You Should Get an iPod and Mod it
Last Edited: 1 month, 2 weeks ago.
I've talked in the past about Ditching your black slab and another way to do this is to get dedicated devices for a lot of your common tasks such as a digital camera for photos and an the Subject of todays post an iPod for playing music.
Still today in 2026 over 12 years since the iPod Classic was discontinued it still continues to he the GOAT when it comes to portable pocket sized music players. Apple really nailed the interface paradigm that is the click wheel and I think it will truley live on to be one of the most iconic peices of technology ever made.
iPod Classic 6th Gen
But with such an iconic community there still lives a vibrant community of aftermarket modifications now for your iPod Classic to make it more usable in the modern age. The most simple, cheapest and easiest mods to do is an Hard drive replacement for either SD cards or more recenetly M.2 SSDs this not only improves the speedness of the general device by removing the spinning rust but by not spining that rust we also get a great improvement on battery life too. Do note though that certain models of iPod Classic do have limitations on how big the storage can be.
iFlash Sata
Then you can go down two routes from here. Either you can enjoy your iPod with its new Solid State Disk and call it a day, although i would recommend if you go this route that you do also replace the battery for a new one too since they're at last 12-20 years old now so have degraded a lot. Or you can go full sicko mode like I have done.
Moonlit Market have created the Classic Connect 2 the ultimate iPod Modding Kit all in one. This thing brings all the community mods into one plug and play, reversible mod. We're talking Haptic Feedback, New bigger Battery, Qi Wireless Charging, Bluetooth and the big one USB C charging (and Syncing with some optional soldering)
Moonlight Market Classic Connect 2
This thing takes your iPod and puts it on steroids! Now not only can you listen with your favorite wired headphones you can also connect up your favorite wireless headphones too (including airpods).
Having done this mod myself I would highly recommend it as its made my iPod way more convenient to use in modern life by being able to charge wirelessly or by USB c meaning I still only have to keep a single type of cable in my bag should i need to juice up on the go but realistically with the crazy battery life this thing gives now that is a rarity I can go at least a week maybe two of daily use before needing to charge the iPod up now.
Now the only issue is getting the music onto the device, luckily despite discontinuing the iPod Classic 12 years ago and even the iPod touch now 4 years ago as well as discontinuing iTunes, Apple does still continue to support iPod Syncing both in MacOS now through the finder and on Windows though an app called Apple Devices. This I would say is the only big pain point of using an iPod in 2026 however once you have it working its usually pretty reliable from then on and considering that you likely aren't adding new music to your iPod on a daily or probably even weekly basis i don't think this is a big deal personally. its also why i opted not to do the optional soldering for the USB C syncing. Using the 30 pin for syncing purposes is also fine for this in my opinion.
Some people would suggest that you can overcome this by installing rockbox on your iPod and to that i say why did you bother getting an iPod then. rock box can be installed on a lot of commodity hardware even this £45 iPod clone so why go through all the hassle and cost to buy and modify an iPod just to put rockbox on it.
Innioasis Y1 iPod Clone
So in conclusion I would recommend setting up a modified iPod Classic not only does it mean you can loose your reliance on streaming companies that will inevitably put the price up as well as reliance on your phone for everything. You might also learn a thing or two about fixing electronics too.