This is all well and good, especially from a nostalgia perspective (in addition to the general pushback against cloud everything); but what I miss most about portable music nowadays is the lack of decent inline remotes (think early 2000s Sony MiniDisc players).
The player stated in your pocket, and the remote handled everything, volume, playback, and even had a dot-matrix screen to identify and navigate playlists!
I had a Sony portable CD player that I used to use for listening to audiobooks as a kid. It also had an inline remote with a screen. One notable feature it had was custom screen messages (dunno why you would need one tbh). Nothing beats setting the remote so that there was an ASCII dick on the screen all the time, and then have your dad give you the look of disappointment afterwards.
At some point the remote was lost, and the laser assembly broke. I miss that player dearly
This is all well and good, especially from a nostalgia perspective (in addition to the general pushback against cloud everything); but what I miss most about portable music nowadays is the lack of decent inline remotes (think early 2000s Sony MiniDisc players).
The player stated in your pocket, and the remote handled everything, volume, playback, and even had a dot-matrix screen to identify and navigate playlists!
You need a smartwatch.
I have one - but its touch screen is no replacement for bespoke, tactile controls.
I had a Sony portable CD player that I used to use for listening to audiobooks as a kid. It also had an inline remote with a screen. One notable feature it had was custom screen messages (dunno why you would need one tbh). Nothing beats setting the remote so that there was an ASCII dick on the screen all the time, and then have your dad give you the look of disappointment afterwards.
At some point the remote was lost, and the laser assembly broke. I miss that player dearly