Goodbye to the iPod Touch

[Robbie]

An end of an era but one that doesn't come as any surprise.

Apple to discontinue the iPod after 21 years

Apple has announced it is discontinuing its music player, the iPod Touch, bringing to an end a device widely praised for revolutionising how people listen to music.

When the first iPod was launched in 2001, it could store 1,000 tracks. Today there are more than 90 million songs on Apple's streaming service.

The iPod Touch was designed by the same team that later invented the iPhone, which quickly overshadowed the iPod.

Apple last updated the iPod in 2019.

There have been various iPod models over the years - including the Nano and Shuffle - but the iPod Touch, which was released in 2007 is the last model to be discontinued.

Apple says it will remain available to buy "while stocks last".

The gadget had "redefined how music is discovered, listened to, and shared", Greg Joswiak, the senior vice-president of worldwide marketing at Apple said.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-61401626

[Robbie]

I bought my first iPod Touch in 2010 an still have it somewhere. The next (and last) one I bought was in 2013. This was in the era when I first started downloading music from iTunes and it was a great way of having music on the move. Prior to that I had a 512MB MP3 player that could barely hold more than about 50 tracks, all of which were downloaded from Limewire and Frostwire! Once I moved to an iPod Touch it had a capacity of 32GB and I could download more than just MP3 files.

I still have both iPod Touch's, and neither have been charged up for years as it's now all about Spotify on my mobile phone. Like my portable cassette and CD Walkman's they seem a relic of another era.

I still wonder how long iTunes will last as it was developed largely for consumers to download music to their iPods...

[Jordan]

I've owned about 3 iPod classics in my life (the 160gb one), purely because it could hold the most music. All 3 of them corrupted and became unusable after a couple of years, and before getting to that point they'd each wiped all my music a few times too.

The iPod touch I then switched to became far more reliable / less glitchy, but by that time I was on the verge of switching to streaming, and reticent to carry around another device (when I already have a personal iPhone and a work iPhone to lug around). For a short while I'd always have 3 apple devices on my workstation, prompting rumours that I was some sort of pusher...

[Razzle Dazzle]

Never had an Apple mp3 player, ive heard nothing but horror stories of them breaking and wiping your music collection of everyone that i know, still have the same mp3 player ive had 15 years, a creative zen mp3 player, cost about £60, plug it in, drag and drop mp3s onto it, never broke, never wiped, cant complain

[Razzle Dazzle]

Haven't used it for a long time though due to phones being 10x better than mp3 players these days, Spotify has made them redundant

[Mark]

I've never owned an ipod. i do have a Sony MP3 walkman which i had for Christmas 2013 and still works.

[smokeyb]

Use my Ipod touch every week, had it quite a few years now.

[rewardman]

Not sure which particular iPod I have but I love it and play it regularly in the car. Never had any issues with it.

[LT]

I had no idea the iPod was still going ! But I realise the significance of it and it’s really sad to see it (finally) discontinued! I have very fond memories of the huge iPod classic , it changed the way I consumed music forever ! Rip

[Pablo]

A pioneer of its time with the introduction of the scroll wheel and its minimalistic design. Thought the Shuffle was a waste of time but the iPod Touch was genius.

The only thing I hated was how intrusive iTunes was when you plugged it in. Might have changed in recent times but charging from a computer was a challenge sometimes

[Roo.]

May 11, 2022 12:45:35 GMT 1 Razzle Dazzle said:

Never had an Apple mp3 player, ive heard nothing but horror stories of them breaking and wiping your music collection of everyone that i know, still have the same mp3 player ive had 15 years, a creative zen mp3 player, cost about £60, plug it in, drag and drop mp3s onto it, never broke, never wiped, cant complain

I had the exact opposite problem! My Creative Zen loved nothing more than removing all my music from itself, final straw being when it did it in the airport as I was flying solo to California - I got an iPod not long after.

[Robbie]

I've just remembered I also bought a Philips GoGear Opus 32GB prior to getting my first iPod Touch. It looked good but was a little fidgety and awkward to use. Needless to say it wasn't in production for very long as just about every review for it was for one or two stars.

www.philips.co.uk/c-p/SA1OPS32K_02/gogear-mp3-video-player-with-fullsoundtm/overview

I still have this one too and have just tried it - it still works!

[Razzle Dazzle]

May 12, 2022 3:02:56 GMT 1 Roo. said:

May 11, 2022 12:45:35 GMT 1 Razzle Dazzle said:

Never had an Apple mp3 player, ive heard nothing but horror stories of them breaking and wiping your music collection of everyone that i know, still have the same mp3 player ive had 15 years, a creative zen mp3 player, cost about £60, plug it in, drag and drop mp3s onto it, never broke, never wiped, cant complain

I had the exact opposite problem! My Creative Zen loved nothing more than removing all my music from itself, final straw being when it did it in the airport as I was flying solo to California - I got an iPod not long after.

Thing I found with iTunes was you were locked into Apple forever once you made that call, I prefer the freedom to choose, if your Apple product failed your f*cked, you have to buy Apple again, if a standard MP3 player fails you had the choice of the market.

Nightmare but at least the Zen didn't have the capability of synching with your iTunes library and wiping that too so you lost your music from iTunes too! I found with standard mp3 players, if they did break you could switch to a different brand of mp3 player and seamlessly transfer your entire MP3 catalogue, they were my #1 and #2 criteria for an mp3 player and Apple just failed on both

Have to say I don't know many people that haven't had an Apple product fail on them, some are on their 15th iPhone and every one broke, I always laugh when they brag to me about new features on their £1000 iPhone and I say they were introduced 3 year ago on the £250 Samsung lol

Saying that I think their early MP3 player range was at least pretty good value considering they charge $1000 for an Apple Pro Stand for the Pro Display

[greendemon]

Never had an iPod, I was very anti-Apple so avoided anything to do with them in their heyday (still do albeit not really intentionally, it just worked out that way).

I do still use my music/mp3 player, being the dinosaur that I am, but it's not Apple.