Reacting to comments: iPods are good, actually

My latest video was an unscripted “repair vlog” style video, outlining how I repaired an iPod recently and why I love using it:

• PeerTube (no ads, no tracking): https://tinkerbetter.tube/w/q5ommxAYYy7kmG8P5M4yq9
• YouTube (ads, tracking): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fP6bnsobJ4

As is typically the case, the majority of comments have been perfectly pleasant, encouraging comments about how iPods are, in fact, cool, and it’s fun to find new uses for vintage tech. Great stuff.

A few threads of disagreement have popped up, so yeah, let’s react to them, in order of most reasonable to least!

Why not just use a phone on airplane mode?

OK, maybe this isn’t disagreement so much as not understanding where I’m coming from. Which is fine. But nevertheless, it’s a perfectly reasonable question.

I mentioned that I love iPods because they will never interrupt me with a phone call, and folks right away commented that I can just put my phone on airplane mode. True, but also not really the same thing.

Not wanting my music to be interrupted by a phone call isn’t the same thing as saying I don’t want to receive any messages. There’s plenty of times I’m texting with someone, or writing emails, or surfing the web, and want to listen to music.

A bigger issue is the fact that the phone has no headphone jack. That’s pretty much a dealbreaker in many circumstances like my workout playlist or playing music through my receiver.

But the biggest reason why I want a purpose-built device is because it’s intentional.

Music for me is not just “background noise”. It’s a deeply personal experience. I am a musician, myself, and for me, listening to music is often a dedicated activity in itself. My phone, on the other hand, is a terrible burden that society expects me to participate in. Separating the concerns feels logical.

Why not just use a second, older smartphone, entirely offline?

I bunch of commenters asked why I wouldn’t just use an old Android or iPhone, and keep it offline. After all, many older phones have removable storage.

For one, an older smartphone has no tactile buttons, unless of course we’re going way back to physical keyboard-era smartphones (which I adored but I digress). An iPod has an interface I can manipulate largely without looking at it: I can easily raise the volume, skip tracks, and play/pause while keeping my eyes off of the device. That’s not always possible on an older phone.

But here’s the biggest reason why an older phone doesn’t make sense to me: I don’t have one.

Why would I go out and seek out some crummy old phone, when I already possess not only several iPods, but the peripherals for them? Over the years I’ve managed to collect enough docks, cables, and compatible equipment to last a generation or two.

A simple reason I prefer the iPod is that it’s what I had in the mid 2000s, and what I still have today. And that’s a good enough reason to prefer a piece of tech.

iPods are too much work. Android is better.

“Adding music to an iPod sure looks like a chore.” Is it?

I mean, it’s not quite “drag the files onto the iPod”, but it’s pretty close to that when it comes to Rhythmbox. I can literally select the songs I want to sync, and drag them into the iPod. I showed that at the end of the video.

A lot of commenters were saying that they’d never want to purchase a piece of hardware if they have to open it up to change the battery or whatever, and yeah, there’s valid critique in Apple’s design choices, sure.

But your smartphone has those same problems. At least the iPod has a healthy repair ecosystem nowadays.

Putting songs-you-own onto the iPod isn’t all that hard to me. But maybe the real problem is that some folks don’t want to own songs anymore, which leads me to…

Streaming is here to stay, get used to it.

I can’t stand streaming media.

I love streaming tech for livestreams and events, but when it comes to media like music, movies, and television series, I don’t stream at all, and haven’t for some time.

I tried Spotify for a few years, and was constantly annoyed at how my playlists would be suddenly incomplete due to copyright issues or licensing problems. And this says nothing about the fact that Spotify isn’t a great player in the game, or how musicians are forced into working with third parties to add music.

In short, I feel like Spotify is a vulture picking at the bones of a once thriving music industry.

Beyond my distaste for the streaming options, another issue with streaming is that I don’t like algorithm-driven recommendation engines. “New music for you” takes the joy out of discovery. I want recommendations from my friends, not a computer. I like talking about music, and sharing what I’ve discovered with other folks.

Music is supposed to be organic, and for me at least, the streaming industry takes all of the joy out of it. No thanks.

Apple sucks. Use X player instead!!!1!

This is the most unreasonable comment, and sadly the most popular nasty comment. I had to delete a bunch of these for language, too (kids watch my channel, folks).

Anyway, I don’t understand this one at all. For one, we’re talking about iPods, which Apple hasn’t sold in years. Buying or acquiring a used iPod gives Apple no money, neither does making a YouTube video about an Apple product.

It does, however, support a few cool small businesses, like Elite Obsolete and DosLab, which churn out compatible parts for these old pieces of hardware.

But beyond all that, come on. Aren’t we beyond “my brand is good and your brand sucks” here in the 2K20s?

I also see this on videos about Commodore products: “Commodore sucks, Atari rules” or whatever. Like, aren’t we past high school? Maybe some of us aren’t.

Well, here’s my “nuanced” take: Apple products are fine if you enjoy using them.

I have a preference for open source software stacks. I want to see open source hardware ecosystems thrive. On the music player front, a Patron told me about Tangara today, and it looks really, really cool.

My preference for open source doesn’t mean I have to put anyone else down. And it doesn’t mean that for you, either.

Surely, nuance can make a comeback online. Right?