/reader

Yesterday, he penned a letter to say that he won’t protest Mine Furor’s proposed authoritarian compact for institutions of higher education until and unless those opposed to the compact “openly acknowledge … that you were completely comfortable with the Obama and Biden administrations’ use of ‘Dear Colleague’ letters”.

What’s revealing here is that the go-to example he cites is this Obama-era letter about protecting the rights of transgender students. He could have chosen something else, but he deliberately chose this one. Given the current authoritarian regime’s literally Orwellian effort to unperson trans people, this choice is a deeply revealing one.

(This perhaps should come as no particular surprise given that earlier this year he wrote this inexplicable sentence: “You don’t own your name, much less any pronouns.”)

The choice he attempts to present here is a false one in its entirety. The higher education compact is meant to artificially prescribe policies that punch down while proscribing those which punch up, whereas the “Dear Colleague” letter at issue sought to protect those who suffer at the hands of all those downward-punching fists. Politics is about our power differentials, and there’s no place in it for using marginalized or minoritized people as a rhetorical tool of false equivalence.

Jacobs ends by saying the goal of the protests is to ensure that people with his “social, religious, and aesthetic views remain unemployable in your universities”. In fact, the goal is to ensure that people with his “social, religious, and aesthetic views” don’t get to inflict them upon people just trying to live their lives with the dignity inherent in them.

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Despite all this, I still really like the unit as a cheap mp3 player. I do wish I could find a case or something to protect it a bit. As strange as it might sound, I’d like for it to have a bit more heft. There are some 3D printer plans for cases, but I don’t have access to one of those, so I’m still waiting for someone to come with something.

What I found fascinating is that this little player has slowly developed a following online. The company has embraced the fandom and opened up the unit to the fans, and now there are all kinds of user-friendly ways to update the firmware, install Rockbox, and new themes. It’s still a small, niche fandom, but it’s really nice to see young people embrace this cheap mp3 player and try to make it better. It reminds me a lot of the early internet, and I love seeing that.

For those who may have missed it, below is my initial review of the unit published in March of 2025. You can find all sorts of fun stuff on r/Innioasis, Innioasis App, and Discord.

Last year, I had an ugly breakup with Spotify. I decided I would just go back to mp3s and be done with streaming music. Then, we ended up getting Apple One a few weeks later, and it was convenient to utilize Apple Music while I rebuilt my mp3 collection.

Well, over the past couple of months, I’ve been picking up CDs left and right at thrift stores. I had some of my old mp3s left on a cheap mp3 player I bought maybe five years ago. Recently, I decided I’d start using my mp3 player more, and I discovered the Bluetooth was dying in it. So, I hopped online and found a recommendation for Dodosoul mp3 player which died on me before I even got my mp3s loaded up on it.

The sad state of affairs is that there is no major mainstream producer of mp3 players these days. It’s a lot of small companies of questionable quality who produce these players, or you can find an older player that’s been refurbished. I leaned toward buying a refurbished iPod, but that can be an expensive endeavor and honestly, I just wanted something that worked that I could easily take down into the gym or on a walk with. Preferably, something I wouldn’t be too concerned about if it broke.

Eventually, I ran across some folks online discussing the Innioasis Y1. It’s a relatively new player that runs on Android and has a company behind it that seems interested in actually updating firmware and improving the device over time. It’s also unique in that it has a clicker wheel, and looks quite a bit like a cheap plastic iPod classic, which it really is.

I decided to take a chance and ordered the Innioasis Y1. I figured, if it sucked, I’d just return it like the Dodosoul. Well, I’m actually impressed by this mp3 player. It looks good, feels nice, although it’s very light. You won’t mistake it for an iPod that’s for sure.

But the UI is one of the best I’ve seen on a budget mp3 player, and it works shockingly well. I’m no audiophile, and I’m not concerned about file formats, although it plays twenty-one different file types, and has audiobook support. If the 128 gig isn’t enough room, iFixit has a quick and easy breakdown tutorial to easily upgrade the MicroSD card.

For me, loading up my mp3s was a breeze, since I just plugged the player into my computer and moved things over to the folders. I have no complaints on the sound quality, and my Bluetooth headphones synced right up. I even found the built-in speaker to be adequate to listen to music while I’m playing video games, which is one of my favorite things to do late at night.

Not everything is perfect, of course. Right now, the firmware is updated via .exe files, so that leaves Apple users out in the cold (This has since been fixed thanks to Innioasis App, the official firmware install tool). Also, I’m still waiting on it’s next big firmware update, which is supposed to bring video playback (Edit: video playback was added) and hopefully some better sorting with the click wheel. The single biggest issue with the clicker wheel on this device is if you have a lot of artists, and you try and scroll quickly, it doesn’t bring the artists up by the letter. Instead, you just scroll through all the artists. If I read correctly, they are adding that function with the next firmware upgrade.

Searching for mp3 players these days can be a major pain, so I figured I’d share my thoughts about this one here. I’ll update this post should I run into any issues.