I know people say they could have put an SSD there, but no one makes 1.8" PATA SSD's either, at least no one of note. I'm having a similar issue to Apple at the moment, finding a competent replacement for the hard drive in my first gen MacBook Air.
i think the answer is that you're not supposed to own media anymore. just subscribe for a monthly fee, and they'll stream it for you. software, movies, music, books - it seems like it's all going this way, and when you stop paying, it's gone. no need for an ipod, or high capacity devices, you can just access it for $XX/month.
unfortunately, i agree with steve, i like to own.
Except for the fact that 128GB iPhone are a thing now. iPads still. And iTunes in the Cloud works well.
if you live in a country with download limits, streaming music is not a viable option. in fact a lot of iCloud functions present a dilemma if you have download caps.
The iPod classic is the perfect form factor as a mainstream high-volume sales companion for beats headphones at the right price of $39-$79. With the return of innovative click wheel games, a few old school iMac injection molded front plates and artist illustrated front plates this would sell better than old school limited edition Jordans.
Anyone who thinks today's consumer needs to carry around that much music is misaligned with reality. One of Apple's strongest attributes is that it knows what the mass of consumers wants and drive toward to perfecting the currently relevant product areas. Just because a small percentage like to carry around 15,000 songs does not mean everyone does.
I%u2019ve been putting mSATAs in iPods (Video 5G, 5.5G). I have a couple with 500GB capacity. I have an older one with a 1.8%u201D SSD (256 GB). I save my music as ALAC, so I needed the space.
The mSATAs also make them lighter and less sensitive to shock. I do run into battery issues once in a awhile, as the mSATAs must suck up a lot of juice at start up.
I have an 80 GB iPod Classic somewhere that%u2019s been upgraded to 128 GB using a CF card (max for this iPod).
Without a bigger iPod Classic, you have to roll your own.
Apple could have at least given us a heads-up they were planning to discontinue the iPod Classic; I would have went out and bought a spare one in case my current one dies (which inevitably will at some point).
I use my iPod Classic constantly. It's in my car, it comes with me to the gym, sometimes I plug it in to a speaker to go to sleep to some tunes. I like it because it's very simple and convenient. I have an iPhone 6 Plus for apps, etc. I just liked to be able to pick a song and go… especially if no wifi or network connection is readily available.
This is a sad time in Apple's history. Actually allowing a device that set up their mobile device movement to die is stupid. The iPod Classic HD could have easily been replaced by an SSD. There are so many manufacturers of this technology that the reason of lack of parts is just inexcusable. Tim Cook is full of it. Lost your drive for the product is more like it. I know the iPod is not the money maker the iPhone is but at one time it was. Neglect is another reason for it's "death." There is still a place for the iPod Classic as a portable storage device. I have all my music on that device and it still works wonderfully. Maybe consider the 128GB chip you are using on the iPhone as the replacement for the iPod. It is a damn shame to have let it die such an unceremonious death.
Exactly and besides he SSD it COULD HAVE BEEN ENHANCED W BLUETOOTH.
...with expensive headphones like their Beats, it screams for Apple to take the lead in high-def sound.
There is no point in "high-def" sound if you can't hear it. It's the same thing with pixels. Camera makers once raced to increase the pixel count until it doesn't really matter anymore. We're seeing the same thing with displays today. Once the pixels become too small to see, there is no point to making them smaller. High def sound is the same. We understand how the ears work. Adding more bits doesn't mean they are audible.
Get used to this guys. For the first time perhaps in human history, a particular expression of technology may disappear as anything other than museum pieces.
Mechanical parts, say those in a 19th-century revolver or a 1930s airplane engine, can be easily manufactured by hand or repaired. But unless someone comes up with the silicon equivalent of lathes for metal, the same is not true of computer chips, much less the intricate parts of a small hard drive. Once they're no longer manufactured in factories, they can no longer be manufactured at all. It's already happened with some film. It's happening with computer parts.
We've yet to realize just what that means. I recently saw a documentary in which researchers recreated the process that Neanderthals used to create their stone tools and attempted to duplicate the process for creating a gum from bark to bind an arrowhead to a shaft. Both technologies from tens of thousands of years ago, although they were complex, could be recreated today with just one or two people.
That's not going to be true of our complex gadgetry, including films used in cameras. The technology required to build something or to process it may be too complex to keep in operation. We may still have manuals telling us how Kodachrome film was processed, but we may be no longer be able to do it.
That's sad, but I'm not sure that anything can be done about it.
With all the snide talk about buggy whips and iPod sales being down 70% and Apple not making products for the 1%, you'd think that nobody is buying iPods at all, but the market's not down 99%, it's down 70%.
Not that I own one or want to own one, heh.
Still, I prefer to have the media on my phone. Mobile broadband is inadequate for reliable streaming where I live, and where a lot of people live. It's getting better, but outside of big cities it's often still not great and I've had trouble even in big cities sometimes. Not to mention on trips to South America and other places abroad, where I think Apple would like to have more customers.
A strong seller yes, but probably not enough to sustain the 1.8" hard drive production line by itself. In earlier years, the majority of the iPod lineup used 1.8" HDs, and those components were used on multiple devices from multiple OEMs, and available from multiple suppliers. Eventually it dwindled down to Toshiba selling a 3+ year old design to just one customer. The economies of scale just aren't there anymore for the iPod line.
This is exactly what happen and Apple road this train for so long. Then Video camera stop using these 1.8 drive I knew it was just a matter of time and the number of units sold each quarter drop below the level where it made any economical sense for Toshiba to keep the drive in products for Apple.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jumpcutter
This is a sad time in Apple's history. Actually allowing a device that set up their mobile device movement to die is stupid. The iPod Classic HD could have easily been replaced by an SSD. There are so many manufacturers of this technology that the reason of lack of parts is just inexcusable. Tim Cook is full of it. Lost your drive for the product is more like it. I know the iPod is not the money maker the iPhone is but at one time it was. Neglect is another reason for it's "death." There is still a place for the iPod Classic as a portable storage device. I have all my music on that device and it still works wonderfully. Maybe consider the 128GB chip you are using on the iPhone as the replacement for the iPod. It is a damn shame to have let it die such an unceremonious death.
Yes a SSD could be put in its place, and you can do this yourself if you want to keep your classic alive. At some point if make no sense to keep selling something that very few people are buying. Especially when a part is no longer available.
iTunes revenues are WAY DOWN. The future is streaming. Apple can't afford to invest in legacy technology that only 1% of the market wants. The market has spoken and they want streaming.
Just flew transcontinental and I can certify streaming from iTunes doesn't work.
This doesn't surprise me. Even though the article did not specifically call out which component had the most sourcing difficulties, for years Apple has been the last remaining OEM customer for the 1.8" hard drive format, and Toshiba was the last manufacturer. The 1.8" hard drive had seen no improvements or new R&D for at least three years, and with sales on the decline I'm actually surprised that the iPod classic lasted as long as it did. We've had rumors of its pending demise for about three years, so it's been on borrowed time for a while now.
Which makes you wonder why the hell Toshiba didn't just stick a small amount of flash there too to make this a hybrid and then make a case for it to apple. Minimal R&D, great speed improvements, and they could have kept a legendary product alive. It's another testament to how myopic some tech companies are. But it's expected from them, really.
My first laptop with a toshiba, circa 1996. Then on I was watching for them and they were making some great machines for the next few years. I had a look for them a couple of years ago and they were a mess, 150 different types of notebooks, none focusing on any strong point... then I gave them a go because I had a cash grant to get a notebook pc. It was either them or sony, so I got a 13" notebook off of them, and it wasn't cheap, it was around $900.
Christ what an awful machine it was/is. First of all it seemed that no one had actually turned on the configuration for a final check: you increased the windows fonts to the standard 125% windows offers and all toshiba menus flew out of the screen. The keyboard was worse than a netbook,worse than an el cheapo iPad keyboard case, with smaller keys on every key that mattered and all of them flaky. It had an i5 and an hd, it was twice the thickness of an air, yet after about ten minutes the fans got off to plane turbine levels. Bloatware galore, lagging all the time, despite four full gigs of memory, a screen that on paper seemed fine but which had the most needless reflections despite the light a la air coating, and one of the worst tn panels... It seemed nobody was interested in putting a modicum of care to make this poor notebook act and function a tad better, as if they were vindictively punishing it with all their choices. Mind boggling stuff really.
I still have my classic and I am going to soon get a new hard drive for it and repair it myself and fill it up with everything I 've loved in my about 20 years as an adult. And hopefully when I can afford a decent sound system it will go along side it for my playlists.
iTunes revenues are WAY DOWN. The future is streaming. Apple can't afford to invest in legacy technology that only 1% of the market wants. The market has spoken and they want streaming. With dataplans getting cheaper than ever (and some plans giving unlimited free music streaming) very few will be buying standalone iPods.
Just look at the facts. iPod sales are DOWN 70% from its peak. The market has spoken.
I am the guy tthat's spitting in the wind.... I Like to own my media.
iTunes revenues are WAY DOWN. The future is streaming. Apple can't afford to invest in legacy technology that only 1% of the market wants. The market has spoken and they want streaming. With dataplans getting cheaper than ever (and some plans giving unlimited free music streaming) very few will be buying standalone iPods.
Just look at the facts. iPod sales are DOWN 70% from its peak. The market has spoken.
I completely disagree. You can't stream while traveling, driving in remote areas, etc. Data plans are still expensive for the little amount of data you receive. Streaming has nothing to do with the decline of iPod sales. Smart phones have caused the decline in iPod sales, not streaming. When MP3 players were big, you weren't using your phone to listen to music. As phones became mp3 players and storage capacities became much bigger in phones, MP3 players started their decline in sales. iPod sales were way down, even before sites like Spotify became popular.
Comments
Except for the fact that 128GB iPhone are a thing now. iPads still. And iTunes in the Cloud works well.
The mSATAs also make them lighter and less sensitive to shock. I do run into battery issues once in a awhile, as the mSATAs must suck up a lot of juice at start up.
I have an 80 GB iPod Classic somewhere that%u2019s been upgraded to 128 GB using a CF card (max for this iPod).
Without a bigger iPod Classic, you have to roll your own.
Not so much. Prices spiked after the discontinuation, but have dropped down again.
Now I have no comparable replacement.
Exactly and besides he SSD it COULD HAVE BEEN ENHANCED W BLUETOOTH.
...with expensive headphones like their Beats, it screams for Apple to take the lead in high-def sound.
There is no point in "high-def" sound if you can't hear it. It's the same thing with pixels. Camera makers once raced to increase the pixel count until it doesn't really matter anymore. We're seeing the same thing with displays today. Once the pixels become too small to see, there is no point to making them smaller. High def sound is the same. We understand how the ears work. Adding more bits doesn't mean they are audible.
53,347 here. Takes up half of my MBP's 1TB SSD. Still waiting for iTunes Match to allow me to pay for it.
I don't get it. Pay for what?
Mechanical parts, say those in a 19th-century revolver or a 1930s airplane engine, can be easily manufactured by hand or repaired. But unless someone comes up with the silicon equivalent of lathes for metal, the same is not true of computer chips, much less the intricate parts of a small hard drive. Once they're no longer manufactured in factories, they can no longer be manufactured at all. It's already happened with some film. It's happening with computer parts.
We've yet to realize just what that means. I recently saw a documentary in which researchers recreated the process that Neanderthals used to create their stone tools and attempted to duplicate the process for creating a gum from bark to bind an arrowhead to a shaft. Both technologies from tens of thousands of years ago, although they were complex, could be recreated today with just one or two people.
That's not going to be true of our complex gadgetry, including films used in cameras. The technology required to build something or to process it may be too complex to keep in operation. We may still have manuals telling us how Kodachrome film was processed, but we may be no longer be able to do it.
That's sad, but I'm not sure that anything can be done about it.
With all the snide talk about buggy whips and iPod sales being down 70% and Apple not making products for the 1%, you'd think that nobody is buying iPods at all, but the market's not down 99%, it's down 70%.
Not that I own one or want to own one, heh.
Still, I prefer to have the media on my phone. Mobile broadband is inadequate for reliable streaming where I live, and where a lot of people live. It's getting better, but outside of big cities it's often still not great and I've had trouble even in big cities sometimes. Not to mention on trips to South America and other places abroad, where I think Apple would like to have more customers.
A strong seller yes, but probably not enough to sustain the 1.8" hard drive production line by itself. In earlier years, the majority of the iPod lineup used 1.8" HDs, and those components were used on multiple devices from multiple OEMs, and available from multiple suppliers. Eventually it dwindled down to Toshiba selling a 3+ year old design to just one customer. The economies of scale just aren't there anymore for the iPod line.
This is exactly what happen and Apple road this train for so long. Then Video camera stop using these 1.8 drive I knew it was just a matter of time and the number of units sold each quarter drop below the level where it made any economical sense for Toshiba to keep the drive in products for Apple.
This is a sad time in Apple's history. Actually allowing a device that set up their mobile device movement to die is stupid. The iPod Classic HD could have easily been replaced by an SSD. There are so many manufacturers of this technology that the reason of lack of parts is just inexcusable. Tim Cook is full of it. Lost your drive for the product is more like it. I know the iPod is not the money maker the iPhone is but at one time it was. Neglect is another reason for it's "death." There is still a place for the iPod Classic as a portable storage device. I have all my music on that device and it still works wonderfully. Maybe consider the 128GB chip you are using on the iPhone as the replacement for the iPod. It is a damn shame to have let it die such an unceremonious death.
Yes a SSD could be put in its place, and you can do this yourself if you want to keep your classic alive. At some point if make no sense to keep selling something that very few people are buying. Especially when a part is no longer available.
Just flew transcontinental and I can certify streaming from iTunes doesn't work.
This doesn't surprise me. Even though the article did not specifically call out which component had the most sourcing difficulties, for years Apple has been the last remaining OEM customer for the 1.8" hard drive format, and Toshiba was the last manufacturer. The 1.8" hard drive had seen no improvements or new R&D for at least three years, and with sales on the decline I'm actually surprised that the iPod classic lasted as long as it did. We've had rumors of its pending demise for about three years, so it's been on borrowed time for a while now.
Which makes you wonder why the hell Toshiba didn't just stick a small amount of flash there too to make this a hybrid and then make a case for it to apple. Minimal R&D, great speed improvements, and they could have kept a legendary product alive. It's another testament to how myopic some tech companies are. But it's expected from them, really.
My first laptop with a toshiba, circa 1996. Then on I was watching for them and they were making some great machines for the next few years. I had a look for them a couple of years ago and they were a mess, 150 different types of notebooks, none focusing on any strong point... then I gave them a go because I had a cash grant to get a notebook pc. It was either them or sony, so I got a 13" notebook off of them, and it wasn't cheap, it was around $900.
Christ what an awful machine it was/is. First of all it seemed that no one had actually turned on the configuration for a final check: you increased the windows fonts to the standard 125% windows offers and all toshiba menus flew out of the screen. The keyboard was worse than a netbook,worse than an el cheapo iPad keyboard case, with smaller keys on every key that mattered and all of them flaky. It had an i5 and an hd, it was twice the thickness of an air, yet after about ten minutes the fans got off to plane turbine levels. Bloatware galore, lagging all the time, despite four full gigs of memory, a screen that on paper seemed fine but which had the most needless reflections despite the light a la air coating, and one of the worst tn panels... It seemed nobody was interested in putting a modicum of care to make this poor notebook act and function a tad better, as if they were vindictively punishing it with all their choices. Mind boggling stuff really.
I still have my classic and I am going to soon get a new hard drive for it and repair it myself and fill it up with everything I 've loved in my about 20 years as an adult. And hopefully when I can afford a decent sound system it will go along side it for my playlists.
One word: CLOUD.
Welcome to the 2010's
iTunes revenues are WAY DOWN. The future is streaming. Apple can't afford to invest in legacy technology that only 1% of the market wants. The market has spoken and they want streaming. With dataplans getting cheaper than ever (and some plans giving unlimited free music streaming) very few will be buying standalone iPods.
Just look at the facts. iPod sales are DOWN 70% from its peak. The market has spoken.
I completely disagree. You can't stream while traveling, driving in remote areas, etc. Data plans are still expensive for the little amount of data you receive. Streaming has nothing to do with the decline of iPod sales. Smart phones have caused the decline in iPod sales, not streaming. When MP3 players were big, you weren't using your phone to listen to music. As phones became mp3 players and storage capacities became much bigger in phones, MP3 players started their decline in sales. iPod sales were way down, even before sites like Spotify became popular.