Ask HN: What can replace my iPod for podcast listening?
My 16GB 5th gen iPod nano is dying. I'm looking for a replacement. Years ago Apple stopped selling anything except the iPod Touch, which is too large and fragile for me. I want something that fits into my pocket, with a long battery life.
"Long" means can be used for a couple of days without needing a charge, or in standby for weeks. As an example of "too fragile", I had a 7th gen. iPod with touch screen that broke after a month or two of the same treatment my 5th gen. handled for years. I went back to my 5th gen. after that.
I only need it for podcasts. I like dedicated hardware to reduce the temptation to connect to the world.
Since Apple decided to split up iTunes into different apps (I haven't upgraded my Mac yet, to keep iTunes), I'm also fine with switching to a new app to manage podcasts.
Any suggestions?
153 comments
[ 5.2 ms ] story [ 216 ms ] threadOne of the joys of the iPod was that I didn't really have to worry about charging it on a regular schedule. It would hold its charge for a long time. Eg, I took it bike camping and listened to Hardcore History's multi-part episode on Genghis Khan over a couple of days, with no need to charge up.
That's no longer the case. The battery life has gotten worse over the last couple of years, likely from age. It now doesn't hold a charge for more than a couple of days. I suspect that if I buy another old iPod then its battery will also be 10 years old and not in good shape.
If I don't find a good option for new hardware, then used is definitely a backup alternative!
https://support.apple.com/ipod/repair/service/pricing
I saw the iFixit rating of "very difficult" and its need for specialized tools I don't have (at https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iPod+Nano+5th+Generation+Batter... ) and say "nope!"
Give it a go, what's the worst that can happen (ok the worst is that you puncture the battery, don't do that).
If that's not a specialist battery replacement, I don't know what is.
It looks like it deserves the "very difficult" rating.
If you're not familiar with spudgers, loosening adhesive with heat, tiny parts/tools, the risk of failure and frustration are very high for a "one-off" project.
I've used one to have the battery on an Android phone replaced.
You can easy convince them to look on iFixit and do it, because we (customers) just doesn't have working experience on repairs and right instruments.
I took it to a nearby fixit place. The immediate feedback I got was that since I opened it up they weren't going to take a look at it or even talk to me about it. Sort of an angry "why did you so dumb as to do that?" sort of thing. So that's not a place I plan to visit again, and it looked to be the best provisioned place in town, with an actual room above an TV/gadgets/etc. store and not a mall desk.
I ended up using superglue, borrowing a soldering iron from a friend's dad, and doing it myself. It was a crappy iron likely decades old. Good enough for 6-month fix for an near EOL laptop. Not for fixing an iPod.
So I've resigned to the fact that there probably isn't a decent fixit place in town. For that I'll have to visit the big city (pop. here is 60K people). Which means factoring in travel costs.
What do you use for podcast management?
I've got this xDuoo X3 (bought it ages ago), which apparently has a pretty good DAC and is able to load from two SDCards, and has a third-party Rockbox implementation.
There's a new version ot (X3 II), which has a much larger display.
You can do the modification yourself on iPod with a broken hard drive or buy one on eBay already modified. (Tip: The 5th gens are easier to modify than the 7th gens since they come apart a lot easier.)
Personally, I use a 5th gen Classic with 32GB of flash and a new battery. I modified it myself with a compact flash card and a new battery. It's been in use for about 3 years and I've had no real issues.
I personally use a modded 5.5 gen for daily listening, it's vastly superior to using a smartphone. It has a huge memory and unbeatable battery life. With cheap replaceable batteries and SD card boards, it should essentially last for years/decades. The firmware is much simpler than iOS, so it doesn't matter that it's not maintained, it simply works.
EDIT: OP is using a Mac, so I'm not sure if this is feasible. It does work well on Windows though.
[1] https://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_dop
[2] https://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_podcatcher
Alas, I'm in Sweden so eBay + shipping + customs adds a chunk, but maybe I can find someone here who does that.
the newer cell-phone-yet-unconnected Sony Walkmans are pretty neat, and they have some nice DAC features.
The price is steep, but not Apple steep.
Don't know what you could/should use on the software side though to manage the content... Life has changed a lot since I last used strictly offline devices, and not only for the better.
Which means then figuring out that process. And I couldn't find people describing how they used a Walkman for listening to podcasts.
At least on Android versions of the Walkmans.
I am detail oriented, which contributes to the quality of the software I develop. That level of attention to detail extends to other areas. For example, I read all of the license agreements I'm told that I have to assent to. This makes it really hard for me to agree to all of the automatic software updates, which update the license agreement, so I disable updates until I have the time to read the new license.
(As an aside, OmniGroup has the best proprietary license I've read, and I've commended them for it. And I've complained to ORCId that they claim their signup takes only seconds, which means they don't expect people to read their license.)
So one reason I prefer FOSS is that I don't to read the #%^#$^ licenses.
If I switch to the Android ecosystem, and sign up to Google's app store, I expect have to read pages of legalese - which I don't care to do.
I understand that most people are not this way. I hope you understand that some people are not like you.
From some of your other comments, I gathered that you aren't heavily into using smartphones, so there's no reason you have to subscribe to the _full_ experience of it, proprietariness and all. Our devices are only as complicated as we allow them to be.
I totally understand if you want something that works out of the box too, the rest of us who would like a functional experience with the creature comforts of smart-devices have to go out of our way to debloat and tweak things because these experiences are not yet readily available for us.
[1] https://www.rockbox.org/
I also have a very fuzzy recollection that the batteries weren't especially replaceable, meaning we've got a finite time before they're all bricks...
The battery lasted around 14 hours when it was new, now I'm getting roughly half of that. I seem to remember someone on the now defunct anythingbutipod.com replacing the battery, although they had to break the player apart to get inside.
Even the damn plastic clip on the back still works!
On my third one now which is beginning to show the same issues but the prices have gone up to the point I'll try and repair the jack on an old one instead of buy a new one. Doesn't look too hard beyond the prising open part, which from what I gather is a bit tricky given the size and how well bound it is
Battery has basically never died on me, the amount of charge it gets whenever I remember to connect it to add some new podcasts seems to just make it last forever.
How did you accomplish that? Sadly, mine break after a few years of abuse
Was unaware of the Rockbox firmware, looks interesting.
What's the advantage of Rockbox firmware over what it comes with?
There's a simple binary database in the root folder that keeps this information, but it gets reset whenever you add/remove files. Now that I think about it, it might even be possible to backup that info and restore it afterwards, although I never really needed to do that. I don't usually have more than a couple books/podcasts in progress, so it's easy to remember where I left off, if needed.
And loads of other games and programs.[6]
1 https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/PluginPacbox
2 https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/PluginRockblox
3 https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/PluginRockboy
4 https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/PluginFrotz
5 https://if.illuminion.de/infocom.html
6 https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/PluginIndex
Killer feature of Rockbox for me is possibility to change playback speed while maintaining original pitch. As most audiobooks and podcasts I prefer to listen on 120-130% speed.
[1] http://download.rockbox.org/manual/rockbox-gigabeats/rockbox... [2] http://download.rockbox.org/manual/rockbox-gigabeats/rockbox...
Usually these oldschool phones do play music and you can manage songs quite ok with files/folders on a micro sd card. What can be annoying though is a terrible UI for playing your music, don't expect things browsing tracks by artist for example...
You can find several older Android and Windows phone models for around $50 or less on ebay and most of those early phones had replaceable batteries as well. Grab and extra battery and you should be set for a few years.
I used to have cowon mp3 players for their good sound. This one is one of the cheaper ones, 15h runtime.: https://www.amazon.de/-/en/U7-16G-Black-Cowon-U7/dp/B07HY8L1...
I can understand the problem. With something like a 3 hour "Hardcore History" podcast, I'll take a break, listen to something else, then come back.
If I am sitting on my machine I use the computer, if I shop for groceries or commute I use my phone.
This might suit your needs: http://m.cowonglobal.com/product/iAUDIOE3/
Nowadays I listen to audio books, podcasts, music, read ebooks etc all on the phone...
Setting that aside, I also don't like the large size of smart phones, the relatively short battery life, and the poor durability.
[1]https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11468377-thinking-fast-a...
[2]https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32714199-the-craving-min...
Has Apple figured this out yet? (anyone who owns one...)
From experience, I have about 8GB of podcasts, and would rather not change my habits that much.
* The proprietary cable. Seriously, in 2020..
* It does not support album cover in JPEG 2000. Seems like a detail, but if you like your library well organised, it can be a time sink !
https://bemighty.com/
There can be some that won’t sync even though you can play them on spotify. This is apparently due to some licensing restrictions. The bbc is the main offender which i find enraging.
Hitting it cycles through the playlists and speaks the name of each one.