Surprising nostalgia: Apple posts a hidden virtual iPod online for its 25th anniversary

I used to have both my iPod touch fourth and fifth generation. The fifth generation had a messed up home button, it was pressed down for whatever reason so I had to press a lot harder on it to do certain things. But I liked it. I used that thing up until like 2022 or 2023 and it was pretty decent considering it was running iOS 9.3.5 and had 16 GB of storage. Would I buy one again? Just for nostalgia, even for a possibility steep price? Hell yeah, especially if it's an older iPod touch where I can run legacy iOS kit on it and downgrade to an earlier version of iOS.. Would it be worth it? For nostalgia, possibly. Would I use it daily? No, no I wouldn't unless it was like a sixth or seventh generation that I could somehow get a jailbroken version of YouTube onto, then we might be talking. But to be fair, I can probably just use the YouTube website if I'm overly desperate.. Would I look at other iPods? Possibly the nano

Before I got my first iPhone in 2011, I had four iPods: a 1st generation Shuffle in 2006, a 2nd generation Shuffle in 2008, a 5th generation Nano in 2009, and a 3rd generation Touch in 2010. After I got my iPhone, I stopped using my iPod regularly, but used it to test beta versions of iOS, and continued upgrading them as necessary to keep up until 2022, when iOS 16 dropped support for the A10 Fusion, the chip that powered the 7th, final generation of the iPod Touch.

Over that time, I watched iTunes change from a totally inaccessible app in Mac OS X Tiger to a fully or near-fully accessible app in Mac OS X Snow Leopard. Shortly after I got my iPhone, iTunes began its cloud and Wi-Fi syncing pivot, which eventually eliminated the need to connect my iPhone to my Mac. Over the years, buying individual songs from the iTunes Store became less practical, until I ultimately joined my family's Spotify plan in 2017, and as a result, rarely use the Music app today.

wonder how i could use this on my mac book air m1

OK, so I almost got an iPod touch seventh generation. I was all set to go to my local Apple Store to get one. They had the exact color and storage that I wanted. The store had to call me back because I needed to double check on something and unfortunately never did call me back then something had come up that day where I wasn’t able to go get the ride. I was going to get to the Apple Store to get the iPod and then it just never happened. Because about exactly a week after I was going to get one was when Apple had announced they’re just continuing iPads so it was a really annoying tease. So I never ended up with the iPad seventh generation that I really wanted to get. This is why I have kept my iPhone SE 2022. It’s literally the iPod touch that I never got with obviously current software. I wish I actually did have an iPod it’s I could tell you a lot more interesting story than that but it’s literally the iPod that almost was. I literally had an option that year because there were two things that I really wanted and my birthday and Christmas are so close to each other that my mom had said OK do you want your piano or your iPod first because I was gonna get one for my birthday one for Christmas and I had said the piano which literally is just a little 61 key digital keyboard from Yamaha, I had said that I wanted that first and then I was gonna get the iPod after that and the thing is at that time. I had no idea that iPods were going to be discontinued when I said that so it almost kind of ended up working out for the best in your way that I had said the piano first because you know that doesn’t have to be updated. You just turn it on and it plays like a piano so since it kind of worked out, it’s disappointing as it was because now I could just keep an old iPhone and running as an iPod. I’ll probably do that for a while since you can have up to 10 devices on one Apple account at least that was the last number that I was told last time I asked Apple so yeah that’s my story. I think the virtual iPod idea is kind of interesting though. I can’t imagine having to only have partially accessible my knee like you guys were talking about earlier comments, but I mean I get it. It was literally the early days of trying to figure out how to build Accessibility into a music player so it’s very interesting.

I had (and still have) a 4th generation IPod shuffle, at least it is still lying around here somewhere. Though I probabbly can't use it with ITunes anymore (although I'd have to try that) and I don't think its storage is that big.
And even if I could sync it with ITunes, ITunes on Windows (and by that I mean the old ITunes app, not the new apple devices one) is an absolute mess.

Yes, the old iTunes with windows is a complete mess. I hate it. Yeah iTunes and jaws like do not like each other at all. I actually gave up on even trying to use that at all anymore. Yeah you totally need to see if you can get that iPod shuffle up and running. I mean, can you even charge a battery on that anymore? Just saying I mean that’s kind of awesome that you don’t have that. It’s kind of awesome that you still have it.

So I had an iPhone 5 I think I’ve told you guys that story on here a few times the only thing I ever successfully got iTunes to do was update that thing from iOS 8 to iOS 10.3.4. That’s the only thing. The rest of the iTunes is horrible. I haven’t done a darn thing with it since I don’t want to. It was just a really really annoying experience. So yeah I am now on my third iPhone so I just kept my second one as my iPod. My first iPhone ever was eight and that thing ran iOS 13.3 something and I kept it all the way through. It’s support sickles so all the way through iOS 16, and then when I found out that it wasn’t going to get 17 that’s when I switched to the essay 2022 and then I got my iPhone 15 last year in August because I was trading in my iPad mini sixth generation because I hated the brace of that fun screen real estate so yeah I wish I would release like a 25th anniversary iPod touch just saying I would want that

We need that form back back. We could totally make the case that Voice users that are totally blind wouldn’t need a big screen and if Apple was committed to Accessibility, they would ensure that there was a really nice small phone for them to navigate. I’m only kind of half kidding by the way I would love that form back to back but you know modern processing and all that of course but yeah that size was amazing and I really really miss it. It was so nice. I guess the smallest thing now is SE 2022 which Apple told me is no longer in production so here we are and it’s also the last thing with the home button so I have to keep it around as long as possible.

Hey Dominic, it’s all good. We have our own design preferences. I loved the iPhone 5 form factor and I love the iPhone 8 and SE 2000 22,022 for factor. Look I already know Apple isn’t going to bring those back. It’s also one of the reasons I kept my iPhone SE 2022 because I love the size of that thing. I don’t care if something looks back to your house square corner. I love the screen size of that thing on a five and yes, the mechanical home button. They have a home button is fine, but I definitely prefer the mechanical home button. Like I said, we don’t have our preferences. Holger, I’m glad you’ve got an iTunes working for you in Windows 10 withdrawal 20 2026. It just didn’t work out for me so I just don’t. I guess that’s my answer not a great answer but that’s what I’ve got. I also don’t really get access to my computer that much. I’m mostly on my phone so yeah I just really wish there was like a 25th anniversary iPod touch that would come out but look I already know Apple isn’t going to before anybody says anything. :-) I mean it would run all the current software and then you wouldn’t have to keep an old iPhone around just curious though how many people on here actually still do keep their old iPhones on this iPod because the last statistical number that I heard from Apple was that you could have up to 1010 devices on your Apple account well by then it was called Apple ID but you could have up to 10 devices on there. I only have two. So I could potentially have another eight devices if that’s still true. That’s pretty cool.