Nothing cheesy about iPod, so why move it?

End of the line: my current iPod shuffle. Now relegated to history.

Can someone please hit the pause button on the world, because it's getting harder to keep up with all the technological changes.

My go-to personal music machine, the iPod, is the latest gadget to be put out to grass.

In an announcement on Thursday, Apple said its iPod shuffle and iPod nano would no longer be sold. They are the last true iPod devices. The only iPod descendent remaining is the iPhone wannabe Touch.

Like the Sony Walkman before it, and portable CD players, the iPod has seen its day and the world has moved on. It's 16 years since the original iPod was launched. It was chunky, and in today's world of streamlined portable personal electronics would be considered a brick.

My first iPod was a 4th generation version (2004) of what is now referred to as the "Classic" model. It made sense to have one. I was about to relocate to Bermuda, but I hadn't done enough upper-body gym work to handle carrying a suitcase filled with my entire CD collection. So I transferred the music to the 20GB drive on the iPod, and still had a handsome amount of storage space left over.

Later, I transitioned to the smaller shuffles, going from the 1st generation model that resembled a USB stick, to the stubby 2nd generation and finally the ultra small 4th generation.

The Mp3 players were my home music machine, and I'd occasionally wear one when exercising and running long distances. But a combination of rain, sweat, and constant shaking proved fatal for the first three devices. I no longer wear an Mp3 when running, so my third shuffle (appropriately named after my current running gait) still works after many years. I use it at home for my music fix, particularly to break the monotony of ironing, and as an essential relaxing distraction when travelling.

'Old school' camera used: a photo with Michael Beck

Call me old school (that's Mr Old School, if you please), but I loved these tiny Mp3 players for their portability and uncluttered design functionality.
And on the subject of old school, when Heather and I had a photograph taken with Michael Beck last year, we were the odd ones out. Everyone else was wielding camera-equipped smartphones, while we pulled out a point-and-shoot digital camera. The Warriors actor even commented: "You guys are old school."

Today, I use my smartphone more than ever. For a start, it is no longer a BlackBerry, for which I believe I earn a bunch of brownie points.

I opt for the camera phone over the trusty point-and-shoot about 80% of the time. And it comes in handy for email checking, occasional internet use and interview recording (no need to carry an old school diction recorder).

I've yet to use it for listening to music, but it is clear that is the way ahead. The popularity of streaming music through smartphones is the primary reason for the cliff-falling sales of iPods.

The world is changing, and as in Dr Stephen Johnson's book, Who Moved My Cheese? it is all about adapting to change and looking for the new cheese, and perhaps finding it to be superior to the old, vanished stuff. We'll see.

For now I'll plough on with my iPod shuffle, while making a few experimental forays into the world of smartphone music  - just in case the old school cheese vanishes.