iPod: technology’s ever changing beat

{"text":[[{"start":11.45,"text":"RIP iPod. "},{"start":13.453999999999999,"text":"Apple’s pioneering music-in-your-pocket has gone the way of the BlackBerry, the 244-year-old Encyclopedia Britannica and the dodo. "},{"start":20.921999999999997,"text":"The Cupertino-based tech group this week said it was discontinuing the iPod Touch, its last remaining portable music device. "}],[{"start":28.57,"text":"At 20 years, the iPod had half as long a run as Sony’s Walkman, its clunkier predecessor. "},{"start":34.499,"text":"The Walkman allowed 1980s cool kids to listen to music cassettes while rollerblading or doing aerobics. "}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":41.230000000000004,"text":"Sony moved with the times, transitioning to the CD Walkman when compact discs sounded the death knell for those sticky tangled tapes. "},{"start":48.584,"text":"But the Japanese conglomerate initially balked at devices for streamed music, fearing cannibalisation of its record label business. "},{"start":55.377,"text":"All told, Sony sold some 400mn Walkmans, not far short of estimated iPod sales. "}],[{"start":62.24000000000001,"text":"CDs, too, are virtual toast. "},{"start":65.61900000000001,"text":"Kicking off at the dawn of the 80s, the shiny discs peaked in the years spanning the millennium. "},{"start":70.599,"text":"The heydays were relatively brief but certainly longer than the blink-and-you-missed-it season of the laser disc, which briefly vied with video for viewer eyeballs. "}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":79.03,"text":"Nostalgia and the enduring love of retro mean the iPod will not die from the collective consciousness. "},{"start":84.59700000000001,"text":"The Walkman survives in the Smithsonian and on online retailer eBay. "},{"start":88.727,"text":"A new generation of cool kids rediscovered vinyl. "},{"start":91.907,"text":"Even CD sales blipped up last year. "}],[{"start":95.52,"text":"Some countries have stronger attachments to analogue technologies. "},{"start":99.512,"text":"BlackBerry phones enjoyed a brief renaissance in Indonesia. "},{"start":103.054,"text":"Outsized faxes continue to whirr across China and Japan. "},{"start":106.78399999999999,"text":"The latter, home to some of the most cutting-edge technology on the planet, struggles to wean itself off museum-era gadgetry. "},{"start":113.814,"text":"Sony stopped making Betamax tapes — the technology trounced by the VHS format — only in 2015. "},{"start":120.38199999999999,"text":"Local authorities and banks were still using floppy discs last year. "}],[{"start":124.75999999999999,"text":"Of course, it’s just possible that this is more about quality than sentimentality. "},{"start":129.564,"text":"After all, the US military, reliant on floppy discs for its nuclear arsenal, pulled the plug on those only a couple of years ago. "}],[{"start":137.10999999999999,"text":""}]],"url":"https://creatives.ftacademy.cn/album/71121-1652526354.mp3"}