{"id":35877,"date":"2022-05-13T15:31:43","date_gmt":"2022-05-13T19:31:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=35877"},"modified":"2022-05-13T15:31:43","modified_gmt":"2022-05-13T19:31:43","slug":"music-unitasker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2022\/05\/13\/music-unitasker\/","title":{"rendered":"Music Unitasker"},"content":{"rendered":"

Riccardo Mori<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Listening to music with an iPod shuffle is still (and can still be) a fun experience. You can create the digital equivalent of a mixtape, load it on your shuffle, clip the shuffle to your shirt\/jeans\/jacket, and then you can go out and listen to music without even having to touch the device, unless you need to change volume or skip a track. It’s basically a hands-free device that disappears on you. If Apple made a new iPod shuffle with Bluetooth, the invisibility factor would be even higher, since you wouldn’t even have the earphones’ cable around you to remind you that you are wearing an iPod. It would still be a nice device for commuting, or jogging, or during a workout.<\/p>\n

Sure, you might say that these uses are now taken over by the Apple Watch or other smartwatches, but for an Apple Watch you’ll pay a minimum of $199 up to more than $1,000. An iPod shuffle would be a $50 device. If you’re a casual user who just wants to have some music while out and about, jogging, etc., and don’t use a smartwatch, a little wearable device like the iPod shuffle could still be your cup of tea. But maybe wanting from today’s Apple a fun, inexpensive, wearable, colourful device is asking too much. Here, have an AirTag instead.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Tyler Hall<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

With all the shit in the world in the last few years, listening to music has become even more of a refuge and safe space for me than it ever was before.<\/p>\n

But, for me at least, the incredible technological convergence of every single use-case into a deck of cards-sized pocket super-computer means that when I do<\/em> want to only<\/em> listen to music - there are a million beeps, boops, and badges fighting for my attention.<\/p>\n

An underappreciated feature of the iPod (because it wasn’t a feature you could market during its heyday) was that it was only<\/em> an iPod. Not also a mobile phone and internet communicator.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

He bought a Sony NW-A105 Walkman running Android.<\/p>\n\n

\n

For all the amazing interactions touch screens have given us, until I clicked to the next track without taking this Walkman out of my pocket, I had forgotten how nice it is to control<\/em> my music by touch - and not by voice or by first waking my phone from sleep and tapping a button I can’t feel.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n