Apple Discontinues iPod Nano and iPod Shuffle

[fluamsler]

My first Apple device was around 2004 a iPod fourth generation (20GB). After a while the battery died and I've bought the iPod U2 edition with 30GB storage.
Sometimes I was carrying it in this yellow rain coat which I wear on my avatar (this picture is about 10 years old). I really liked the simple synchronization via iTunes on my Toshiba laptop. My iPod was in my pocket like my keychain and my Sony Ericsson w810i. A black headphone around my neck was part of my fashion outfit!

Of course today we can stream our music in high quality or transcode the FLAC files from a Synology NAS to our streaming device or listen to Spotify on our smartphones but this was unthinkable back in the mid 2000s.

Thank you iPod for hundreds of songs in my pocket. It was a fantastic time and I'm glad for all the music through the day. The music helped me a lot: between breaks in trade school, before tests or on my way to school and back or in sad days after conflicts with teachers and other persons or just in my free time.

R.I.P. buddy!

 

[steve333]

I think this is very depressing news for all of us who stay away from wireless devices. I have an iPod Classic and when it dies WTF am I supposed to do?
Up yours Apple

 

[Abazigal]

I think this is very depressing news for all of us who stay away from wireless devices. I have an iPod Classic and when it dies WTF am I supposed to do?
Up yours Apple

You adapt and move on. Same as the rest of humanity has always done.

 

[SusanK]

I think this is very depressing news for all of us who stay away from wireless devices. I have an iPod Classic and when it dies WTF am I supposed to do?
Up yours Apple

I used this service for a 3rd Generation iPod. Very satisfied.

https://www.iresq.com/ipod-repair/ipod-classic.html

 

[OS X Dude]

As someone who has always loved music, studied it and now makes it, this is sad news; just 10 years ago I'd dig through my parents' CD collection for that one track that suddenly popped into my head, find it, stick it into iTunes and listen to it on my iPod at school. So many tracks still in heavy rotation for me are from that period, and likely always will be. Since Apple Music (and Spotify before it), I've had far less call to do that unless it was a specific live version not available anywhere else.

I still have my first iPod (an engraved 20GB G4 for my 13th birthday, the first with controls on the Click Wheel. I'd wanted one for so long!) and it still works, although the battery is predictably poor. Many, many happy memories of using it daily and its effect on the industry - good and ill - cannot be overstated. I remember the iPod's dominance in the mid-2000s: everyone thought it'd live forever and nothing could topple it, and if you were the first with the new model you'd be the coolest kid in school. Still, Apple have gone on record on how they don't mind cannibalising their own products, which makes sense.

My mum's first iPod was the original G1 Nano, and when I first saw it I was blown away by its size and display quality. A few months ago, we exchanged it for the current model under the battery recall and, as I took it out of the drawer, it hit me all over again... it truly was one of the most beautiful music devices ever made. Less beautiful were my recollections of managing her immense iTunes library (all imported from CDs by yours truly on an HP 7921 with a terribly slow disc drive ) and shuffling tracks around on its 1GB memory. I definitely remember wishing she'd upgrade to a HDD model at the time! Now even she's been won over by Apple Music and is hankering for a HomePod on my staff discount this Christmas. Along with auto-Shazam importing, it's just so much more convenient and pumps money back into the industry (artist royalty issues with the majors not withstanding... but that's another argument entirely). Even she was a little sad the final true iPods have died. Just need to find my dad's Product(RED) 4GB G2 Nano now!

I've gone on for long enough without intending to... nostalgia is a powerful thing and this was absolutely the Walkman of my generation - it's funny how one device can really define a childhood!

 

[Ipod Collector 2]

Welp, thanks a lot, MacRumors. Now this happened…

View attachment 710406

I've always found the first generation Nano to be the prettiest thing Apple has produced, so I thought I might as well pick one up.

Well I still have almost 200 1st gen nanos in 100% working condition that I got my hands on back in the day
to turn in for the recall. I think I turned in around 800 of them for the recall/exchange program and kept all
the really nice cosmetic condition nano's I gathered up. Then apple cancelled the recall program on them..
which left me with 200 of them that I couldn't turn in. I said I promised that I would do something really
cool with them... just haven't figured out exactly what "cool" thing I could do with them. Any ideas anybody?

 

[Bart Kela]

I think this is very depressing news for all of us who stay away from wireless devices. I have an iPod Classic and when it dies WTF am I supposed to do?
Up yours Apple

You have several options.

You can buy a different manufacturer's device.

You can buy an iPod touch and leave it in airplane mode. That's what I do. You are not required to use any of the wireless features.

Or you can start using your smartphone as a music player even opting for streaming services if that works for your music listening style.

The world moves on. Apple is moving on.

Your choice whether you will move on.

 

[Ipod Collector 2]

________________________
Second bad move...first..opening plant in Wisconsin, then discontinue of ipod shuffle.....try putting a iPod touch is your shorts while you exercise.....

Ha! Ok, you left the door WIDE OPEN. I already have something big that I keep in my shorts while I exercise !!! )

(no homo)
[doublepost=1501428642][/doublepost]Check it out ya'll. I'm still a bit of an ipod collector. I have my bookmarks in place where I go on ebay and look up brand new factory sealed ipods, newly listed, buy it now auctions. I was checking out some listings just a moment when I saw that the auctions for shuffles was hitting over $55. I was like wth? Which in turn made me go to google to see if they (Apple) had announced that they discontinued them or something... and sure enough.. my intuitions are so on point sometimes, mostly when I don't need them to be. And the "bad" news just solidified my intuitions.... The end of one of the greatest technological advancements as far as a portable music player had just arrived.

I still use my modded G5 80gb motherboard classic with a 128gb Samsung SSD almost daily still, where it mostly sits
on top of my Apple Hi-Fi speaker. I got about 14K songs loaded on it with another 57gb's of free space....

So anyhoo... I now have 590 ipods of various models, generations, memory sizes and colors that are all factory
sealed in their original respective packaging that they came in. I'm now down to about 20 more I want to get
my hands on still but they are the most rarest out there. Just this past week I did make a nice score by a gent
on ebay that listed a 3rd gen "stainless steel" 4gb shuffle, factory sealed in it's plastic container, and scooped
it up for $153, shipped. It just arrived yesterday. I already had one but it needed a brother, and for $153, it
was a no brainer to scoop it right up. The seller even had a best offer option on it, which I opted out to just
buy it for the $150 buy it now price ($3 shipping). I have one other score I made on ebay. A red (special edition)
8GB 2nd gen nano, factory sealed in box, $230. The seller originally had it listed for $599 or best offer. He didn't
get any bites with it that high, then placed it up for auction. I scooped her up Check out pics...
[doublepost=1501429418][/doublepost]

I think this is very depressing news for all of us who stay away from wireless devices. I have an iPod Classic and when it dies WTF am I supposed to do?
Up yours Apple

Steve, what you can do is get with someone like me, where I can bring your classic back to life, whether it be a new
battery or if you really want to get creative with it I can mod it where we scrap the original hard drive for a solid state drive (ssd) and a high capacity battery. No moving parts inside for hard drive to crash, and I have some classics I modded with a 256gb Samsung SSD and a 2,000mah high capacity battery. I tested this battery in this set-up and it played continuously in shuffle mode on 2/3 volume for over 100 hours straight on a single charge before battery died!

Here's some pics for you to check out if you'd like. This is a 7th gen classic, originally 160gb model, modded in a 6th gen housing (thick housing to accompany the high capacity battery) it's paired to a 256gb samsung SSD and a Tarken iFlash SSD adapter card, which is completely plug-n-play. Install adapter card, ssd drive and new battery, hook classic up to itunes, perform a restore on it... and wa-la! Done deal, you now have a classic ipod capable of easily holding the max of 25K songs in the palm of your hands with a battery that can go over 100 hours before it needs another charge.

The clearview classic is my personal ipod that I still use daily. It's an original 5th gen classic 80gb motherboard model,
(64mb ram) that I have paired with a samsung 128gb ssd and a 900mah battery in a slim 30gb 5th gen housing.
I have around 13k tracks loaded onto it with 57gb's of free memory remaining.

 

[Ipod Collector 2]

And now, needless to say, as a sign of the times we live in today, I've now moved on to modding the housings on iphones to different colors. I know this is the wrong category for posting pics of iphones but just wanted to share
a couple pics of some of my finished works. Sorry if this post offends anybody for being posted in this category...

But just showing how we move on whether we want to or not, whether by force or not... but.... there will always
be people like me that will still use my ipod into the future no matter what apple throws our way... that is as long
as a 3rd party company still produces batteries for them... I think I have enough ipod parts to take me as far into
the future as I can go...

Pics 1 and 2: Iphone 6 64gb and iphone 6 plus 128gb, both originally bought from Apple store, completely factory unlocked. New housing mod, red housing with white lines (to match screen)

Pic 3: Phone on left is a 5s 64gb in a 6 mini housing (rounded edges like gen 6 iphones). I did this
one up in a matte black finish with gold ringer, volume and power buttons. The other 2 phones are iphone 6's, one in red housing with black lines, the other in matte black housing with black lines. Pic 4 is of the back housings on them.

Pics 5, 6 and 7 are also of the 5s to 6 mini housing mod.... in pic 5 I even had the IMEI of the actual 5s printed on the back of it along with the iphone printed in gold to match buttons.

 

[bigpoppamac31]

Up next: iPod Touch

Followed by: iPad Mini

And the Mac Mini.

 

[lostngone]

I think this is very depressing news for all of us who stay away from wireless devices. I have an iPod Classic and when it dies WTF am I supposed to do?
Up yours Apple

Turn the wireless off and if you are super paranoid cut the traces to the antenna?

 

[69650]

You adapt and move on. Same as the rest of humanity has always done.

How is this "moving on". The iPod technology is not obsolete. Apple could easily update the spec and release new models. I don't see how reducing their range of products is anything other than a retrograde step.

 

[steve333]

You have several options.

You can buy a different manufacturer's device.

You can buy an iPod touch and leave it in airplane mode. That's what I do. You are not required to use any of the wireless features.

Or you can start using your smartphone as a music player even opting for streaming services if that works for your music listening style.

The world moves on. Apple is moving on.

Your choice whether you will move on.

Good tip about the iPod Touch, didn't know that. However I still think it's a foolish move, many people use iPods in the gym where a iWatch would be cumbersome and obviously so would a iPod Touch or iPhone. I don't own a Smartphone because of the wireless sensitivity but I think the iPods need to exist. Apple is just reducing their customer base.
Were they losing money on the iPods? I seriously doubt it. Apple has so much money I just can't conceive how selling the iPods was hurting them.

 

[Abazigal]

How is this "moving on". The iPod technology is not obsolete. Apple could easily update the spec and release new models. I don't see how reducing their range of products is anything other than a retrograde step.

It may not be obsolete, but sales was likely declining year after year, and last a certain point, it probably just wasn't worth the the resources to maintain and support.

 

[OS X Dude]

Deleted

 

[winglet69]

Yeah I'll stick with my 7th Gen Nano for the gym and running, thanks. Paired with my Jaybird BT earbuds they've been perfect. I cringe when I see people with $800 massive (by comparison) full on computers strapped to their arm with these huge silly wide armbands just so they can have music when they run. It's not just the size and weight. Think of how dependent everyone is on their smartphone these days - if you are a serious runner or work out regularly, you're exposing that expensive, fragile, crucial device to rain, sweat, heat, vibration over and over. You're gonna damage or lose it or have it stolen, sooner or later. iPhones may be pretty rugged and more water-resistant than previously, but it still accelerates the process - it's only a matter of time before you smack the screen into a pulldown bar or whatever. A dedicated music player makes more sense in every way for redundancy. My job involves constantly traveling. If I break my music player, life goes on (and I can use the phone as a backup). If I break my phone, I'm screwed for everything I use the phone for until I can get somewhere to make an (expensive) repair/replacement. Unacceptable, unnecessary tradeoff.

I'm not buying an iWatch either: expensive, overkill solution. I don't want to manage a whole other device that needs to be charged daily, just for the music function. Not to mention my Garmin Fenix 3HR is far better as a watch and fitness monitor in terms of battery life and again, focus on purpose. But then, I prefer to have a device with superior function for its few functions, than inferior overall ability to do a lot of things. Apple used to be the company with the niche products, this is just the result of being "mainstream", I suppose. You concede the market for specialized devices to other companies who do them better.

I guess when this one dies I'll look for another one if they're still around on eBay or switch to a dedicated player from another brand. I'm actually enjoying my slow drift away from all-Apple products. No more routers, displays, and now music players. If the trend continues it may also extend to my primary computer(s).

 

[JackieInCo]

I think this is very depressing news for all of us who stay away from wireless devices. I have an iPod Classic and when it dies WTF am I supposed to do?
Up yours Apple

I still have a 160GB Classic and a 30GB iPod Photo. The Classic works in my 2017 Accord by plugging it into the USB port and everything shows on the cars screen. The iPod Photo is unfortunately too old to work correctly with my car.

I am kind of trying to move on now since my car also has Car Play. Most of the time though, I just use bluetooth and let the car connect automatically to my phone when I get in and I can still control what plays on it's screen.

It's getting very close to the time where people will just have to move on and adapt to newer tech.

 

[TransPNG]

I just bought an iPod nano (RED) color from Hong Kong Apple Store for preserve today.
The (RED) iPod shuffle were sold out...
Just pick it out after 10 years to seeing the changes of technology.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

Hello, AoW. I don't own an Apple Watch (yet). Are you saying that a Bluetooth headset/Apple Watch combo is as good or better than an iPod?

Can you download a playlist of songs to it? Or, do you have to stream the music from your phone?

I really wanted to hold out until the next upgrade of the Apple Watch. But with the discontinuation of the iPod Shuffle and Nano, I may buy one of the smaller Series 2 watches now and then keep it as an iPod replacement once the Series 3 is released.

Correct me if I'm wrong as I don't have an Apple Watch (no real need... doesn't have any particularly compelling uses for me), but I think the Apple Watch has 8 GB of space for storing music while you're away from your iPhone.

I don't think that's a recent development - pretty sure every Apple Watch had that ability.

 

[MacScott]

I still have a couple of iPod Touches that function. One has to stay on a recharger all the time... I hate to see the iPods die out, but other things have replaced them.

 

[Lioness~]

Goodbye nano & shuffle.

Never knew you but I had one of your precursor. A beautiful golden iPod Mini, that was a joy in its time.
Still have it somewhere, don't know if it's functional though

 

[Darryl.Jenks]

When it finally dies, I'll miss using my shuffle at the gym. Unless, of course, a similar form factor that syncs with Bluetooth earbuds comes along...

 

[Mac 128]

Correct me if I'm wrong as I don't have an Apple Watch (no real need... doesn't have any particularly compelling uses for me), but I think the Apple Watch has 8 GB of space for storing music while you're away from your iPhone.

I don't think that's a recent development - pretty sure every Apple Watch had that ability.

Music playlists are limited to 2GB Max. And they take a colossal amount of time to sync from the iPhone over BT.

 

[mdwsta4]

I never owned a Nano, but just picked up a 7th gen version to use with AirPods. Figured that'd be a good wireless replacement to my Shuffle.

 

[78Bandit]

I went ahead and ordered a Nano in Space Gray to have on hand when my 3rd gen inevitably dies. It came in yesterday and to be honest it feels quite cheap. For some reason I thought black cutout on the back was so Bluetooth signals could transmit through a metal case like the Touch. Unless I'm terribly mistaken the entire case is plastic. It has a perception of fragility as opposed to the substantial feel of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th gen devices.

The 5th gen was the best. It had a beautiful design with vibrant colors. I also like a click wheel better than a touch screen when using the Nano during my exercise routine. I wish Apple would bring back the 5th gen with 32 GB of storage for somewhere between $60 and $100. If they really wanted to push Apple Music they could build in Wi-Fi and a cut-down AM program that would let you stream the Beats radio stations and personal playlists. A click wheel would work just fine for that.

Apple keeps pushing its entire entertainment ecosystem in its devices which makes them larger and bulkier to support games and video. The Nano is all about music. I realize it wouldn't be a blip on Apple's revenue chart, but it would fill a definite niche and would likely sell consistently for the foreseeable future. Sometimes perfection is timeless.