[liquidise]

I daily drive an iPod (currently listening to it on a flight). Some benefits:

- Listening to music doesn't drain your phone. Also it's offline, which is a bonus for hiking/biking/flights.

- Underrated convo starter. Set one down on a bar top as you sit down and i promise you'll be talking to everyone around you

- The battery life is unmatched, including by modern DAP's. Mine is running a stock battery (still!) and gets days of playback. Weeks/months when idle (use it too much to know for sure).

- iFlash [1] has replacement boards for $30-$40 that let you use modern nvme storage over spinning media. Simple swap and has been rock solid for me for years.

- Audio quality over 3.5mm aux ports is noticeably superior to bluetooth in most (older?) cars

Would they take off today? I think there could be a retro-y scene for them, especially if they had any wifi connectivity. The device remains one of the best purpose-built consumer devices, and that's hard not to appreciate. My 10yr old daughter thinks it's less cool than i do, though.

1. https://www.iflash.xyz/

[rnrn]

Do you use some old version of iTunes to put music on it or are there other tools with better support for old iPods?

[neckro23]

Original iPods (and early iPhones) weren’t locked down as much. There were a number of utils that could manage your library. ml_ipod plugin for WinAmp comes to mind.

[liquidise]

All my music gets copied into OS X's Apple Music, which still supports iPods. Other repliees are arguably better alternatives these days.

[echelon_musk]

Rockbox.

[sgerenser]

on macOS you can still manage/sync iPods from the Finder (it was moved to there from iTunes when they killed iTunes).