History and design
The iPod line came from Apple's "digital hub" category,[5] when the company began creating software for the growing market of personal digital devices. Digital cameras, camcorders and organizers had well-established mainstream markets, but the company found existing digital music players "big and clunky or small and useless" with user interfaces that were "unbelievably awful,"[5] so Apple decided to develop its own. As ordered by CEO Steve Jobs, Apple's hardware engineering chief Jon Rubinstein assembled a team of engineers to design the iPod line, including hardware engineers Tony Fadell and Michael Dhuey,[6] and design engineer Jonathan Ive.[5] The product was developed in less than one year and unveiled on October 23, 2001. Jobs announced it as a Mac-compatible product with a 5 GB hard drive that put "1,000 songs in your pocket."[7]
Apple did not develop the iPod software entirely in-house, instead using PortalPlayer's reference platform based on two ARM cores. The platform had rudimentary software running on a commercial microkernel embedded operating system. PortalPlayer had previously been working on an IBM-branded MP3 player with Bluetooth headphones.[5] Apple contracted another company,Pixo, to help design and implement the user interface under the direct supervision of Steve Jobs.[5]As development progressed, Apple continued to refine the software's look and feel. Starting with the iPod Mini, the Chicago font was replaced with Espy Sans. Later iPods switched fonts again toPodium Sans—a font similar to Apple's corporate font, Myriad. iPods with color displays then adopted some Mac OS X themes like Aqua progress bars, and brushed metal meant to evoke acombination lock. In 2007, Apple modified the iPod interface again with the introduction of the sixth-generation iPod Classic and third-generation iPod Nano by changing the font to Helvetica and, in most cases, splitting the screen in half by displaying the menus on the left and album artwork, photos, or videos on the right (whichever was appropriate for the selected item).
In September 2007, during a lawsuit with patent holding company Burst.com, Apple drew attention to a patent for a similar device that was developed in 1979. Kane Kramer applied for a UK patent for his design of a "plastic music box" in 1981, which he called the IXI.[8] He was unable to secure funding to renew the US$ 120,000 worldwide patent, so it lapsed and Kramer never profited from his idea.[8]
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The current iPod line; from left to right: iPod Shuffle, iPod Nano, iPod Classic, iPod Touch. | |
Developer | Apple Inc. |
---|---|
Manufacturer | Foxconn (OEM)[1] |
Type | Portable Media Player (PMP) |
Retail availability | October 23, 2001–present (first launched) |
Units sold | Over 297,000,000 worldwide as of December 2010 (see chartbelow) |
CPU | Samsung ARM and Apple A4 |
Online services | iTunes Music Store, App Store,iBooks, MobileMe, Game Center (online services available only on iPod Touch) |
iPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple and designed byJonathan Ive announced on October 23, 2001, and released on November 10, 2001. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle. iPod Classic models storemedia on an internal hard drive, while all other models use flash memory to enable their smaller size (the discontinued Mini used a Microdrive miniature hard drive). As with many other digital music players, iPods can also serve as external data storage devices. Storage capacity varies by model, ranging from 2 GB for the iPod Shuffle to 160 GB for the iPod Classic. All of the models have been redesigned multiple times since their introduction. The most recent iPod redesigns were introduced on September 1, 2010.
Apple's iTunes software can be used to transfer music to the devices from computers using certain versions of Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows operating systems.[2] For users who choose not to use iTunes or whose computers cannot run iTunes, several open source alternatives are available for the iPod.[3] iTunes and its alternatives may also transfer photos, videos, games, contact information, e-mail settings, Web bookmarks, and calendars to iPod models supporting those features.
For iOS versions prior to iOS 5, the iPod branding is also used for the media player applications included with the iPhone and iPad; the iPhone version is essentially a combination of the Music and Videos apps on the iPod Touch. (As of iOS 5, separate apps named 'Music' and 'Video' are to be standardized across all iOS-powered products.[4]) In either event, the iPhone and iPad have essentially the same media-player capabilities as the iPod line, but they are generally treated as separate products.
Discontinued models of the line include the iPod Mini and the iPod Photo, the former being replaced by the iPod Nano, and the latter reintegrated into the main iPod line (now the iPod Classic).
Apple iPod nano 16 GB Blue (6th Generation) NEWEST MODEL Buy new: $164.95 / Used from: $131.95 Usually ships in 24 hours | |
Apple iPod touch 8 GB (4th Generation - Newest Model) - REFURBISHED + 6 Pc iESSENTIALS KIT | |
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Apple iPod touch 8 GB (4th Generation) NEWEST MODEL Buy new: $204.99 / Used from: $139.95 Usually ships in 24 hours | |
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Apple iPod classic 160 GB Black (7th Generation) NEWEST MODEL Buy new: $228.54 / Used from: $169.99 Usually ships in 24 hours | |
Apple iPod shuffle 2 GB Silver (4th Generation) NEWEST MODEL Buy new: $46.00 / Used from: $28.99 Usually ships in 24 hours | |
Apple iPod nano 8 GB Graphite (6th Generation) NEWEST MODEL Buy new: $134.95 / Used from: $99.94 Usually ships in 24 hours | |
Apple iPod classic 160 GB Silver (7th Generation) NEWEST MODEL Buy new: $228.54 / Used from: $174.99 Usually ships in 24 hours | |
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Apple iPod shuffle 2 GB Blue (4th Generation) NEWEST MODEL Buy new: $46.99 / Used from: $36.99 Usually ships in 24 hours | |
Apple iPod nano 16 GB Graphite (6th Generation) NEWEST MODEL Buy new: $164.95 / Used from: $134.82 Usually ships in 24 hours | |
Apple iPod shuffle 2 GB Pink (4th Generation) NEWEST MODEL Buy new: $46.99 / Used from: $36.79 Usually ships in 24 hours |
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