YHK - yet another hacker news clone

Apple Music 404 Not Found

257 points frizlab 8 hours ago 90 comments

https://www.macrumors.com/2026/10/23/apple-music-has-a-hidde...

frizlab 8 hours ago | parent

I love Easter eggs like those.

0x457 2 hours ago | parent

Clicking sound unlocked some memories.

NDlurker 2 hours ago | parent

Roc the Mic. Beanie Sigel and Freeway. Haven't heard that song in a loooong time.

Ipod seems pretty cool. I never owned one, kind of want to get a modded one or a newer knock off

satellites 2 hours ago | parent

Heavy dose of nostalgia. That clicking sound is so satisfying.

dmtroyer 2 hours ago | parent

you can even turn it off and on in the settings

ashleyn 2 hours ago | parent

It's really cute. I wonder if we'll see a significant market for plain MP3 players with the whole digital detox fad lining up with the nostalgia. There's already a lot of people buying refurb and bluetooth-modded modded ipod classics.

dgellow 2 hours ago | parent

That’s already the case since a few years

lukifer 2 hours ago | parent

My friend's grade-school kid gets exuberantly excited by CRTs and VCRs, and I know a few Gen-Z's with record collections. Maybe there's truth to the Dennis Duffy joke on 30 Rock: "technology is cyclical" :)

recursive 2 hours ago | parent

There's a whole product segment for this that seems to be gaining some traction. "Digital Audio Player" aka DAP.

Brendinooo 2 hours ago | parent

I think I asked in HN last year if anything was happening in this space now that the click wheel patent expired. I ended up buying a $50 Chinese knockoff for one of my kids. It...feels like a $50 knockoff, haha.

0x1ch 2 hours ago | parent

Also for the troops. Have some friends that cannot bring devices that emit RF / BT on base or ships during certain operations and exercises.

It's extremely hard to find a new production MP3/FLAC player with upgradable storage that don't suck for one reason or another. Plenty of perfect new ones, but they will have onboard BT or Wifi still.

vostrocity 1 hour ago | parent

There's even a product that lets you retrofit an old iPod with a modern motherboard

https://certainthings.studio/sprout

cosmic_cheese 1 hour ago | parent

There's a bunch of options from Chinese companies as well as from more traditional companies (like Sony), but the majority run Android (some skinned to be "simple", some basically like the Android counterpart to an iPod Touch) and are built with super overspecced hardware which kinda defeats the point in my opinion.

Part of the appeal of the iPod is that it only had just as much hardware and software as it needed and was simple, which lends to its extreme mod potential that's fueling its continuing popularity today. A good modern iPod analogue needs to deliver on those fronts, too.

eddythompson80 57 minutes ago | parent

It's been happening, but just like all fads, especially nostalgia driven ones, it'll die soon. Every few years a new batch of people enter their higher earning years where they have more disposable income (mid to late 20s for some, early 30s for some, late 30s for others, etc) and nostalgia hits and they go crazy for a piece of their childhood or adolescence or their crazy 20s. If enough of said batch line up, you get a phenomena or a fad.

The sudden growth rate in sales derive some people to capitalize on it. Mostly either Chinese manufacturers or drop shippers though sometimes big names get swept up in the frenzy too. Then the market is flooded and it's not cool or unique anymore, or the target audience is saturated and then it's forgotten. I suspect something similar is happening now with screenless fitness trackers right now (even though I bought one because I hate smartwatches but want a fitness tracker)

It's especially funny seeing people who are into "MP3 players for digital detox" speak on podcasts or online. "I love that it's not a phone. I just wish it had <insert random ass app(s)> so I can take it on walks and leave my phone behind" then those random apps are different per person. It's really funny.

Similar thing with the screenless fitness trackers I mentioned. On every single review or discussion board for them, you will find people complaining that a screenless fitness tracker is, in fact, screenless and that they wish it just had a small screen for their important notifications or if it can answer calls or get phone notifications or connect to LTE.

mslev 2 hours ago | parent

Interesting that "Do You Realize??" by The Flaming Lips is listed twice under Songs, but its actually two sequential 90 second clips.

dmtroyer 2 hours ago | parent

I think most (if not all?) of the songs are 90 second clips. I imagine for licensing purposes.

sampaio96 2 hours ago | parent

This page was conceived by and implemented by an AI.

otherayden 2 hours ago | parent

source?

rideontime 2 hours ago | parent

Do you have any particular evidence to support this claim?

saagarjha 1 hour ago | parent

The code comments are pretty clear tells

marcelox86 1 hour ago | parent

There's not a way to give evidence for this kind of stuff but that's feeling it gave me too. I suspect a lot of superfluous stuff implemented in recent software is implemented by an agent. I haven't formed a concrete opinion on how I feel about it though.

lelandfe 19 minutes ago | parent

And what even is superfluous when an Apple FE eng (or product person) prompts, "make me a web browser iPod"

dawnerd 1 hour ago | parent

They probably did use AI to assist but there’s a lot of detail and nuance with it that AI is just awful at.

tencentshill 51 minutes ago | parent

The progress bar are vectors and not pixelated like they should be. A pretty obvious detail they should not have missed, but I understand how that could be harder to implement.

saagarjha 1 hour ago | parent

Implemented, sure. Conceived of? Probably a human was involved somewhere

theideaofcoffee 37 minutes ago | parent

This is becoming such a lazy and predictable retort. Do you have any other quibbles that might of substance?

Who the fuck cares.

jsyndikus 13 minutes ago | parent

Oh come on. Somebody at Apple decided to create a cute little thing out there. I’d like to see more quirky stuff like this on HN, I care more about that than the posts about AI harnesses that flood this site every day.

paxy 2 hours ago | parent

Make this the default Apple Music interface

neko_ranger 2 hours ago | parent

haha literally everyone had Ocean Avenue by Yellowcard on their ipod

yborg 2 hours ago | parent

>Has Propellerheads "Take California" clip >it doesn't have the line

Sad!

illwrks 2 hours ago | parent

Playlist data below for anyone interested:

https://music.apple.com/includes/ipod/data/us/en-US.json

illwrks 1 hour ago | parent

There appears to be different URLs for different territories. For anyone curious, I've fed a few of them into an agent and they are largely consistent.

US 1,029 Songs 682 Artists 39 Unique tracks

GB 1,156 Songs 727 Artists 12 Unique tracks

FR 1,217 Songs 797 Artists 132 Unique tracks

DE 1,062 Songs 709 Artists 62 Unique tracks

ES 1,155 Songs 724 Artists 7 Unique tracks

sherburt3 2 hours ago | parent

Really is heartbreaking that the click wheel is such an incredible and satisfying user interface but technology has evolved such that we have no need for it anymore.

an0malous 1 hour ago | parent

I’d like a ring with a wheel that clicks as a remote for something like glasses or a TV

nozzlegear 1 hour ago | parent

Just the idea of that scratches my brain in a nice way.

chrisjj 1 hour ago | parent

I did not find pulling the wheel down to push the cursor up to be satisfying.

apt-apt-apt-apt 1 hour ago | parent

D-pad would be better, but somebody sacrificed functionality for aesthetics

chrisjj 3 minutes ago | parent

[delayed]

redwall_hp 1 hour ago | parent

Its spiritual successor is the crown on the Apple Watch. I never swipe to scroll on the watch. It's way more fluid (and you get neat haptics) to twist the crown.

darreninthenet 31 minutes ago | parent

I've had my Apple watch for a very long and TIL you can turn the crown to scroll

chatbbb_i_cant_ 1 hour ago | parent

extremely ironic comment considering there has been a Renaissance of personal music players lately, including ones with click wheels. look on Amazon for all the Chinese made ones. there is absolutely still a desire, perhaps a growing one, for dedicated devices, as everyone grows wearier of phones

torben-friis 1 hour ago | parent

That's actually great to hear, as my first reaction to the click wheel was "man I wonder if I can still get one of these".

Somehow, with all the world's music a tap away I listen to far fewer albums now. I loved preparing my mp3 players, like packing a bag for a trip.

larusso 1 hour ago | parent

I’m happy that I still have my 3rd gen and classic 120gig in black. Man these players where just the best.

andrewla 1 hour ago | parent

Also as phone bans start up in various schools there are often carveouts for mp3 players. A lot of summer camps too that have no-device policies allow non-internet-connected music players as well. The market both on the super low end and the high end is looking pretty strong. Hardest aspect, from my perspective, is gaining access to downloadable music when most consumption has moved to streaming.

htrp 24 minutes ago | parent

There are like a dozen apps that just record the audio out channel from your PC. Think of it as the modern version of recording songs off the radio

criddell 1 hour ago | parent

Do you think the renaissance is durable, or is it a fad? I wonder what percentage of high school kids are carrying a dedicated music player?

tarentel 1 hour ago | parent

I am not sure it is necessarily people growing wearier of phones. It is kind of a mix of gen z's weird nostalgia for things they never grew up with and the proliferation of AI music. I have a hard time trusting random playlists on music services because I don't know if it is genuinely new music made by real people, or ai the platform is pushing so they can make more money. Either way I don't want to be part of that. I don't personally own one of these devices but my listening habits have changed quite a bit in the last year.

swiftcoder 1 hour ago | parent

> gen z's weird nostalgia for things they never grew up

Plenty of older Gen Z grew up with iPods - the iPod touch didn't show up till they were 10 years old, and it took the smartphone another ~5 years to fully kill off that whole product category.

sanufar 1 hour ago | parent

yeah, I grew up on my dad’s old iPod and BlackBerry up until high school; a lot of people in my peer group also were exposed to “older” tech by way of parents, siblings, etc.

brailsafe 1 hour ago | parent

For me it's about intention and decoupling core entertainment from algorithmic bs.

blymphony 1 hour ago | parent

Not my project, but I recently found out about Sprout: https://certainthings.studio/sprout/

It's a modern iPod motherboard replacement that enables the device to have bluetooth, Wi-Fi, UI improvements, etc. Surprised it hasn't gotten more traction on HN

bayindirh 57 minutes ago | parent

I got myself a couple. A Mechen M30 and a FiiO M21. First one is pretty low-end in terms of interface and firmware capabilities, but both sound superb, and being able to listen music without a connection to somewhere and not interrupted by notifications.

I personally never gave up standalone players. My MD is still alive and kicking for example, but I find myself reaching for them more and more for proper music listening.

Obscurity4340 14 minutes ago | parent

What is your favorite, easily wired or bluetooth loadable what ill call a personal audio playback and library device?

jmathai 1 hour ago | parent

My 2nd generation iPod stopped working last week. It had a spin wheel but its predecessor's actually spun.

The monochrome screen shows a folder icon with a warning sign. I haven't looked into it but I fear that something happened to the internal hard drive. It's one with spinning disks. It was truly a work of art, that device.

correct_horse 56 minutes ago | parent

I’m sorry to hear that your iPod might be bricked. I haven’t worked on an iPod gen2 personally, but I repaired an iPod mini. The interface for the small hard drive in that is the same as compact flash, so it’s very easy to replace the storage with something more physically durable. Or at least it is easy to find the replacement part - I haven’t tried the whole process on your iPod.

functionmouse 40 minutes ago | parent

The mechanical drive has probably failed. If you put the iPod in a freezer bag and get it very cold, it may spin up long enough for you to make a backup. But make sure it is in a freezer bag or something otherwise airtight or the condensation will brick it worse. The cold shrinks the metal enough to mitigate the initial friction of the drive spinning up.

From there, you can mod it to work from a micro SD card.

Lammy 38 minutes ago | parent

Honestly I'm amazed yours lasted this long. I had a fourth-gen 40GB iPod back in The Day and it was easily the least-reliable Apple product I ever owned due to that internal 1.8" HDD. Mine was replaced five times under AppleCare.

When that eventually ran out and it died again (in 2009 IIRC), I swapped in a CompactFlash card using a cheap adapter from DealExtreme. Once you do that or an SD card mod (more popular these days), have iTunes restore the partitioning scheme and OS and it'll be good to go.

joecool1029 33 minutes ago | parent

The HDD connector usually unseats slightly and it stops working. Pop it open with a credit card and reseat it. A more dangerous way that sometimes gets it working again is to wait for it not to be spinning and give the edge a good smack against palm of your hand. This usually works to reset it the tiny bit it needs…

globular-toast 1 hour ago | parent

Same with a lot of things. A synchromesh gearbox comes to mind. There's definitely something bittersweet about technology becoming obsolete and redundant.

kibwen 53 minutes ago | parent

The haptic trackpads on a Steam Controller use the same circling motion to perform scroll wheel actions, and the haptic feedback is superb at selling the effect both audibly and from the feeling on your thumb.

holdupagain 48 minutes ago | parent

We have evolved to iPhone dark pattern updating to suddenly starting Apple Music in my car bulldozing Spotify and me almost getting in a fucking car accident every time.

kstrauser 36 minutes ago | parent

That's a "feature" of the vehicle's infotainment system. Some of the vehicles I've driven run Music the moment I connect my phone. Others are more respectful and wait for me to tell them to play something.

The aftermarket CarPlay adapter I installed in our Toyota is in the latter group. When I climb into the car, the CarPlay UI pops up on the vehicle's screen, ready for me to ask it to do something. Until I do, it does nothing other than show the homescreen with icons on it. A Ford I rented would fire up Music the second I plugged my phone in.

Kamq 27 minutes ago | parent

At least on the android side, that's a setting. Not sure about the defaults though

QuadmasterXLII 34 minutes ago | parent

My car plays "Africa" by toto every time I plug in the iphone to charge. It was a trifling inconvenience, then over years it became rage inducing, and now it's reached all the way back around to funny.

guywithabike 10 minutes ago | parent

Mine was A-Punk by Vampire Weekend. Used to annoy me to no end, but it turned out it was a "feature" of the car stereo to just default to playing alphabetically. Buying a new car fixes that little issue. Easy!

howunfortunate 4 minutes ago | parent

Add a custom song `AAAAAAA` that's just 60 minutes of silence?

wlesieutre 3 minutes ago | parent

It's not the phone deciding to do it, when the device connects the car is telling it to play. Check your infotainment settings to see if there's a way to turn it off.

Apple doesn't have an official way to prevent it, but I think you could do it with Shortcuts and an automation to pause music triggered by "When CarPlay is connected."

If it's tricky to get it to trigger at the exact time it starts playing, you could even do like:

  - Store media volume to a variable
  - Set media volume to 0
  - Wait 3 seconds
  - Stop playing
  - Restore original media volume

willtemperley 4 minutes ago | parent

Have you tried “ A a a a a Very Good Song”?

It is 9 minutes of silence so that U2 album you never asked for doesn’t start playing at the most dangerous part of the journey.

giancarlostoro 21 minutes ago | parent

Maybe.. but someone thought that this exact format is better for kids to listen to music / audio books / podcasts from, a device that doesnt need internet access, you download what you want and need. Some people also noted (I think it was this device havent tried it) you can open the device up and put in a new SD Card to increase capacity.

On a roadtrip I doubt this stops playing music…

https://storybutton.com/products/storybutton-one

lampiaio 1 hour ago | parent

Nice to see they've replicated the slight lighting uneveness near the sides when you turn the backlight on!

cflewis 1 hour ago | parent

I enjoyed that Fall Out Boy has `Thnks Fr Th Mmrs` and `Thnks fr th Mmmrs` which are the identical songs.

ahmedfromtunis 1 hour ago | parent

Yeah, some of the song are duplicated like in the good olden days!

pixelatedindex 1 hour ago | parent

Very disappointing that the Music app on iOS doesn’t render the page. Would have been super cool to scroll in the app with some haptic feedback along with the click sound. I can understand why it won’t be there as you can’t directly navigate to a pre-determined page, but instead they force you to portal through their search button.

Even still, I’m a little sad knowing what could have been! :(

lukeify 1 hour ago | parent

Using the haptics in the MacBook touchpads for this would've been next level.

ahmedfromtunis 1 hour ago | parent

Sad that the only song by Metallica that made it in is I disappear :/

bsimpson 1 hour ago | parent

I wonder how they picked the setlist.

Feels retro, but still a ~decade newer than when this was state of the art. Some reasonably obscure artists. Thrice and Thursday released a split EP recorded in the Apple stores: I see Thursday but not Thrice here.

Thrice still makes music. Thursday has been quiet for more than a decade.

qiller 1 hour ago | parent

These are all from iPod commercials

kulahan 24 minutes ago | parent

It seemed like there are maybe 1000+ songs in there. Were there really that many commercials?

qiller 18 minutes ago | parent

Oh, I thought it was more about the first playlist, which is indeed commercials. The rest seemed like the regular top hits. Always wondered how their creative team picked those bands...

swiftcoder 1 hour ago | parent

Hilariously, I can't load this in Safari, because it auto-redirects to the Apple Music app for that link, with no way to prevent it.

Pretty cool in other browsers, though.

dan_p 1 hour ago | parent

Typing the url directly into Safari mobile worked for me.

pokstad 1 hour ago | parent

You can if you long press the link and then choose to open in new tab.

xav_authentique 1 hour ago | parent

What surprises me the most is that they play the explicit versions of the songs.

globular-toast 57 minutes ago | parent

The ordering of the artists is interesting. Unlike most systems, 2Pac and 50 Cent are sorted right at the end. 50 Cent actually comes after 8Ball & MJG so it's a bit like `sort -n` but with numbers to the end. Is this an Apple thing?

dzonga 49 minutes ago | parent

the only iPod i owned was the touch. but for for an iPod that had a clickwheel that I had then was my gf's.

damn what a pleasurable experience of using a click wheel.

qiller 14 minutes ago | parent

On the hardware side... If I still have a 2nd gen iPod that hadn't been booted up in like 20 years. What are my chances of reviving it?

summarity 13 minutes ago | parent

Reading this as I sync music from iTunes/Apple Music to my iPod. Going on 20 years of service life (it's been rebuilt by a pro to have USB-C and Bluetooth, and a new battery) and still my library is intact and syncing works the same. Let's see how long it'll last :)

pazimzadeh 10 minutes ago | parent

The first time I tried my friend's iPod I couldn't figure out how to turn it off. Holding down the Play/Pause button is not discoverable at all but once you knew it was perfect. Your thumb never had to leave the wheel.

robot_jesus 7 minutes ago | parent

I can't believe no one I've seen as called out the secret game! Go to Settings>About and then hold the center button for 5 seconds. I used to play so much of this bricks game in college when procrastinating from studying in the library.