iPod iPod Classic Update?

NoNoise · Dec 21, 2012

My 4.5 year-old iPod Classic hard drive died yesterday.

I have been doing research to see when Apple could possibly release another iPod Classic update. However, it's a little hard to tell. Are all the iPod updates done in October now? Is waiting til March senseless, because Apple doesn't do iPod updates before October?

On the Buyer's Guide, it says "Don't buy" for the iPod Classic, "Updates Soon." Is that just because the iPod Classic is so old, that it's not advised to buy one, now, or is there really rumors of an update next year? And, if so, will it be before October (because I don't want to wait until October)?

I was thinking of trying to put a SSD in my iPod Classic as in this thread and this thread, since a 128gb SSD can be had for about $140 shipped. However, I'm wondering if it would just be better to get a 7th Gen iPod Classic for $100 more to get all new components (click-wheel, logic board, et cetera).

Thoughts? Any help, guidance, or iPod Classic rumors are welcome!

JoEw · Dec 21, 2012

An iPod Classic with an SSD sounds like the perfect ipod high capacity + virtually no chance of it failing (due to storage) anyway.

I say upgrade to SSD so long as all the components click wheel and screen still are in good shape

NoNoise · Dec 21, 2012

Thanks for the reply!

The SSD would probably be a bit faster, but it definitely wouldn't be higher capacity, since anything over 128gb is much more expensive than a new 160gb Classic. So, buying the SSD would actually give me less space (though still enough for my collection, which is about 120gb...and I could trim it down a bit more).

The main benefit is that the SSD would probably last longer. To be honest, though, I'm not even sure that matters so much to me. If my next Classic lasted 4+ years (as this last one did), I'd be happy.

Mostly, it just sucks that I'm basically buying the same piece of tech 4.5 years later. When I bought my first Classic, I just assumed that, by the time it died, I'd be buying something much more improved...

So, in conclusion, I'm actually leaning towards buying a new Classic... The only thing that scares me is that I could buy a new one now and kick myself if Apple releases an update in March/April. I'm not sure that's so likely, though...

NoNoise · Dec 22, 2012

I ordered a 7th Gen Classic from Amazon for $230... I figured it was too good of a deal to pass up, especially because I had some gift cards. If Apple releases an update to the Classic this October or next October, I'll consider buying it a couple years from now, if the update is worth it.

SnowLeopard OSX · Dec 22, 2012

NoNoise said:
My 4.5 year-old iPod Classic hard drive died yesterday.

I have been doing research to see when Apple could possibly release another iPod Classic update. However, it's a little hard to tell. Are all the iPod updates done in October now? Is waiting til March senseless, because Apple doesn't do iPod updates before October?

On the Buyer's Guide, it says "Don't buy" for the iPod Classic, "Updates Soon." Is that just because the iPod Classic is so old, that it's not advised to buy one, now, or is there really rumors of an update next year? And, if so, will it be before October (because I don't want to wait until October)?

I was thinking of trying to put a SSD in my iPod Classic as in this thread and this thread, since a 128gb SSD can be had for about $140 shipped. However, I'm wondering if it would just be better to get a 7th Gen iPod Classic for $100 more to get all new components (click-wheel, logic board, et cetera).

Thoughts? Any help, guidance, or iPod Classic rumors are welcome!

Sorry to hear! Out of curiosity, what gen iPod classic did you have? Also, how did the hard drive die out on you?

Beeplance · Dec 22, 2012

NoNoise said:
I ordered a 7th Gen Classic from Amazon for $230... I figured it was too good of a deal to pass up, especially because I had some gift cards. If Apple releases an update to the Classic this October or next October, I'll consider buying it a couple years from now, if the update is worth it.

There is no 7th generation iPod Classic, only the 6th generation.

Look here for the history of the iPod Classic lineup: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod_Classic

SnowLeopard OSX · Dec 22, 2012

Does anyone expect Apple to continue releasing iPods in the classic line? They've essentially been cannibalized by products like the iPhone and iPod touch. The last generation was released in 2007 (excluding the revisions).. that's a long time ago.

Bear · Dec 22, 2012

SnowLeopard OSX said:
Does anyone expect Apple to continue releasing iPods in the classic line? They've essentially been cannibalized by products like the iPhone and iPod touch. The last generation was released in 2007 (excluding the revisions).. that's a long time ago.

As long as they're selling enough to keep a manufacturing line tooled for it, they will keep selling it is my guess. Well as long as they can continue getting parts (like the disk) for it.

Although I could also see them dropping the classic when they get the iPod Touch to 256GB.

NoNoise · Dec 23, 2012

SnowLeopard OSX said:
Sorry to hear! Out of curiosity, what gen iPod classic did you have? Also, how did the hard drive die out on you?

I believe it is 6th generation, because I bought it in early 2008. The hard drive started making more and more noise, and my music would stop for a second and then start again, every once in a while, almost like the music was buffering.

Then, four days ago, it stopped syncing to iTunes. I thought it was something with iTunes, but a day later, iTunes said the iPod needed to be restored. I tried to do that, but it just deleted all my music, leaving my podcasts and not syncing anything new. The next day, I tried to restore again, and my iPod deleted everything, but iTunes was still giving errors and saying it needed to be restored. I kept trying and kept getting errors. Now, the iPod won't even boot. It just stays on the Apple logo and keeps making a clicking sound, blacking out the screen, and going back to the Apple logo.

I tried formatting the hard drive, but every program I try (DOS, HP Hard Drive Tool, EaseUS) gives errors, even when iPod is in Disk Mode.

Beeplance said:
There is no 7th generation iPod Classic, only the 6th generation.

Look here for the history of the iPod Classic lineup: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod_Classic

Ah, I see. I guess I just bought the 6.5 then.

Amazon is wrong.

Bear said:
As long as they're selling enough to keep a manufacturing line tooled for it, they will keep selling it is my guess. Well as long as they can continue getting parts (like the disk) for it.

Although I could also see them dropping the classic when they get the iPod Touch to 256GB.

I could see Apple discontinuing the Classics, when they feel they Streaming technology has progressed enough.

At this point, I honestly don't think Apple is interested in making an iPod with even 128GB of SSD/flash storage...unless it gets to be super cheap (i.e. 128GB is so easy to get and common, that manufacturing 64GB is a waste of time/money).

However, I think they are completely fine with the iPod Touch and iPhone with 64GB of storage and streaming capabilities. With services like Spotify, I think less and less people are going to have music collections more than 64GB. iTunes 11 allows users to stream their previous iTunes purchases, supposedly (I haven't tried it).

I think those of us with large, personal collections are a dying breed.

If Apple releases a new iPod Classic in the next couple years with a SSD and other improvements, I'll buy it. If they don't, I'll probably just install a SSD in a couple years to my 6.5 Gen.

Then, we'll just have to see what happens in another 4-5 years...

Goratrix · Dec 24, 2012

NoNoise said:
I think those of us with large, personal collections are a dying breed.

If Apple releases a new iPod Classic in the next couple years with a SSD and other improvements, I'll buy it. If they don't, I'll probably just install a SSD in a couple years to my 6.5 Gen.

Then, we'll just have to see what happens in another 4-5 years...

I've been thinking about this a lot recently, as I'm completely addicted to having my whole collection portable on a Classic, and it's pretty clear that there is very little motivation for the manufacturers to build high-capacity music players...

I think the way forward will be memory cards. While there is little demand for high capacity just for music, there is, and always will be very high demand for cameras, either photo or video. This demand will drive development of large-capacity memory cards, and then it will be trivial to build a player that supports them. There are 256 GB SDXC available today (albeit expensive), and it should take only a simple update for player manufacturers to support those. In a year or two, there will be devices like the Sandisk Clip Zip with full SDXC support, and then you can have a iPod Nano-sized device with 256 GB or more. However, I don't expect Apple to be a part of this, as they are clearly opposed to poeple owning large collections of music at this point.

Untethered · Dec 24, 2012

Needless to say!

Get one now, plus, if a new one comes out smash your old one, because it has a one year warranty, and they'll most likely give you the new one.

-=================-
Haiku is easy
Sometimes it doesn't make sense
Refridgerator
-=================-

NoNoise · Dec 24, 2012

Goratrix said:
I've been thinking about this a lot recently, as I'm completely addicted to having my whole collection portable on a Classic, and it's pretty clear that there is very little motivation for the manufacturers to build high-capacity music players...

I think the way forward will be memory cards. While there is little demand for high capacity just for music, there is, and always will be very high demand for cameras, either photo or video. This demand will drive development of large-capacity memory cards, and then it will be trivial to build a player that supports them. There are 256 GB SDXC available today (albeit expensive), and it should take only a simple update for player manufacturers to support those. In a year or two, there will be devices like the Sandisk Clip Zip with full SDXC support, and then you can have a iPod Nano-sized device with 256 GB or more. However, I don't expect Apple to be a part of this, as they are clearly opposed to poeple owning large collections of music at this point.

The problem with that is that flash memory is slow. That is why we have SSDs instead do flash memory for our computer storage. Maybe they can work that out with software. I am honestly not sure. Right now, though, flash is not the answer.

JJorTech · Dec 25, 2012

In my opinion, the IPod classic needs to be updated but not in a great way. People who have ipod classic know that sleek design is not what they want. They want high-capacity storage to listen to their music (all of their music) wherever they are. That's the magic of it. And it's perfect

----------

I think they should add the lightning to USB just for the heck of it. Since all the other devices have, why shouldn't the classic?? Besides its a lot more comfortable since its reversible. And the iPod classic users know how much they use the 30 pin to add music. It's a lot more comfortable, faster and easier to carry around. They should really implement it

Goratrix · Dec 25, 2012

NoNoise said:
The problem with that is that flash memory is slow. That is why we have SSDs instead do flash memory for our computer storage. Maybe they can work that out with software. I am honestly not sure. Right now, though, flash is not the answer.

It's fast enough for music playback, and all players are pre-caching songs anyway.

superstarmc · Dec 26, 2012

I'm thinking about getting a new on today to replace my 2005.

wharzhee · Dec 30, 2012

-deleted- wrong place

ttmars22 · Jan 2, 2013

Why?

Does anyone know why they won't/have waited so long to update the classic. Personally I think it would be nice if they added bluetooth, air play, lightning connector, gave you earpods instead of the crappy normal ones. There's probably more good updates/reasons but I can't think of anymore now. I really want to get a classic cause my music library just passed 30 GB and I don't want to spend the money on a 64 iPod Touch. Any thoughts?

Anonymous Freak · Jan 2, 2013

ttmars22 said:
Does anyone know why they won't/have waited so long to update the classic.

Only Apple leadership knows.

ttmars22 said:
I really want to get a classic cause my music library just passed 30 GB and I don't want to spend the money on a 64 iPod Touch. Any thoughts?

Do you *NEED* your entire library available offline at all times? 30 GB is 90 hours of LOSSLESS audio, nearly 11 days of 256 kbps audio.

And unless you play the audio from your iDevice to high-quality speakers, you could even double that and choose "Convert higher bit rate songs to 128 kbps AAC" for syncing. (Obviously, if you DO listen over high quality speakers, you want maximum quality - but if all you ever do is listen while jogging, I don't care how good your in-ear headphones are, the background noise will make it hard for you to hear any better than 128 kbps AAC.)

Smellmet · Jan 3, 2013

Anonymous Freak said:
Only Apple leadership knows.

Do you *NEED* your entire library available offline at all times? 30 GB is 90 hours of LOSSLESS audio, nearly 11 days of 256 kbps audio.

And unless you play the audio from your iDevice to high-quality speakers, you could even double that and choose "Convert higher bit rate songs to 128 kbps AAC" for syncing. (Obviously, if you DO listen over high quality speakers, you want maximum quality - but if all you ever do is listen while jogging, I don't care how good your in-ear headphones are, the background noise will make it hard for you to hear any better than 128 kbps AAC.)

It's not so much a question of need, most of the products/apps that are discussed on this forum we don't need but we most definitely want.

For the record, I want to have all my library with me at all times - I do a lot of driving, sometimes to other countries, and I take my laptop to a lot of other peoples houses for parties etc where I can't always get a connection, thats before I even consider paying Apple for the privilege of storing my music in the Cloud.

Keeping my music with me and not online is paramount to me at the moment

Anonymous Freak · Jan 3, 2013

Smellmett said:
It's not so much a question of need, most of the products/apps that are discussed on this forum we don't need but we most definitely want.

For the record, I want to have all my library with me at all times - I do a lot of driving, sometimes to other countries, and I take my laptop to a lot of other peoples houses for parties etc where I can't always get a connection, thats before I even consider paying Apple for the privilege of storing my music in the Cloud.

Keeping my music with me and not online is paramount to me at the moment

Sounds like you have one of the more legitimate uses for the classic, then!

All I can say is - don't count on an update in the immediate future.

jrswizzle · Jan 3, 2013

I've been thinking about this recently as well - my now 5 year old classic is beat to hell. Dents, scratches, it's died twice from heat but come back both times....the thing is awesome, but there are a couple reasons I'd like a new one

1) Mine is the 80 GB version - my music is quickly growing past that.
2) I have no idea when it'll go out for good.

I've got a b-day coming up in a couple months - told the wife I'd like a new black one because I doubt they'll be updating it ever. I have all my music on iTunes match and can stream from my phone, but I like to have my iPod plugged in in the car as my primary music device - and to be honest, I love the design and feel!

BornAgainMac · Jan 3, 2013

I would just upgrade. Based on past Apple products, when a product doesn't get updated for a long time, it finally gets dropped due to lack of sales. It is a shame the price isn't less than when it originally launched.

getclear · Jan 3, 2013

iPod Classic- questions

I also have an ipod classic. Mine is about 7+ years old and seems to work perfectly.

Is there any ongoing effort to encourage Apple to update the classic? The nano is too small to use (mine is in my car). I know, bluetooth, etc. but for humor sake, I was recently in a traffic court where the defendant was attempting to describe to the judge, that he wasn't talking on his iPhone, which was bluetoothed to his car, but he was trying to figure out why his new iPod Touch was broadcasting audio not only from his radio but also from the Touch.

I wanted to be an expert witness for the guy to explain that what he was describing was correct and that the touch looks just like an iPhone.

My point? hard wired has its benefits.

Smellmet · Jan 4, 2013

Anonymous Freak said:
All I can say is - don't count on an update in the immediate future.

Don't worry I'm not expecting one, gonna get myself a 160GB one this year to supplement my 80GB.

Just one question - if you had an itunes library that you've spent over 7 years perfecting - every year, album & star rating filled in, sorted into 60+ playlists - would you throw away the backup you've got of it once its loaded into the cloud? Because I know I wouldn't, so whats the point of using it when you're always going to have the physical files stored with you?

weckart · Jan 4, 2013

The least Apple could do is to up the capacity to 240GB as several modders have done with the Toshiba drive available on eBay.

iPod iPod Classic Update?

macrumors newbie

macrumors 68000

macrumors newbie

macrumors newbie

macrumors 6502a

macrumors 68000

macrumors 6502a

macrumors G3

macrumors newbie

macrumors regular

macrumors newbie

macrumors newbie

macrumors newbie

macrumors regular

macrumors regular

macrumors 6502

macrumors newbie

macrumors 603

macrumors 6502

macrumors 603

macrumors 603

macrumors 604

macrumors newbie

macrumors 6502

macrumors 603

Our Staff