This is my new iPod (or Zune, or MP3 player, or whatever you used to jam to Linkin Park during recess back in the day):

Well, technically, it’s a retro gaming handheld called the Miyoo Mini Plus. Although I do use it for retro gaming—capturing some Pokémon in FireRed, capturing some souls in Legacy of Kain, and melting some ICE (always a good thing) in Minish Cap—I’ve been using it a lot as a portable MP3 player. And I gotta say, I kinda love it. 

OnionOS comes equipped with an app called GMU, which is a music player that supports a variety of formats. Pop the SD card into your computer, drag and drop your (100% legally obtained) MP3 or FLAC files into the GMU folder, pop the card back in and plug a nice pair of headphones into the 3.5mm audio jack (remember those?), start playing some Aquemini and boom, you’re back in the late-90s, baby!

I also love GMU’s UI. It’s very minimal, and there’s something so charmingly retro about it. Honestly, this whole setup feels very Blade Runner “retrofuturism.” Most importantly, though, it got me back to actually caring about listening to music. For the past decade, I, like I’m sure many of you, have been tied to some kind of subscription service or another to get access to music. That experience always felt hollow. Sure, I could create playlists and have algorithms curate my songlist, but it took away all the control and made music this passive experience—in addition to taking a few bucks from my wallet every month.      

The Miyoo Mini Plus made music fun again; it made me care about what I listen to and made my device personal again. Just like the iPod (or the Zune, if you were one of those people).