I received some really bad news last week.
Apple announced on Sept. 9 that they’re discontinuing the iPod classic—the original iPod created with the largest storage space available on their devices.
To me, this news was nothing short of heartbreaking. My iPod is one of my most cherished devices that I can’t leave home without. Currently, it’s in great condition, but now I’ll be living in fear that anything could happen to it because I won’t be able to replace it.
The first generation iPod was released in 2001 and was capable of storing 1,000 songs—making it have a 5 GB hard drive.
Before the iPod, I did all my listening on a Walkman—forcing me to carry around all the CDs I wanted to use around with me. It’s safe to say the iPod was a big step up for me.
The first iPod classic I bought was the 5th generation, released in 2005, when my pink iPod Mini met its fate. I loved my first classic until its death, which was when I replaced it with the 6th generation—the one I still use.
There’s something refreshing about using a simplistic device like an iPod. There’s no touchscreen or fancy features—just the standard click wheel, a ton of music and even a few videos, if that’s what your heart desires.
The battery life on the iPod is insane—I feel I can regularly listen to mine for a week or two before I have to charge it again.
The main reason I’ve held on to my iPod for so long, instead of making the “sensible” choice to moving toward listening from my phone, is the battery life factor. My phone is used so much during the day that I end the evening with minimal battery life left. I really can’t afford much more usage on my phone. I also like having the devices separated. There’s been many times that my iPod has saved me from many long evenings alone in Alden—but also saved me from the distraction of constantly looking at my phone when the song changes.
It also holds a TON of music. My current iPod is 160 GB, and I have 18,500 songs on it. It might sound like overkill, but I love being able to keep all of my music on it and not have to worry about going through and choosing a few to have on my device.
The other thing I hate about streaming through a phone is that the ad-free, unlimited streaming apps (be it Google Music, Spotify or Pandora) cost money. Sure, it’s a small monthly fee, but I’ll just stick with my trusty iPod—it never charges me to listen.
Sophie Kruse is a junior studying journalism and is a staff writer for The Post. Were you sad about the iPod news? Email her at sk139011@ohio.edu or tweet her at @kruseco.
