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There’s a lot of interest in old iPods from today’s kids.
A lot of it has to do with school phone bans. Smartphones are banished, but music players often are not.
Plus, old iPods are mercifully free of pings, notifications and other distractions. They’re simple, functional and just plain cool.
Trouble is, iPods are frozen in amber.
Apple discontinued the last iPod Classic in September 2014. You can still pick up an old iPod on eBay, but there’s no Bluetooth to connect your AirPods or Wi-Fi for streaming.
A genius open-source project aims to correct that.
Called Sprout, it’s a replacement motherboard that you drop into the shell of your old iPod.
It’s a work in progress, but I think it’s super-clever. And I love to see old hardware get a new lease on life instead of clogging up landfills. Here are the details.
Also in today’s newsletter:
John Ternus promised a quicker cadence of product releases, and boy, he wasn’t kidding: There’s more — a lot more — coming on October 28.
Tbh, if you already have an Apple TV, it probably makes sense to skip the new model and just get the upgraded Siri Remote instead. But still, that crazy chip! Four-speaker surround sound! So tempting.
🔥 DEAL OF THE DAY: The current-generation Apple Watch SE 3 (GPS, 40 mm) is on sale right now for just $200. This is a great watch for starters, kids, seniors and just about anyone else, too. #affiliate
Here’s the full rundown of apps built into HomeView. Is your favorite on the list?
— Leander Kahney, EIC.
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A message from the Cult of Mac Deals team
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What the People Building AI Actually Read
The people building AI aren't only reading about AI. Sam Altman's pick for getting more done is Zero to One, and it has nothing to do with machine learning.
Shortform breaks down books like The Beginning of Infinity and Thinking, Fast and Slow into the key ideas, the context behind them, and what to do with them.
Get the ideas behind the breakthroughs in about 15 minutes, then decide which ones deserve your whole weekend.
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One more thing ...
My job is to not be easy on people. My job is to make them better. My job is to pull things together from different parts of the company and clear the ways and get the resources for the key projects. And to take these great people we have and to push them and make them even better, coming up with more aggressive visions of how it could be.
Today’s poll
Anyone still rockin' an old iPod? How often do you use it?
Results from yesterday’s poll
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