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Comment by hardwaregeek | Hacker News Reader

I was thinking that I'd love essentially an iPod Shuffle but connected to my Spotify and with Bluetooth. Running with an iPhone is still pretty annoying. It'd be nice to have a light device that clips onto your clothes.

Now that I think about it, I wonder if Apple has ever explored turning the AirPods case into a mini iPod. I guess their iPod days are over but it'd be a really neat little device.

Edit: Apparently this exists! https://bemighty.com/products/mighty-vibe

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Yep. As mentioned, Apple Watch is the way to go if you're looking for a modern shuffle, and it does support offline Spotify these days.

The issues with using an older shuffle is that replacing the batteries on ANY of them is a massive chore, and none of them have bluetooth, which means you'd be back to dangling wires, which (imo) sucks when running. I believe the later generation nanos supported BT, though, so they might be a cheap candidate for a "music while running" solution.

Plenty of other watches do music(Spotify) too and work with airpods. Garmin for example.

>I believe the later generation nanos supported BT

The 7th generation Nano does support Bluetooth, but it has some compatibility wrinkles with some BT headphones. For example, it plays back at a very low volume on first generation Airpods.

Can you upload your own mp3s to the Apple Watch? Do I need special software for that?

Sure you can. Add those mp3s to the iPhone paired with the Apple Watch. Go to the Watch app and tap on Music. You can choose music to be transferred to the Watch.

Apple Music has a cloud locker feature, which is the main reason I use it over Spotify. The process isn't as nice as the drag-and-drop into your browser like how Google Play Music did it (RIP), but you can add songs through the Music App on Mac (I assume you can also do it through iTunes on Windows?), set all your metadata, etc. and then you can stream it from any device (except the web player, which is among many other problems with the web player. I wouldn't recommend it)

This is why we can't have nice things. Pebble Core: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/getpebble/pebble-2-time... (basically android-ish + 3g + gps + bluetooth screenless widget)

Hype Article: https://www.stuff.tv/news/5-reasons-pebble-core-most-excitin...

RIP Pebble.

Sounds like you need an Apple Watch. Not sure if it works with spotify but I run with just my watch and my airpods.

It works with Spotify. Sadly Fitbit and Android Wear do not do Spotify offline and every other option is a hassle.

It's a shame because I find the apple watch insanely ugly.

> Android Wear do not do Spotify offline

I don't own one to check, but it appears this is no longer true:

https://newsroom.spotify.com/2021-08-11/enjoy-all-your-music...

Yep, right after I wrote that I thought "I should actually check" and it appears to be all good on Android Wear now.

Yeah...I'm gonna get one soon. But it's a shame that I need such a "smart" device to just listen to some music while running.

I think the issue is that so many of the components are found in both devices that removing the "smart" parts would end up costing more in the long run. An older Apple Watch that handles music with wireless headphones just fine can be found for about $100 now.

The smartphone killed this entire segment. No point having a standalone device when you can pair bluetooth headphones and have your phone just somewhere in the vicinity.

Doing sports and running with a 6 inch smartphone attached to your arm or in your pocket is just uncomfortable.

You can also get that integrated into a bunch of Garmin's watches like the Vivoactive and Fenix lines. Not the cheapest stuff but it's also a heart rate monitor, GPS, etc.

I think the Forerunner 245 Music is their cheapest music device (getting older and not a whole lot cheaper than the Vivoactive though).

It's a shame you cannot put your own mp3s on the Mighty Vibe.

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