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posted by LaminatorX on Friday September 19 2014, @10:11AM   Printer-friendly
from the No-wireless.-Less-space-than-a-nomad.-Lame. dept.

Well, I'm sure we've all seen the news by now that Apple has discontinued the iPod Classic. Which means they no longer offer any dedicated MP3 players with more than 64GB of storage.

My father has been using the iPod Classic for many years, and has over 100GB in his music collection at the moment, so he's been asking me for some advice on what he could buy once his current Classic eventually dies. And frankly, I can't find much! Cowon has a few models with enough storage, but those are all essentially miniature Android tablets. It's a potential solution, but it would be nice to have something with actual hardware controls rather than just a single touch screen since he mostly uses it while driving or at the gym. Something like the Sansa Clip might work, as it does have an SD card slot, but the interface looks like it would be pretty painful if you have more than a dozen or so albums.

Does anyone still manufacture anything comparable to the iPod Classic?

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  • (Score: 2) by mtrycz on Friday September 19 2014, @10:39AM

    by mtrycz (60) on Friday September 19 2014, @10:39AM (#95419)

    I don't think there are any because the cloud and streaming killed the use case.
    You could probably reencode the entire library in 192VBR MP3s (or maybe less?) to save a whole lot of space (the algorithms got better over the years, both quality- and storage-wise), before sending it to the player.

    And I think the "circle" interface is apple-only so don't waste your time on searching for a replacement for that.

    --
    In capitalist America, ads view YOU!
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 19 2014, @11:19AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 19 2014, @11:19AM (#95429)

      > I don't think there are any because the cloud and streaming killed the use case.

      Not streaming - smartphones surely?

  • (Score: 2) by ls671 on Friday September 19 2014, @10:40AM

    by ls671 (891) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 19 2014, @10:40AM (#95420) Homepage
    --
    Everything I write is lies, including this sentence.
  • (Score: 3, Informative) by dublet on Friday September 19 2014, @10:59AM

    by dublet (2994) on Friday September 19 2014, @10:59AM (#95422)

    I have a Cowon X7 [cowonglobal.com]. The UI is a bit clunky compared to an iPod but it has a 2 week battery life and 160GB of storage. There are two buttons on the side which I've mapped to prev/next. It doesn't run Android though, it's a custom OS.

  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 19 2014, @11:06AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 19 2014, @11:06AM (#95426)

    Check it out http://www.rockbox.org/ [rockbox.org]

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 19 2014, @12:03PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 19 2014, @12:03PM (#95440)

      In what way does that answer the question asked?

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by Nerdfest on Friday September 19 2014, @12:08PM

        by Nerdfest (80) on Friday September 19 2014, @12:08PM (#95443)

        RockBox does run on the Sansa Clip. If the clip can use a 128 GB microSD (I know it'll handle a 64 GB), the RockBox interface might be more usable than the stock interface, or certainly give a few more options. I've found that the startup time with the Sansa devoices is very slow with a large SD card using the standard interface as it seems to scan the card every time. RockBox uses a database. I think the only real problem with the Clip, or the Clip Zip is that the screen is very small.

        • (Score: 3, Informative) by tangomargarine on Friday September 19 2014, @02:23PM

          by tangomargarine (667) on Friday September 19 2014, @02:23PM (#95497)

          If you want something that looks and feels less kiddie than the Clip (the Clip+ technically I think), there's the Fuze, which is bigger and has a decent-sized screen (easily 4x as many pixels/twice the distance across). They both have microSD slots.

          I got one of the older model [wikipedia.org] before they replaced the clickwheel with that capacitive crap [wikipedia.org] at a day-after-Thanksgiving sale for like 42 bucks back around 2009 :)

          --
          "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
          • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday September 19 2014, @02:33PM

            by tangomargarine (667) on Friday September 19 2014, @02:33PM (#95505)

            Hmm. Apparently there's an update *to the update.* Now it's the Clip Zip (and Fuze+).

            Their naming is a bit schizophrenic...the "+" in Clip+ apparently refers to adding microSD support (the original Clip didn't have the slot) but in Fuze+ presumably refers to changing to capacitive touch controls. Then the Clip Zip apparently changes the display to a proper, slightly bigger color one, and aesthetically changes the buttons.

            Finally, both Rockbox and (I think) the original firmware support FLAC and OGG.

            --
            "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
          • (Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Saturday September 20 2014, @06:50PM

            by Nerdfest (80) on Saturday September 20 2014, @06:50PM (#95930)

            Last I checked, RockBox didn't run on the Fuze (or the Fuze+) ... and I really like RockBox. The reliability and sensitivity of the scroll wheel was also criticized. I did prefer the look and size of it though. I had (still have, actually) an e260 which was the model before the Fuze with a physical wheel. Nice size, nice screen, uses RockBox. I picked up a couple of Clip Zips for when it finally wears out.

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 22 2014, @12:32PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 22 2014, @12:32PM (#96711)

              I have a Fuze+ with Rockbox on it and it works.. just don't let it run flat.

              Otherwise, you end up having to start it in debug mode to get the battery to start charging.

              Other than that, the sensitivity for the touchpad is configurable. 5 or 6 is the sweet spot on mine, but it's 9 on my girlfriends so you'll have to try it out (take it down slowly or you may end up making it completely unresponsive!)

            • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Monday September 22 2014, @02:52PM

              by tangomargarine (667) on Monday September 22 2014, @02:52PM (#96785)

              I've been running Rockbox on the Fuze v2 for years, and the firmware v1 was supported even before that. The page says the Fuze+ version is Unstable, but that was what I started on and it seemed quite stable to me.

              The reliability and sensitivity of the scroll wheel was also criticized.

              I wouldn't know how it compares to an iPod but it works well enough for me. I do get the occasional land-on-the-next-item-than-I-was-aiming-for but I'm not sure how to qualify whether that's my fault, or the wheel, or the software.

              --
              "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
              • (Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Monday September 22 2014, @04:10PM

                by Nerdfest (80) on Monday September 22 2014, @04:10PM (#96814)

                Thanks, I checked right after I wrote that and actually went hunting for one or the other on ebay. The prices seem to vary between about $100 and $100. It's completely insane. I did manage to pick one up for about $35 eventually, but as with older Logitech TrackMans, people seem to know that they're very desirable devices to those that have used them. (TrackMans go for $150 to $500).

                • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Monday September 22 2014, @04:24PM

                  by tangomargarine (667) on Monday September 22 2014, @04:24PM (#96824)

                  Well, iPods go for $150-$300 so hey ;) And they don't even have SD slots.

                  Not sure what I'll do when my clickwheel Fuze wears out. I don't want to deal with that touch stuff.

                  The pseudocloth carrying sleeve it came with finally started deteriorating this year...the cloth layer is "debonding" from the grip mesh inside layer and coming off in little bits, unfortunately. Guess 5+ years is a decent lifespan for that though.

                  --
                  "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
                  • (Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Monday September 22 2014, @07:07PM

                    by Nerdfest (80) on Monday September 22 2014, @07:07PM (#96897)

                    Damn, I picked up a Fuze+ ... which has a touch type 'wheel'. The prices on the original Fuze are just ridiculous. Maybe you should sell it before you wear it out :)

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 19 2014, @12:04PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 19 2014, @12:04PM (#95442)

      Are you suggesting that a new firmware will fix a broken iPod, or that it can turn a non-iPod 32GB MP3 player into a 128GB one?

      • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday September 19 2014, @02:41PM

        by tangomargarine (667) on Friday September 19 2014, @02:41PM (#95508)

        No, but if it's a halfway-popular non-Apple mp3 player the odds are pretty good there's a Rockbox version for it so if your only reason for not getting one is "the interface is shit" look into it.

        --
        "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Gorath99 on Friday September 19 2014, @11:43AM

    by Gorath99 (1249) on Friday September 19 2014, @11:43AM (#95436)

    I was in the same situation as your dad. What I did was upload all my 100+ gigs of music to Google Play Music and listen via the cloud. I've been carrying dedicated mp3 players with me for well over a decade, but I no longer need to. Your dad's mileage will obviously vary depending on his access to a data connection.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by gidds on Friday September 19 2014, @01:23PM

      by gidds (589) on Friday September 19 2014, @01:23PM (#95473)

      As you suggest, that's only an option if you have access to a (cheap) net connection.

      I don't; most of my listening time is on trains, etc.  Nor do I have a device that could use one.  And the majority of what I listen to isn't available online: music from obscure labels, old music, programmes I've recorded off the radio, music I've performed and/or recorded myself, etc. — much of the latter private, so I wouldn't want to upload it anywhere.  (Plus, there's ITRO 300GB in all.)

      So, as far as I know, the only solution is a HD player.  Any suggestions for what to do when my 160GB iPod Classic dies?

      --
      [sig redacted]
      • (Score: 2) by VLM on Friday September 19 2014, @01:59PM

        by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 19 2014, @01:59PM (#95486)

        In my extensive audiobook experience unless you're doing something really weird with high bitrate FLAC a 16 gig phone can easily hold "ten or so" battery charges worth of audiobooks. Or lets say maybe a hundred hours of audiobooks with plenty of extra space.

        I think music would be a bigger problem because that tends to be higher bit rate.

        To some extent you just have to give up on the idea of holding your whole collection on the device. Oh well.

      • (Score: 2) by VLM on Friday September 19 2014, @02:09PM

        by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 19 2014, @02:09PM (#95491)

        "As you suggest, that's only an option if you have access to a (cheap) net connection."

        You can make one, you know. A wifi access point or a chip and software capable of acting like one (or go adhoc mode), a rasp pi, a 1 TB SSD, some power supplies to make the whole thing work off 12 volts in a car, some software to stream on the pi... You don't need to access "the internet" you need to access something with wifi that has a lot of storage.

        Its a good example of wasting a lot of time to accomplish not so much, but it is technically possible.

        Basically you're asking for a wifi pineapple with a terrabyte or two of USB storage and some software mods.

        My pineapple was fun for awhile, then it got boring, so you'd probably have no trouble finding a local to sell you one.

        You'll get dumped on if you run wifi in adhoc (wtf are you thinking, thats so slow) but think about it from an engineering perspective, if you're streaming 256K files then only having a mere 1 meg of bandwidth with gig capable hardware isn't a horrific problem, is it?

        There was a wifi NAS product for sale a couple years back, intended to be a little portable NAS with its only connection being its built in wifi... maybe still sold. That would be a COTS solution plus or minus powering it, if you can play music off it.

      • (Score: 1) by khedoros on Friday September 19 2014, @07:06PM

        by khedoros (2921) on Friday September 19 2014, @07:06PM (#95596)

        Any suggestions for what to do when my 160GB iPod Classic dies?

        My gen4 iPod's hard drive crashed when I'd owned it for about 5 years. I replaced the hard drive with a new one (and upgraded it from 20GB to 30GB at the same time). So, depending on how yours fails, it may be possible to repair it. One option could be to buy up a couple on Ebay for spare parts so that you can replace whatever goes out, as necessary.

        I've got the Clip+ player mentioned by some others. 4GB+32GB microSD card gives me more capacity than my old iPod, but obviously far below your stated requirements. If it was an absolute requirement for me to carry 300GB of music around with me without buying a used hard-drive-based player, I think that I'd buy a bunch of microSD cards and some kind of little case for them. Install Rockbox on the Clip+, and allow it to index the contents of each SD. Buy some kind of carrying case for them, with a label for each one stating the category of files that it contains. Having hundreds of gigabytes of music has always been a fairly niche case, and needing to carry the entirety of the collection around at all times in a device the size of a deck of playing card is even more so. The new-ish emphasis on internet streaming from online storage is kind of bizarre to me, though. It seems like a move sideways, abandoning some use-cases while slightly better supporting others ("Waaaah, I've got 20 different music-playing devices, and I don't want to sync all of them individually!" ;-) )

        I guess that my point is that sometimes there isn't something that perfectly supports what you want to do, even if there used to be. We're all pretty much at the mercy of the market, which seems to treat technology as a fashion industry, rather than as a tool-making industry.

  • (Score: 2) by mmcmonster on Friday September 19 2014, @12:24PM

    by mmcmonster (401) on Friday September 19 2014, @12:24PM (#95450)

    I just bought a 160GB iPod Classic and a simple music dock to control it with. Fortunately the music dock connects via generic USB port for charging and headphone jack to pipe music and allows connection via bluetooth audio to stream music as well.

    But the 160GB version is great as mp3 files are bloating with higher fidelity music.

    I'm still only around 40GB of music and growing exceedingly slowly over the last decade. I've already bought most of the music I'll ever listen to, and rarely download music -- A few songs a month. The music industry is nearly dead to me.

  • (Score: 2) by looorg on Friday September 19 2014, @12:57PM

    by looorg (578) on Friday September 19 2014, @12:57PM (#95459)

    Since most smartphones (or whatever the term is these days) can play music and have storage or can have some kinda SD-card slot why not just buy a used model of that? You don't even have to have the phone active to be able to use the "music player" part of the the device as I recall it or if you have a model that does just insert a some payasyougo subsciption card and let it run out and then never bother with it. By now you can probably buy a model of phone that is 5+ years old for next to nothing and it will play music just fine.

    On most phones you can use the various external buttons to adjust sound; play next tracks; pause; play etc without having to go into the actual display. The actual buttons might be differnt from phone. I personally use a five year old phone, utterly horrible by todays standards I would assume but it does all that I want (its a samsung galaxy something) -- there is a volue control on the side, there is a bunch of physical buttons; you can start and stop playing music (or answer calls) on the button on the headphones, I'm almost certain that one of the other three buttons can be used to skip track, I have never tried that but I'm sure it could be done somehow -- there is apparently a button to start the camera to without clicking the button on the screen but I have never bothered with that either.

    If ipod classic goes away and similar devices from other manufacturers I'm sure someone will kickstart something; after all building an mp3 player these days cant be to hard and is probably concidered by some to be a nice DIY home project.

    • (Score: 2) by looorg on Friday September 19 2014, @01:04PM

      by looorg (578) on Friday September 19 2014, @01:04PM (#95464)

      (since we can't edit posts) I had a quick look at kickstarter for standalone music players. PONO Music standlone player pulled in 6.2 million USD to make and sell a device endorsed by Neil Young and a bunch of other artists. It looks kinda neat. It might not hold the 100GB of music but quite close or there might be later models with more storage.

      https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1003614822/ponomusic-where-your-soul-rediscovers-music/ [kickstarter.com]
      http://www.ponomusic.com/ [ponomusic.com]

      • (Score: 1) by Jiro on Friday September 19 2014, @07:20PM

        by Jiro (3176) on Friday September 19 2014, @07:20PM (#95605)

        Pono seems to be a borderline scam, except the people running it probably believe what they are doing. They're emphasizing sound quality, without conducting tests to determine that they have shown people can even hear the differences in quality they are referring to. And they seem to be emphasizing some kind of high resolution music format (which human ears will probably not be able to distinguish) with MP3s as an afterthought.

        • (Score: 2) by looorg on Saturday September 20 2014, @07:08AM

          by looorg (578) on Saturday September 20 2014, @07:08AM (#95780)

          Yes, that one might have looked a bit to good. Clearly a luxury item. I think I saw that they wanted like $400 for one unit to if you preordered. I doubt it will be an item for most people.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 19 2014, @01:10PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 19 2014, @01:10PM (#95466)

      This is basically what I did. But instead it IS my phone. I do not bother with an old one.

      You can get 128gig sd cards. Prob in the next year or three they will have 256 gig.

      The downside is the interface typically SUCKS and is very janky.

      You are looking at the same price ranges as a mp3 player that could hold that much.

    • (Score: 2) by tempest on Friday September 19 2014, @01:18PM

      by tempest (3050) on Friday September 19 2014, @01:18PM (#95469)

      I tried just that, but found my biggest issue was a lack of a good android music player. Well that and the buttons on the front of my iPod which means I don't have to look at it to navigate. I think what I'd really prefer is custom firmware that wipes ALL the phone vendor crap off to provide a very simple interface - like a customized CyanogenMod. There was talk about RockBox going this way, but I'm not sure how far they've gotten with it.

      Right now I have an 30Gb iPod video I'd hate to lose, so I bought a used spare. I've replaced the battery once but it's hanging in there.

      • (Score: 2) by Silentknyght on Friday September 19 2014, @04:16PM

        by Silentknyght (1905) on Friday September 19 2014, @04:16PM (#95538)

        I tried just that, but found my biggest issue was a lack of a good android music player. Well that and the buttons on the front of my iPod which means I don't have to look at it to navigate. I think what I'd really prefer is custom firmware that wipes ALL the phone vendor crap off to provide a very simple interface - like a customized CyanogenMod. There was talk about RockBox going this way, but I'm not sure how far they've gotten with it.

        Right now I have an 30Gb iPod video I'd hate to lose, so I bought a used spare. I've replaced the battery once but it's hanging in there.

        See, now you appear to be just difficult to be difficult, and fearful of change! Cyanogen mod is fully available on many, many phones, and your launcher / lock screen are widely customizable.

        Between Poweramp, Mortplayer, Apollo, DSub, Google Play Music, VLC (yes, for android), MX Player, and a raft of others, there are gobs of options for playing both audio and video on virtually any android phone. Use something like Google Play Music or DSub, and you can set it to cache songs, albums, etc., when you're on a wifi connection, enabling you to have a sizeable offline storage of even a terabyte-sized collection (DSub/Subsonic). Set up some playlists, or set up a random playlist, and then let it "be", and you may be able to live with managing just the volume through the phone's physical buttons.

        That said, I have a 30gb ipod that I, too, would hate to lose, but that's because it's in my nightstand clock, "permanently" docked, and is used for sleep/wake-up and integrates with physical buttons on the clock. Hopefully, android standardizes enough in the next few years that we can have alarm clocks that dock android phones in a similar fashion...

  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by bootsy on Friday September 19 2014, @01:03PM

    by bootsy (3440) on Friday September 19 2014, @01:03PM (#95462)

    The Fiio X3 and X5

    http://www.fiio.com.cn/ [fiio.com.cn]

    warning the above page is slow. I could post a vendor website but I don't want to be accused of advertising.

    They aren't pin compatible. You can however put music on using any device that will connect via micro USB. They take MicroSD cards so you can back up and change music. They charge of a Micro USB phone charger.

    It will play AAC and ALAC.

    You can play FLAC. The DAC on X3 is Wolfson as seen in decent hifi DACs and CD players and the analogue output stage is fantastic unlike the weedy one on the Apple machines.

    You treat it like a file system and just drag over the files. It takes care of the rest.

    Digital out (SPDIF) and line out a well as Headphone out. If you unplug the line out or the Headphone socket, it pauses automatically.

    In UK pounds 160 for the X3 and about 250 for the X5. The X5 has a scroll wheel. They are not as fluent as the iPod to use interface wise but being able to manage music with out iTunes is a real boon for me.

    The sound quality, especially on FLAC, beats most other audio players unless you can afford the 600 plus for an Astell and Kern.

    • (Score: 1) by Natales on Friday September 19 2014, @02:47PM

      by Natales (2163) on Friday September 19 2014, @02:47PM (#95512)

      +1 for the X5. I recently purchased one of those to play my DSD/DFF file (SACD rips) as well as 24-bit FLAC. The sound quality is outstanding. You can even use it as a DAC while on the road.
      Physically, it looks very similar to the old iPod so it won't attract any "respectable" thief, but inside it's a complete different animal. I have 2 x 128 GB memory cards completely full and it's absolutely great to seat on a plane with my X5 and my NAD VISO HP50 headphones and forget about how crappy the flight experience is, while blasting Queen's "I want to break free".

      • (Score: 2) by urza9814 on Friday September 19 2014, @07:58PM

        by urza9814 (3954) on Friday September 19 2014, @07:58PM (#95627) Journal

        The Fiio is probably the best I've seen so far (at least in my opinion.) Thanks for the suggestion!

    • (Score: 2) by Geotti on Friday September 19 2014, @03:35PM

      by Geotti (1146) on Friday September 19 2014, @03:35PM (#95525) Journal

      There's also http://www.astellnkern.com/ [astellnkern.com] http://www.colorfly.eu/product.html [colorfly.eu] (the caution, the English is the terrible), and http://hifiman.com/Products/ [hifiman.com] in the Hi-Fi department.

  • (Score: 2) by VLM on Friday September 19 2014, @02:03PM

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 19 2014, @02:03PM (#95488)

    "since he mostly uses it while driving or at the gym."

    How well does that work? I bought an early hard drive mp3 player perhaps 15 years ago, all I remember was NiMH AA batteries and it was the original inspiration for the rockbox firmware (and yes the stock firmware was beyond awful and rockbox did rock) and it didn't work very well at all in a car (skipping) and I loved upgrading from that thing to a nano when the hard drive finally died.

    Just curious if in the waning years of spinning rust, its improved to usable for mobile apps. Or maybe not and your dad will love using solid state storage.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 19 2014, @02:51PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 19 2014, @02:51PM (#95514)

      I've got 2 5th Gen iPod videos (purchased in 2006) that have been in cars for a combined >150k miles. Never heard either of them skip. The only problem I've had was after leaving them in the car during the winter. The batteries will get so cold they won't power up until they get warm.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 19 2014, @07:07PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 19 2014, @07:07PM (#95600)

      Sounds like the Archos Jukebox 6000. I had one with the original version of Rockbox on it. It was heavy and enormous, but it got me through 4 hours a day on public transit!

      • (Score: 2) by VLM on Friday September 19 2014, @10:11PM

        by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 19 2014, @10:11PM (#95685)

        Yes AC has it, I had completely forgotten the name. It was an archos and it was released about the same time as the ipod and with rockbox was arguably better.

    • (Score: 2) by urza9814 on Friday September 19 2014, @07:30PM

      by urza9814 (3954) on Friday September 19 2014, @07:30PM (#95612) Journal

      That's rather interesting. When I was in highschool I used one of the old 3rd generation iPods and even in the back seat of a school bus for hours at a time it never once skipped.

  • (Score: 2) by TGV on Friday September 19 2014, @02:19PM

    by TGV (2838) on Friday September 19 2014, @02:19PM (#95494)

    Neil Young's pono jumps to mind. However, it's still not available, and costs $399 in pre-order.

  • (Score: 2) by PizzaRollPlinkett on Friday September 19 2014, @02:44PM

    by PizzaRollPlinkett (4512) on Friday September 19 2014, @02:44PM (#95510)

    Just how much storage do you need? After my Creative Zen bricked itself, I got a 64GB iPod. I put 320kbps rips of my CD collection on it, then MP3s of every song I could think of, and photos, I barely filled it up. There is stuff on that player I don't even know what it is. With 64GB, I've entered territory where I can't even remember what is on the device.

    The Sansa Clip is a nice MP3 player, but for a father, the tiny screen may be uncomfortable to use. Rockbox doesn't help much, it makes it even harder to use for me. The SD card works fine. I used to use it to test other devices writing to SD cards, until they started disappearing from tablets.

    MP3 players are small and portable, so finding high-capacity ones is going to be difficult.

    --
    (E-mail me if you want a pizza roll!)
    • (Score: 2) by urza9814 on Friday September 19 2014, @07:37PM

      by urza9814 (3954) on Friday September 19 2014, @07:37PM (#95615) Journal

      Just how much storage do you need?

      Hah, you don't know my father...he's one of those guys with a few thousand CDs, thousands more albums on vinyl, even a few hundred cassettes in the closet...and of course he's ripped most of that to the computer, along with a bunch more downloaded going all the way back to the days of Napster. His biggest concern when buying a laptop is 'does it have a big enough hard drive for my music collection?' He also DJs a radio show on the local college station, so sometimes he'll use it for that (although mostly he burns CDs, those are easier to use on their equipment.) And he's getting new stuff almost weekly so I think it'd be a bit too much of a hassle for him to manage all that manually. That's a bit too complicated, he definitely would want something you can just plug in and push 'sync'.

      Although to tell you the truth, I talked to him the other day and apparently he's getting into satellite radio on his car now, so a touch screen might not be a deal-breaker. Got some great suggestions either way from this thread though :)

  • (Score: 2) by TK on Friday September 19 2014, @05:02PM

    by TK (2760) on Friday September 19 2014, @05:02PM (#95562)

    I have a Sansa Clip with 4gB internal storage, and a 32gB micro SD card. It supports SDHC, so you can go up to 128gB. The player cost me about $35 when I bought it a couple of years ago. I keep it in the car most of the time, but when I run or bike I bring it with me.

    Pros: Plays FLAC and AAC, hardware controls, a dead simple interface, and no BS syncing software, just drag and drop to it like a flash drive. Weighs almost nothing, has a sturdy clip built into it to attach to your clothes.

    Possible Cons: The interface really is simple. One color light-up display, 1 inch diagonal. Sharp text though. The SD card pops into the side. I wouldn't trust myself not to lose a $100 micro SD card if I dropped it particularly hard at just the right angle. I have lost a 32gB card this way before.

    Non-Debatable Cons: After you disconnect it from a computer (whether you modified the storage or not), it will spend some time refreshing its index. At maybe 24gB worth of files, it takes maybe 15 minutes to do this.

    If it dies I can take out the microSD card and put it in something else. If it gets stolen (unlikely, it doesn't look shiny and expensive), I'm only out about $70, not multiple hundreds.

    Overall, I like it. It's simple and does its job well, with a lot of storage. That's all I really want, but that's just me.

    --
    The fleas have smaller fleas, upon their backs to bite them, and those fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum
  • (Score: 1) by Jiro on Friday September 19 2014, @07:03PM

    by Jiro (3176) on Friday September 19 2014, @07:03PM (#95592)

    I am currently using a Cowon J3. This was a high-end player at the time. It has 16G and I inserted a 32G SD card. I don't have quite the need for storage space as the poster, but I do like old time radio and I put a few hundred megs of each series on the device, which uses quite a bit of space (although I'm nowhere near full).

    However, this model and anything else similar is discontinued.

    Looking into other devices for when this one dies, the best idea I've seen is to get a cheap phone and not use it as a phone. However, cheap phones tend to have bad battery life, bad screens, and low storage. I can get storage by adding a 64GB SDXC card--except it's almost impossible to know which devices will take one; SDXC has to be licensed separately, so most devices only support one unofficially (using backwards compatibility when formatted to FAT32) and not completely. And it's almost impossible to tell if a device has bad battery life, a bad screen, or no SDXC support by researching online without actually buying the phone.

    There's also the possibility of phones that won't use offline features such as music playing without buying a plan. It's stupid design, but it can happen, and it will never be mentioned in a review since reviews assume you will use the phone as a phone.

  • (Score: 1) by SunTzuWarmaster on Friday September 19 2014, @08:21PM

    by SunTzuWarmaster (3971) on Friday September 19 2014, @08:21PM (#95640)

    I wrote about this on /. I had/have an iPod Classic, and 50+ GB of music, but find that the functionality has been 100% replaced.
    http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=5073959&cid=46832719 [slashdot.org]

    I agree that the iPod classic is a product separate from those of other categories. Additionally, I agree with your views regarding being amazed about not having large-storage HDD-based music players. However, the following situation occurred recently to me:
        - I got a new phone (replacing the 4 year old one).
        - I uploaded all of my music on my iPod (40ish Gb) to Google Music (20,000 songs for free)
        - I cached my frequently-played favorites ("Running mix", "Workout mix", "Yard Word mix") on the HD of the phone, using about 1 Gb of space
        - I stream my music collection from Google Music
        - I also have many other capabilities, such as streaming from Pandora, downloading podcasts, using car stereo BlueTooth, etc.
        - I haven't turned on my iPod since

    I have 'unlimited' (5 Gb) bandwidth from my cell carrier when roaming, and truely 'unlimited' bandwidth from the places where I listen to the most music (gym Wifi, home Wifi, work wifi, girlfriend Wifi, etc.). In short, my phone has access to my entire music collection as part of its normal operation ($25/month, unlimited calls/data).

    I use a Moto X phone (now), from Republic Wireless, which cost $299 (https://republicwireless.com/phones/moto-x), and $25/month. It effectively replaces the functionality of my previous phone ($50/month, free phone).
    An iPod Classic (40K songs) starts at $249 (http://www.apple.com/ipodclassic/). An iPod Touch (1750-7K songs) starts at $229.

    iPods are products which will die.

    PS - Shameless plug for a company with which I am happy. You can switch to Republic Wireless using this link for the first month free: http://rwshar.es/7hKw [rwshar.es]

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 19 2014, @09:47PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 19 2014, @09:47PM (#95678)

    it's awesome! honestly can't see why someone would prefer an ipod classic over this baby!

    http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Sansa-Clip-Player-Black/dp/B002MAPT7U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1411163064&sr=8-1&keywords=sansa+clip [amazon.com]

    8gb built in storage
    + microsd slot for more

    they are very small and light-weight. i owned a 4gb clip. it never died but the usb port on it got jacked up so i upgraded to the 8gb. these puppies are less than $40.

  • (Score: 2) by meisterister on Saturday September 20 2014, @05:06PM

    by meisterister (949) on Saturday September 20 2014, @05:06PM (#95895) Journal

    Get one used! There are millions of those things out there, and it wouldn't surprise me if there are plenty to be had on ebay, even 5-10 years from now.

    --
    (May or may not have been) Posted from my K6-2, Athlon XP, or Pentium I/II/III.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 20 2014, @10:35PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 20 2014, @10:35PM (#96020)

    Buy the Sandisk Sansa Clip+ which is not the same as the Sandisk Sansa Clip without the plus. It also has an SD card slot. The interface works fine with the dozens of albums I have stored on it. It's easier to use than my wife's ipod. The complete user manual for the Clip+ can be found at: http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4303/ [sandisk.com]