ipod-birthday
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Happy Sixth Birthday, iPod
Doesn't time fly when you're having fun selling ridiculously well? It's hard to believe that six years ago to this very day, the iPod was officially brought into the world at a Steve Jobs Special Event. In six years, we've seen 1,000 songs in your pocket become ever more affordable, and as hard-disk technology has progressed, so too has the number of songs an iPod can hold. We may have seen the demise of the FireWire connectivity in the iPod, the inclusion of less extras (such as a dock) with the players, but it seems to have done little to dampen demand for the ubiquitous music player. Who'd have thought that a little white music player, with a name inspired by a phrase from 2001: A Space Odyssey no less, would have powered the digital music revolution, and helped rejuvenate Apple beyond everyone's wildest dreams. It's been a fantastic 6 years for the iPod - but I daresay there's plenty more in the pipeline that will make the next six years just as memorable.After the break, there's the video from the Special Event where it all began. Happy Birthday, iPod.
My first iPod didn't have a halo back then
In light of the iPod's 5th birthday, I figured it would be fun to join Scott in some reminiscing about the early days of my first little white music player. I remember seeing them when the 10 and 20GB models completed the 1st/2nd gen lineup, and I knew that thing would rock my world. I had already been trying out other MP3 players at the time, and I hated all of them. The last one I remember before scraping together cash for a 5GB iPod was a Rio (from Creative, I think?), and I hated that thing too. Getting music onto the device was a chore, and flash memory cards were mind-numbingly expensive (I think it took SD cards). The Rio's interface was an exercise in walking barefoot on broken glass, and the moment I saw the iPod I knew someone had finally done it right. After tearing the couch apart for that last penny to cover tax (and after a month of saving some cash by eating nothing but Ramen noodles), I rode my bike as fast as I could down to the University bookstore I was part-timing it at (I wasn't in school at the time), because I could get the discount there which made all the difference. The funny thing is: when I brought that 1st gen iPod home, I wasn't plugging it into a Mac - I had a Windows XP box (funny: 5 years ago, same ol' WinXP). While the original iPods were *officially* just made for a Mac (or so most of us remember), I picked up one of the first Mac+PC versions, so I was using Musicmatch and - I hope you're sitting down for this - an unofficial plugin for Windows Media Player. This admittedly blasphemous configuration worked decently, though it certainly didn't hold much of a candle to the integration of the dynamic iTunes+iPod duo that Apple finally brought to Windows. Fortunately, this iPod helped convince me to hop onto the Mac OS X train before that happened.I'd like to consider myself one of the early benefactors of the 'iPod halo effect.' While I was using crappy software on Windows to manage my first iPod, I started (finally) getting curious about the company that made such an impressive little device. After all, I was in the middle of a design undergrad (I had to take time off to get in-state tuition in CO, and btw: that's a PITA), and the next semester a fellow classmate sat me down for a crash course in all things Apple and Mac OS X (and I was finally more open to learning about them). When the forces of the iPod halo effect and Mac OS X united, I once again embarked on a Ramen diet, this time of epic proportions. My destination? A RevA 12-inch PowerBook - my first Mac - for which many pennies were sacrificed.So this blogger has that original 5GB iPod and a classmate or two to thank for making the switch to greener OS pastures. Of course, I can also bring incredible amounts of music along in my pocket now too, which isn't half bad either. It's been a fun musical roller-coaster, complete with scratches, too many wacky accessories to count, and a deeper understanding of my music library that just can't stop - won't stop - growing. Thanks, 1G iPod.
Today the iPod turns 5
Five years ago today Apple introduced the first iPod. 5 gigs of storage promised 1,000 CD quality songs in your pocket. The Firewire port let you transfer those songs in less than 10 minutes, and it could even double as a portable hard drive. $399 would get you this little marvel (though it didn't go on sale until November 10th) but you had better have a Mac. Why? Because, the iPod was Mac only.When I first heard about the iPod I thought, 'That's a dumb name and who needs to keep a 1,000 songs with them at all times? I don't even know 1,000 songs.' Fast forward 5 years and my iPod has 6800 songs on it and movies to boot!I didn't think this little device would catch on, but then I saw one in person. I felt the quality in its manufacture (those first iPods had some heft to them), and I loved the smooth mechanical scroll wheel, which I still think is better than the current touch sensitive scroll wheel. I didn't buy one though, not until the 10 gig models were out (still Mac only) because I didn't think 5 gigs would be enough.As soon as I loaded up that 10 gig iPod the way I listened to music changed forever. It also had the side effect of making me feel like I was in a special club. You see, children, back then you didn't see hundreds of people with those iconic white headphones everywhere you went. No, only the chosen people, i.e. Mac users, could even use these devices and even then only a percentage of Mac users could use it (your Mac needed a FireWire port, at the very least). I recall being on a subway car, hurtling underneath Manhattan, when a man saw my white headphones. He stopped, took out his iPod, and gave me a thumbs up. I nodded, and we passed like two scroll wheels in the night.Ah, the iPod. Who knew it would ever get this big? Who knew that FireWire would stop being supported for transfers? Who knew that all iPods would be configured for PCs by default? You've come a long way, iPod, and I'm excited for your future.Anyway, in honor of the iPod's birthday I suggest you watch the Special Event during which Steve introduced the little guy for the first time.
