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Comment by SamBam | Hacker News Reader

I plan on getting my kids some kind of flip phone or dumb phone when they turn 10. Will try to hold off on smart phones until 8th grade.

The biggest problem right now has been the lack of a good mp3 player for the kids. Years ago we had the iPod. It was a perfect device. But Apple has discontinued that in favor of things that are basically iPhones.

There are a bunch of cheap Chinese-made mp3 players on Amazon, but they tend to have terrible navigation, sorting songs alphabetically, making it impossible to create playlists, inability to sort by genre, etc etc. I haven't found a good one (recommendations happily accepted).

So I gave the kids my old Android phone without a Sim card, and removed most of the apps, but of course they'll use the camera, and the browser... and I realized that this was just a slippery slope to that full-featured smart phone that I didn't want to get them yet.

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If you like the older iPods you could always get one and upgrade it. I've been thinking of doing something along those lines after seeing a recent HN post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30345399

Also, dissing Chinese-made MP3 players seems a bit weird as I'm pretty sure all iPods were made in China.

> Also, dissing Chinese-made MP3 players

Fair point, but I was using it as a short-hand for saying "cheaply-made Chinese junk" -- the kind of fly-by-night companies that anyone who has tried to buy stuff on Amazon in the past few years is now familiar with.

Of course quality stuff is also made in China, and I was not referring to that.

I saw that post too and immediately ordered the iFlash Solo adapter. Coincidentally I had just run across an iPod video in a drawer that wouldn't boot up... it was about a 20 minute project to replace the hard disk with the adapter and a big SD card, and the iPod is working great now!

I've had a good experience with SanDisk clip MP3 players. Still have 2 of them, although I don't use them anymore. You can still buy various models (new) on Amazon.

I'm listening to one now.

Benefits, doesn't kill your phone battery and it keeps a charge for days.

Cons: soft plastic. Scratches easily and the spring clip broke.

if you want an ipod, get an ipod. the 5th gen are basically the ideal but there's also nano etc for very cheap.

FIIO still makes MP3 players. They're aimed towards higher end listeners, but they're available.

The Fiio M5 is one example.

What about Cowon? I used to have one because it supported FLAC and it was pretty great

Cowon would be my go to too

I saw an ad for a Sony Walkman recently. It's an overpriced piece of jewelry, but under that it does play music.

> overpriced

/me checks the prices...

    NW-A105  A Series Walkman® Digital Music Player            $349.99
    NW-ZX507 ZX Series Walkman® Digital Music Player           $829.99
    NW-WM1A  Signature Series Walkman® Digital Music Player  $1,199.99 
    NW-WM1Z  Signature Series Walkman® Digital Music Player  $3,199.99

WOW

Of course there is a "decent" priced one:

    NW-E394  Walkman® Digital Music Player                      $74.99

But even that is outrageous, considering the similar players costed ~$10 ten years ago and there is only a 8Gb storage on it.

EDIT: Yep, Cowon U7 has 32Gb flash, OGG/FLAC support, costs £59.99

Will an iPod not just work still? I seem to remember you could use 3rd party software to just dump MP3s onto them.

iPod classics go for $200 and up for the later versions, and sometimes thousands of dollars for the earlier versions on eBay.

iPod nano similarly goes for about $180 used.

Hmmm, it looks like I can maybe buy a 5th gen nano for about $60. That may be worth it, if I'm sure I'll always be able to put mp3s on it.

Wow I picked up a working nano from the junk bin at a thrift store for $5, didn't realize that was such a deal

I don't know anyone still using MP3s. Everyone has moved on to one streaming service or another.

As a parent, I don't feel like purchasing offline music for my kids as it's one more thing they'll outgrow as they get older. I don't see a need to shelve a thumb drive full of Paw Patrol or whatever next to their outgrown jackets and rain boots.

On Windows the main software is CopyTrans, which even supports modern iPhones! For purely iPods, here is also the jlPod WinAmp plugin that works well

An Android - old or new - with a custom distribution can be tailored into whatever type of device you want it to be. My daughter has one which works as a phone and can run applications which I have approved (which I can do from my own devices or on hers) with freely selectable time limits. Another device is in use as a remotely-controllable media player running mpd. Yet another one is used as a trailer camera, it creates its own wifi network to which devices which have the correct credentials can connect, using the camera to show video and 2-way audio. I do not have a SIM card in these last two devices but especially the trailer cam could double as a GPS locator seeing as how it takes power from the trailer hookup, using the phone battery as backup. Since it does not need a screen - and since that screen also happened to be broken - I removed it from the device, saving power and prolonging the battery lifetime. The ubiquity of low-price new and older Android devices makes these ideal for this type of alternate use given that they come with ample memory, processing power, a built-in battery and charger circuit, network connectivity, motion sensors, camera and microphone, a compass, gyroscope and more - often to be had for free or a few €.

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