In Case You Didn't Know, Your Old iPhone is an iPod ...

The prices of used iPods have recently skyrocketed in price ... Why not, they are still gorgeous and useful in 2026. While Apple has not made any new ones in years - you can still reformat them to the last OS available for that model and sync as you would a brand new iPhone. There are two things to keep in mind, there are ZERO third party apps that run on it (if it accepts apps) and when you reformat it/sync it to your computer, it erases all the apps other than the Apple ones (player, weather, etc, etc ...) (if the seller left you any apps) but a cheaper and perhaps easier solution is just to re-purpose an older iPhone (or buy a used iPhone - cheaper than a used iPod).

Some people are buying iPods to get off the internet and doom scrolling but it's pretty simple. Do NOT install any third party social apps, turn off WiFi or even set Parental restriction for yourself so your inrternet screen time is very limited. 😀 If you can't trust yourself, have someone else set the PIN and or restrict internet access to 30 minutes at 2 AM ... 😀

Get an iPhone that can run IOS from the last few years. delete ALL the apps that you don't want to use and either move the critical ones like SAFARI or HIDE them (latest OS) ... then you can set the MUSIC app icon as large as you like ...

And of course, you can add other music apps that you'll find useful, many require WifI but again, it's up to you how restricted you want to get ...

There are plenty of interesting music/ASMR/podcasts and radio apps that usually require wifi but again, your call ...

There are fun apps like PLAYTIME that actually spin a vinyl graphic .... thee used to be a turntable app that actually introduced clicks and rumble for the full effect of an old school turntable ...

Or the MYCLASSIC app that mostly mimics a first gen iPod's interface and use actually use the touchscreen on an iPhone to mimic spinning the old iPod click wheel (and it's nicely done as just like the old iPod, the faster you swipe, the faster it scrolls through your library).

(It's not as clean looking as an Apple classic iPod's interface but it's hard to make it exactly as great as Apple's clean interface). But it's 98% ....

And the advantage to an iPhone as your iPod is you should have plenty of room for video* (plus it has a camera and photos). You can play all the games on the app store that doesn't require an internet connection. And of course, only the last iPod Touch's had Bluetooth so you can go with wireless or wired. Yes, you can still buy the Apple classic white wired headphones.

*Upload the videos and not doom scroll ...