-- Leo's gemini proxy

-- Connecting to soviet.circumlunar.space:1965...

-- Connected

-- Sending request

-- Meta line: 20 text/gemini; lang=en

Wood Block Classic (Dummy iDevice)


If you are like me, you probably have a pretty nice device with a 40-pin docking connector. It's easy to forget now, but people were really mad when Apple killed the 40-pin connector. This was because there was a wonderful ecosystem that sprung up of really nice audio devices that you could plug your iPod into. There were boombox-like things, clock radios and a few folks who would mod the center console on their cars to integrate a dock. Sure, Apple made an adapter, and it was a sleek looking rectangle of glossy white plastic. However, it wouldn't let the new iPhones fit well into the old docks, they would just stick up awkwardly on their little white pedestals and threaten to fall of when moved. Fast forward to 2020 and iTunes is gone, owning your own music is gone and Spotify rules the world. But those old 40-pin docks with their nice glossy housings and good speakers are still around. Most of them including the Philips Fidelio I own also have a 3.5 mm connector so you can still hook up a phone, even if now it probably takes a Bluetooth music adapter. I use an old Blackberry Music Audio Gateway which still works pretty well. But there still is that awkward steel 40-pin connector pointing up and waiting for the iPod that no longer exists. I can't fix everything with our subscribing-is-everything-you-own-nothing world but I can at least help with the aesthics of your old dock.


Picture of the WoodBlock Classic


Some time ago I put together an InkScape SVG file for lasercutting a wooden dummy resembling iPod Classic using the Ponoko lasercutting service. Once cut, the wooden dummy can be assembled with yellow wood glue. You can get it at my GitHub repo here:


https://github.com/akbarnes/wood-block-classic


Art, 2020-10-24 07:55

-- Response ended

-- Page fetched on Fri Mar 29 10:35:18 2024