009 still works fine but now I use MediaMonkey to maintain its contents since the laptop I initially loaded it up with is history and I wanted to divorce myself from iTunes.
posted by Rash at 3:29 PM on January 18, 2023
posted by Rash at 3:29 PM on January 18, 2023
I have an iPod Touch from 2014 or thereabouts that I use as a music player; it's the last iThing that I installed by plugging it into iTunes on my laptop, and it's therefore the last iThing that has my pre-Apple music library on it. I keep it plugged into power all the time, because the battery is absolutely shot.
It has become very very slow. I can still connect it to the iTunes Store to download newly bought albums, but it takes a very long time and involves typing in my iTunes password repeatedly (the device is too old for fingerprint recognition). And it's very unnerving to do so, because iOS 9 doesn't exactly get the latest security patches. For that reason, I keep the device mostly off the internet, which rules out using Spotify.
The latest and final iPod Touch is the seventh generation, which came out in 2019... and it doesn't support iOS 16, the current version of iOS. So it's already a step behind. (This is actually good news if you like the Apple Books app for your e-reading, because they did something terrible to the reading experience in iOS 16, but I digress.) They are still issuing security patches for iOS 15; looking at support history for older versions of iOS, I would guess they'll continue to do so for four years from the date iOS 16 was released. Which gives you till 2026 or so.
I wouldn't recommend getting an older iPod Touch, because the older models run iOS versions that are no longer receiving security patches. But even with that 2019 model, I imagine you'd be where I am in well under a decade.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 5:13 AM on January 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
It has become very very slow. I can still connect it to the iTunes Store to download newly bought albums, but it takes a very long time and involves typing in my iTunes password repeatedly (the device is too old for fingerprint recognition). And it's very unnerving to do so, because iOS 9 doesn't exactly get the latest security patches. For that reason, I keep the device mostly off the internet, which rules out using Spotify.
The latest and final iPod Touch is the seventh generation, which came out in 2019... and it doesn't support iOS 16, the current version of iOS. So it's already a step behind. (This is actually good news if you like the Apple Books app for your e-reading, because they did something terrible to the reading experience in iOS 16, but I digress.) They are still issuing security patches for iOS 15; looking at support history for older versions of iOS, I would guess they'll continue to do so for four years from the date iOS 16 was released. Which gives you till 2026 or so.
I wouldn't recommend getting an older iPod Touch, because the older models run iOS versions that are no longer receiving security patches. But even with that 2019 model, I imagine you'd be where I am in well under a decade.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 5:13 AM on January 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
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posted by misanthropicsarah at 10:48 AM on January 18, 2023 [3 favorites]