NYTIMES (Nitsuh Abebe) - Why ‘Smart’ Products Have Started to Look Like the Dumb Choice
How Wi-Fi-connecting, app-based tech led to a backlash in the name of simplicity.
AXIOS (Sami Sparber) - Why people are buying iPods again
Grab your corded headphones: People are snapping up Apple's retired MP3 players for nostalgia and a break from smartphones . The big picture: For younger generations especially, the comeback is part of a broader return to offline devices and hobbies , driven by digital burnout. By the numbers: Search interest for the original iPod and the iPod Nano spiked last year — even though Apple discontinued the product line in 2022, according to Google Trends data . - eBay searches jumped for the iPod Classic (+25%) and iPod Nano (+20%) between January and October 2025 compared with the same period in 2024, per internal data shared with Axios. - Apple did not respond to requests for comment. How it works: Older tech tends to be…