Our friends at iMore have pointed out that the new iPod shuffle and nano won’t sync your Apple Music tracks. Only the latest iPod touch will do that. Why hinder the nano and shuffle this way? iMore’s Serenity Caldwell makes a very likely guess:
“It’s probably a record label requirement: In theory, you could sync an iPod shuffle or nano up with Apple Music tracks, then cancel your Apple Music subscription and continue rocking out to those ‘copied’ tracks forever.”
I was surprised by this update because, frankly, I don’t think the iPod is long for this world. The touch might have a little life left, but the nano and shuffle, well, don’t.
I disagree. The shuffle is the best solution for working out. It’s small, lightweight, and clips on to any clothes you have, and most workout clothes don’t have pockets. I also happen to swim often so try strapping an iPod touch onto yourself and swim without the headphones cable getting tangled, caught, or yanked.
Can’t say for the nano but the shuffle was designed for a different use than a standard iPod.
The watch is the best to use work out.
You would think Apple could solve that with some simple software built in. Sync on July 15th – software on the device has a simple built in timer that requires a Sync every 30 days – if it doesn’t sync, it won’t play those songs. Seems easy enough.
I think Apple needs to either figure out Apple Music on the iPod or cut the product. You sign up for Apple’s brand new Music service and you buy Apple’s brand new music player and they don’t work together? C’mon now. Yes, I understand the technical reasons, but a lot of customers won’t think that way. This will make Apple look bad to those people, and Apple isn’t banking the company on this product – it’s a blip for them. This doesn’t make any sense.
I don’t see them both going away but I could see them condense the product. The 6th gen nano was in many ways that condensed product and it almost makes me think Tim Cook created the 7th gen in 2012 knowing that he wanted to make the Apple Watch and the 6th gen nano would have cannibalized it. If they could bring the iPod nano down to $100 with decent storage and have cheap AppleCare available then that would justify killing the shuffle to me. Or maybe they just keep minimizing the iPod line to where it’s a glorified accessory.
There’s a much more obvious reason. The iPod Touch has networking – the nano and shuffle do not.
When you ‘sync’ Apple Music tracks, they’re not stored on the device. They’re streamed – all you’ve synced is an index entry, just like the music you buy that you don’t put on the device, if you choose to show that. There’s no way the nano and shuffle can actually do that.
Ack; we’re talking about the offline mode. Never mind.