News

The iPod Era Is Officially Over After 20 Years

Apple has officially discontinued the iPod line and stopped the production of the last available model, the iPod touch, which was released in 2019.

Published

4 years ago

May 13, 2022

David Morelo

the ipod era is officially over after 20 years

The first iPod was released in 2001, offering a large storage capacity thanks to its hard-disk drive. It didn’t take a long time for the portable audio player to become a cultural phenomenon, appearing in countless movies, including Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver.

Despite its massive success, it has been clear for a long time that the iPod era is nearing its end. Modern smartphones are more than capable of playing not just music but also videos, and their ability to connect both to cellular and Wi-Fi networks meets the needs of the streaming generation.

Well, the end of the iPod era is now here because Apple has officially discontinued the iPod line and stopped the production of the last available model, the iPod touch, which was released in 2019.

But just because the last iPod will stop being available when supplies run out doesn’t mean that the music-listening experience associated with it will be gone too.

“Today, the spirit of iPod lives on,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “We’ve integrated an incredible music experience across all of our products, from the iPhone to the Apple Watch to HomePod mini, and across Mac, iPad, and Apple TV.”

Of course, avid music listeners have much more to choose from than just Apple-branded devices.

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Chinese electronics company FiiO, for example, produces a range of high-end portable media players whose superior audio quality can please even the most demanding audiophiles. The FiiO M11 Plus runs on Android and can stream music from Spotify over Wi-Fi.

There’s also Sony with its modern Walkmans, compact but capable portable media players that weigh next to nothing but last a long time on a single charge.

It’s also worth mentioning that the second-hand market with iPods is still thriving and will likely continue to do so for some time.

News

NEOPAY Wants To Follow Merchants Across Channels And Borders

A controlling 65% stake in noon payments would give NEOPAY access to marketplace sellers, online merchants and the payment flows they generate.

Published

1 day ago

October 5, 2026

Nour Nasir

neopay wants to follow merchants across channels and borders

It’s been a long time since checkouts were single defined places. A merchant might take payments at a physical register, on its own website and through an online marketplace, sometimes in more than one country. NEOPAY wants to follow those transactions wherever they happen.

The UAE payments company has entered into an agreement to acquire a 65% controlling stake in noon payments. NEOPAY already runs the acquiring infrastructure that lets merchants accept card payments, along with omnichannel acceptance and a merchant services platform. This new deal would add noon payments’ embedded payments platform, e-commerce gateway and merchant network across the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. That would considerably expand both NEOPAY’s digital commerce capabilities and its regional reach.

For merchants, the attraction is a single provider for online and in-store payments, plus faster settlements, data and analytics, and value-added financial services.

“Payments should be simple, reliable, and built for the markets they serve,” said Faraz Khalid, CEO of noon. His counterpart at NEOPAY, Vibhor Mundhada, added: “We have built a strong payments business in the UAE, and our ambition is now to take that capability across the region”. The acquisition, Mundhada added, would “expand our footprint into Saudi Arabia and Egypt” while reinforcing NEOPAY’s position at home.

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NEOPAY is also keen to point out potential payment volume increases. The company says noon payments’ integrations with marketplace sellers and online merchants create high transaction density in some of the region’s fastest-growing digital commerce segments. It also believes control of the business would give it access to those merchant relationships and payment flows, and speed up the rollout of alternative payment methods and installment options.

The combined roadmap targets faster merchant onboarding, better payment performance, tighter fraud controls and embedded financial services. The deal could also strengthen cross-border payments and settlement along key regional commerce corridors.