Why there's a cult market for really old iPods

A growing community of music fans and makers love the old iPods that Apple discontinued years ago. When their devices die or need better batteries or more storage, they send them to people like Manuel Mantecon (aka Pichi) who refurbishes them in his North Carolina bathroom workshop. From OneZero:

Pichi said that he's not that technical or "geeky" but got into iPod modding after his own iPod Classic's battery died. He couldn't find anyone to replace it for an affordable cost and felt like he was getting ripped off, so he figured he could do it himself. "I got my iPod wide open there looking like busted spaghetti with wires poking up everywhere," he said. "So I just started messing around with it and changed the battery myself..."

The more popular modifications are relatively simple: updates like adding more storage or battery life, or installing firmware that allows for customization of the user interface or downloading games outside of Apple's ecosystem. Few iPod modders are injecting the music players with wild features or stark new aesthetics...

They want to play an old game. Return to a better digital sound. Or just to preserve a time when your playback device didn't also store thousands of unread work emails, a million pings from the group chat, hourly spam risk calls, and targeted ads.

"Classic iPod Hackers Say There's No Better Way to Listen to Music" by Melanie Ehrenkranz (OneZero)

image credit: Chris Harrison (CC BY-SA 2.0)