Earlier this week, we discovered that Winamp, our media player of choice during the heyday of MP3s, is back from the dead and revitalized to run on modern Windows PCs. Whipping the llama’s ass again also got us feeling nostalgic for when our digital music collections first went mobile.
Unlike the (usually) homogenous smartphones of today, MP3 players came in all sorts of exotic shapes and sizes, with companies competing to introduce designs and features that made their players stand out in a very crowded market. But unlike Winamp, there’s little chance any of these devices are ever going to see a revival again. Our smartphones now handle all of our mobile media needs, so all we can do at this point is reminisce and wax nostalgic about the devices we formerly never left home without.