- Tony Fadell
- Jeff Robbin
- Sanjeev Kumar
- Steve Jobs
— CEO of Apple
- Jonathan
Ive — Apple Vice President of Industrial Design
- Danika
Cleary — iPod Product Manager
- Stan Ng — iPod
Line Manager
- Jon Rubinstein
— Apple Senior Vice President of the iPod Divison
- Rio Carbon
- Creative Nomad
- Creative
Zen
- iRiver MP3 players
- Dell Digital Jukebox
- Sony Walkman
- iAudio
- Mobile
Phone
- ^ Andy Serwer. "It's
iPod's Revolution: We Just Live in It." Fortune.
Accessed on August 22, 2005.
- ^ "Apple Reports
Third Quarter Results." Apple. Accessed on
August 23, 2005.
- ^ "Hewlett-Packard
to Stop Reselling iPods." Forbes. Accessed
on August 23, 2005.
- ^ Beat. The first
iPod television ad.
- ^ Theresa Howard. "Pepsi ads
wink at music downloading."
- ^ Jim Dalrymple. "New iPod ads
feature U2." Macworld. Accessed on August
22, 2005.
- ^ Ina Fried. "Eminem
settles with Apple over iPod commercial."
c|net News.com. Accessed on August 22, 2005.
- iGeneration
- List of iPod
model numbers
- Podcasting
- Apple Computer
- Wikicities
has a wiki about the iPod: iPod
- Apple iPod
— Official website
- iPod
and iTunes on your Cell phone
- iPod Battery
FAQ (unofficial)
- The
History of the iPod — July 26, 2004
- Wired News: Inside Look at Birth of the iPod
— July 21, 2004
- Wired News: iPod Plug-In Sets Music Free
— May 24, 2005
iPod is a brand of portable digital mp3 audio players designed and marketed by Apple Computer. (Hewlett-Packard also markets the product under the name Apple iPod + HP, but announced on July 29, 2005 they would stop reselling it effective September 2005, when existing stock is projected to be depleted). Devices in the iPod family offer a simple user interface designed around a central scroll wheel. Most iPod models store media on a built-in hard drive, while the smaller iPod shuffle uses flash memory. Like most digital audio players, an iPod can serve as an external data storage device when connected to a computer.
Name
Apple Computer refers to the player and technology as iPod, without use of the definite article the. Apple's web site reflects this usage (for example, "iPod incorporates the same touch-sensitive Apple Click Wheel that debuted on iPod mini"), which resembles Apple's use of the word iMac. The company has other products with a lowercase "i" in front of the name. These include: iSight, iChat, iTunes, iDVD, and iBook. When Apple first introduced the iMac, the '"i" stood for internet, meaning that the iMac shipped with everything you would need for a connection, but it stuck, as it seems to bring good luck to the sales of Apple products. Recently, some media have started referring to the generation primarily born in the late 1980s, and which in particular has made the iPod popular, as the iGeneration, suggesting that the "i" family of products may have a far-reaching cultural impact.
History
Tony Fadell first conceived of iPod outside Apple. When he demonstrated his idea to Apple, the company hired him as an independent contractor to bring his project to the market, putting him in charge of assembling the team that developed the first two generations of the device. Apple's Industrial Design Group, working under the direction of Jonathan Ive designed the subsequent incarnations.
Apple originally released iPod on October 23, 2001 as a Mac-compatible product, but the company later added Windows compatibility. As of October 2004, iPod dominated digital music player sales in the United States, with over 90% of the market for hard drive based players and over 70% of the market for all types of players. iPod has sold at a tremendous rate, moving close to twenty million units in a total of four years. Apple has posited that the iPod has a "halo effect", encouraging users of non-Apple products to switch to other Apple products, such as to Macintosh computers.
Patent disputes
In March 2005, Apple Computer faced two pending lawsuits claiming patent infringement by the iPod and its associated technologies: Advanced Audio Devices claimed the iPod breached their patent on a "Music jukebox" and Hong Kong-based IP portfolio company Pat-rights filed suit on behalf of inventor Keung Tse Ho, claiming that Apple's FairPlay technology breached their patent on " Protection of software against unauthorized use". [1]
Apple's application to the United States Patent and Trademark Office for a patent on the iPod's selection interface was rejected in August 2005. Although the iPod was released in 2001, Apple did not submit a patent application until October 2002. In May of that year, John Platt, a researcher for Microsoft, had submitted an application to patent a similar system ("Auto playlist generation with multiple seed songs"). The possibility exists that Microsoft could choose to charge Apple a license fee for each iPod sold. Industry analysts, however, have speculated that it is not necessarily in Microsoft's best interests to do so, and that Apple still has some legal recourses left to pursue regarding this matter. [2]
Also in August 2005, Creative Technology, one of Apple's main rivals in the MP3 player market, announced that it too held a patent on part of the music selection interface used by the iPod (U.S. Patent No. 6,928,433: "Automatic hierarchical categorization of music by metadata", which Creative dubbed the 'Zen Patent', granted on 9 August 2005). [3]
Keung Tse Ho's issued patent: Protection of software
against unauthorized use
Advanced Audio Devices' issued patent: Music jukebox
Apple Computer's application: Method and apparatus
for use of rotational user inputs
Microsoft's application: Auto playlist generation
with multiple seed songs
Creative Technology's issued patent: Automatic hierarchical
categorization of music by metadata
Capabilities
Software
iPod can play MP3, WAV, AAC/M4A, Protected AAC, AIFF, Audible audiobook, and Apple Lossless file formats. The Windows version of iTunes can transcode WMA files without copy protection to AAC, MP3, or WAV format for later transfer to an iPod. Some reviewers have lamented iPod's inability to play some other formats; most often mentioning the Ogg Vorbis and FLAC formats.
Apple designed iPod to work with the iTunes media library software, which lets users manage the music libraries on their computers and on their iPods. iTunes can automatically synchronize a user's iPod with specific playlists or with the entire contents of a music library each time an iPod connects to a host computer. Users may also set a rating (out of 5 stars) on any song, and can sync that information to an iTunes music library.
In addition to playing music and storing files, the iPod has PDA functions: the unit can synchronize a user's contacts and schedule with the address book and iCal applications on the user's Mac. It can also display notes, and hence host simple games and store restaurant information. However, iPod has limitations as a PDA, since users cannot edit this information on the iPod but only on a computer.
iPods (with the exception of the iPod Shuffle) also feature games . 1G and 2G iPods feature "Brick", a clone of the Breakout arcade game from Atari (originally created by Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak). 3G and 4G include Brick, along with three other games:
Parachute: a game in which the user controls a
turret and attempts to shoot down paratroopers and
the helicopters which release them. Parachute emulates
the Apple II game Sabotage by Mark Allen.
Solitaire: a simple card game resembling the Klondike
solitaire card game.
Music Quiz: an interactive music quiz featuring
the user's own songs. The game plays a portion of
a random song and prompts the user to identify it
from a list of 5 (or of 4 on the iPod Mini). A song
drops off the list every few seconds. The faster
the users choose the right song, the more points
they get. Music Quiz became available through a
free firmware update for 3G iPods released in October
2003 and later came standard with the iPod mini
and 4G iPods. No record is kept of the score, and
there is no limit on the amount of songs played.
iPod Linux/Podzilla
Main article: iPod Linux
In 2005, the iPod Linux project started in order to expand the amount of software available (particularly games) and to add support for other media formats such as Ogg Vorbis, and FLAC. The project has written an alternative GUI interface for the iPod called Podzilla. Podzilla comes with many applications built in, including an sh-style text-editor called Sash, a calculator, a paint program, and several games (including a tetris clone).
Once iPod Linux has been installed, users can specify which interface they want to boot into; the default iPod UI or the user-installed Podzilla. They can access the boot loader by holding down the rewind button during boot. As of July 2005, iPod Linux runs with full functionality on 1G through 3G iPods. Experimental development of support for fourth-generation iPods continues; users may experience bugs, especially when using the latest iPod firmware.
To download iPod Linux and updates to it, visit http://www.ipodlinux.org
Hardware
Except for the iPod shuffle, all models of iPod offer FireWire connectivity, although Apple has recently stopped including FireWire cables with iPod mini and iPod photo models in favor of Hi-Speed USB (USB 2.0), probably as a cost cutting measure (most Windows based PCs do not offer FireWire). iPods recharge their internal batteries using FireWire (all generations) or USB power (only 4G and higher) while connected to a computer or to an iPod AC power adapter. Both USB and FireWire-based power adapters exist. Full sized iPods use a proprietary 30-pin dock connector to connect the iPod to a computer’s FireWire or USB port with a proprietary cable. The iPod Shuffle has a USB connector that plugs into a standard USB port for recharging and for data transfer.
The first three generations of iPod use two ARM 7TDMI-derived CPUs running at 90 MHz, while later models have variable speed chips with a peak of 80 MHz to save battery life. iPods use 1.8 in (46 mm) ATA hard drives (with a nonstandard connector) made by Toshiba. The iPod mini uses one-inch hard drives made by Hitachi. iPod has a 32 MiB flash ROM chip which contains a bootloader, a program that tells the device to load the operating system from another medium (in this case, the hard drive). All iPods have 32 MiB of RAM, a portion of which holds the iPod OS loaded from the firmware and the vast majority of which serves to cache songs loaded off of the hard drive. For example, an iPod could spin the hard disc up once and copy about 30 MiB of upcoming songs on a playlist into RAM, thus saving power by not having the drive spin up for each song.
Unlike CD players or other competitors (such as the Zen Micro, the Rio Karma and the iAudio M3), the iPod cannot play songs without a short gap between songs; however when encoding CDs in iTunes, users have the option to merge individual tracks into a single track with track markers. This alleviates the problem somewhat (for newly encoded music), but does not provide a solution for music encoded outside of iTunes.
Earphones
All iPods come with earbud headphones with distinctive white cords, a color chosen to match the design of the original iPod. The white cords have become symbolic of the iPod brand, and advertisements for the devices feature them prominently.
Like most headphones that come bundled with other hardware, the stock white earbuds class as fairly low quality, and some users choose to replace them. Users rate the substandard bass response as the most apparent negative characteristic found in the standard headphones. The signature earphones have such good recognition characteristics that they can become a liability — after crime in the NYC subway system rose immensely due entirely to iPod theft, the New York Police Department issued a warning advising iPod owners to replace the earphones, so as to not make themselves a target. [4] However, most people do not take this advice.
Compatibility
The original iPod interacted only with Macintosh computers running Mac OS 9 or Mac OS X, but on July 17, 2002 Apple began selling a Windows-compatible iPod, with its internal hard drive formatted in FAT32 instead the original HFS Plus. [5] Apple released a Windows version of iTunes on October 16, 2003 [6]; previously, Windows users needed third-party software such as Musicmatch Jukebox (included with Windows iPods before the release of the Windows version of iTunes), ephPod, or XPlay to manage the music on their iPods.
An iPod with its hard drive formatted as HFS+ operates only with a Macintosh, because Windows does not recognize HFS+, but since the Macintosh can handle FAT32, an iPod formatted as FAT32 can operate with a Macintosh as well as with a PC. HFS+ leaves slightly more space available to store data, and it allows the iPod to serve as a boot disk for a Macintosh computer.
The iPodLinux project has successfully ported an ARM version of Linux to run on iPods. It currently supports first through third generation iPods, and features simple installers for Mac OS X and Windows. A SourceForge project exists for the project [7], and copious documentation appears online. [8]
The iPod uses standard USB and FireWire mass-storage connectivity, and therefore any system with mass-storage support can mount it and use it as an external hard drive. The iPod will also charge from any powered USB or Firewire port, regardless of software support. A special database file serves to list the songs available to play, however, so users require a program such as iTunes to upload songs. As of 2005 only gtkpod offers such functionality for Linux and other UNIX variants. Apple has not yet released a Linux version of the software used to flash the firmware of the iPod.
Design
Jeff Robbin headed the iPod firmware team at Apple. His team integrated the core firmware from PortalPlayer with the user interface library developed by Pixo. (The founder of Pixo had worked on the Apple Newton, a personal digital assistant formerly produced by Apple.) The Pixo libraries provide the user interface, though iPod photo has incorporated some visual elements from Mac OS X, such as the animated Aqua style progress bar. Until the release of iPod mini, the user interface of all iPods used "Chicago", the font used on the original Macintosh computer from 1984. iPod mini uses the "Espy Sans" font (previously seen in eWorld, the Newton, and Copland), while the color fourth generation iPod (previously known as iPod photo) uses Myriad Pro, Apple's corporate typeface.
This photograph shows the internal view of a third-generation iPod:
From left to right:
An intact third-generation iPod.
The front of the iPod casing (facedown). The lighter
green circuit board controls the iPod (and leaves
room for the battery to fit beside it), and the
darker green board beneath it controls the touch-scroll
wheel and the buttons. Note three connectors: the
battery connects in the lower-right corner; the
hard drive connector lies to the left of the black
area in the lower left; and the headphone jack,
wired remote control jack, and Hold switch (all
located on the top of the iPod) connect as a single
plug in the top right.
The lithium ion battery.
The hard drive, surrounded by a layer of soft rubber
which also extends beneath it to insulate it from
the circuit board. The layer of rubber also helps
to protect a spinning hard drive from shock damage
while the owner of the iPod moves about.
The rear of the iPod. Wires connect the ports and
switch on the top of the case to a small plug. A
hole on the bottom of the case allows access to
the dock connector port on the circuit board.
The unit's case snaps together, with no screws or
glue involved (though the 4G has some glue holding
the battery in place). The plastic front of the
case has clips which lock under a ridge inside the
rim of the metal case back. A servicer can pry the
iPod open by carefully inserting a small non-metal
screwdriver to pull the metal away from the clips.
iPod contains a small internal speaker which generates the scroll-wheel clicks and alarm clock beep sound, but this internal speaker cannot play music.
Use
iPods (other than iPod shuffle) have five buttons:
'Play/Pause'
'Menu' (which backs up one level in the menus)
'Previous' (which skips back through tracks in play)
'Next' (which skips forward through tracks in play)
'Select' (the button in the center of the scroll
wheel; this selects a menu or a song to play).
(Note that fourth-generation iPods — and the mini
and photo models — incorporate these buttons into
the "click wheel" scroll wheel.)
A 'Hold' switch also exists on the top of the unit. Setting this switch to display orange will make the buttons and scroll wheel unresponsive, so that users do not activate them accidentally.
Holding down the 'Menu' button for two seconds will turn off the display's backlight. Holding down the 'Play/Pause' button for two seconds will turn the unit off.
Fourth generation iPods and second generation iPod minis also automatically pause playback when headphones are unplugged from the headphone jack.
If the iPod becomes unresponsive, the user can force it to reset. On a 3G or earlier iPod, slide the switch on the top of the unit to 'Hold' then back the other way, then hold down the 'Menu 'and 'Play/Pause' buttons for six to ten seconds until the Apple logo appears. On a 4G (click wheel) iPod, toggle the 'Hold' switch as above, then hold down the 'Menu' and 'Select' buttons.
Users can place iPod into FireWire Disk Mode, in which it behaves like a FireWire hard drive without any of the additional iPod functionality. On a 3G or earlier iPod, reset it then hold the 'Previous' and 'Next' buttons until the display reads "Disk Mode". On a click-wheel iPod, hold 'Select' and 'Play/Pause'. Reset the unit again to return it to normal functionality.
iPod firmware contains a diagnostic menu. On a 3G or earlier iPod, reset it then hold 'Previous', 'Next', and 'Select'; on a click-wheel iPod, hold 'Previous' and 'Select'. Release the buttons after a few seconds, and the unit will chirp and briefly show a backwards Apple logo before displaying the diagnostic menu. Navigate through the menu with the 'Previous' and 'Next' buttons (not the scroll wheel), and select items with the 'Select' button. Press 'Play/Pause' to exit a test. (Apple has never publicly documented the functionality of the diagnostic menu.)
An iPod unable to start (due to either a firmware or a hardware problem) displays the "sad iPod" image, reminiscent of the sad Mac icon of earlier Macintosh computers.
Models
iPod Mini (left), first generation iPod (right)
Apple currently markets four kinds of iPod. Some models come with different capacities (a higher capacity allows the storage of more music) or with different designs. The model range as of 2005 covers:
iPod (20GB and 60GB). Color screens, which first
appeared on iPod photo which has been discontinued,
now form part of the regular iPod design.
iPod mini (4GB and 6GB and in various colors).
iPod U2 Special Edition (20GB).
iPod shuffle (512MB and 1GB).
Several product revisions have taken place since
the original model of iPod appeared, leading to
the existence of four distinct generations. As with
most hard-drive-based devices, the actual drive
space available for music, photo, and data storage
does not quite attain the advertised capacity. This
comes about because the capacity advertised uses
metric prefixes, not binary prefixes. For example,
a 4 GB iPod mini actually has 3.77 GiB of usable
storage.
iPod
While all iPods have roughly the same size and the same capabilities, the design has undergone several revisions since its introduction to the market. Four distinct generations of iPods exist, commonly known as: 1G, 2G, 3G, and 4G (these designations do not relate to the Power Mac G3, G4 or other Macintosh model designations — do not confuse such designations with the storage capacity of any given model of iPod).
Within any generation of iPods, various models with different sizes of hard drives have come onto the market at different price points. During the third generation, three sizes of iPods have coexisted in the marketplace at any given time, priced at US $299, $399, and $499. Currently, Apple sells two sizes of iPod: a 20 GB hard drive for $299, and a 60 GB model for $399. Note that Apple claims that 1 gigabyte of storage will hold 250, 4-minute songs in 128 kbit/s AAC. Encoding songs at higher bitrates will take up more space on the hard drive. One can scale this proportion up; the current 20-gigabyte iPod can hold roughly 5,000 songs.
As with any device containing a hard drive, a discrepancy exists between the advertised storage space of the iPods and what the operating systems report as available; confusion regarding binary prefix nomenclature accounts for this.
First generation
The Original 5GB iPod.
First announced on October 23, 2001, the original iPod cost $399 with a 5 GB hard drive. [9] Critics panned the unit's price, but iPod proved an instant hit in the marketplace, quickly overtaking earlier hard drive MP3 players such as the Nomad Jukebox. Apple announced a 10 GB version ($499) in March 2002.
Apple designed a mechanical scroll wheel and outsourced the implementation and development to Synaptics, a firm that also developed the trackpad used by many laptops, including Apple's PowerBooks. The 1G iPod featured four buttons (Menu, Play/Pause, Back, and Forward) arranged around the circumference of the scroll wheel. Although superseded by nonmechanical "touch" and "click" wheels, the circular controller design has become a prominent iPod motif.
Second generation
A 2G iPod.
Introduced on July 17, 2002, at Macworld in 10GB and 20GB capacities, the second generation iPod replaced the mechanical scroll wheel of the original with a touch-sensitive, nonmechanical one (manufactured by Synaptics), termed a "touch wheel". Due to the new Toshiba hard drives, the 2G iPods slightly exceed their first generation counterparts in thickness and weight.
Third generation
A 20 GB 3G iPod with included dock, earphones, and
beltclip carrying case.
On April 28, 2003, Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced an "ultrathin" iPod series. Slightly smaller than their predecessors, they had more distinctively beveled edges. Over the life of the 3G iPod series, Apple produced 10 GB, 15 GB, 20 GB, 30 GB, and 40 GB sizes.
These iPods use a 30-pin connector called the Dock Connector — longer and flatter than a FireWire plug. This allows them to fit more easily into the new iPod Dock which Apple introduced at the same time. The iPod Dock came bundled with all but the least expensive iPod, and also retails separately.
The 3G iPod featured touch-sensitive buttons located below the display. The new buttons featured red backlighting (controlled by the same preference as the screen backlight), allowing easier use in darkness.
With the 3G iPod, Apple stopped shipping separate Mac and Windows versions of the unit. Instead, all iPods now shipped with their hard drives formatted for Macintosh use; the included CD-ROM featured a Windows utility which could reformat them for use with a Windows PC. These iPods also introduced Hi-Speed USB connectivity (with a separately sold USB adapter cable).
When purchased through the online Apple Store, the iPod featured custom engraving: a purchaser could have two lines of text laser engraved on the back (for an additional charge, although currently free).
Although past models proved widely popular, after the release of the 3G model Apple's iPod sales skyrocketed, with a combination of effective advertising and celebrity endorsement making iPods a fashionable item.
Fourth generation
Fourth-generation iPod
In July 2004, Apple released the fourth generation iPod. In a new publicity route, Steve Jobs announced it by becoming the subject of a Newsweek magazine cover.
In the most obvious difference from its predecessors, the 4G iPod carries over the click-wheel design introduced on the iPod mini. Some users criticized the click wheel because it does not have the backlight that the 3G iPod's buttons had, but others noted that having the buttons on the compass points largely removed any need for backlighting. Apple also claimed that updated software in the new iPod allows it to use the battery more efficiently and increase battery life to 12 hours. Other minor changes included the addition of a "Shuffle Songs" option on the top-level menu to make it more convenient for users. After many requests from users asking for these improvements to operate on earlier iPods as well, Apple on February 23, 2005, released a firmware update which brings the new menu items to 1G through 3G iPods.
Originally, the 4G iPod had a grayscale screen and no photo capabilities, like its predecessors. It came in one of two sizes: 20GB for $299 and 40GB for $399 (Apple discontinued the 40GB model in February 2005 solely selling a monochrome 20GB version). The grayscale 4G iPod, slightly thinner (about 1 mm less) than the 3G iPod, introduced the ability to charge the battery over a USB connection.
iPod photo / Color iPod
An iPod photo with color screen
For more information on iPod photo prior to its merger with the main iPod line, see iPod photo.
Released on October 28, 2004, iPod photo (originally named iPod Photo — with a capital P for "Photo" — but renamed less than a month after its launch) featured a 65,536-color, 220 x 176-pixel screen and the ability to store and display JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, and PNG images. One millimeter thicker than the standard grayscale fourth-generation iPod, iPod photo could also play music for up to 15 hours per battery charge. iPod photo originally came in 40 GB and 60 GB versions, which cost $499 and $599, respectively.
On February 23, 2005, Apple discontinued the 40 GB model; which included a firewire & USB cable and a dock, introduced a lower-priced 30 GB model; which included only a USB cable and no dock, and dropped the price of the 60 GB model. However, unlike the first iPod photos, the lower-priced 60 GB and the new 30 GB models lacked the dock, FireWire cable, carrying case, or AV cables (accessories valued at approximately $120).
On June 28, 2005, Apple Computer merged the iPod and iPod photo lines, removing all grayscale models from the main iPod line. The 20GB iPod now has all of the capabilities of the former iPod photo line for $299, the same price as the previous grayscale version. The price of the 60 GB iPod photo, now known as the 60 GB iPod, dropped from $449 to $399, and Apple discontinued the $349 30GB iPod photo model. Apple Computer — as well as prominent fan sites (such as iLounge) — continue to refer to this lineup as fourth-generation iPods. Along with the new lineup, Apple also updated iTunes to version 4.9, which added podcasting capabilities to iTunes and to the iPod.
To manage the photo library on the iPod, Mac users use Apple's iPhoto software, while Windows users can use Adobe Photoshop Album or Elements or use a limited set of features within the free iTunes for Windows software. New Mac computers are bundled with iPhoto, while Windows users must either use the limited features within iTunes for Windows or purchase either of the Adobe products.
As of June 28, 2005, the iPod comes bundled with a USB cable and an AC adapter. Popular optional accessories include the dock, a FireWire cable (which owners can use in lieu of USB), an iPod AV cable (to view photo albums on a TV set), and an iPod Camera Connector (to transfer and view images directly from a digital camera to iPod).
The current line of iPods/Color iPods have a headphone jack glitch, where some iPods will pause on their own, even with the hold switch activated. This is due to malfunctioning of the auto pause feature, which is supposed to pause the iPod if the headphones are disconnected. The contact switch often erroneously registers disconnection with some third party headphones (such as Sennheiser models), but users have also reported experiencing the problem with stock earbuds.
iPod U2 Special Edition
Color U2 iPod
On October 28, 2004, Apple released a black-and-red edition of the fourth-generation iPod called iPod U2 Special Edition. Originally retailing for $349, it has a black front with a red click wheel (the colors of U2's latest album, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb), and features the signatures of U2's band members engraved on the back. It also includes an iTunes Music Store coupon redeemable for $50 off of the price of "The Complete U2", a "digital boxed set" featuring over 400 tracks of U2 music. [10]
On June 28, 2005, at the same time as the announcement of the merger of the iPod and the iPod photo lines, Apple added a color screen and photo capabilities to the iPod U2 Special Edition while dropping the price to $329.
iPod mini
A blue second-generation iPod mini in its dock.
Main article: iPod mini.
Apple entered the market for "mini"-form-factor digital audio players in January 2004, with the introduction of iPod mini, competing directly with players like Creative's Zen Micro and Digital Networks' Rio Carbon. iPod mini has largely the same feature set as the full-sized iPod, but lacks support for some third-party accessories. Its smaller display has one less line than previous models, limiting the on-screen track identification to title and artist only.
iPod mini uses Microdrive hard drives for storage.
First generation mini
On January 6, 2004, Apple introduced iPod mini. It had 4 GB of storage and a price of $249 (at the time, only $50 below the 15 GB third-generation iPod). Critics panned it as too expensive, but it proved to be overwhelmingly popular, and Apple Stores had difficulty keeping the model in stock.
iPod mini introduced the popular "click wheel" that was later incorporated into the fourth-generation iPod: the touch-sensitive wheel means that users can move a finger around it to highlight selections on the screen, while the unit's Menu, Back, Forward, and Play/Pause buttons are part of the wheel itself, letting a user press down on part of the wheel to activate one of those functions. The center button still acted as a select button.
Apple initially made iPod mini devices available in five colors: silver, gold, blue, pink, and green. Silver models have sold best, followed by blue ones. Apple Computer discontinued gold models in the second generation.
Second generation mini
In February 2005, the second-generation [11] iPod mini came on the market with a new 6 GB model at $249 and an updated 4 GB model priced at $199. Most notably, both models featured an increased battery life of up to 18 hours. In addition, they featured richer case colors (though Apple discontinued the gold color) and other minor aesthetic changes (the color of the lettering on the click wheel now matches the color of the iPod mini). Also, the 2G iPod minis did not include the AC adapter or the FireWire cable bundled with previous models.
iPod shuffle
Main article: iPod shuffle.
An iPod shuffle with earphones.
Apple announced iPod shuffle at Macworld Expo on January 11, 2005 with the taglines "Life is random" and "Give chance a chance". iPod shuffle introduced flash memory (rather than a hard drive) to iPods for the first time. The shuffle comes in two models: 512MB (up to 120, 4-minute songs encoded at 128 kbit/s) and 1GB (up to 240). Unlike other iPod models, iPod shuffle cannot play Apple Lossless or AIFF encoded audio files—possibly due to the iPod shuffle's smaller processing power. The shuffle has a SigmaTel processor. One review regards it as having one of the best-sounding audio systems of all the iPod models.
iPod shuffle has no screen and therefore has limited options for navigating between music tracks: users can play songs either in the order set in iTunes or in a random (shuffled) order. Users can set iTunes to fill iPod shuffle with a random selection from their music library each time the device connects to the computer. iPod shuffle weighs less than one ounce (0.78 oz. or 22 g) and approximates in size to a pack of chewing gum. Like the rest of the family, iPod shuffle can operate as a USB mass storage device.
Battery life
Apple designed iPod with an internal lithium ion battery that users cannot easily replace. Like most lithium-ion batteries, the iPod battery lasts roughly 500 full recharge cycles. In other words, the battery will continue to have a useful life through the equivalent of five hundred complete discharges and recharges; through time and use, the life of the battery will generally decrease until eventually it does not hold a charge for very long. Apple has published guidelines on its web site for maximizing the life of an iPod battery. [12]
In late November 2003, filmmakers and Apple enthusiasts The Neistat Brothers produced a short movie, downloadable online, which expressed anger because the battery on their early model iPod had failed after eighteen months and because of this the iPod became unusable. The movie depicted the Brothers vandalizing Apple ads in the New York City area with graffiti proclaiming that "iPod's unreplaceable battery lasts only 18 months." [13] The movie met with some criticism, with other iPod users pointing out that their iPods had lasted longer than 18 months, and some critics suggesting that the brothers had attacked Apple solely for the sake of publicity. [14]
Around the same time, Apple Computer introduced a battery replacement program (now priced at $59) for out-of-warranty iPods [15], and offered users the option to extend the warranty of their iPods ($59). [16] In addition, other companies are offering battery replacements for as little as $50, or users can purchase a battery (at ipodbattery.com, for example) for around $30 and replace it themselves [17]. Also available are third-party external power packs that utilize "AA" batteries to extend playtime on the iPod.
Critics often note that competing standalone digital music players often have user-serviceable batteries, and those that do not often require nothing more than the removal of a single screw to replace the (officially non-user-serviceable) batteries. They regard replacing iPod's battery as unusually difficult for a consumer device. On the other hand, batteries in more recent iPod models have been reported by consumers to run longer than their stated hour cycle.
iTunes integration
Apple Computer endorses only one official method for synchronizing with the iPod: iTunes. But several projects addressed synchronization of the iPod with other players, most notably the ml_iPod plugin for Winamp, that allows users to manage their iPod content through Winamp, and even allows functionality not available through iTunes, such as the copying of music off the iPod.
iTunes Music Store
Main article: iTunes Music Store.
Introduced on April 28, 2003 the iTunes Music Store (iTMS) is an online music store run by Apple and built into iTunes. The music bought from it can be downloaded onto the iPod and the store has become the dominant online music service, helping the sale of iPods.
Apple encrypts the AAC audio files using the FairPlay digital rights management (DRM) system, so that only authorized computers (up to five) and unlimited iPods can play them. However the files can also be burned to CD in MP3 format, at which time the DRM restrictions are removed.
No portable music player other than the iPod can play the DRM-enabled files sold on the iTMS, and no other DRM scheme is compatible with the iPod (such as protected WMA).
Steve_Jobs has stated "We would like to break even [or] make a little bit of money [on the iTunes Music Store] but it's not a money maker."
Third-party accessories
iPod has created a large and growing aftermarket accessory industry; in the 2005 Macworld keynote, Steve Jobs referred to it as "the iPod economy." The large availability of these aftermarket products may be one of the reasons that the iPod is so popular among consumers.
iPod accessories include memory-card readers, FM tuners, and voice recording modules. Some of the accessories, like the speaker systems made by Bose and the in-car audio interfaces for BMW, make use of the docking connectors found at the bottom of the iPod and have the user dock the unit in the device. These connectors provide control and information as well as a path for the sound signal and power to run the iPod or accessory.
Third-party software tools supporting iPod include:
Software tools
AmaroK, an audio player for KDE that has integrated
iPod support.
Banshee, a GNOME audio management and playback application
that has full iPod support, using new iPod technology
in GNOME (libipoddevice) and Mono (ipod-sharp).
EphPod, a Windows application that duplicates many
of the features of iTunes. EphPod also allows copying
of music from an iPod to a computer.
Foobar2000, an audio player for Windows that can
interact with iPod with the optional installation
of the foo_pod plugin.
iPodLinux Project, a Linux based OS made for the
iPod. It currently offers support for the first,
second, and third generation iPods. While it may
work for the other generation iPods, including the
mini, it is not officially supported.
RhythmBox, a GNOME-based iTunes clone.
gtkpod, an iPod-targeted GTK-based iPod manager
for systems using the GTK toolkit.
GNUpod, a set of Perl applications for Unix-like
systems. It uses its own XML database so users can
easily edit specific tags on songs, or create playlists,
then can re-compile iTunesDB so the iPod can use
the database
Winamp, a popular audio player under Windows that
supports iPods with the installation of the open-source
plugin ml_ipod.
Hardware accessories
Griffin Technology makes several iPod accessories,
including the iTrip, iBeam, iTalk, PowerPod, iFM
and EarJam.
XtremeMac iPod Accessories
naviPod by TEN Technology is a 5-button infrared
remote control for the Apple iPod.
The inMotion Speakers by Altec Lansing act as a
charging station as well as a dock while turning
the iPod into a speaker system. The designers have
made the iMmini variation on these speakers for
compatibility with the iPod mini.
BMW releases the first iPod automobile interface
to come from an automotive company[18]. The interface
allows drivers of late-model BMW vehicles to control
their iPod through the built-in steering wheel controls
and the radio head unit buttons. The iPod attaches
to a cable harness in the car's glove compartment.
The Macworld Expo in January 2005 announced that,
by Spring 2005, more auto manufacturers such as
Mercedes Benz and Ferrari will include similar systems.
A wide variety of other third-party products also
exists and more appear every day, from voice recorders
through games and other iPod-based software to various
connection devices and adapters.
A large accessory market has grown up around the
iPod, including cases and tattoos such as those
made by Hotromz which feature unusual cases made
from faux fur, feathers, organic hemp fiber and
mohair; or by foof, who offer fabrics made from
tweed, corduroy and kimono obi.
iPod sales
Fortune magazine reported on 27 June 2005 that Apple has sold over 15 million iPods, including 5.3 million in the 1st quarter of that year. [19] The iPod currently dominates the digital audio player market, frequently topping best-seller lists. [20] In its fourth quarter results of 2003, Apple reported earnings of $106 million its highest revenue for Q4 in 9 years. [21]. Most recently, Apple shipped 6.16 million iPods during the quarter that ended on June 25, 2005, a 616% increase over the year-ago quarter. [22]
On January 8, 2004, Hewlett-Packard announced that they would license the iPod from Apple to create an HP-branded digital audio player based on the iPod. The HP model, completely identical to the Apple iPod, was sold as the "Apple iPod + hp". Retailers of this model included (among others) the retail giant Wal-Mart, which included a disclaimer explaining that it would not work with its own online music service. In July of 2005, HP reversed its decision and announced that it would discontinue sales of the iPod line. Sales by Hewlett-Packard made up 5% of all iPod sales. [23]
Advertising
An iPod billboard in midtown Toronto.
Apple has promoted the iPod and iTunes brands in several successful advertising campaigns.
The first iPod ad, featuring the tagline "A
thousand songs, in your pocket." was launched
alongside the iPod in November 2001. The ad can
be viewed on Apple's web site. [24]
In April 2003, Apple introduced a new ad campaign
in conjunction with the launch of the iTunes Music
Store. The ads feature informally dressed persons
wearing their iPods and giving a capella renditions
of popular songs, accompanied by dancing, air guitar,
and other embarassing performances. The commercials
featured a wide range of music, including The Who's
My Generation, Sir Mix-a-lot's Baby Got Back, Pink's
There You Go, and Eminem's Lose Yourself.
In October 2003, Apple changed their TV ads to align
with their print ad campaign, featuring people in
silhouette against a solid color background, dancing
to music on their prominently featured iPods and
iPod headphones. These commercials feature popular
songs, such as The Vines' Ride, The Caesars' Jerk
it Out, Gorillaz' Feel Good Inc., Jet's Are You
Gonna Be My Girl, N.E.R.D.'s Rock Star (Jason Nevin's
Mix), Franz Ferdinand's Take Me Out, and many more.
To commemorate the launch of the U2 iPod, Apple
released an ad featuring the music video of Vertigo
(changed to characteristic iPod silhouettes). [25]
Key personnel
iPod competitors
References
See
also
External links
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