My iPod finally died. What are my options?

[Orbert]

I recently got a new car stereo, and it has Bluetooth, but I couldn't get my phone to talk to it, even though they were supposedly paired up.  I could hear, but the microphone wasn't picking me up.  So yeah, Bluetooth sucks.

[BlobVanDam]

Bollocks to phones getting thinner and thinner.

I love my 5S because it feels chunky and you can grip it and it doesn't feel like it will snap in half.

After the whole thing about one of the recent iPhones being thin enough to bend in half, I don't think they need to be any thinner. I get that as the technological demands get higher, they have to fit more into the same amount of space, but coming from Apple I'm sure the decision was at least 50% motivated by making more money.

[Orbert]

Update:

The kits arrived, and I managed to get my iPod open with only minor damage to the back cover.  Well, maybe medium damage.  I replaced the battery and removed the hard drive, but had a little trouble getting the SSD connected.  One of the ribbon controllers had to be switched, and then when you put it in, it goes upside-down from the way you think it should.  The connector is backwards, and tricky to get to stay in, so I concluded that it couldn't possibly go that way, as any sane person would.  Nope, it goes that way.

So I got the system to recognize the new drive, got iTunes to reload from scratch, and it came up.  It only recognizes 128Gb, which is better than 0Gb.  Someone on the boards at the Zif site said that the 256Gb won't work at all in a 6G Classic, which mine is.  The kit is supposed to be for the 7G, but I found a site that said the only difference is that the 7G is thinner because the HD is single platter, not double.  But they're wrong; the motherboard is different because the 7G will recognize 256Gb and the 6G won't.

But it works, and if 128Gb is all I can put into it anyway, then I'll keep the kits and just go with 'em.  The 128Gb kits were the same price as the 256Gb.

[Cable]

Heard a rumour hat iPhone 7 onwards will have lightning headphone connectors to get the phone even thinner.

If true then I shall go android.

Fuck that noise.

Their reasoning is that everyone uses bluetooth now, I call BS, they want to push their proprietary connector, as usual.  I'm happy Samsung is listening to complaints, rumors of adding the microSD card slot back to the S7 after removing it in the S6.

I know literally nobody who uses bluetooth.

Well you don't know me. 

The soundbar I have with bluetooth is rubbish. But my shower speaker, workout headphones, and car sound quite solid. Having Bluetooth in car for audio playback is handy because if I have a short trip, I don't need to pull the phone from my pocket. The same goes for phone calls- it's very handy.

But ultimately has limitations in sound quality sure, and lags with audio during videos. But the ease of using it is awesome.

[cramx3]

Update:

The kits arrived, and I managed to get my iPod open with only minor damage to the back cover.  Well, maybe medium damage.  I replaced the battery and removed the hard drive, but had a little trouble getting the SSD connected.  One of the ribbon controllers had to be switched, and then when you put it in, it goes upside-down from the way you think it should.  The connector is backwards, and tricky to get to stay in, so I concluded that it couldn't possibly go that way, as any sane person would.  Nope, it goes that way.

So I got the system to recognize the new drive, got iTunes to reload from scratch, and it came up.  It only recognizes 128Gb, which is better than 0Gb.  Someone on the boards at the Zif site said that the 256Gb won't work at all in a 6G Classic, which mine is.  The kit is supposed to be for the 7G, but I found a site that said the only difference is that the 7G is thinner because the HD is single platter, not double.  But they're wrong; the motherboard is different because the 7G will recognize 256Gb and the 6G won't.

But it works, and if 128Gb is all I can put into it anyway, then I'll keep the kits and just go with 'em.  The 128Gb kits were the same price as the 256Gb.

So conclusion, the kit worked and all is good now?  I mean it might not be what you expected in size, but it's all working as it should be?  That is awesome.

Heard a rumour hat iPhone 7 onwards will have lightning headphone connectors to get the phone even thinner.

If true then I shall go android.

Fuck that noise.

Their reasoning is that everyone uses bluetooth now, I call BS, they want to push their proprietary connector, as usual.  I'm happy Samsung is listening to complaints, rumors of adding the microSD card slot back to the S7 after removing it in the S6.

I know literally nobody who uses bluetooth.

Well you don't know me. 

The soundbar I have with bluetooth is rubbish. But my shower speaker, workout headphones, and car sound quite solid. Having Bluetooth in car for audio playback is handy because if I have a short trip, I don't need to pull the phone from my pocket. The same goes for phone calls- it's very handy.

But ultimately has limitations in sound quality sure, and lags with audio during videos. But the ease of using it is awesome.

I also use and enjoy bluetooth, in my car and I have bluetooth speakers.  I have headphones, but my nicer noise cancelling ones aren't bluetooth.  I have no problem with the sound quality. 

[faizoff]

I've become a recent convert of two things that I used to despise with a passion before. Bluetooth and Spotify Premium service. Maybe because I tried these ages ago they still had a lot of issues. Spotify sounded like crap before even with the premium version. I recently tried it out again and was very surprised at how good the high quality tracks sounded. Now they're not the same as FLAC but they're in the acceptable range for playback listen for me personally. I was using Amazon prime music and all their rips sound like garbage compared to the original source. Not sure what the hell they use to compress their music but even youtube sounds better. I'm very close to just subscribing to the premium service as it will give me more exposure to albums I normally would never buy plus the past few years I think I rarely buy more than 4-5 releases a year.

As for bluetooth I got myself a cheap pair of bluetooth earphones that I pair to almost everything I can pair with and am surprised by the range and sound quality for such a cheap set. Again I think with time the improvements have been vast to alter my opinions on them. Next will be to see if the chromecast has radically improved since it's first release, as that time I bought it primarily for tab casting and it was a glorified mess to get it working.

And to get back to the thread, glad the kit has been somewhat useful Orbert. I think 256 gb would've been ideal but oh well 128 gb is a doable compromise.

[Art]

Smartphone + Spotify Premium is what i use.

[Orbert]

Update:

The kits arrived, and I managed to get my iPod open with only minor damage to the back cover.  Well, maybe medium damage.  I replaced the battery and removed the hard drive, but had a little trouble getting the SSD connected.  One of the ribbon controllers had to be switched, and then when you put it in, it goes upside-down from the way you think it should.  The connector is backwards, and tricky to get to stay in, so I concluded that it couldn't possibly go that way, as any sane person would.  Nope, it goes that way.

So I got the system to recognize the new drive, got iTunes to reload from scratch, and it came up.  It only recognizes 128Gb, which is better than 0Gb.  Someone on the boards at the Zif site said that the 256Gb won't work at all in a 6G Classic, which mine is.  The kit is supposed to be for the 7G, but I found a site that said the only difference is that the 7G is thinner because the HD is single platter, not double.  But they're wrong; the motherboard is different because the 7G will recognize 256Gb and the 6G won't.

But it works, and if 128Gb is all I can put into it anyway, then I'll keep the kits and just go with 'em.  The 128Gb kits were the same price as the 256Gb.

So conclusion, the kit worked and all is good now?  I mean it might not be what you expected in size, but it's all working as it should be?  That is awesome.

Yep, that's the short version.  It'll only recognize 128GB anyway, so that's what I've got.  But it's a working iPod, and solid state, so what the heck.

New complication:  My car stereo, for reasons unknown, no longer recognizes iPods.  Connected via the USB cable, it worked fine for a couple of weeks, then stopped.  I can load tunes on a flashdrive and it'll read them fine, but not iPods.  Not the one I just refurbished, nor my wife's, nor the one a friend of mine just gave me.  A little research on the Internet reveals that this is a known issue with Alpine head units.  Shit.  That's the whole point of doing all this with the iPod, so I can play it in the car.

[hefdaddy42]

It's the Man keeping you down.

[faizoff]

Came across this article today, seems like a lot of people are doing the same thing as you Orbert.

[Orbert]

Yep, people are retrofitting iPod Classics with SSD, and people are buying them.

I was a bit intimidated at first, but I watched a bunch of YouTube videos of people doing upgrades and refurbs on their iPods, and one of them talked about being careful with the ribbon controller, making sure it's secured to the motherboard, etc., and suddenly I realized that it's just like operating on a PC (which I've done many times), just a lot smaller.  I decided I could do it.

I'm not ambitious enough to start up a business doing these things, but I'll finish mine and then do my wife's, and we'll both be rocking for years to come.

[JayOctavarium]

Haven't read the entire thread but will throw my 2 cents in.

I used to just use my phone and a 32 gb SD card.. but when T Mobile started their Music Freedom service, I started using Google Music.. I still have the essentials on my phone's card, but also have anything and everything else on the cloud. I can stream it all for free.

[home]

Here is an option for you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06JWDLTx4l0

Here is another: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydaFKXrRjj8

 


On a more serious note, why would you buy a second phone to put an sd card in it, you can just put one in your normal phone and listen music from it right?

[Orbert]

I have a Droid, and it doesn't support expansion via SD card or any other means.  At the time I got it, music via phone wasn't a consideration, so that never came into play.  It still doesn't.  Since I prefer a dedicated music player, the idea of buying a cheapo phone that happens to have a lot of expansion and using it just for music seemed weird, but upon reflection, not that different from carrying both a phone and an iPod.