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Comment by Kequc | Hacker News Reader

The best iPod was discontinued immediately. It's square with a screen on it, this one:

http://www.zdnet.com/i/story/61/18/017591/zdnet-ipod-nano-si...

Giant clip dominates the back, just large enough of a screen to choose or control music, and just enough space to store way more than I need.

I travel a lot, it's great to have a separate music device. I can listen to music and not have to worry where my phone is. I can clip it onto my clothes while I'm falling asleep in a hostel or whatever. Actually I clip it to my clothes all the time.

I don't understand why it wasn't more popular. I still use it.

I also don't understand why anyone wants to use their phone as a music player. The idea of that sounds needlessly awkward and they'll fill their device's HD up with largely useless music.

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Obv. if you've found something that works for you then great, but if you're wondering about popularity then honestly your position sounds pretty unusual.

> I can listen to music and not have to worry where my phone is.

If there's ever a time at which my phone isn't in my pocket, I'm worried already. Especially when travelling.

> The idea of that sounds needlessly awkward

Awkward how? My phone already has a bigger, nicer touchscreen than an affordable dedicated media player would. Honestly general-purpose computers are very good at these things - just like years ago when I first got Winamp and it was easier to use than a physical stereo.

> you'd fill your device's HD.

My phone has a 64gb microSD card. Half of that is 20 days' continuous listening. It's really not an issue.

> Awkward how?

This seems to be what everyone has taken away from my post. It's awkward to have a wire connected from my ears to the pocket I keep my phone in, generally far away. I want to take my phone out and look at it without a wire being in the way or an audio player running on the home screen.

I can take a earphone out if I want to talk on the phone, or quickly view a youtube video. Without finagling with the audio player.

I can plug my phone in anywhere I want to in the room while going to sleep with my ipod in my ears.

It's just awkward to me, ok. The same way it was awkward when people started trying to use their ipod as a watch. So they think having a wire jutting all the way down their arm isn't awkward, and I do.

> I can take a earphone out if I want to talk on the phone, or quickly view a youtube video. Without finagling with the audio player.

That sounds much more awkward. Pausing music on my phone is at worst pushing one button on the inline control (or on the lock screen), no need to mess with the earphones. And since my phone's playing my music it knows to pause it if I get a call.

> I can plug my phone in anywhere I want to in the room while going to sleep with my ipod in my ears.

But then you'd need to recharge the ipod separately.

> It's just awkward to me, ok.

Sure. But you were saying you didn't understand people preferring their phone.

You're wrong :) the best one was the nano iPod with the clickwheel https://www.apple.com/support/assets/images/products/iPodnan...

No weird wideescreen design and you could control it through your clothes.

yes, that one was nice! the 2nd also had one and was a bit better. It even did games, which are now nowhere to be found!

Yes! That's the one I had, until I gave it to my now-ex-wife, and it still beats any phone I've ever had as a music player.

Conspiracy theory: the form factor was changed because it was too similar to a watch -- and Apple was in the early stages of planning the (much more expensive) Apple Watch.

Notice that the Micky Mouse watch face - now present on the Apple Watch - was only present on that one version of the nano.

I know several people who wore that iPod as a watch - at least one case was explicitly manufactured as a wristband. Got discontinued pretty quick, though

> I also don't understand why anyone wants to use their phone as a music player. The idea of that sounds needlessly awkward and they'll fill their device's HD up with largely useless music.

My primary use of my phone is as a music player. The second biggest use is as a camera. Between those two (and considering a lot of the music is streamed), the device's storage is never a problem.

What about it sounds awkward? To me it's way more awkward to carry a separate device to play music, given that I'm going to be carrying a cell phone anyway.

Just a nitpick here, for me simply having phone and internet counts as 24/7 passive usage because people can call/text/email. It's like a mailbox, I'm always using it.

I suppose you could say that, although I get few texts and previous few phone calls, and my phone email is on manual pull.

> I also don't understand why anyone wants to use their phone as a music player. The idea of that sounds needlessly awkward and they'll fill their device's HD up with largely useless music.

You can't run something like Spotify on it without a cell receiver, at which point you've pretty much got a phone.

Well...wifi. Which is what iPod Touch has.

Well, if you don't care about portability, I suppose.

The Nanos from the mid-2000s were pretty solid. I think I still have an 4GB one somewhere that worked the last time I looked.

Perfect for taking to the gym or hiking. An updated version with the same specs would probably be too cheap to produce now, with Flash so dramatically cheaper. Could you build one for $20?

Check out the Sansa Clip. Up to 8GB, should be around $40 now, TINY (1.36 x 2.16 x .6"), good sound, small OLED screen, controls on the front which can be pressed through jeans, small enough to throw into you hood or under your collar or clip to the top of headphones.

Also, mass storage mode so you can drag-and-drop files or set up a script to cp all your newest torrented music to it when you plug it in.

I have one of these. Well, two, because I wrecked one by dropping it in the toilet. They're currently discontinued, but you can still buy refurbished or used ones.

The best part is that it you can install Rockbox. Rockbox is such a beautiful piece of software.

I am fiercely protective about my Sansa Clip. I only paid around 35$ for it, but it's way more valuable to me than that now that they are getting difficult to find.

Sadly the batteries are crap and it dies pretty quickly from sweating, which makes it a bad workout companion. Also a note - the newest Clip Zip with color screen has much worse sound, better to opt for older Clip+.

> I also don't understand why anyone wants to use their phone as a music player. The idea of that sounds needlessly awkward and they'll fill their device's HD up with largely useless music.

So what's the problem with filling up most of the space for music? The only reason I needed storage space in the first place was to put music on it. Everything else (contacts, apps, etc) use up less than 5% of the total used space.

I still have mine, although i don't actually use it as a ipod anymore, but i bought a watch band for it so now it's actually a quite cool watch, worth the 30bucks or whatever they want for it if you want a different watch

http://www.shophex.com/vision-metal-watch-band-for-ipod-nano...

I had one of those, they were awesome. I still have it in a drawer somewhere, but unfortunately the connection to the screen broke (the screen is just white, all the time) and estimations to fix it cost more than buying a completely new device, so in the drawer it stays.

You would expect a well-built, modern (and hackable?) iPod Classic successor (with support for streaming services, but traditional UI) to be a nice Kickstarter idea?

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