njkayaker

People lose all sense when Apple does stuff.

What Google does is much worse but people are fine with it.

Bizarre.

njkayaker

????

You can get an iPod Touch with 64GB.

If other companies can't sell a mp3 player, why should Apple sell one?

Bizarre.

Here's a cheap mp3 player with a microSD slot:

https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Full-C...st+mp3+players

ItsJustMe

What's silly? If I was going to spend 3 months at sea, I would definitely want a wide variety of music available to me.

njkayaker

I have a whole list of things that I "want".

300,000 hours is 34 years of non-stop music!

Who knows how anybody was able to survive 3 months at see without 300,000 hours of music! To think that no one else has ever spent 3 months at sea before!

There really isn't anything stopping her from bringing those music files. (Though, while it would be nice to have 500 GB in iPod nano, technology isn't quite there yet. I guess life is tough.)

It's not only a "first world problem", it really isn't a problem at all.

ItsJustMe

I'm sure that's an exaggeration. If you want to talk actual numbers, let's assume an average song is a bit under 10 megs. Call it 100 megs per album. So a 160G player will hold something like 1600 albums.

That's not crazy.

I don't know about you, but I don't listen to each song in my collection straight without ever repeating. Over the course of 3 months I might be in the mood for anything - Weird Al, Tchaikovsky, Modest Mouse, Jim Croce, etc. Heck, that might be a single weekend for me.

It's not about having exactly enough music to get to the end of a cruise with 6.73 songs per evening to listen to. It's about having the music you love and paid for available for half of your life during a period when it's very common for people to be battling emotional issues due to isolation.

Garfield Cat

I'm thinking I should ask "The Tech Guy", Leo Laporte

Papa Tom

I switched from portable radios to mp3 players because I could never get any radio to hold a station while moving on my bike. Is this one THAT much better than any other? I don't see any reviews from cyclists on Amazon.

Papa Tom

I think what you're saying is that music has become just another throwaway to many people and that some of the responses here might be from readers who don't put as much value on a music collection as people from my generation do.

We're losing so much of our individuality that I just don't want to let go of the music that nurtured me as a small child, got me through hundreds of girl crushes as a teenager, and empowered me to tackle so many challenges as an adult. This is MY music, man. Some of it is literally my music, and I'm not going to pay somebody a monthly fee to be able to listen to it.

I hope you are all correct about the exaggeration of the demise of personal storage. I've read a lot of legit articles that insist otherwise, but I'll continue to tell myself it's all going to be alright, just as long as you guys tell me it will be.

njkayaker

The 300,000 hours is your number.

160 GB isn't quite as silly.

You can still probably buy the 160 GB iPod classic. People have put a larger (240GB) hard disk into the iPod classics.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/130951019245...84.m1555.l2649

There's a reasonable chance that she's bring a laptop. It really wouldn't be that hard to find some way of bringing 500 GB of music.

If it's such a big problem, she should stay home. I suspect that you (and her) would manage quite fine without all the music you own.

Bizarre. It's very, very common for people to do these sorts of trips without 500 GB of music. There are all sorts of things that people "paid for" that they won't be able to bring. If 500 GB of music is necessary for "battling emotional issues", then it doesn't really seem like they are qualified to go.

It's the "I have to have 500 GB of music or I'll die" notion that is absurd.

gdhillard

It totally locks onto the station. No drift at all. I love it.

Papa Tom

OK, this is getting silly now, and people are calling people "clueless" and other childish things, so we should bury yet another thread.

It seems that very few people are reading any of the posts all the way through before rushing to make nasty comments based on HALF-posts. I am not mourning the death of the iPod Classic itself. I used it as an example of what I've been convinced is happening to personal music storage devices. If I am misinformed, that does not make me (or anyone else who has commented respectfully) "clueless" or a freakin' idiot.

Geez, now I know why so many of us ride alone.

Papa Tom

I've got to look into that. The one thing I miss when playing hours and hours of mp3's on the bike is a connection with the real world. A warm, comforting voice after every few songs, plus weather updates and an assurance that I'll know when the world is about to be destroyed by some catastrophe, makes me feel a little more grounded when I'm riding.

Thanks for the tip!

keyven

I think you overestimate the fragility of the human spirit in a desperate attempt to bolster your argument. I'm guessing that the people (who can't live without technology for more than an hour without going insane apparently) toiling in extreme/isolated conditions is probably not a demographic that Apple considers worth sucking up to.

I agree - first world problem indeed. While the majority of the world worries about food, water, war and shelter, kids in the first world are worrying that their meager access to 16,000 songs is insufficient to stave off 'depression'.

I-Like-To-Bike

I've never heard or read anything about this demise except from you. Can you provide any URL's or some other reference to these legit articles?

I-Like-To-Bike

500 GB of music stored on a single mp3 player may be practical for someone being sent to jail to serve a life sentence and will be without access to any means for upload of music; otherwise: 500GB (or 300GB) storage is an absurd "requirement" for an mp3 player.

rumrunn6

I listen to the radio now. My MP3 player gets FM pretty well!

ItsJustMe

Crap, dude, I'm just describing why my friend wanted a large capacity player, I'm not trying to bolster any argument. Sorry for answering questions that were asked.

This person does 2, sometimes 3 tours of 6 to 12 weeks every year. They don't come to port at all during that time. They see the same 30 people every day and are working long hours in sometimes crappy conditions, in the dark, in the rain, frantically tearing down UAVs to get them working again while everyone's waiting on him to the tune of a few thousand dollars an hour wasted. Music helps a lot. It's a lot different than "not living without technology for more than an hour." I suspect that if you were put in this situation, you wouldn't mind having some music with you as well.

The large capacity player definitely USED to be a valid demographic. The reason that it's not anymore is NOT because people don't want a ton of music on call, it's because people have unlimited data plans and they stream their music rather than carrying it with them. So in a sense, having a ton of music IS still a totally valid demographic, and it's one that's being served - by streaming services.

njkayaker

This is still silly. What "large capacity player" ever had 500 or 250 GB memory?

There isn't a market for small form-factor spinning disks because solid-state memory is preferrable. Large capacity solid state memory either doesn't exist or it's expensive. So, the is a current gap but cheaper memory will soon close it.

Still, it would be easy to bring 500 GB of music. It wouldn't all be accessible all at once but that shouldn't be a hardship. Arguing that it is makes no sense. Lots of people manage to survive just fine.

Feel free to keep digging your hole.

Athens80

I'd go with a sub-$50 SanDisk player and enough 64GB or 128GB micro SD cards to hold the entire music library in mp3, FLAC or whatever format. Get 136GB (equals 8 plus 128) in one device; to get to 264GB or more you'd have to click in a different micro SD card. That would be less than 3 months' listening 16 hours a day without repetition, however -- or even less than 2 months? Even less if you don't want to listen to some of the music you brought along.

How about a 128GB memory card per month? Would that cover it? Or even more hassle - a 64GB card every two weeks.

wphamilton

The articles are wrong in my opinion. Even if it made perfect sense technically - and I don't agree that it does, not yet - but even if it did bandwidth is money in the USA and will be for the foreseeable future. As long as there's a price paid for the alternative, and as long as there's a need for secure storage, there will be a market for off-line storage devices.

wphamilton

Yeh, I just don't see it being worth all that much just to have memory built in the music player as opposed to external. That much music, you're going to have to organize it either way, and requiring random access to the whole library ... I just don't see it.

Neccros

I will say this, I know its a hard drive based player but its for MUSIC LOVERS... I have the 160gig and its filled with all my music both digital and CD rips. I don't want a fake looking phone with apps and limited capacity!! I DONT NEED THEM! I prefer capacity and simplicity over anything.

I will be stocking up on old iPod's and parts for years to come.

Maxillius

I will never understand why some people have to berate other people for wanting something that they don't. For example, if I see a need to have my entire music library with me at all times, that's my choice. I'm not forcing you to do it. But for some reason, the cloud people have a pathological need to force everyone into their model. Why? Why should I be forced to pay data charges and a monthly fee to listen to music I bought on disk and converted on my own computer? And most importantly, why would you want to stop me from using my $40 Sandisk Clip+ with a nearly-full 32GB MicroSD? What is it about personal choice that's so hard to understand?

ItsJustMe

You must be new here. The maxim here is, "everyone should do and like exactly the same thing that I do. Anything less is a personal attack."

Pick absolutely ANYTHING to do with cycling - pedal types, helmet preference, shifters, clothing, lighting, batteries vs dynos, etc. Or styles of riding - law breaking versus law abiding, lane positioning, you name it. There will be people who assume that everyone in the world should do exactly what they are doing or they're wrong, and obviously everyone in the world rides in exactly the same conditions and situations as they do, and all the other people on everyone else's roads act exactly like the people they see day to day.

And they will get really worked up if anyone suggests that their experience might not be universal, or their solution might not be optimal for everyone.

keyven

On the flip side, some people may just be too stubborn to compromise. If Apple does not make mega-capacity iPods anymore, then make do with smaller MP3 players with twelve thousand songs or carry multiple memory cards. The alternatives are there, but the vocal minority wants it done THEIR WAY.

It's like demanding Chevrolet makes a five-wheel car because - CHOICE! It's like demanding manufacturers start making 100 MB USB flash drives again because you don't want to pay extra to store your Word docs. And everyone else is wrong.

- How many people here don't have access to their PC at least once a week?
- How many people here will be on a tour of duty or sea-bound for months?
- How many people here will go INSANE without a near-limitless playlist, because they can't stand listening to the same song within the same MONTH, or must have a specific song ON DEMAND?
- How many people here comprehend the idea of expandable memory- slightly inconvenient as it may be - to carry hundreds of thousands of songs?