I've spent the last year or so slowly replacing the everything-machine in my pocket with devices that do one thing and do it well. A BOOX e-reader for books. Retro handheld consoles for games. An automatic watch that tells time and nothing else. So when I started looking for a
  • LemmyEntertainYou@piefed.socialEnglish
    6·
    4 days ago

    I heard the audio quality wasn’t great on this thing due to the lack of a dedicated DAC chip. The Hifi Walker H2 seems like a better deal.

    • Sirence@feddit.orgEnglish
      5·
      4 days ago

      Also having to open this device to replace the SD card is a bit off putting. I understand that you also have to open a traditional iPod to replace the storage, but this is neither apple nor the early 2000s. My mp3 player has an easily accessible SD card slot on the side and I don’t see why this device could not have one either.

  • dkc@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    4 days ago

    It’s on the agenda to get a dedicated audio device this summer. I’ve been building up a collection of FLAC music to prepare. There’s 3 reasons for this.

    1. I bought a Remarkable device a few years ago. Yes, they’re over priced compared to a Kindle, but I wanted to avoid Amazon lock-in. As an aside, they’re fairly Linux friendly, you can even ssh into them. Anyway, before that I would read physical books or use a cheap tablet, but the tablet fell out of favor because it was too distracting. Constant notifications, request for updates, etc. I’m so happy with my current ereader. I use it all the time, and when I read, I don’t have any apps trying to grab my attention. I’m hoping an audio player can give me that same experience back for music. I hate mowing the yard and having Siri interrupt my music to tell me about some message.

    2. My AirPod pros were nice for the two years they worked. I’d probably grab another pair if I was still in so many Zoom meetings. Eventually though they started making a nasty buzzing noise and are now useless. I want to use my nice pair of headphones I’ve owned for a decade to listen to music.

    3. I’m sick of paying a monthly fee to listen to the same 500 songs (if that) over and over. I’m old. I don’t listen to a lot of new music. The new music I do listen to usually comes from an article I read on NPR, not from the algorithms. I want to depend less on streaming services and have more control over what I consume, and how I consume it.

    Yeah, I could probably find workarounds to all these problems on my phone by fiddling with notification settings and buying a cheap headphone adapter, but why should I have to? Why do I have to go out of my way to make something as expensive as my phone less distracting and more capable? I’m just choosing to slowly opt-out of that battle.

  • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
    51·
    4 days ago

    The Innioasis Y1 is one of a growing number of gadgets that seems engineered to take us back to a simpler, less perpetually-connected time. It’s an unabashed iPod Classic clone: click wheel, color screen, and all, with just enough modern concessions (USB-C charging, Bluetooth) to keep it from feeling like a museum piece.

    If you’re going to leave your smartphone at home and then take this, and not having the phone with you is your goal, okay, sure.

    But if you’re not, you’re just carrying an additional device to do something that the first device is quite capable of handling.

    • philanthropicoctopus@thelemmy.clubEnglish
      3·
      3 days ago

      All that is true. But I think it’s still useful building a world where your phone is not your constant default to reach for. If you make your phone less interesting your less likely to reach for it. The device could be a nice part of that strategy