First announced on October 23, 2001, the original iPod cost $399 with a 5 GB hard drive. Critics panned the unit's price, but iPod proved an instant hit in the marketplace, quickly overtaking earlier hard drive MP3 players. The very first modification came when apple announced a 10 GB version 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 first generation iPod featured four buttons (Menu, Play/Pause, Back, and Forward) surrounding the circumference of the scroll wheel. Although superseded by nonmechanical "touch" and "click" wheels, this circular controller design has become a prominent iPod motif.
On April 28, 2003, Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced the new iPod series. Slightly smaller than their predecessors, they had much more shapely edges. Over the life of the this iPod series, Apple produced 10 GB, 15 GB, 20 GB, 30 GB, and 40 GB models.
These iPods used a 30-pin connector called the Dock Connector which was longer and flatter than the FireWire plug. They allowed them to fit more easily into the new iPod Dock which Apple had also introduced. This Dock came bundled with all but the least expensive iPod, and also retails separately.
The third generation iPod featured back lit, touch-sensitive buttons located below the screen which replaced the previous controls. The touch-sensitive buttons meant that, apart from the hold slider, this iPod had no external moving parts. It was also at this time that apple ceased shipping separate Mac and Windows versions of the unit. Instead, all iPods were now shipped with their hard drives formatted for Macintosh use and the CD-ROM that accomonied them had a utility which could reformat them for use with a Windows PC.
Although past models had proved widely popular, it was the release of the third generation that saw iPod sales skyrocket. This has been widely attributed to a combination of effective advertising and celebrity endorsement which established the iPod's image as a must have fashionable item.
On January 6, 2004, apple introduced the first iPod mini. It had 4 GB of storage and a retail price of $249, only $50 below the 15 GB third-generation iPod. Again critics panned it as too expensive yet it proved to be so overwhelmingly popular that stores had difficulty keeping up with demand.
iPod mini saw the introduction the popular click wheel that would later be incorporated into the standerd iPods models. The clickwheel itself housed the four control buttons with the center of the wheel acting as a select button. Although navigating through menus had been easy beforehand this change had made operating the iPod a delight in itself.
February 2005 saw the release of the second generation iPod mini with a new 6 GB model at retailing 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 with the color of the lettering on the click wheel now matching the color of the iPod mini. With the introduction of the nano production of the mini ceased and the range was discontinued.
The fourth generation iPod carried over the click-wheel design introduced on the iPod mini. Some users had criticized the click wheel because it did not have the backlight that the third generation iPod's buttons had, however others noted that having the buttons on the compass points removed any need for backlighting. Originally, the fourth generation iPod, like its predecessors, had a monochrome screen and no photo capabilities.
October 28, 2004, saw the release of the iPod photo which was later merged with the iPod line, hence we list it under a fourth generation. It was a sign of things to come. Featuring a 220 x 176-pixel, 16-bit color screen capable of displaying 65,536 colors, and the ability to store and display JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, and PNG images it didn't take a genius to see where things were heading.
To manage the photo library on iPod, mac users use apple's iPhoto software, whereas Windows users can use either 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.
On January 11, 2005 at the Macworld Expo apple announced the release of the iPod shuffle with the taglines "Life is random" and "Give chance a chance". Instead of the hard drives used on other iPods the shuffle used the more appropriate flash memory. The shuffle is available in two models, the 512 MB and 1 GB version. Unlike other iPod models, the shuffle cannot play apple Lossless or AIFF encoded audio although some regard it as having one of the best-sounding audio systems of all the iPod models.
The 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 order, you can also set iTunes to fill the shuffle with a random selection from their music library each time the device connects to the computer.
On September 7, 2005 apple announced the successor to the mini, the iPod nano. Based on the same flash memory used in the shuffle the nano is a mere 0.27 inches (6.9 millimeters) thick, weighs 1.5 ounces (42 grams), and is 62% smaller by volume than its predecessor. It has a 65,536 color display that can show photographs. The headphone jack is located on the bottom and it retains the standard 30-pin dock connector for compatibility with third-party accessories. The nano is the first dock connector iPod that cannot sync to any PC (Windows or Mac) via FireWire cable, though it can still be charged via a Firewire connection.
The iPod nano has several features that would later be included into the fifth generation iPod. These features were new to the iPod operating system, including the addition of world clocks, a stopwatch, and a screenlock option. The world clock allows users to set the time in cities around the world, and set alarms for each time zone. The clocks can be set to adjust for Daylight Saving Time. The stopwatch feature allows users to press Start to start the timer, and the Stop button to stop. While the timer is on, the Start button changes to a Lap button that allows the user to time individual laps. The nano saves the user's stopwatch stats for multiple timing sessions, which is useful for comparing times. The screenlock option lets users set a 4 digit passcode for their iPod, and once the screenlock is activated the only buttons that can be pressed are the skip forwards and backwards and the play/pause buttons. The click wheel is used to input the digits to the passcode.
The iPod nano is available in white and black, in both 2 GB and 4 GB configurations. There have been a number of complaints about the Nano's screen being too soft, resulting in it becoming easily scratched or even broken if put under any strain. For this reason they have started packaging both the nano and the 5th Generation iPod with cloth carrying cases which will prevent scratches to the screen and body, both the plastic front and metal back. The nano orginally wasn't shipped with these, but after the complaints Apple started bundling them with no price change.
On October 12, 2005, Apple announced at the "One more thing..." event, the fifth-generation iPod, which featured the ability to play MPEG-4 and H.264 video with resolutions of up to 480 x 480 and 320 x 240 respectively (videos purchased from the iTunes Music Store are limited to 320 x 240.) Some users have reported the ability to play widescreen resolutions up to 640x360 using MPEG-4 and 400x192 using H.264. The new models are available in 30 and 60 GB capacities and are priced the same as the previous generation at $299 and $399 USD, respectively. However, the 30 and 60 GB versions differ in body thickness, the 30 GB version being slightly thinner.
It can also display video on an external TV using the iPod AV or S-video cables with the iPod Universal Dock, however video watched on a TV is often of poor quality due to the fact that iPod video can only play videos up to 480 x 480. The screen size is now 2.5" diagonally, 0.5" larger than the previous iPod. It is also 30% thinner than the previous full-size iPod.
The reported battery life for the 30 GB is 14 hours and for the 60 GB is around 20 hours. Watching movies reduces that amount to 2 and 3 hours respectively.
The click wheel design is the same as the previous generation, but is marginally smaller than before. The new click wheel is completely flat, unlike older models where the center button is slightly rounded. Apple has stopped using the click wheels used in the fourth generation iPod and iPod mini from their previous supplier, Synaptics Inc of San Jose, CA, and now uses an in-house solution. The earphones design is the same as the previous generation, but the plug is marginally smaller than before. The new earphones' plastic near the cord is flat, unlike older models where the plastic near the cord is slanted.
The headphone jack has been moved from the center of the top to the right of the top, while the hold switch has been moved to the left side of the top. Gone from the fifth-generation iPod is the remote control accessory port, previously found beside the headphone port, meaning that accessories such as the Griffin iTrip will no longer work. Griffin has, however, released a new version of the iTrip for the new iPod, which mounts to the dock connector on the bottom of the unit. The fifth-generation iPod no longer supports file transfers via FireWire, but still supports charging using FireWire.
Like the iPod nano, it comes in two colors, white and black, and it features the World Clock, Stopwatch, and Screen Lock applications.The fifth-generation iPod also comes with a thin slip case, most likely in response to many complaints concerning the iPod nano's easily scratchable surface. Apple has also discontinued the inclusion of an AC adapter. One must purchase one separately in order to charge it from the AC.
Other notable improvements include the reduction of minor audio defects, such as hard drive noise being heard through the headphone jack, as well as an increase in recording quality to 44.1 kHz stereo, 22.05 kHz mono. A third-party addon will still be required in order to record audio on the iPod, as it was in previous generations.
