[HN Gopher] Ask HN: Nobody interested in an open hardware iPod N...
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       Ask HN: Nobody interested in an open hardware iPod Nano?
        
       Hey HN,  over the years I tested MANY dedicated audio players[1].
       And here is the thing: I'm still using an Apple iPod Nano 7g for
       music and audio books (m4b), because in my opinion there is nothing
       that comes close in usability and flexibility.  Here is why:
       Music, Audiobooks, Podcasts - all supported       Tiny size -
       although not mandatory I hate bulky phones in my pocket
       Battery life - Can listen for days without running out of battery
       Usability - Greate UI Design and Earphone remote support[2]
       Bluetooth 4.0 - already supported       The only optimizations I
       could find so far would be:                 Interchangeable storage
       - if the internal flash dies, the device is broken forever
       Replaceable battery - it's hard to repair       Audio formats -
       flac support would be nice       Wireless sync - Not having to copy
       files via cable would be nice to have       The iPod Nano 7g is
       from 2012. I've seen many people designing custom PCBs and
       releasing Kickstarter projects for custom audio players[5] or game
       handhelds[6]. I know Rockbox (which is great, but its lacks support
       for Wifi and Bluetooth AFAIK and just does not compete with the UX
       of iPod's audio book features in my opinion) and iPod Linux. 10
       years ago someone even reverse engineered the iPod Nano 6g
       display[3].  Although I'm not skilled enough in PCB-Design, after
       some research I found the Lilygo T-Display S3 Pro[4] based on ESP32
       S3, which would be the size, but lacks audio and OS. There is also
       the Mango PI CyberPad[7], which looked interesting, but maybe is
       already too clunky.  Programming wise, LVGL[8] may be a good
       framework to develop a modern and efficient UI - at least it looks
       promising.  So, why is nobody interested in recreating an iPod nano
       like device? It should be doable with modern tech, but Phones have
       completely taken over the market...  1:
       https://www.reddit.com/r/audiobooks/comments/14ue4un/comment...  2:
       https://github.com/advplyr/audiobookshelf-app/issues/847  3:
       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TedIzmguP0  4:
       https://www.lilygo.cc/products/t-display-s3-pro  5:
       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1C597AkhGtw  6: https://www.funkey-
       project.com/  7: https://mangopi.org/cp1m  8: https://lvgl.io/
        
       Author : sandreas
       Score  : 9 points
       Date   : 2024-02-29 22:41 UTC (18 minutes ago)
        
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       (page generated 2024-02-29 23:00 UTC)