No more iPod: what other devices still exist to listen to mobile music without the phone?

Every afternoon, Sebastián Rodríguez goes jogging in his neighborhood. He always runs about 5 kilometers, with the idea of ​​cleaning his head after the day’s work, and as usual with those who run, he accompanies the exercise with music. A bit of heavy metal, national rock and even reggaeton so as not to let go of the will. The less common is that it does not play the sound tracks smartphone but from a small iPod Shuffle, Apple’s portable player ceased production five years ago.

There were two decades of history of one of the most iconic devices of the company founded by Steve Jobs. The iPod, as all the articles published about it have pointed out, revolutionized the music industry by offering the possibility of having thousands of songs in your pocket, consolidating digital listening as the most popular to consume music and as the most profitable activity. from the Eastern market. In 2008 alone, 54.8 million units were sold, representing more than $9 billion in profits for Apple.

But success doesn’t last forever. Little by little, the iPod gives way to new devices manufactured by Apple itself, such as the iPad, the Apple Watch and mainly the iPhone. In 2014, for example, the iPod Classic, one of the favorite models of users due to its huge capacity: 160 GB, was discontinued. Five years later, Apple released the latest generation of the iPod Touch, which even offers smartphone-like functions such as connecting to the Internet and sending messages. Last Tuesday, the company’s vice president of marketing, Greg Joswiak, announced that no more units of the model will be made, dooming the story.

The news did not surprise Sebastián, who is always aware of what is happening at the technological level thanks to his work in digitalmedios.cl , the company he founded a few years ago that offers website development. However, he could not avoid the blow of nostalgia. “Unfortunately, it’s part of the digital evolution,” he says. And what he perhaps regrets most is that the iPod is a representation of another era —although just over ten years have passed since its heyday—in which resistant products over time were still made.

In this sense, Sebastián found himself not only with a piece of history, but with two, because in addition to the Shuffle, he keeps the iPod Classic that he bought ten years ago like new. “It has over nine thousand songs, from Amar Azul to Zwan, including Metallica, AC/DC, electronic, classical and jazz music.”

As if that were not enough, as the model also allows viewing of photos, films and series, it also has the seven seasons of Family father. “Even playing solitaire,” says Sebastian. Thanks to the iPod, he says, trips on the subway, bus or outside the city were less tedious, “despite its small screen”.

It’s not that Sebastián is against the platforms of Diffusion musical —de hecho, es uno de los 180 millones de usuarios con pagan por una cuenta de Spotify—, pero por eso mismo queda la duda: ¿por qué insistir en el uso de un device tan específico como el iPod para la escuchar música cuando in the smartphone Do you have this option and many others?

Francisco Romero spends most of his days surrounded by a musical environment. Not just for fun: his work as a post-producer for Radio Horizonte conditions him to do so. He says he once had an iPod, but it was out of fashion. “I’m younger,” he apologizes. Indeed, it had a Touch, precisely the model that Apple has just withdrawn.

However, his favorite portable device is neither the iPod nor his smartphonebut the Sony NW-E016, an mp3 player. “I use it a lot when I have to travel,” says Francisco. The size of the device, much smaller than that of a smartphone, makes it more comfortable to carry.

For him, there are several reasons why he prefers this type of player to using a smartphone and the platforms Diffusion. One is that “he maintains this romanticism of taking the time to choose the songs and compose a playlist for different occasions. In his case, these lists are loaded towards the alternative rock of groups like Placebo, Franz Ferdinand and Arcade Fire, to which is added one or another podcast.

His player allows him to tune into FM radio, which he says “most iPhones” don’t offer. “If I want to be informed and listen to the news more immediately than by connecting to the Internet, I connect to a station.”

For Francisco, the quality of the audio obtained is also decisive. “Whoever has the most delicate ear tends to prefer these older sets, which have a penchant for maintaining good sound. And Sony is one of the brands that has done quite well on this. Although it started tear mp3 – which produced poor quality audio files due to its compression – gradually evolved into high resolution formats such as FLAC or ALAC.

The device’s resistance to the passage of time is a detail shared by Francisco’s reader and Sebastián Rodríguez’s iPods. Radio post-producer Horizonte has had his device for over twelve years and it still works without any problems. In addition, the battery “lasts much longer than the mobile phone”, says Francisco. This, in part, is because it’s only used for playing audio content and isn’t shared with other features.

This reader is not the same as Francisco Romero’s, which is no longer manufactured. However, it has similar features: it has 4GB of internal storage, 23 hours of continuous use battery life, 3 minutes of quick charging, and built-in FM radio.

There are two other very good reasons to opt for a portable device other than a smartphone, like any iPod or mp3 player. The first is that they don’t need an internet connection to play their content, which is especially beneficial for those who don’t have a cellphone data plan.

But perhaps the most important reason today, in these times of dispersal and distraction, is that they only work for one thing: audio playback. There are no interruptions or temptations such as WhatsApp, social media or incoming calls that impair listening. A point that any music lover appreciates with particular fervor.

But what other alternatives are there, if not the iPod or the Sony player that Francisco uses?

“What I can recommend the most is any Fiio brand. Although they are mainly sold by AliExpress, over the years they have established themselves as “the best kept secret” among people who prefer to listen to music in this type of format (not Diffusion or similar)’,” says tech journalist Martín Calderón. “The price isn’t cheap, it starts at 250,000 pesos, but since it’s hi-fi, you get all the juice out of your music,” he adds.

Rodrigo Rosas, from the store specializing in high fidelity audio equipment Allegro HiFi comments that at the level of walkmans, the natural evolution of the iPod is the Digital audio players (DAP), which represented a leap in terms of audio quality and storage capacity. This is the case of the mentioned FiiO, also from Astell & Kern. The latter, explains Rosas, “have a greater memory capacity, manage high-resolution files, such as DSD (Direct Stream Digital), which incidentally allows the reproduction of audio by Diffusion services like Tidal.

This Astell & Kern player allows high quality audio playback, being compatible with codecs such as Qualcomm, aptX HD and LDAC. It offers 20 hours of continuous playback charge. And it has two-way Bluetooth connectivity, allowing it to receive and transmit data.

Francisco, in turn, recommends any player from the South Korean brand Cowon, which specializes in the manufacture of portable multimedia devices. Although they are not for sale in Chile —unless they are used— you can find them on eBay .

Either way, they can save your life when you don’t have the smartphone take refuge in music. Francisco says it’s like “the battery-operated radio when the power is off.” And he recommends buying one if you can’t save an old one, forgotten in a corner of the closet, to have it”backupin the bag. “If they run out of battery on the cellphone, they can continue listening from that device.”

If you’re still crying over Apple’s decision to discontinue the iPod Touch, or if you’re worried about losing all those files you’ve accumulated for years on your iPod Classic – a lifetime of music, as is the case with Sebastián Rodríguez – we leave you with some recommendations.

The first is to back up all that content. Martín Calderón says that the best way to recover music from your iPod is to use software other than iTunes. “iPods are not designed to transmit music from them to your Mac or PC. Apple’s idea was to ‘sync’ your library with that of the device. So, to rescue it, many and very cumbersome procedures are necessary.For this reason, third parties have created Software non-staff who contribute to this task. I occupied iMazing 2 And it worked really well for me.”

And if your computer doesn’t have enough space to back up those 10,000 songs you have on your iPod, you can back up to an external hard drive. “The Kingston brand offers affordable models of very good quality,” he says. If not, you can check out a list of the best on the market here.

Sebastián Rodríguez occupies the NAS, a storage device that stays online via Wi-Fi. “It creates a cloud at home.” He completes it with Complex an application that supports all kinds of audio and video formats and allows you to access these files from any device connected to the network.

On the other hand, if no alternative convinces you more than to extend the life of your iPod for as many years as possible, Francisco Romero says that on YouTube you can catch “lots” of tutorials in which they teach how to change their battery for a new one.

Who knows if you’ll make it survive until iPod nostalgia hits as hard as vinyl, cassette or CD, and brings them back to life in a few years. For the moment, small consolation brought by the specialized technological site masable : if you have a Nano (7th generation), Shuffle (4th generation), or Touch (4th or 5th generation), you can already boast of having in your hands a model vintage.

*Prices for products in this item are updated as of May 20, 2022. Values ​​and availability may change.