IPod
The name iPod refers to a class of portable digital audio players designed and marketed by Apple Computer. (Hewlett-Packard also markets the product under the name Apple iPod + HP.) iPod offers a simple user interface designed around a central scroll wheel. Most iPod models store media on a built-in hard drive, while a lower-end model, iPod shuffle, relies on flash memory. Like most digital audio players, iPod can serve as an external hard drive while connected to a computer.
Apple refers to the player and the technology as iPod, rather than as the iPod. This is reflected on the Apple web site (for example, "iPod incorporates the same touch-sensitive Apple Click Wheel that debuted on iPod mini"), and is similar to its use of the word iMac.
Tony Fadell first conceived of iPod outside Apple: he had difficulty finding funding for an MP3 player he had designed. When he demonstrated it to Apple, the company hired him as an independent contractor to bring his project to fruition, putting him in charge of assembling the team that developed the first two generations of the device. Apple's Industrial Design Group under Jonathan Ive designed the subsequent incarnations.
As of October 2004, iPod dominated digital music player sales in the United States, with over 92% of the market for hard-drive players and over 65% of the market for all types of players. iPod has sold at a tremendous rate, moving over ten million units in a total of three years. The device has had a significant cultural impact in terms of its takeup.
Capabilities
Software
iPod can play MP3, WAV, AAC/M4A, Protected AAC, AIFF, Audible audiobook, and Apple Lossless file formats. It cannot play OGG Vorbis, FLAC, Windows Media Audio (WMA), or RealAudio files, and Apple seems unlikely to add support for these formats, as they compete with Apple's QuickTime. The Windows version of iTunes can transcode WMA files to AAC unless they have copy protection.
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 the iPod is connected to a host computer.
The first incarnation of iPod functioned solely as a music player. Later firmware upgrades added some PDA functions: the unit can store a copy of information from the Address Book and iCal applications on the user's Mac, and can also display notes, though users cannot edit any of this information on the iPod.
Hardware
iPod offers FireWire and USB 2.0 connectivity (except for iPod shuffle, which only supports USB). iPod recharges its internal battery while it is connected to a computer. A user can also recharge an iPod using the included AC wall plug, which connects to the iPod via FireWire. The wall plug recharger uses the FireWire cable to transfer only electrical energy. (USB charging works only with post-third-generation models.)
First through third generations of iPod used two ARM7TDMI-derived CPUs running at 90 MHz, while later models had variable speed chips with a peak of 80 MHz to save battery life. iPod uses ultra-thin 1.8 in (46 mm) ATA hard drives (with a non-standard connector) made by Toshiba, or in the case of iPod mini, one-inch Compact Flash hard drives made by Hitachi. iPod has a 32 MB 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 MB of RAM into which the iPod OS (a.k.a. firmware) loads at boot time, and which also caches music. For example, an iPod could spin the hard disc up once, and copy about 30 MB worth of upcoming songs on a playlist into RAM, thus saving power by not having the drive spin up for each song.
Newer iPod accessories include a memory-card reader and a voice recording module, both manufactured by Belkin.
Cross-platform
iPod originally interacted only with Macintosh computers, but on July 17 2002, Apple began selling a Windows version with its internal hard drive formatted as FAT32 instead of as HFS Plus. [1] A Windows version of iTunes was released on October 16, 2003 [2]; previously, Windows users needed third-party software such as Musicmatch Jukebox, ephPod or XPlay to manage the music on their iPods.
The most recent generation of dockable iPods removes the Mac/Windows distinction; these iPods ship with their hard drive formatted for use with a Macintosh, and the user can reformat it for Windows use after purchase. 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. But HFS+ leaves slightly more space available to store data, and it lets the iPod serve as a boot disk for a Macintosh computer.
On January 8, 2004, Hewlett-Packard announced that they would license iPod from Apple to create an HP-branded digital audio player named the HPod. The following day, Hewlett-Packard chairman and CEO Carly Fiorina unveiled the new, blue iPod-based device at the 2004 Consumer Electronics Show. While a blue iPod never made it into production, the current HP model, completely identical to the Apple iPod, sells as the "Apple iPod + hp". Retailers of this model include (among others) the retail giant Wal-Mart, which includes a disclaimer explaining that it will not work with its own online music service.
The iPodLinux project has expended some effort into getting Linux to run on iPods, with some success. A SourceForge project exists for the effort [3], and guides exist online. [4]
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. Intriguingly, the user interface of all of the iPods' user interfaces (with the exception of the mini and photo models) uses "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.
This photograph shows what an iPod looks like inside.
From left to right:
- An intact third-generation iPod.
- The front of the iPod casing (face-down). 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 is also beneath it to insulate it from the circuit board.
- 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 Firewire port on the circuit board.
The unit's case snaps together, with no screws or glue involved. 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 screwdriver to pull the metal away from the clips.
The 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).
A Hold switch also exists on the top of the unit. Setting this switch so that red is visible will make the buttons unresponsive, so that users do not press them accidentally. The scroll wheel also cannot change the volume in Hold mode.
Holding down the iPod's 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.
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 click-wheel iPod, toggle the Hold switch as above, then hold down the Menu and Select buttons.
The iPod can be put 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.
The iPod's 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 publically 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.
Models
Apples currently markets five kinds of iPod: the original iPod, iPod mini, iPod U2 Special Edition, iPod photo, and iPod shuffle. Some of these models can come with different capacities (a higher capacity allows the storage of more music) or with different designs.
There have been several revisions since the original model of iPod, leading to the existence of four distinct generations.
iPod
While all iPods have roughly the same size and the same capabilities, the design has undergone several revisions since its first 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 Macintosh G3, G4, or other Macintosh model designations).
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 and fourth generations, three sizes of iPods have co-existed in the marketplace at any given time, priced at US$299, $399, and $499. The least expensive comes with the line's distinctive white earphones, a FireWire cable, and a wall plug to recharge the iPod's internal battery. The other two models include all that along with a belt-clip carrying case, a wired remote control, and a docking cradle.
Earphones
All iPods come with "earbud"-type earphones with distinctive white cords, a color chosen to match the design of the original iPod. The white cords are considered symbolic of the iPod, and are featured prominently in advertisements for the devices. Some third-party manufacturers sell white earphones or canal phones (e.g. White Sony EX71, Etymotic Research ER-6i) marketed as replacements for the iPod's earphones, though they also work with other devices.
In 2004, Apple competitor Creative Labs introduced its Zen Touch and Zen Micro digital music players, which come with white earbuds similar to Apple's. A Creative spokesperson told The New York Times that the color was chosen to match the design of Creative's devices, rather than as a conscious decision to emulate the iPod. [5]
First generation
First announced on October 23 2001, the original iPod cost $399 with a 5 GB hard drive. [6] Critics panned the unit's price, but the iPod proved an instant hit in the marketplace. Apple announced a 10 GB version ($499) in March 2002, and a 20 GB version in July (introduced at $499 along with a price drop of $100 for the other two models).
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 non-mechanical "touch" and "click" wheels, the circular controller design has become a prominent iPod motif.
Second generation
The 2G iPod replaced the mechanical scroll wheel with a touch-sensitive, non-moving one (also made by Synaptics) which could detect the motion of the user's finger circling around it. The button in the center of the wheel and the buttons around the wheel remained mechanical. These iPods came with a wired remote control and belt-clip carrying case.
Third generation
On April 28, 2003, Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced an "ultrathin" iPod series. Slightly smaller than their predecessors, they had more bevelled 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 new kind of connector called the Dock Connector—longer and flatter than a FireWire plug. This allowed 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 is also sold 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 of the iPod in the dark.
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 USB2 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 past models were widely popular, the 3G model skyrocketed Apple's iPod sales, with major popularity due to fashionability, advertisement, and celebrity endorsement.
Fourth generation
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.
The 4G iPod is slightly smaller in size than the 3G, and it introduces the ability to charge the battery over a USB connection. Currently, the 4G is available at 20 GB, costing $299. The 40 GB, $399 model was discontinued in February 2005.
Apple claims that updated software in the new iPod allows it to use the battery more efficiently and increase battery life to 12 hours, and minor changes such as the addition of a "Shuffle Songs" item on the top-level menu make it more convenient for users. After many requests from users asking for these improvements to be made available to earlier iPods as well, Apple on February 23, 2005, released a firmware update which brings the new menu items to 1G through 3G iPods.
The 4G iPod comes bundled with cables to connect it to FireWire and USB ports. Both the iPod U2 Special Edition and the iPod photo can class as enhanced versions of the fourth generation iPod.
iPod mini
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.
First Generation
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 once again it proved 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.
iPod mini was initially available in five colors: silver, gold, blue, pink, and green. Silver models have sold best, followed by blue ones.
Second Generation
In February 2005, the second generation [7] of iPod mini was introduced 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 the gold color was discontinued) and other minor aesthetic changes. Also, the 2G iPod minis did not include the AC adapter or the FireWire cable included with previous models.
iPod U2 Special Edition
On October 28, 2004, Apple released iPod U2 Special Edition. Black on the front with a red click wheel (the colors of U2's latest album, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb), it features the signatures of U2 band members engraved on the back. Apart from the design, the iPod U2 Special Edition equates to a 20GB 4G iPod. Its $349 price tag ($50 more than a standard 20 GB 4G iPod) includes an iTunes Music Store coupon redeemable for $50 off the price of "The Complete U2," a "digital boxed set" featuring 400 tracks of U2 music. [8]
iPod photo
Main article: iPod photo.
iPod photo (renamed from iPod Photo less than a month after its launch) was also released on October 28, 2004. It features a color screen and the ability to store and display JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, and PNG images. One millimeter thicker than the standard fourth generation iPod, it also plays up to 15 hours on a single charge. iPod photo was originally available in 40 GB and 60 GB versions, which cost $499 and $599 respectively.
On February 23, 2005, Apple discontinued the 40 GB model and introduced a lower-priced 30 GB iPod photo. Additionally, it dropped the price of the 60 GB model. iPod photo is currently available at $349 for the 30 GB model and $449 for the 60 GB model. [9]
iPod shuffle
Main article: iPod shuffle.
Apple announced iPod shuffle at the Macworld Conference & Expo on January 11, 2005 with the tagline "Life is random." This model introduced flash memory to iPods for the first time (rather than a hard drive). 512 MB and 1 GB (actually mebibyte and gibibyte) models are available for US$99 and US$149 respectively, with the 1 GB version able to store up to 240 songs (at 128 kbit/s (kilobits per second) AAC encoding).
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. iTunes can be set to fill iPod shuffle with a random selection from the user's music library each time the device is connected to the computer. iPod shuffle weighs less than one ounce (four United States quarters) and approximates in size to a pack of chewing gum. Like the rest of the family, the iPod shuffle can operate as a USB storage device. [10]
Future
Additional "special edition" iPods, after the fashion of iPod U2 Special Edition, may appear in the future with new colors and new laser-engraved designs.
Persistent rumors, encouraged by the release of iPod photo with its color display, suggest that Apple will someday introduce an iPod with video-playing capability. However at the October 26, 2004 event in San Jose, California where Apple introduced iPod photo, Jobs noted the flaws of competitors' video-supporting devices, including size, weight, and that "No one has any video content to put on them." The large amount of hard-drive space that video content takes also militates against the concept of a video-supporting iPod.
Battery life
Apple designed iPod with an internal lithium ion battery that users cannot easily get at to 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. [11]
In late November 2003, film-makers 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 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." [12] 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. [13]
Shortly before this, Apple Computer had introduced a battery replacement scheme ($99) for out-of-warranty iPods [14], and offered users the option to extend the warranty of their iPods ($59). [15] 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. [16]
Many other digital audio players also have unreplacable batteries.
iTunes Music Store
Main article: iTunes Music Store.
No portable music player other than iPod can play the DRM-enabled files sold on Apple's iTunes Music Store. These files are AAC audio files (.m4p) that have been encrypted using Apple's proprietary FairPlay system in such a way that only computers that have been authorized (up to five) are able to decrypt and play them.
Steve Jobs has stated that this restriction is intended to increase the sale of iPods: "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." Users can circumvent the restriction by burning protected files to an uncompressed audio CD and then re-ripping and encoding them as unprotected files, though this can become tedious and causes a loss of audio quality with each iteration.
Alternately, one can circumvent the copy-protection with a third-party software program named Hymn, or with Apple's own Compressor software included with Final Cut Pro. Also, an anynomous developer has developed iOpener, a program that will find protected AAC files on a user's computer and convert them to AAC files without encryption. http://www.hymn-project.org/download.php
The iTunes Music Store recently sold its 300 millionth song [17].
Third-party accessories
iPod has created a large and growing after-market accessory industry; in the 2005 Macworld keynote, Steve Jobs referred to it as "the iPod economy".
- Third-party software tools supporting iPod include:
- Griffin Technology makes several iPod accessories, including the iTrip, iBeam, iTalk, PodPod, and Earjam.
- 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. Then 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
iPod sales
iPod currently dominates the digital audio player market, frequently topping best-seller lists [18]. Apple reported in Q4 of 2003 earnings of $106,000,000, its highest revenue for Q4 in 9 years. Commentators have speculated that revenue for the Apple iPod could hit $1,000,000,000 in sales at the end of 2004. [19] HP, in contract with Apple for the sale of a HP-branded iPod, has reported sales as 'going extremely well', but did not release figures. Apple has acknowledged HP-iPods making 6% of Q4 sales. [20]
Criticism
As the market leader, iPod has become the subject of criticism from competitors and other detractors. Some see Apple as using iPod, the iTunes Music Store, and "FairPlay" (Apple's DRM-protected implementation of the AAC open standard) to establish a vertical monopoly to lock iPod users into using iTunes exclusively (and vice versa). Two aspects of this "lock" exist:
- Apple has maintained tight control of its FairPlay AAC format, electing not to license it to other companies. As a result, other online music stores cannot sell music files encoded with FairPlay AAC, and competing devices from companies such as Creative Labs and iRiver cannot play such files. Consumers who want to download songs from the extensive iTunes music catalog to their digital audio players have no choice but to purchase an iPod (or, as mentioned above, convert the downloaded files to an open format).
- The iPod does not support other DRM-protected formats (such as the DRM-protected version of WMA), so iPod users who wish to purchase DRM protected music online must do so through iTunes. Music purchased from other online stores will not play on an iPod in protected form.
In addition, Apple remains the only major music player manufacturer that does not provide support for Microsoft's WMA format, with or without a DRM protection scheme. This inconveniences some iPod users with existing libraries of WMA files (for example, users who also own solid state music players, a market segment Apple did not enter until the January 2005 release of the iPod shuffle).
In July 2004, RealNetworks debuted an application named Harmony, which used a technological workaround to allow iPod users to convert files purchased from RealNetworks' RealRhapsody service into a FairPlay-compatible format which could be played on an iPod. Apple responded by accusing RealNetworks of "adopt[ing] the tactics and ethics of a hacker to break into the iPod." [21] Apple later released a firmware upgrade that rendered fourth-generation iPods and iPod mini incapable of playing files converted with Harmony. RealNetworks has vowed to develop another workaround.
The iPod has also been criticized as inferior to other players from rivals like Creative Labs, Rio, iRiver, and others. Common arguments are that, compared with other digital audio players, the iPod has lower sound quality, shorter battery life (which was improved in 4G iPod), and a lack of features such as support for UMS and for the Ogg Vorbis encoding format.
Key personnel
- Tony Fadell
- Jeff Robbin
- Sanjeev Kumar
- Steve Jobs
- Jonathan Ive
- Danika Cleary - iPod Product Manager
- Stan Ng - iPod Line Manager
See also
- Podcasting
- Digital audio player
- Creative Nomad/Creative Zen line of MP3 players from Creative Labs
- iRiver MP3 players
- Dell Digital Jukebox
External links
- iPod official website
- The History of the iPod
- iPod Your BMW, the site for the BMW iPod adapter
- Wired News: Inside Look at Birth of the iPod - July 21, 2004
Culture
iPoder is a person totally into the Apple iPod, iPod mini, iPod photo, iPod shuffle, iPod U2, etc., and all the Apple iPod accessories that you can purchase for their iPods like arm bands, cable and docks, car audio, cases, extras, headphones, power, and speakers. They're 100% totally obessessed with the Apple iPod, and you'll never see them without it. They're an iPoder. Then there are iPoders that are people totally into their Apple iPods.