Pour one out or better yet, braid a French twist for the iconic iPod Shuffle. Once the world's smallest digital music player, Apple 's iPod Shuffle is now relegated to the tech giant's growing scrap heap, officially joining countless other "obsolete" gear that will no longer receive service or support from the company. The distinction should come as little surprise.
The last iPod Shuffle was released in 2015 and Apple stopped selling them in 2017. Apple relegates most products to the discarded pile after seven consistent years of support. Joining the iPod shuffle this year is the entire iPhone 6 lineup.
The Shuffle will soon be joined by the iPod touch 4th Gen and iPod touch 6th Gen, which are currently settled in Apple's Vintage grouping. They're no longer distributed but still have some service and support from Apple. Still, there was something special about the iPod Shuffle .
When it arrived in 2006, it was a wholesale redesign of the original Shuffle, itself a gum-pack-sized player that looked more like a lanyard than a digital device. The 2006 Shuffle was tiny (they never weighed more than about a dozen grams), rectangular (later a square), and could easily hide in the palm of your hand. It not only kept the 3.
5mm headphone jack but cleverly made it dual-purpose, shipping with a special dock that delivered a charge through that same port. Instead of a screen, the face still featured the classic, circular iPod hardware controls. It even had a physical off switch! What tru.
