F*ck Apple!

[BlueSkyJaunte]

My 120GB iPod just died. No warning, no unusual circumstances. It was freshly charged and playing away in my car during the trip to the pizza place, and on the way home it wouldn't connect. Fiddled with it when we got home and it's 100% bricked. Won't charge, won't respond to any button presses, nothing (yes, I checked the hold switch).

Apple in their infinite wisdom has discontinued this thing--NOS ones are commanding huge prices.

So what else is there out there that (1) uses the iPod interface (either the new or the old connector), (2) holds at least 100GB, and (3) costs less than $400?

I think I know the answer: nothing.

F*ck Apple.

[Neilk]

Do you control the music via th iPod or car stereo? If the later, can you try getting a 128gb memory stick and using that?

[Tervuren]

You make little sense, perhaps there is more?

[dad911]

So it lasted 6ish years, and it's F*ck apple? I've got a 42" lcd tv that died before the warranty was up, and it's not worth sending in because of shipping..... F*ck Westinghouse!

Here's one for $150.... 120 GB iPod Classic with case and Charger cord

[motion]

It uses a hard drive. Hard drives don't last forever. 6 years sounds like a pretty good run to me.

[Scott R]

Thought I was going to be able to help you out, have an extra Ipod I've never used, but it's only 16gb. I suppose if anyone else wants it, you can have it.

[HardDrive]

Originally Posted by motion

It uses a hard drive. Hard drives don't last forever. 6 years sounds like a pretty good run to me.

This.

[CHICKS]

PM sent Scott.

[winders]

Come on. A 64GB iPod Touch is a great device at a reasonable price of $299. 64GB is a lot of music......

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Originally Posted by Neilk

Do you control the music via th iPod or car stereo? If the later, can you try getting a 128gb memory stick and using that?

It's an interface issue. The car's stereo controls the iPod using the iPod "database". Playlists, browse by artist/genre/etc. all work. When using an SD card (or whatever) it's literally browsing through the file structure. Extremely inconvenient and frankly an unsafe activity to engage in while driving.

Originally Posted by Tervuren

You make little sense, perhaps there is more?

Really? I thought I was pretty clear. Several other people seem to understand the issue. Perhaps you should brush up on modern tech.

Originally Posted by motion

It uses a hard drive. Hard drives don't last forever. 6 years sounds like a pretty good run to me.

I'm well aware the HDs don't last forever. The problem is that Apple no longer offers an equivalent product. All of their similar products cost 2x with 1/2 the capacity.

[spuggy]

Originally Posted by BlueSkyJaunte

My 120GB iPod just died. No warning, no unusual circumstances. It was freshly charged and playing away in my car during the trip to the pizza place, and on the way home it wouldn't connect. Fiddled with it when we got home and it's 100% bricked. Won't charge, won't respond to any button presses, nothing (yes, I checked the hold switch).

Apple in their infinite wisdom has discontinued this thing--NOS ones are commanding huge prices.

So what else is there out there that (1) uses the iPod interface (either the new or the old connector), (2) holds at least 100GB, and (3) costs less than $400?

I think I know the answer: nothing.

F*ck Apple.

Sounds to me like yours may have eaten the motherboard, or a connection popped out inside. If the battery was dead, it'd still respond on charge; if the hold button was locked "on", it'd still respond to being plugged in. If the drive was dead, you'd get a big exclamation mark symbol...

You'd still be able to get into the menus, without the battery or a drive connected.

I dislike the Classic for so many reasons. I have several motherboards that went insane and won't do anything sensible at all - and a couple that died completely. The DAC is also noticeably lower quality than the device used in the previous model (iPod video).

The iPod video (5.5 generation onwards, best to pick the 60GB or 80GB model, which have a larger buffer than the models which originally came with smaller drives) will take a 240GB Toshiba MK2431GAH drive. Goes right in....

Those drives are (still) expensive at around $200. About what they cost back in the day. You could convert the smaller video iPods too, but you'd need to splash out an extra $5 for a 60/80GB back cover to accomodate the larger drive. Oh, and I think the battery is bigger too.

iPods upgraded like this work great; I converted two of them about 5-6 years ago. Amazing to be able to put your entire music collection in your pocket..

But nowadays, a 256GB SSD that'll fit in the iPod is $155 - cheaper than the Tosh. Makes no sense to use the spinning drive, because SSD will be faster, certainly more resilient if you drop it - and probably out-last spinning disk regardless of how often you (re)write the songs.

So start with a functional iPod video with a trashed hard drive and/or battery - these used to be pretty cheap. Replace HDD with an SSD, replace battery while you're in there. Done.


I actually use my iPods less and less all the time.

Google Play Music increased their song limit to 50,000 (from 20,000) a few months ago. I use my phone in the car over bluetooth - which seems to work better for this purpose than it ever did for headsets.

For the gym, I use a SanDisk Zip Clip; fill a 32GB SDHC card with music and pop it in.

Both the Zip and the SDHC card are cheap enough that if you lose either (or both) it's disposable. And 32GB of music is a fairly respectable amount of music (think "best of" albums for all your favorite bands, instead of your entire collection). Oh, and the thing is tiny.

I tried several cheap MP3 players before arriving at the Zip - with either my Grado SR 80's or my Shure SE215's, I simply can't tell the difference between the Video and the Zip (whereas I could hear the difference between the Classic and the Video - googled it looking for a fix and found confirmation/a bunch of Apple fans whinging about the Classic's sound quality).

In fact, I bought 2 Zip Clips; on long flights, the battery only lasts about 8-9 hours and the Clip doesn't pull enough juice from my smart battery pack for it to register that there's anything there - it just switches off again...

[Gogar]

I'm sorry to hear about your troubles but I agree that 6 years is not too bad. Is it s stock car stereo or something?

[speeder]

All of my Apple devices have taken extreme use and abuse before (some of them) crapped-out. I'm sticking with them.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Spuggy, thanks for the helpful reply. My entire music collection is in Google Play, but I don't like having to stream over my data carrier when driving. I also dislike having to use the phone to navigate through my music while driving. I have an old iPod video that still works. I think it's only 20GB, but apparently it's worth looking into tweaking it.

My car's stock stereo (2015 GTI) simply duplicates the iPod's navigation "paradigm". It's fast, easy, and works via either the car's touchscreen or one of the knobs.

I just hate that Apple offed the hi-cap iPods to in favor of what is essentially an overpriced, neutered, and capacity-limited iPhone.

[Scuba Steve]

I understand wanting to fix it - I keep using my 32GB iPod Touch because of how completely awful the stock music app on my Nexus 5 is. iTunes is much better at creating and managing playlists. There's probably a way to do this on a computer instead of setting it up on an Andoid phone but I haven't looked into it yet.

I'd go with spuggy's suggestion. High capacity iPods are probably gone because they sold so few of them any more. It bugs me too because my 32GB is FULL and streaming is not an option at work due to our buildings blocking out nearly all phone signals.

[mattdavis11]

I think you guys are missing out. I drive about 1000 miles a week, and last week the radio in the camry died.

Outside of hearing traffic reports, I miss nothing.

[intakexhaust]

Memory is so cheap these days, even the micro-SD cards. Why be forced to use contract data usage with a provider plus no memory expansion with Apple?

Scored on Amazone 128gb Class 10 micro SD for $59 (SanDisk). Stick it in a cheap no contract Sharp Aquos purchase w/ a $20 for 2 year no questions asked warranty (drop, smash accepted free replacement) and the kids are happy.

[HardDrive]

This is crap! I bought a Milwaukee drill, and it only worked for 35 years before crapping out. Now the new ones are more expensive. F*ck Milwaukee.

[jyl]

Have you checked the trend of iPod sales? Demand for this product is rapidly fading. It's not inconceivable that Apple won't make any iPod in a few years. Subscription aka streaming models are taking over.

[jyl]

Oh - used 120 GB iPods are all over eBay. Spend $150 and get one already.