woz and jobs did work on breakout at atari
Digging into it just now, an important distinction I initially missed is that they worked on the original arcade cabinet (all game logic implemented directly in hardware), which predated the 2600 and its software version by several years (by which time they had already founded Apple).
It's literally one of the "big prick" items of Job's history, along with disowning his own child.
It was heartbreaking.
With Woz at the helm, Apple would have gone the way of Commodore and Atari, it's a good thing he got out.
What would have Jobs been?
An Apple that made little more than the AppleII and ran it's course would have been a perfectly fine thing.
We would all be far richer for having 20 different companies in place of the Apple we got.
I started coding in 1981 on an VC20, learned a lot from it, but wonder how did the world benefit more from vic20s?
As a happy smartphone user, I think the world did benefit a lot e.g. from the Newton (loved mine, dropped a Palm for it, sad it died, but it was too heavy).
Though it's cute that it's the 404 page, you can get to the page directly via https://music.apple.com/us/ipod.
I would, unironically, use a device that had that iPod interface as a music device until my dying day. Make it only able to stream from Apple Music, make me load up songs through USB -- I'll do it.
Oh and also scroll click isn’t a thing (but there is the middle button to bind)
For normal work I absolutely love the unlocked flywheel scroll and won’t go back
It sounds like you are talking about the style in the MX Master, which is electromagnetic and controlled via software.
They also have a physical version in the M720. I do not know how the mechanism works, but it is controlled by a mechanical switch on the mouse.
Yeah, I've had one for few years now. It was always annoying to accidentally unlock the scroll wheel...
> so you can scroll at tremendous speed (the scroll wheel has a bearing)
...but I never once gave the unlocked scroll wheel a whimsical flick until I read this part.
I learned a thing! It works great. Thanks!
And miss me with the "but you can use your iPhone", because that's exactly what is wrong with Apple products. I don't want an iPhone, and there is absolutely no technical reason to not have a better virtual keyboard or supporting non-Apple devices as remote controls.
https://www.innioasis.com/products/y1
which is loosely modeled on the iPod Classic. It doesn't have internet, though.
Just before Covid I got nostalgic for the iPod and got a used one and put in bigger storage and Rockbox, but it was precisely the cumbersomeness of the scrollwheel that caused me to give it up and go back to my phone.
Apple doesn't have an official way to prevent it, but I think you could do it with Shortcuts and an automation to pause music triggered by "When CarPlay is connected."
If it's tricky to get it to trigger at the exact time it starts playing, you could even do like:
- Store media volume to a variable
- Set media volume to 0
- Wait 3 seconds
- Stop playing
- Restore original media volumeIt was always a stupid decision to start playing your music alphabetically, but it became a more stupid decision when music libraries were no longer carefully curated folders in the filesystem.
And did you see Goldmund's $240k preamp? https://www.wired.com/story/goldmund-preamp-costs-more-than-...
It's gotten to the point after 15 years that I've stopped trying, for fear of ruining even more good music.
I have noticed too that some people are more/less prone to this, which makes me wonder: is anyone completely immune? Are there people who, no matter how often they hear a song, will still love it?
The aftermarket CarPlay adapter I installed in our Toyota is in the latter group. When I climb into the car, the CarPlay UI pops up on the vehicle's screen, ready for me to ask it to do something. Until I do, it does nothing other than show the homescreen with icons on it. A Ford I rented would fire up Music the second I plugged my phone in.
It is 9 minutes of silence so that U2 album you never asked for doesn’t start playing at the most dangerous part of the journey.
On a roadtrip I doubt this stops playing music…
You know that ring around the main button, that kind of functions like a D-pad with four arrows?
If you're paused while watching something, you can drag your finger clockwise or counter-clockwise around the ring to seek forwards or backwards. It's really nice, much finer-grained control than normal skipping forwards or backwards.
The wheel doesn't actually spin, but it also doesn't really need to.
Some car manufacturers are in fact reintroducing physical user control elements. After reevaluating the tradeoff decision so it seems.
In both cases I could achieve the task purely by touch, without looking at the screen. Compare with now where I routinely mistype characters even while looking at the screen!
Yt-dlp for the win
Somehow, with all the world's music a tap away I listen to far fewer albums now. I loved preparing my mp3 players, like packing a bag for a trip.
I personally never gave up standalone players. My MD is still alive and kicking for example, but I find myself reaching for them more and more for proper music listening.
Plenty of older Gen Z grew up with iPods - the iPod touch didn't show up till they were 10 years old, and it took the smartphone another ~5 years to fully kill off that whole product category.
In America. My country, and 90% of the world, was noticeably behind, and "mp3 players" reigned.
It's a modern iPod motherboard replacement that enables the device to have bluetooth, Wi-Fi, UI improvements, etc. Surprised it hasn't gotten more traction on HN
The monochrome screen shows a folder icon with a warning sign. I haven't looked into it but I fear that something happened to the internal hard drive. It's one with spinning disks. It was truly a work of art, that device.
When that eventually ran out and it died again (in 2009 IIRC), I swapped in a CompactFlash card using a cheap adapter from DealExtreme. Once you do that or an SD card mod (more popular these days), have iTunes restore the partitioning scheme and OS and it'll be good to go.
From there, you can mod it to work from a micro SD card.
It's cool, but I've never been able to find a place for it, in my software. I think it works much better as a physical control.
I’m half tempted to buy an old iPod and attempt to hack something together…
I guess I should be happy they saved me $10-100Ks, but it’s concerning that western engineering apparently peaked in the late 2010’s.
I'm pretty partial to the Kensington Slimblade though. You scroll by twisting the ball itself - very satisfying once you figure out the technique. I hate the aesthetics (it looks kind of tacky) and the client software (bloated and buggy) but it's the only trackball I know of with this feature and I like it enough to put up with the issues. https://www.kensington.com/p/products/electronic-control-sol...
So long as it does effect the perceived thinness at the edges, I suppose.
The company, usually, reflects the temperament of the ceo. We had whimsy because Jobs was whimsical, not because Apple was per se
US 1,029 Songs 682 Artists 39 Unique tracks
GB 1,156 Songs 727 Artists 12 Unique tracks
FR 1,217 Songs 797 Artists 132 Unique tracks
DE 1,062 Songs 709 Artists 62 Unique tracks
ES 1,155 Songs 724 Artists 7 Unique tracks
The sudden growth rate in sales derive some people to capitalize on it. Mostly either Chinese manufacturers or drop shippers though sometimes big names get swept up in the frenzy too. Then the market is flooded and it's not cool or unique anymore, or the target audience is saturated and then it's forgotten. I suspect something similar is happening now with screenless fitness trackers right now (even though I bought one because I hate smartwatches but want a fitness tracker)
It's especially funny seeing people who are into "MP3 players for digital detox" speak on podcasts or online. "I love that it's not a phone. I just wish it had <insert random ass app(s)> so I can take it on walks and leave my phone behind" then those random apps are different per person. It's really funny.
Similar thing with the screenless fitness trackers I mentioned. On every single review or discussion board for them, you will find people complaining that a screenless fitness tracker is, in fact, screenless and that they wish it just had a small screen for their important notifications or if it can answer calls or get phone notifications or connect to LTE.
Music is cheaper than it's ever been for the consumer and segregation between genres or bands is non-existent on music streaming.
It's hard to socially signal when everyone can afford to stream and the search bar can show you Sabrina Carpenter just as easily as RYM or /mu/core.
However , you can socially signal if you spend money on an iPod, DAP, better headphones, physical media etc.
I know someone in my group who moved from Apple Music to Spotify because everyone else was using Spotify and she didn't wanna feel left out.
I also can't really share playlists with them, which is fine since I only listen to the same 1,700 tracks from the 90s or early 2000s anyway.
who am I socially signaling to if I have physical media in my basement? my wife?
I do think this take is lukewarm.
It's extremely hard to find a new production MP3/FLAC player with upgradable storage that don't suck for one reason or another. Plenty of perfect new ones, but they will have onboard BT or Wifi still.
Part of the appeal of the iPod is that it only had just as much hardware and software as it needed and was simple, which lends to its extreme mod potential that's fueling its continuing popularity today. A good modern iPod analogue needs to deliver on those fronts, too.
Pretty cool in other browsers, though.
The one that actually plays.
I don't have a lot of love for megacorps but I gotta give it to Apple on this one, goddamn.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songs_of_Innocence_(U2_album)#...
My 2021 car has sort of similar scrolling wheel to control the infotainment (which has no touch) and it's nowhere near this level of polish.
Press and hold anywhere on the donut-shaped area, then rotate clockwise or counter-clockwise to move down/up the items!
For us oldies, the nostalgia hits hard; I'm reminded of the tracks I listened to and even the roads I drove while listening.
No explicit filter either!
The hip-hop playlist is 1000%; instant throwback to my 2000s living in Greater NYC
https://www.crowdsupply.com/certain-things/sprout-pi-mainboa...
Im not affiliated with this project
Feels retro, but still a ~decade newer than when this was state of the art. Some reasonably obscure artists. Thrice and Thursday released a split EP recorded in the Apple stores: I see Thursday but not Thrice here.
Thrice still makes music. Thursday has been quiet for more than a decade.
Spotify just works on android but with apple everything feels intentionally slow.
[0] https://music.apple.com/includes/ipod/data/us/en-US.json
next product idea for Rabbit r1 team - 3D print a case with a screen that shows this page cropped to show just the device.
That URL doesn't exist
Sad!
Ipod seems pretty cool. I never owned one, kind of want to get a modded one or a newer knock off
Even still, I’m a little sad knowing what could have been! :(
damn what a pleasurable experience of using a click wheel.
They're all in regards to design choices or why something is needed when it's not obvious. And such a level of polish in the interface isn't something you attain through prompting. Not AI.
Who the fuck cares.