Using an iPod in 2026

I fell for the everyday carry 2025 videos and bought a dedicated music player. This is more just an accounting of setting up the iPod, as I've only had it a few days as of right now. I like the iPod so far, but getting it set up was a tragic and arduous process, I must say.

I got this 20 gig iPod 4th generation for super cheap because its in terrible condition and had a dead battery. I maybe spent like $55 on it, not bad at all. I had to get a new battery for it too, but that was only $12 dollars, so this whole ipod set up ended up costing less than a new pair of bluetooth earbuds, which would be my alternative. It came running the regular iPod software, and it had about 2000 songs on it, but I wasn't really interested in anything that was on there, which sucked because it turned out that the only 30 pin cable in my whole house wasn't working with the iPod. Before I knew about that, though, I had to replace the battery. To open up an ipod, you have to wedge something in between the metal back and the front, and pry them apart. The first thing I found was my pocket knife. In retrospect, this is not a good idea, but I had done less safe things with my knife before and came out of it just fine. I was able to replace the battery and everything was great, but then it turned out the chargin port was misaligned, so I had to take the ipod apart again. I guess I was pissed off or something, because I didn't take much care this second time, and then next thing I know, the kinfe slipped and my thumb started hurting real bad. I ran into the bathroom and started bleeding out a lot, which was kinda lame.

This was already an unfortunate situation, as this was a major obstacle towards getting my iPod ready to go and then I still needed to make my science fair board. I kept on bleeding for ten minutes, and eventually I got my mom to come down and of course she was freaking out which wasn't very helpful but it was good she was there because all of a sudden I vomited, which was super duper lame, and then my face got all cold and I was super pale, which is when I started getting a little geeked. I got up because I needed to finish cleaning the wound, which had finally stopped bleeding, when I lost all vision and control of my arms and legs. Although I had only lost control for a few seconds, it was really scary anyways, and being fully conscious but unable to interact with the world is really strange.

After that I put a band-aid on and got back to work. I used a guitar pick to pry the iPod back open and fix the charging port. I plugged it in, and the battery was working great, but to my dismay, my computer wasn't detecting the iPod. Maybe it was an issue with Arch Linux. I tried on my Void laptop, nothing. My hackintosh? Nothing. My Mom's windows laptop? Nothing. FUUUUUCCCCKKK. I ordered a new cable in hopes that the issue was with the cable and not the logic board. I had to wait a few days, but it finally showed up. I plugged it in, and luckily, it totally worked. I was able to install Rockbox, which was super easy on Arch, you just install the AUR package and click a few buttons and badabing bada boom, its installed. Unfortunately, I accidentally deleted the music that was already on there, so hopefully I didn't delete any unheard of lost media 90s Hip-Hop. I started loading up music and everything works great. I've put maybe 300 songs on it right now, and I've started doing this thing where I only put one album on there each day, which I tihnk makes it more interesting.

As of right now, I think that the iPod is great, especially for less than $75, its a great experience so long as you have the right cable (it has to be certified, which is super stupid imo). Its lowk aura to walk around school with the wired earbuds in and I don't think it is forbidden like phones and smart watches are so I can use it without worry of it getting taken. I know its kind of performative and very "Best Optimized Every Day Carry for Computer Science Student 2026" core, but I do think that there is value to using it over a phone.