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.
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.
https://www.innioasis.com/products/y1
which is loosely modeled on the iPod Classic. It doesn't have internet, though.
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.
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
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!
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.
I’m half tempted to buy an old iPod and attempt to hack something together…
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 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.