Old Tech

Much as I love Apple's products, the company has a nasty habit of making "improvements" to what are really quite useful devices.  That is to say, changes, some of are which definitely are not improvements in my eyes.  The latest iteration of the MacBook Pro for example, had all sorts of useful peripheral connectivity removed in the last redesign.

But back to the iPod!  This is my third iPod classic.  I bought my first in 2003, the second generation touch wheel model.  It was great but the rechargeable battery eventually  died.  A fifth generation model replaced it until about 2011when the prospect of 160Gb of storage encouraged me to replace it with this one.  Cathy was delighted to have the surplus to requirements model until she inadvertently left it under her pillow in a Lisbon hotel....

The development of the iPod reached a peak from my perspective with this classic style 160Gb iPod.  It manages to store my entire music collection (just) at an acceptable listening quality (just) in an eminently robust and portable unit.  It also communicates with my car's music system which allows me to have music or audiobooks when I'm driving, which I love.

But true to form, Apple no longer make the iPod classic or any iPod with this degree of capacity.  Single function devices of this sort are not in vogue in Cupertino. Instead, Apple expect people to use multi function devices such as phones and iPads using music streaming services to access music.  Its only dinosaurs like me that have acquired a large collection of CDs over the years that want to be able to take it around with us :-)

There are alternative non Apple devices out there I understand, some of which have considerably greater capacity and produce a much better sound quality.  I will eventually end up having to get one, but for the time being this iPod soldiers on.  Long may it continue!

This technology rant has been brought to you courtesy of Emergency Blip Wednesday.


P.S. I understand that this is my 1,400th blip in a row without a break, 100 more to go to that next milestone ;-)