An open-sourced repairable iPod in 2024? How whould it be?

Creators & Developers
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The other day I found this piece of jewelry on Youtube about a guy that took an old iPod for a spin and that took him into a rabbi thole about digital declutter and cutting oneself away from algoritmic platforms and that life as a subscription plan scheme we’re trapped in. It was quite fascinating, indeed. Here are the links:

Part 1.- https://youtu.be/Ou2dW4qebbw?si=TuCORou_aBXTN8NX

Part 2.- https://youtu.be/t9TZh0oNAHQ?si=1lXJstd-keb8-Ry3

Part 3.- https://youtu.be/_L-WUrZ7tJM?si=XMpNy7Sbf-knlgdG

Part 4.- https://youtu.be/VzKr-tMr8qQ?si=SSHe7FuT8b20vb6c

Unfortunately, we’re talking about a discontinued device, a piece of consumer electronics’s past, something rare. In Part 4, he modded hs iPod to more recent tech (like SD Cards, new OS and battery) but it kept me thinking about what kind of device could we build from the ground-up to fulfill the duty of the old iPod. How can we design it to be easily repairable and upgradable, maybe even open-sourced?

It can be an interesting mental experiment. In the same size I think there can be a better battery, Bouetooth, a good DAC/Amp combo (nothing too big), USB-C charging-Data port, NVMe slot and MicroSD suport. What about a RISC-V processor for the whole thing?

I read you, guys.

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Someone has (kinda) beat you to it:

not sure it hits all your asks, but it’s pretty close!

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I immediately thought of the ESP32. Since there is a good library for a media player, recorder, bluetooth, and wifi music streaming.

And this uses the ESP32! nice.

Tech have moved so far ahead since the orginal iPod that a kid can piece together a music player with a screen. I believe they have kits even. Small ESP32 dev board, decent DAC breakout board, screen and SD card breakout boards. They have breakout boards for everything you need, even a usb port.

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