Yes, the MBAs won’t like it. But maybe, once in a while, companies should do things because they are cool and not because it clears some threshold on a magic spreadsheet.
I’d even settle for Apple opening up the Music app so I can upload music to my iPhone from Linux. But once again, that doesn’t make the spreadsheet sparkle.
You might be surprised. Companies like HiBy have a rather healthy music player lineup[0], where "fewer distractions" is an explicit marketing point.
Similarly, despite rather capable smartphones being available for as little as $100, the "feature phone" market is still doing quite well - and it definitely isn't just the grannies who are buying them!
Steve Jobs famously launched the smartphone industry as "We are launching three things: an iPod, a phone, and an internet communicator. These are not three separate devices. It is one device, and we are calling it iPhone." Not having to carry a whole bunch of separate devices on a day-to-day basis was groundbreaking, and it was immediately clear that the synergy between the until-now separate features would open up a lot of new possibilities.
But since then the smartphone has mutated from a device of convenience into a grotesque attention-stealing privacy-invading Everything Device, which is used primarily as a proxy through which companies are doing massive harm to our society. For many people smartphones have become a necessary evil, and an increasingly-large group (many of whom Gen Z or Gen Alpha!) is deliberately refusing them out of self-preservation.
Sure, the market for a modern iPod refresh might not be gigantic, but I reckon it is definitely larger than the market for Apple Vision, or Meta's pervert glasses. The demand exists, the question is just whether it is large enough for Apple to care - especially when it means undermining their own golden goose app ecosystem.
That would at the very least have to have Bluetooth (and at that point they might as well add wifi, since that is more or less the same modem).
That would make a damn nice 149$ apple music machine, slap some stripped down firmware on it, so they can argue why it only supports apple music streaming.
I'm low-key disappointed this article didn't end like the one from the good old Uncyclopedia.
The author described in details how to attach a 500GB IDE drive to an original ipod, with all the required schematics, process to open the device, where to solder, etc, everything. It was the first article I ever read on Uncyclopedia, so I wasn't expecting the kicker: a photo of the modded ipod, hold together with elastic bands and a graph comparing playing time: from 8 hours to 12 seconds, or something like that. Boy, that was a good laugh.
The iPod nano 3rd generation holds a special place in my heart, i was about 14 when my mom bought me one as a birthday gift and i still cherish it till today where I charge it maybe once a year and listen to my (very curated) metal catalogue from back in the day... it was the only ipod i ever had or needed
It obviously can't hold a charge anymore and every time i reach for it i'm praying it still works
Now this is HACKER news! Kudos to the author! Well done.
The NOP thing was predictable. Qemu is not great at limiting itself to actual requested emulated hardware, often allowing supersets of instruction sets and abilities.
Apple should really do a 25th anniversary edition iPod with a scroll wheel, modernized battery, and modernized storage.
Do some nice nostalgia marketing for the zoomers and people that had one back in the day and it would sell like hotcakes.
Not sure it'd work without also bringing back the old iTunes... and that would probably be problematic business wise.
The Music app still works with iPods, but only for songs you own
They'd sell hundreds of units! Thousands even.
Although I can see them selling an original 2007 iPhone Anniversary Edition, fully upgraded under the hood and with a modern screen/camera/wifi/5G
But I'm only saying that because I don't like giant phones: I'm in the 2% minority.
Yes, the MBAs won’t like it. But maybe, once in a while, companies should do things because they are cool and not because it clears some threshold on a magic spreadsheet.
I’d even settle for Apple opening up the Music app so I can upload music to my iPhone from Linux. But once again, that doesn’t make the spreadsheet sparkle.
1 reply →
You might be surprised. Companies like HiBy have a rather healthy music player lineup[0], where "fewer distractions" is an explicit marketing point. Similarly, despite rather capable smartphones being available for as little as $100, the "feature phone" market is still doing quite well - and it definitely isn't just the grannies who are buying them!
Steve Jobs famously launched the smartphone industry as "We are launching three things: an iPod, a phone, and an internet communicator. These are not three separate devices. It is one device, and we are calling it iPhone." Not having to carry a whole bunch of separate devices on a day-to-day basis was groundbreaking, and it was immediately clear that the synergy between the until-now separate features would open up a lot of new possibilities.
But since then the smartphone has mutated from a device of convenience into a grotesque attention-stealing privacy-invading Everything Device, which is used primarily as a proxy through which companies are doing massive harm to our society. For many people smartphones have become a necessary evil, and an increasingly-large group (many of whom Gen Z or Gen Alpha!) is deliberately refusing them out of self-preservation.
Sure, the market for a modern iPod refresh might not be gigantic, but I reckon it is definitely larger than the market for Apple Vision, or Meta's pervert glasses. The demand exists, the question is just whether it is large enough for Apple to care - especially when it means undermining their own golden goose app ecosystem.
[0]: https://store.hiby.com/collections/music-player
That would at the very least have to have Bluetooth (and at that point they might as well add wifi, since that is more or less the same modem).
That would make a damn nice 149$ apple music machine, slap some stripped down firmware on it, so they can argue why it only supports apple music streaming.
That price may be wishful thinking. Aren’t even their base ear buds $130?
1 reply →
FWIW, the last-gen iPod Nano had Bluetooth already.
Best they can do is larger but thinner device, with large extrusion, and obviously 8GB of RAM.
Apple is in the ad and subscription business now, so either it'll sell for 899, it'll be covered in add, or it won't sell at all.
I'm low-key disappointed this article didn't end like the one from the good old Uncyclopedia.
The author described in details how to attach a 500GB IDE drive to an original ipod, with all the required schematics, process to open the device, where to solder, etc, everything. It was the first article I ever read on Uncyclopedia, so I wasn't expecting the kicker: a photo of the modded ipod, hold together with elastic bands and a graph comparing playing time: from 8 hours to 12 seconds, or something like that. Boy, that was a good laugh.
Edit: I can't open the original article, but it seems it was an iPod nano and a 200GB hard drive: https://uncyclopedia.com/wiki/IPod_Nano_200gb_Instructions.
The iPod nano 3rd generation holds a special place in my heart, i was about 14 when my mom bought me one as a birthday gift and i still cherish it till today where I charge it maybe once a year and listen to my (very curated) metal catalogue from back in the day... it was the only ipod i ever had or needed
It obviously can't hold a charge anymore and every time i reach for it i'm praying it still works
awe, my dad brought me one back from a conference trip to the US. was so proud of that thing
Now this is HACKER news! Kudos to the author! Well done.
The NOP thing was predictable. Qemu is not great at limiting itself to actual requested emulated hardware, often allowing supersets of instruction sets and abilities.
And NAND....is always unnecessarily exciting.
Congratulations on figuring out the NAND upgrade! I tried soldering another flash chip onto the Nano 1G, but gave up when it didn’t detect:
https://peterburk.github.io/blog/