Re: So, for people like me that still get good use out of theirs
All in all, everything is better now I'm using my phone as my music player.
Horses for courses. I have a couple of identical Sansa Clip Zips, one always attached to the Hi-Fi, the other for mobile use. Not expensive - the Clip is cheap and expandable, with good sound and supports Rockbox. Music is 2 hard buttons away - amp on, Zip on. The car has a seperate satnav and a USB stick for music. A Perl script keeps the sources in sync. I prefer that setup to constantly plugging/unplugging a single device and fiddling with touchscreen apps to get some music. Many cars now have USB integration: If it weren't for that, using the phone would be more attractive.
The only hole is keeping the Hi-Fi zip charged. It can't charge and play music at the same time. I would really like a full size "tabletop" media player, mains powered. But the industry won't make these, because they don't want you to go off-net. They want you on the net, and therefore offer complicated network based solutions to a simple problem that was solved long ago (listening to digital music).
Biting the hand that feeds IT
