Ask HN: What can replace my iPod for podcast listening? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What can replace my iPod for podcast listening?

93 pointsdalke150 comments

My 16GB 5th gen iPod nano is dying. I'm looking for a replacement. Years ago Apple stopped selling anything except the iPod Touch, which is too large and fragile for me. I want something that fits into my pocket, with a long battery life.

"Long" means can be used for a couple of days without needing a charge, or in standby for weeks. As an example of "too fragile", I had a 7th gen. iPod with touch screen that broke after a month or two of the same treatment my 5th gen. handled for years. I went back to my 5th gen. after that.

I only need it for podcasts. I like dedicated hardware to reduce the temptation to connect to the world.

Since Apple decided to split up iTunes into different apps (I haven't upgraded my Mac yet, to keep iTunes), I'm also fine with switching to a new app to manage podcasts.

Any suggestions?

View on HN

You could bump up to an iPod mini v2 and optionally swap out the internals for some extra storage space. The stock battery with the latest apple firmware lasts about 18 hours with 450mAh. There are better 1300mAh+ batteries that offer a lot longer time though. Like others have mentioned Rockbox firmware is also available and will increase the battery life too.

The iFixit site has nice repair articles for how to change the internals. An upgraded SDXC memory card with 128GB of space runs about $30. You could also buy a modded mini with this kind of storage off ebay for around $125 but it probably won't have the nicer battery life.

If you really like the nano you could also swap out the nano battery to bring it back to life. It doesn't look like the storage is replaceable though.

I have done this for a handful of friends and in one case I also soldered in a Bluetooth transmitter. With a little ffmpeg magic + rockbox you can even play black and white videos.

Sansa Clip with Rockbox firmware[1].

[1] https://www.rockbox.org/

As a bonus, enabling Timestretch [1], then adjusting playback speed [2] gets you up to 2.5x playback without affecting the pitch of the speakers' voices (i.e. no Alvin and the Chipmunks).

[1] http://download.rockbox.org/manual/rockbox-gigabeats/rockbox... [2] http://download.rockbox.org/manual/rockbox-gigabeats/rockbox...

I thought the last Clip that supported Rockbox went out of production a few years ago?

I also have a very fuzzy recollection that the batteries weren't especially replaceable, meaning we've got a finite time before they're all bricks...

I'm still using the original Clip I got back in 2008. It's not supported by Rockbox, but I'm perfectly happy with the last official firmware. The OLED has deteriorated, but it's still fine indoors (it was almost impossible to read outdoors from the get-go).

The battery lasted around 14 hours when it was new, now I'm getting roughly half of that. I seem to remember someone on the now defunct anythingbutipod.com replacing the battery, although they had to break the player apart to get inside.

Even the damn plastic clip on the back still works!

They must've made the headphone jacks sturdier on the original model. Both the Zip and Plus had the same loose jack issue for me after a while.

On my third one now which is beginning to show the same issues but the prices have gone up to the point I'll try and repair the jack on an old one instead of buy a new one. Doesn't look too hard beyond the prising open part, which from what I gather is a bit tricky given the size and how well bound it is

Battery has basically never died on me, the amount of charge it gets whenever I remember to connect it to add some new podcasts seems to just make it last forever.

> Even the damn plastic clip on the back still works!

How did you accomplish that? Sadly, mine break after a few years of abuse

Sweet! The local store has a Sansa Clip in stock! I'll try it out!

What's the advantage of Rockbox firmware over what it comes with?

Be careful - currently available Sansa Clip Jam and Sansa Clip Sport are not supported by Rockbox firmware. Supported versions are Sansa Clip+ and Sansa Clip Zip (and some even older models).

Killer feature of Rockbox for me is possibility to change playback speed while maintaining original pitch. As most audiobooks and podcasts I prefer to listen on 120-130% speed.

Most recent Sansa Clip models dont support Rockbox iirc, you'll probably want a refurbished Clip+ or something like that.

Automatic bookmarks, which is very useful for podcasts. The file automatically continues where you left off last time. Oh, and you can also play DOOM on it of course!

And Pac-Man.[1] And Tetris.[2] And Mario.[3] And if you're particularly masochistic, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.[4,5]

And loads of other games and programs.[6]

1 https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/PluginPacbox

2 https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/PluginRockblox

3 https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/PluginRockboy

4 https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/PluginFrotz

5 https://if.illuminion.de/infocom.html

6 https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/PluginIndex

The original firmware also supports resuming from the last played position in podcasts and audiobooks. Whenever you select a partially listened item, you get a prompt to continue from the last point or start from the beginning. It's really handy and honestly I couldn't live without it.

There's a simple binary database in the root folder that keeps this information, but it gets reset whenever you add/remove files. Now that I think about it, it might even be possible to backup that info and restore it afterwards, although I never really needed to do that. I don't usually have more than a couple books/podcasts in progress, so it's easy to remember where I left off, if needed.

I can vouch for the Sansa clip. I used one heavily, years ago for this exact purpose. Mostly only podcast listening. Very small & lightweight, long battery life.

Was unaware of the Rockbox firmware, looks interesting.

>I only need it for podcasts. I like dedicated hardware to reduce the temptation to connect to the world.

the newer cell-phone-yet-unconnected Sony Walkmans are pretty neat, and they have some nice DAC features.

The price is steep, but not Apple steep.

Thanks for the pointer! I was put off by the Walkman when I read at https://www.sony.com/electronics/support/articles/00104669 that "The preinstalled Music player on the Walkman® media player doesn't support podcasts. If you want to play podcasts, use the Media Go™ software to transfer the audio file, then install an application from the Google Play™ store on your device that supports podcasts."

Which means then figuring out that process. And I couldn't find people describing how they used a Walkman for listening to podcasts.

I'm pretty sure you can just install Android podcasting app (any of them) and use them to download songs directly.

At least on Android versions of the Walkmans.

"Which means then figuring out that process" means I have no experience with Android or the available apps. :S But it certainly is a nice looking device, and I like the homage to the tape cassette Walkman I had in the 1980s.

Eh, if you're technical enough to be posting on hackernews I don't think it will take you more than 15 minutes to install a podcasting app and figure out the software

While I could make all sorts of technical points, like how HN's interface is little different from trn I used in the 1990s, or how I dislike tinkering (as Godel_unicode commented), I'll point out one that's not so technical.

I am detail oriented, which contributes to the quality of the software I develop. That level of attention to detail extends to other areas. For example, I read all of the license agreements I'm told that I have to assent to. This makes it really hard for me to agree to all of the automatic software updates, which update the license agreement, so I disable updates until I have the time to read the new license.

(As an aside, OmniGroup has the best proprietary license I've read, and I've commended them for it. And I've complained to ORCId that they claim their signup takes only seconds, which means they don't expect people to read their license.)

So one reason I prefer FOSS is that I don't to read the #%^#$^ licenses.

If I switch to the Android ecosystem, and sign up to Google's app store, I expect have to read pages of legalese - which I don't care to do.

I understand that most people are not this way. I hope you understand that some people are not like you.

You could switch to more open versions of Android like Graphene/Lineage etc that are based on AOSP and use free software. F-Droid is a FOSS app store for FOSS apps, and it has quite a few good apps, including AntennaPod, which is an excellent podcatcher and my podcasting app of choice.

From some of your other comments, I gathered that you aren't heavily into using smartphones, so there's no reason you have to subscribe to the _full_ experience of it, proprietariness and all. Our devices are only as complicated as we allow them to be.

I totally understand if you want something that works out of the box too, the rest of us who would like a functional experience with the creature comforts of smart-devices have to go out of our way to debloat and tweak things because these experiences are not yet readily available for us.

Thanks for the followup. Yeah, that would be part of what I meant by "Which means then figuring out that process." ... except I didn't even knew all that existed. ;)

I think you're missing an important part of the use case. People who like iPods in particular are usually deep into "it just works" territory and have a visceral aversion to tinkering. It sounds like you have a pro-tinkering mindset, possibly subconsciously, and are discounting the degree to which some people hate tinkering with their personal setup.

Yup. I don't like to tinker. Don't like to tweak. Don't like to configure. It should indeed "just work."

Ok you might need to meet us halfway here or DIY a device to do this for you.

Or, thanks to comments from several other here, I've found a device which appears to meet my needs. Already ordered it too.

Just download Podcast Addict, and subscribe to your favourite podcasts.

Hm, I don't know, the NW-E390 SERIES looks like it fulfills the requirements, if such a reduced functionality is acceptable to OP.

Don't know what you could/should use on the software side though to manage the content... Life has changed a lot since I last used strictly offline devices, and not only for the better.

Have you tried looking for another iPod nano on ebay? Considering you seem fine with your current setup, you can keep it going for as long as you want.

Oops, I didn't explain that part.

One of the joys of the iPod was that I didn't really have to worry about charging it on a regular schedule. It would hold its charge for a long time. Eg, I took it bike camping and listened to Hardcore History's multi-part episode on Genghis Khan over a couple of days, with no need to charge up.

That's no longer the case. The battery life has gotten worse over the last couple of years, likely from age. It now doesn't hold a charge for more than a couple of days. I suspect that if I buy another old iPod then its battery will also be 10 years old and not in good shape.

If I don't find a good option for new hardware, then used is definitely a backup alternative!

Apple does show they will do battery service on a 5g nano for $59, so it might be worth checking. Ifixit has a detailed guide, you might find a third party iphone repair shop willing to do the work.

https://support.apple.com/ipod/repair/service/pricing

Nicely spotted (re: Apple battery service)!

I saw the iFixit rating of "very difficult" and its need for specialized tools I don't have (at https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iPod+Nano+5th+Generation+Batter... ) and say "nope!"

There's nothing specialist there, you can get a small kit for a few dollars that has a set of small screwdriver heads and a spludger. That's all you need.

Give it a go, what's the worst that can happen (ok the worst is that you puncture the battery, don't do that).

That process requires softening adhesive with a heat gun, de-soldering and re-soldering the battery connections, and many very delicate steps.

If that's not a specialist battery replacement, I don't know what is.

It looks like it deserves the "very difficult" rating.

It's totally worthwhile to attempt your own repairs on stuff like this, but not everyone is motivated enough to do it. More importantly, it really does takes practice.

If you're not familiar with spudgers, loosening adhesive with heat, tiny parts/tools, the risk of failure and frustration are very high for a "one-off" project.

A local certified Apple repair shop would likely be able to do this for you. I'd recommend calling ahead to ask, and volunteering to order the battery yourself possibly. They will have the tools, expertise, and time.

The small places that repair phones and laptop computers should have those tools, plus someone who knows how to use them, and should be able to replace the battery on an iPod.

I've used one to have the battery on an Android phone replaced.

I also agree on that.

You can easy convince them to look on iFixit and do it, because we (customers) just doesn't have working experience on repairs and right instruments.

A couple of years ago my wife's laptop died. I opened it up. One of the mounts pins for the switch broke. It's a simple switch mounted directly on the board (yech). Not hard to fix with a bit of solder, a steady hand, and a good light source.

I took it to a nearby fixit place. The immediate feedback I got was that since I opened it up they weren't going to take a look at it or even talk to me about it. Sort of an angry "why did you so dumb as to do that?" sort of thing. So that's not a place I plan to visit again, and it looked to be the best provisioned place in town, with an actual room above an TV/gadgets/etc. store and not a mall desk.

I ended up using superglue, borrowing a soldering iron from a friend's dad, and doing it myself. It was a crappy iron likely decades old. Good enough for 6-month fix for an near EOL laptop. Not for fixing an iPod.

So I've resigned to the fact that there probably isn't a decent fixit place in town. For that I'll have to visit the big city (pop. here is 60K people). Which means factoring in travel costs.

Have you tried Mighty? It supports anything on Spotify. I use it for podcasts daily and I sync playlists of music to it as well for offline listening. It’s been great for my 11 year old mentee as I can update his Mighty with new music every week when we meet and not worry about giving him a screen that can get him in trouble at school or with his mom.

https://bemighty.com/

Does it support podcasts? Because most of those 3rd party integrators don't support podcasts on Spotify (e.g. this includes my Galaxy Watch or even older Spotify Connect speakers).

Yup. I often use it to take podcasts on my run.

There can be some that won’t sync even though you can play them on spotify. This is apparently due to some licensing restrictions. The bbc is the main offender which i find enraging.

On their site it says the battery life is only 5 hours…

How does the menu work with no screen?

If you’re referring to the hamburger-looking button then that is the playlist button.

Hitting it cycles through the playlists and speaks the name of each one.

Haven't seen anyone yet suggesting a watch perhaps. I have a Garmin smart watch which comes with offline syncing for spotify and amazon or even direct mp3 upload. Works flawlessly out in nature and lasts days.

This was my first thought as well, my vivoactive 3 music supports Spotify which has decent podcast support and has really good battery life. The only potential downside is the high jaccard similarity between people who want a dedicated music player and people who want a headphone jack, which the watches lack.

put in a new battery? https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iPod+Nano+5th+Generation+Batter...

Beyond my skill and interest - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24978977 .

eBay, but it depends on your budget.

You can find regular iPods and modded iPods for more than MSRP. I haven’t yet found anything I like more than an iPod though.

Holy... No. Seriously. Nope.

I'd go with any device that Rockbox (https://www.rockbox.org/) has a stable port for. I've been using a SanDisk Sansa Clip+ for 10 years and am still very happy with it.

It looks like most of those are old hardware. So far only see xDuoo as a new one.

What do you use for podcast management?

Little did I realize that SanDisk Clips are still being made ... and in-stock locally. So I'll try this option.

Don't get the Clip Sport if you want rockbox

Info for SanDisk Sansa models: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SanDisk_Sansa

Yeah, I was really sad when my Clip Zip recently didn't come on (screen is totally glitched out), and I'm currently looking for a replacement for that, too.

I've got this xDuoo X3 (bought it ages ago), which apparently has a pretty good DAC and is able to load from two SDCards, and has a third-party Rockbox implementation.

There's a new version ot (X3 II), which has a much larger display.

Your "connect to the world" limitation rules out just using your phone (which is really the most straightforward answer).

But is there some reason you can't just pickup a second-hand unlocked Android phone, no-sim, preferably with a user-replaceable battery, and then load it with a pod-cast listening app. such as:

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.ph1b.audiobook/

If you turn off all the radios (airplane mode) and don't run the screen that often, you might also come close to your day-or-two without recharge requirement as well.

Phones are too bulky to be convenient when exercising. I've inadvertently destroyed more than one by going out for a run on a hot day with it in my pocket and sweating too much.

In contrast, the 6th gen iPod Nano weighed less than an ounce! They were a fantastic product. Ditto for the iPod Shuffle.

I found the Nano's size convenient for this reason also. However, I find wireless earbuds,and wireless syncing, to be something I like even more.

Sony has some wireless headphones that contain an MP3 player, but if you want to keep your existing headphones or have a screen that probably isn’t a good solution!

Thanks! I do like scroll through my podcasts to select which to play next, so I don't think that will work.

> Since Apple decided to split up iTunes into different apps (I haven't upgraded my Mac yet, to keep iTunes), I'm also fine with switching to a new app to manage podcasts.

Just an FYI, you don’t have to hold out on updating your Mac to sync your podcasts. Apple Podcasts still syncs with classic iPods.

There’s really very little difference between iTunes and Apple Music and Apple Podcasts, it’s just split out. Audiobooks are also moved to the Books app but otherwise the functionality is really similar to iTunes.

Whether you like the new podcasts UI is another matter entirely.

A cheap phone without a sim would be way more capable alternative though

Except likely larger and with less durability and battery life, yes?

You can get second hand smaller 4" android phones, which would also have swappable batteries. Battery life is never an issue with airplane mode anyway so I don't think OP would mind that, plus he can always charge up anywhere.

This app makes the click wheel UI as well https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/11/21010953/apple-iphone-ip...

A phone with all antennas turned off can last for a week in my experience. Some ROMs allow you to underclock the CPU too which can give another huge boost.

Depends on how long the mobile can last on with just bluetooth being toggled. Disable mobile and wifi, and use USB to transfer the audio?

I had an old Motorola Droid I used to do this with, then switched to my Windows phone without any issues. Battery lasts a few days when you turn everything off, and the music app's interface is clean and easy to use. I just dropped a 128GB card in with all my music and podcasts and I was off and runnig.

You can find several older Android and Windows phone models for around $50 or less on ebay and most of those early phones had replaceable batteries as well. Grab and extra battery and you should be set for a few years.

I did this but be vary of poor head phone connectors. My Nokia 130 started panning the sound randomly after a year or so and ultimately gave up altogether after two.

Usually these oldschool phones do play music and you can manage songs quite ok with files/folders on a micro sd card. What can be annoying though is a terrible UI for playing your music, don't expect things browsing tracks by artist for example...

How, specifically, is the hardware dying?

iPods are extremely easy these days to mod, fix, and even upgrade storage space on - /r/iPods is often full of these fantastic projects. There is also /r/iPodhacks.

It's fairly easy to take them apart and can be fun. You can extremely easily and cheaply get parts like battery replacements (sometimes even w/ extra capacity), screen replacements, and sometimes even storage upgrades. (Although I honestly think the 5G nano might be out of that last category. Moreso talking about Minis, full-size iPods, and, IIRC, 1st/2nd gen nanos.)

Of course, it's not for everybody; and, definitely, it might be useful to get another device suggested by someone else here as a backup or something. But this is HN, so I figure it's an adequately geeky suggestion. :) I am also into the environmental impact of fixing things vs. buying new things.

EDIT:

Here's a reliable resource for parts I have used in the past - (please note I am not affiliated with the site, just saying it has worked for me):

https://www.idemigods.com/Apple_iPod_Parts_s/77.htm

https://shop.westerndigital.com/products/mp3-players/sandisk... Seems to still be for sale. I’m thinking of getting for my toddler for Christmas. I want her to have music but not a whole internet connected communicator.

Are you sure the Jam is supported? It seems to me the Sansa Clip Jam != Sansa Clip and the former is not supported at least according to [1]:

  Sansa Clip Sport / Clip Jam / Clip Sport Go / Clip Sport Plus
  
  These are based on an Actions Semiconductor ATJ2127 chips, with under 100KB of available memory and all audio decoding happening inside dedicated hardware. A rockbox port to these (and other ATJ2127) targets will not happen, as it would require an immence undertaking and due to resource limitations, the end result would lack most of the features that rockbox users have come to expect.

[1] https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/TargetStatus#New_Platforms_Curr...

Who said anything about Rockbox?

Yes, several have recommended that - I'll give it a go. Thanks!

Very good podcast app AntennaPod https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.danoeh.antennapod/

Sony Walkman series are essentially iPods that can also carry Android apps so you can install something like PocketCasts on them directly and download/stream podcasts without even connecting to computer.

Or the fiio devices

I think the most expensive Garmin smartwatches can hold and play music (wirelessly) without actually being connected to a phone or other device. Probably not a great UI experience for podcasts though.

I'd be any old android device without a sim and load up pocketcasts on it. You can connect to wifi to download everything and disconnect otherwise.

I've used the OUKITEL WP5 as a device when going on multi day hikes. 8k battery + water resistance.

https://www.pocketcasts.com/

Not to derail, but does anyone have a suggestion for the same, but for audiobooks?

My SO's Honda doesn't support playlists or bookmarks, and most of the apps we've tried either don't scale well for large libraries or are built for podcasts, so something simple and standalone with those features would make her happy.

Not a full solution, but once upon a time I had a Sandisk Sansa e280 that I jailbroke with Rockbox, and it appears to have manual bookmarking

https://download.rockbox.org/daily/manual/rockbox-sansae200v... "Note: Bookmarking only works when tracks are launched from the file browser, and does not currently work for tracks launched via the database. In addition, they do not currently work with dynamic playlists."

https://www.rockbox.org/

https://www.ebay.com/itm/SanDisk-Sansa-e280-8-GB-Black-MP3-D... As I recall I could also add a SD card to this model, but I don't know what its max size is.

Did you try voice (app)? https://github.com/PaulWoitaschek/Voice

Just did, and it looks perfect. Thanks for the recommendation!

Try the Fiio M5, or just about any player by Fiio. Its audiophile grade so you are also going to get great audio.

Get an M9, M11 or M11PRO depending on budget (https://fiio.com/m9). These are also high fidelity players so you get a lot of value for the buck. Fiio is killing it in this field. I own an M11Pro and does everything.

Looks really interesting. Unable to find a "Buy" button though, which is weird.

I'm seeing a "Buy Now" button in the upper right but it just leads to this screen:

https://www.fiio.com/wheretobuy

Amazon has them too:

https://www.amazon.com/FiiO-M9-Resolution-Lossless-Bluetooth...

BTW: Have you tried smartphone + battery pack + battery saver enabled + airplane mode?

Should last you a long time.

I use pocketcast which allows me to switch between listening on my phone and my laptop quickly and without having to search for the position I stopped at.

If I am sitting on my machine I use the computer, if I shop for groceries or commute I use my phone.

Seconding this. After moving to PocketCasts, keeping up with the podcasts I'm interested in became easier than ever.

MY recommendation would be a modified iPod 5th or 7th gen Classic if you don't mind the larger size. These iPods can be upgraded with larger batteries and flash storage instead of a hard drive making them long lasting and robust.

You can do the modification yourself on iPod with a broken hard drive or buy one on eBay already modified. (Tip: The 5th gens are easier to modify than the 7th gens since they come apart a lot easier.)

Personally, I use a 5th gen Classic with 32GB of flash and a new battery. I modified it myself with a compact flash card and a new battery. It's been in use for about 3 years and I've had no real issues.

Thanks for the pointers! My backup plan if I can't find something new is to get a used nano. I hadn't considered a Classic.

Alas, I'm in Sweden so eBay + shipping + customs adds a chunk, but maybe I can find someone here who does that.

How do you copy podcasts and such to these old iPods? iTunes is being deprecated right?

Foobar2000 with an iPod add-on[1] and a podcast add-on[2]. You don't need iTunes directly, but probably an older version of iTunes in the background for compatibility when syncing. Oldapps.com has you sorted for that.

I personally use a modded 5.5 gen for daily listening, it's vastly superior to using a smartphone. It has a huge memory and unbeatable battery life. With cheap replaceable batteries and SD card boards, it should essentially last for years/decades. The firmware is much simpler than iOS, so it doesn't matter that it's not maintained, it simply works.

EDIT: OP is using a Mac, so I'm not sure if this is feasible. It does work well on Windows though.

[1] https://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_dop

[2] https://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_podcatcher

Replace the firmware with RockBox and it presents itself as a normal USB storage device. Just drag and drop the files.

Syncing music still works fine on Macs/Windows. I'd actually go as far as to say that on Mac it's an improvement, becasue you just have a 'Music' app and a 'Podcast' app, and when you plug in an iPod you can see it in Finder.

It's perhaps more like elements of it seemed to be integrated into Finder so it'll mount as a device and you'll see the familiar iTunes style sync UI

Buy an unlocked iPhone 12 mini with no phone plan, problem solved. Or, simply leave airplane mode on at all times and hide all your other non-podcast apps in a folder on the home screen. Or, use a VPN app to kill internet access to every app except for your podcast player.

If you haven't tried Castro (podcast app) on iOS yet, you'll never go back after using that app. I assure you, the delightful user experience will far outweigh the nostalgic fuzzies of podcast listening with an old school MP3 player.

If grabbing the mp3s is fine any mp3 player will do, right?

I used to have cowon mp3 players for their good sound. This one is one of the cheaper ones, 15h runtime.: https://www.amazon.de/-/en/U7-16G-Black-Cowon-U7/dp/B07HY8L1...

Potentially. In practice, what I see is people complaining that they can't switch back to a podcast and continue playback from where they left off.

I can understand the problem. With something like a 3 hour "Hardcore History" podcast, I'll take a break, listen to something else, then come back.

the old cowon firmwares had resume functions, no Idea how it's nowadays.

Look at FiiO, they have dedicated hardware. Back then they produced headphone amplifiers for iPods, after those got canned, they start to produce their own iPod replacements.

Related: I'm looking for essentially the same product as OP but with the additional requirement that it's hackable. I'm trying to build a device that can play and record audio with a single hardware button that toggles between modes. For example, I'd like to be able to be listening to a podcast, push a single button once, record a memo to myself, push the same button again once, and be back to listening to the podcast.

Based on what you're describing, I'd think you'd have to build it yourself.

Just use your phone. If the temptations of checking your phone are that high that it’s affecting your life than I’m willing to wager their are other issues, too

To be quite honest, I have a feature phone, in part because I think smart phones affect most people's lives, but I'm willing to accept that as my personal issue.

Setting that aside, I also don't like the large size of smart phones, the relatively short battery life, and the poor durability.

Most feature phones these days can play MP3s so could be used as a podcast playing device.

I don't have specific references on hand, but I'm pretty sure that your wager would be ill-begotten. Studies have shown that simply abstaining from distraction takes mental energy (for lack of a better term) and reduces performance in a number of ways. This suggest that designing your environment ahead of time (what OP is trying to do) is more efficient/productive than resolving to maintain disciple in the moment. Again, I don't have specific references on hand, but I know that this phenomenon is discussed in both Thinking Fast and Slow[1] and the Craving Mind[2].

[1]https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11468377-thinking-fast-a...

[2]https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32714199-the-craving-min...

I use a Sony Walkman mp3 player.

I'm a big linux geek so I built a wallwart dock from a small arm computer, Linux, udev rules, fstab config making it networkable. This is the calmest[1] solution I could find. I think it's a concept you'd be greatly interested in if you're having trouble managing your digital life.

1. https://calmtech.com/

I feel like there should be a specialist sturdy podcast listening device, small form factor, with super long battery life, WiFi, web interface, phono jack, maybe also ethernet port.

It would have a pod catcher running in it, and a basic screen to select show to listen to. I guess it would be useful to be able to read show notes.

With all the interest in podcasting lately I would have though it was a good startup opportunity.

Thats a shitty version of a pre2010 Nokia or Sony Erricson model.

Haha yeah perhaps it is.

I like the idea of having something that is super robust, when you’re listening to podcasts it’s all audio anyway, as long as there is a way to select what your listening to, it doesn’t matter that much.

Back in the early 90s I was perfectly happy with the walkmans and mini disk players I had, I hardly even took the devices out of my pocket because you could change the track using the remote on the headphone cable. One of them even had a small lcd on the remote so you could read the album and track name. Those were the days.

I thought they were easy to replace batteries and storage? I found my old iPod at the weekend and love feeling that I'm not being monitored

https://www.ifixit.com/Device/iPod_Nano says they are all difficult to fix, and they don't have batteries to sell.

I still have several iPod Shuffles that I use, so I understand your desire for utility and durability over feature bloat and chrome.

Try Goodwill's online auctions. There are always a number of iPods there. Sometimes they're in very good condition. You won't get like-new battery life out of them, but for podcasts, they should last you a couple of years at least.

I'm also looking for a low cost dedicated MP3 player. But I'd like it to support bluetooth. Is there anything decent?

I love my Walkman NW-A55. Good DAC, solid bluetooth and long battery life. Two things that sucks:

* The proprietary cable. Seriously, in 2020..

* It does not support album cover in JPEG 2000. Seems like a detail, but if you like your library well organised, it can be a time sink !

Not really low cost.

The HIDIZS AP80 seems a device with a decent configuration.

Back in the pre-smartphone days I used to swear by Cowon devices. They're still around.

This might suit your needs: http://m.cowonglobal.com/product/iAUDIOE3/

Nowadays I listen to audio books, podcasts, music, read ebooks etc all on the phone...

Thank you for posting this! I also have a 2009-era iPod nano that I've been using for the last decade, and am still using a flipphone, so can't listen to podcasts on that. My iPod still holds a few hours of charge, so it's still usable, but I've definitely been having the same succession planning thoughts as you!

I can't vouch for them since I've never tried them, but Cowon appears to still be in business: https://www.ebay.com/b/Cowon-MP3-Players/73839/bn_1644344

Sansa Clip is okay if you don’t care about a big screen etc. Used to use one for running with and it was fine.

Thanks! It's available locally and I'll give it a go.

I really regret ditching my Sansa Fuze+ after I got my first smartphone. That thing had excellent battery life, an SD card slot, and supported rockbox.

I paid maybe $30 for it at the time, I sold it to a friend for like ten bucks. Now I try to find one online, and it's $80+ on eBay. Argh!

I use newsboat (cli program) to manage and download podcasts, which I sync to a Fiio M3k. it's solid, beautiful, and sturdy. Not using a smartphone for podcasts has been incredible for me, personally.

What’s the benefit of not using a smartphone exactly? Mine syncs all of my podcasts automatically.

I'm aware that smartphones can do the all-in-one sync/download/play dance for podcasts. However, smartphones are basically tracking devices riddled with spyware, and I don't want one around me when I'm not on call.

Plus they're far too bulky, features change constantly, they throw ads at you when you're just trying to play music, and they don't have headphone jacks. They suck at audio playback. I have a few <$100 MP3 players that sound better than any smartphone ever, have a bunch of physical buttons, can connect to any pair of headphones I've had for the past 15 years, are extensible with a microSD card, can charge on a standardized connector, won't interrupt me with dings or calls while I'm listening, etc.

The benefits go on and on. It forces me to be deliberate about my actions - when I decide "I'm going to listen to stuff now", that's all it can do, and I won't get sucked into the multitude of features a smartphone offers. I get to make decisions about what I'm doing, not the designers of the smartphone. I get that they're interesting, neat devices. But they're overall the wrong choice for most things - you wouldn't replace your whole tool shed with a Leatherman.

https://medium.com/@tbarrasso/podcasts-for-the-next-billion-...

"It’s also worth mentioning that most KaiOS devices have either 256MB or 512MB of RAM, which is often the most limiting resource."

From experience, I have about 8GB of podcasts, and would rather not change my habits that much.

You should be looking at how much storage the device has, not RAM.

Derp! Okay, the Nokia 8110 mentioned has 4GB of storage, with MicroSD up to 32 GB.

It might be worth scouring eBay for a replacement! I lost my iPod Nano years ago and ended up finding a newish one there to replace it. (Which reminds me... I need to find a new one.)

Garmin Venu watch + MPow Earbuds off Amazon. The Venu will sync automatically on WiFi when charging can be paired with your vehicle, the earbuds I suggested, among many other things.

The Sandisk Sansa Clip Jam seems to be close enough, and cheap.

Thanks! Yes, it is cheap, and it looks like what I'm looking for.

Buy an older simple android with swappable battery and use it in airplane mode and the battery will last for days. Most can and will take 32 or 16 gig micoSD.

I don’t have an Apple Watch, but I would hope that could be used, seems like an obvious form factor.

Has Apple figured this out yet? (anyone who owns one...)

Would work but battery life is really just 1 day at a time.

A Motorola G9 Power? It can last for sure more than 3 days with 6000 mAh

Thanks for the pointer! I'm looking for something to replace a 5th gen nano, which I could slip into any pocket and not worry about. (My 7th-gen touch screen broke in my trouser pocket after a month or two by rolling on the floor playing with my preschoolers.) That G9 Power doesn't svelte or durable enough.

Another 5th gen and upgrade the storage to 500gb ?

I love my iPod Nano Gen 2 running Rockbox.

Apple Watch sans cellular

What about an Apple watch or another smartwatch?

An iPhone, about 15 years ago already.

Raspberry Pi

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