Convey again the iPod! Apple ought to begin manufacturing its devoted music participant once more. With iPhones more and more banned from faculties, a easy leisure machine may fill the hole.
That mentioned, creating a brand new iPod for the streaming period wouldn’t be so simple as bringing earlier fashions again to life.
Apple wants a brand new iPod as a result of schools maintain banning telephones
At the moment, 31 U.S. states and the District of Columbia have legal guidelines designed to restrict college students’ use of telephones in lecture rooms. 4 states — Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina and Utah — ban smartphones fully.
One purpose for the ban is clear. Youngsters ought to listen in school, slightly than texting their buddies. However the issue goes past that.
In a examine accomplished by West Texas A&M College, researchers checked out a highschool the place directors banned telephones. They “noticed scholar anxiousness plummet — primarily as a result of college students weren’t afraid of being filmed at any second and embarrassing themselves,” NPR reported.
Blocking college students from texting or filming one another doesn’t imply they shouldn’t have the ability to take heed to music, podcasts and even classroom lectures between lessons. A tool that would play songs however do nothing else would give college students choices. Now, what does that sound like? Oh yeah, an iPod!
Apple ought to replace and relaunch a brand new iPod for 2026 and past. There hasn’t been as nice a necessity for the reason that iPhone debuted in 2007.
The brand new iPod should clearly not be a smartphone
Picture: Apple/Cult of Mac
The aim of cellular units at the moment is to cram as a lot performance into as small an area as doable. That gained’t work for the brand new iPod. It ought to play music and nothing else. Meaning no digicam and no App Retailer. The machine should look and performance nothing like a smartphone. That approach, when an educator sees it, they will’t accuse the scholar of breaking the regulation.
Meaning Apple should rigorously select the design. Maybe what’s wanted is an up to date sixth-generation iPod nano: a sq. that’s all display screen and a mere 1.5 inches on a aspect. Perhaps even a brand new iPod shuffle, which had no display screen in any respect.
The key improve versus the outdated fashions can be the addition of Bluetooth, so the brand new iPod may connect with AirPods.
Downloaded, not streamed music
Admittedly, this new machine would require a change in habits. Everybody in center college or highschool grew up within the streaming age. Most of them are used to listening to songs streamed by way of Apple Music or Spotify. They doubtless don’t have a group of MP3s able to load onto an iPod like individuals did within the outdated days.
However that’s not too critical an issue. A subscription to Apple Music lets customers obtain songs, albums and playlists to an iPhone to play offline. This needs to be out there on iPod, too … besides Apple discontinued the final iPod mannequin in 2022.
Right now’s college students want the iPod to come back again. As it’s, they’re caught shopping for out of date fashions off eBay.
A brand new iPod for a brand new era
The iPod grew to become a beloved gadget as a result of it let individuals take their music wherever. An up to date model may make the iPod well-liked once more.
It’s a win-win. Apple will get to promote iPods to college students who have already got iPhones. And college students get to take heed to music on the bus, throughout lunch and anytime they’re on a break.
