I've gotten great use out of my iPod Classic these last few years but lately the screen is starting to look scratched and it's also a bit small to watch movies on, so I figured I'd get an upgrade.

I went to my local Mac store and asked for the latest iPod model and they showed me the iPod Touch. The screen was huge but I was confused; it looked just like an iPhone. And not just the device; the software looked like iPhone software too. So I asked if the iPod now basically just is an iPhone without phone and the clerk said yes. I then asked "Is there any good reason to buy an iPod Touch instead of an iPhone then?" and he answered "Nope".

After a bit of further questioning I found out that the iPod still has a larger hard-drive than the iPhone, and it's also slightly thinner and lighter. But that seemed to be all.

So my question to you guys is if the iPod really is dead? I'm reluctant to get an iPhone since I'm not a cell phone guy in general, but I don't want to be a fool and buy something that's obsolete. Are there really no benefits with an iPod/other MP3 player versus a smart phone these days?

[Edited 11/22/11 15:30pm]

If you don't need a cell phone, I don't see why you would need an iphone.

They do still make the classic, right?

[Edited 11/22/11 15:44pm]

veronikka said:

If you don't need a cell phone, I don't see why you would need an iphone.

They do still make the classic, right?

[Edited 11/22/11 15:44pm]

They do, but like I said I would prefer a bigger screen so that I can watch movies on it.

And I do use a cell phone, but only very rarely. I don't know... On the one hand it seems stupid to opt out of the opportunity to have two devices in one, and the other hand you make a very simple but convincing argument, lol. Why would I get an iPhone when I already have my old-school cell phone for those rare urgent calls?

What I dont like is that the ipod touch/iphone has so little storage in it! They need to make those bigger! I have the iphone 16GB and classic 80GB. I love that the iphone has speaker already there for listening to music, watching movies but I can't put much in it, it would get full so fast! I really only wanted the iphone to go online, it would be nice though if I could put more on it, just have it all in one device

veronikka said:

What I dont like is that the ipod touch/iphone has so little storage in it! They need to make those bigger! I have the iphone 16GB and classic 80GB. I love that the iphone has speaker already there for listening to music, watching movies but I can't put much in it, it would get full so fast! I really only wanted the iphone to go online, it would be nice though if I could put more on it, just have it all in one device

You're totally right. I was under the impression (after talking to the clerk) that the iPod Touch had a lot more storage but I just looked it up on Wikipedia and it has the same as the iPhone: a mere 64GB as the maximum. My iPod Classic is several years old and it has 160GB! Why would they make the iPod Touch less than half as good in that regard? It's just bizarre! I guess they're sacrificing all the important benefits just to make it slimmer and lighter.

Maybe I'll just hang on to my scratchy old iPod Classic.

160bg on one unit? Dead...not in my house.

I have 5 of them and use them all.

Graycap23 said:

160bg on one unit? Dead...not in my house.

I have 5 of them and use them all.

So the impression I'm getting from the responses so far is that the only thing that's keeping the traditional iPod alive is its superior storage capacity? Or are there other benefits that justifies its existence?

retina said:

Graycap23 said:

160bg on one unit? Dead...not in my house.

I have 5 of them and use them all.

So the impression I'm getting from the responses so far is that the only thing that's keeping the traditional iPod alive is its superior storage capacity? Or are there other benefits that justifies its existence?

Why would I need another benefit? That is thee BENEFIT.

Graycap23 said:

retina said:

So the impression I'm getting from the responses so far is that the only thing that's keeping the traditional iPod alive is its superior storage capacity? Or are there other benefits that justifies its existence?

Why would I need another benefit? That is thee BENEFIT.

Fair enough. I guess I'm just amazed that an invention that not many years ago caused a music industry revolution and changed the whole experience of portable music (and later movies) has now been reduced to little more than a storage unit. I can't keep up with technical evolution these days.

retina said:

Graycap23 said:

Why would I need another benefit? That is thee BENEFIT.

Fair enough. I guess I'm just amazed that an invention that not many years ago caused a music industry revolution and changed the whole experience of portable music (and later movies) has now been reduced to little more than a storage unit. I can't keep up with technical evolution these days.

Why buy into the hype? I love the unit exactly as it is. I'll keep using them until they stop working.

Graycap23 said:

retina said:

Fair enough. I guess I'm just amazed that an invention that not many years ago caused a music industry revolution and changed the whole experience of portable music (and later movies) has now been reduced to little more than a storage unit. I can't keep up with technical evolution these days.

Why buy into the hype? I love the unit exactly as it is. I'll keep using them until they stop working.

It's not hype. It really did revolutionize the whole world of music. I remember the first time I saw it. Even though somebody was showing me all the songs that could fit on it, I still couldn't believe it. It was just so amazing. And now there are so many other devices out there that people would rather have and that do more things, and the iPod sales are in sharp decline. It feels odd, that's all I'm saying.

retina said:

Graycap23 said:

Why buy into the hype? I love the unit exactly as it is. I'll keep using them until they stop working.

It's not hype. It really did revolutionize the whole world of music. I remember the first time I saw it. Even though somebody was showing me all the songs that could fit on it, I still couldn't believe it. It was just so amazing. And now there are so many other devices out there that people would rather have and that do more things, and the iPod sales are in sharp decline. It feels odd, that's all I'm saying.

All I'm saying is....just because they come out with newer models does not mean u have 2 buy it. The old one works perfectly fine 4 me.

Graycap23 said:

retina said:

It's not hype. It really did revolutionize the whole world of music. I remember the first time I saw it. Even though somebody was showing me all the songs that could fit on it, I still couldn't believe it. It was just so amazing. And now there are so many other devices out there that people would rather have and that do more things, and the iPod sales are in sharp decline. It feels odd, that's all I'm saying.

All I'm saying is....just because they come out with newer models does not mean u have 2 buy it. The old one works perfectly fine 4 me.

I know I don't have to buy the new models. I described above why I was looking for one.

The ipod touch's use all solid state drives.

The classic's use traditional spinning disc type hard drives.

Solid state technology is at this point in time alot more expensive per gb in comparison with the older hard drives. That's why you're only getting a max of 64gb in the ipods at the mo.

The advantage of SSD's is that they have no moving parts, so they are highly resistant to damage and wearing out over time. All hard drives with spinning discs will fail at some point, it's just a matter of time. It's also just a matter of time before SSD's of high capacity become readily available and cheap.

I guess Apple have decided that the capacity gap is close enough, that it's time to give up on temperamental hard drives and go all out on SSD's to get the best price in bulk.

nd33 said:

The ipod touch's use all solid state drives.

The classic's use traditional spinning disc type hard drives.

Solid state technology is at this point in time alot more expensive per gb in comparison with the older hard drives. That's why you're only getting a max of 64gb in the ipods at the mo.

The advantage of SSD's is that they have no moving parts, so they are highly resistant to damage and wearing out over time. All hard drives with spinning discs will fail at some point, it's just a matter of time. It's also just a matter of time before SSD's of high capacity become readily available and cheap.

I guess Apple have decided that the capacity gap is close enough, that it's time to give up on temperamental hard drives and go all out on SSD's to get the best price in bulk.

Interesting, thanks for the info! So your advice is that I wait a year or two and then hopefully the new SSDs will be up around the 160GB that I'm used to?

retina said:

nd33 said:

The ipod touch's use all solid state drives.

The classic's use traditional spinning disc type hard drives.

Solid state technology is at this point in time alot more expensive per gb in comparison with the older hard drives. That's why you're only getting a max of 64gb in the ipods at the mo.

The advantage of SSD's is that they have no moving parts, so they are highly resistant to damage and wearing out over time. All hard drives with spinning discs will fail at some point, it's just a matter of time. It's also just a matter of time before SSD's of high capacity become readily available and cheap.

I guess Apple have decided that the capacity gap is close enough, that it's time to give up on temperamental hard drives and go all out on SSD's to get the best price in bulk.

Interesting, thanks for the info! So your advice is that I wait a year or two and then hopefully the new SSDs will be up around the 160GB that I'm used to?

If you can bear the wait, then that's prob the best thing to do! Next year I'd expect 128gb ipod touch's.

nd33 said:

retina said:

Interesting, thanks for the info! So your advice is that I wait a year or two and then hopefully the new SSDs will be up around the 160GB that I'm used to?

If you can bear the wait, then that's prob the best thing to do! Next year I'd expect 128gb ipod touch's.

Cool, thanks for the advice. I admit that I'm not that great at waiting, but I think it's even worse to rush out and spend big money on something only to see a much better version of it be released just a few months later.

On the other hand when Nikon released the D7000 I thought they might have something even better in the works and because of that I held off on buying it for more than half a year. Now a more than a year later I realize that they're still promoting the D7000 as their top mid-level camera so I could just as well have bought it on the day it came out.

Graycap23 said:

retina said:

Fair enough. I guess I'm just amazed that an invention that not many years ago caused a music industry revolution and changed the whole experience of portable music (and later movies) has now been reduced to little more than a storage unit. I can't keep up with technical evolution these days.

Why buy into the hype? I love the unit exactly as it is. I'll keep using them until they stop working.

I agree.

I have both a 120 GB iPod classic and an iPhone. I keep music only on the iPod and videos only on the phone. That setup works for me.

My daughter wants one and I have NO idea what to get/look for/buy ...

Suggestions please ?

Machaela said:

My daughter wants one and I have NO idea what to get/look for/buy ...

Suggestions please ?

blue green. get one in blue green. that's all i got

Please tell me we will not be forced off the Ipod classic

I still use the 15G one I got in like 2003

It hardly holds a charge, but it sits plugged in beside my bed and I listen to it just about every night

sextonseven said:

I have both a 120 GB iPod classic and an iPhone. I keep music only on the iPod and videos only on the phone. That setup works for me.

If I already owned an iPhone I would probably do that too.

Machaela said:

My daughter wants one and I have NO idea what to get/look for/buy ...

Suggestions please ?

She wants an iPod? Maybe it's best to simply ask her then if she wants a Classic or a Touch?

As for storage capacity the devices usually get more expensive the better it is. So what you want to go with depends on your budget.

What else do you need advice on? Colour? I'd go with anything except what XxAxX says.

NDRU said:

I still use the 15G one I got in like 2003

It hardly holds a charge, but it sits plugged in beside my bed and I listen to it just about every night

Battery power/lastability seems to be one of the biggest technological challenges today, regardless if you're talking electric cars, phones, MP3 players, wireless headphones etc etc. The minute I'll hear about a breakthrough in battery technology I'll buy lots of stocks in whichever company came up with it!

Graycap23 said:

retina said:

Fair enough. I guess I'm just amazed that an invention that not many years ago caused a music industry revolution and changed the whole experience of portable music (and later movies) has now been reduced to little more than a storage unit. I can't keep up with technical evolution these days.

Why buy into the hype? I love the unit exactly as it is. I'll keep using them until they stop working.

This is a big reason that I don't buy any of this stuff, as soon as they release it they are already working on the "next big shiny gadget" tha they will peddle for what is almost what I pay in rent every month! My cellphone is just a cut above two cans and a string together....

retina said:

Machaela said:

My daughter wants one and I have NO idea what to get/look for/buy ...

Suggestions please ?

She wants an iPod? Maybe it's best to simply ask her then if she wants a Classic or a Touch?

As for storage capacity the devices usually get more expensive the better it is. So what you want to go with depends on your budget.

What else do you need advice on? Colour? I'd go with anything except what XxAxX says.

You would need 5 Iphones to equal one ipod. The Classic is much cheaper for the memory you get. 35G vs 160G

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

Please tell me we will not be forced off the Ipod classic

I got one last year for Christmas and I love it It's the only iPod that I would own.

retina said:

Machaela said:

My daughter wants one and I have NO idea what to get/look for/buy ...

Suggestions please ?

She wants an iPod? Maybe it's best to simply ask her then if she wants a Classic or a Touch?

As for storage capacity the devices usually get more expensive the better it is. So what you want to go with depends on your budget.

What else do you need advice on? Colour? I'd go with anything except what XxAxX says.

Thank you for your perspective/opinion