Saturday, November 01, 2008

Seven years...

Seven years...that is a long time. Seven years ago something happened that changed life as we know it. It changed the way that people interact with one anther and how families live. Seven years ago life was different. Then it happened. Apple brought out the game-changer.
Apple introduced the first-generation iPod on October 23, 2001. The first iPod had a black and white screen and featured a 5 GB hard drive capable of storing 1,000 songs encoded using MP3 and was priced at US$399. Among the iPod's innovations were its small size, achieved using a 1.8" hard drive, whereas its competitors were using 2.5" hard drives at the time, and its easy-to-use navigation, which was controlled using a mechanical scroll wheel, a center select button, and 4 auxiliary buttons around the wheel. The iPod had a rated battery life of 12 hours.
(source: Wikipedia)

Hard to believe that the iPod has been around for seven years. Now we have podcasting, iPod formatted movies and even iPod games. It has changed how people listen to everything. Too busy to watch the news or listen to it on NPR, there is a podcast that you can download automatically to your iPod to listen to on your commute.

I use my iPod all the time. I listen when I drive, when I mow the lawn everything. But I always have. I had a Walkman that I used from Junior High through High School. I had a new aiwa version that I used on my mission. These were FM/AM cassette players. I would listen all the time when I was walking form place to place or doing menial tasks at home. I would always have one ear occupied with the music. I remember listening to ManĂ¡ while writing letters to my family on p-day with one ear on and one ear off.

The iPod was the natural transition. I got an iPod 3rd generation (white 15gb) in February 2004, just this past year I got a a 5th generation (black 30gb). For Christmas last year we got the older kids iPod shuffles (1gb). it is an iPod world, we just live in it.


Steve Jobs introducing the iPod.



First iPod commercial.

2 comments:

Stacey said...

Yeah!!!! I love my Pod. I'd die without it, I think. Oddly enough I don't change my playlists as often as I thought I would but do keep adding to it. In fact, I have a fifteen clamshell gift card I haven't even cracked open yet and it's been a few months. I suppose I saving it for the right songs! lol

~Stacey

Laura123 said...

Has is been that long. OMG it is so hard to believe that it has been seven years since the first ipod came out.

I know there have been lots of improvements in that time, but one would think over that seven years apple would have made the battery easier to replace.

Yes, there are online ipod battery companies out there but they wouldn't be necessary if apple would have just made a sliding door to access the juice.

oh well thanks for the article - very cool. Here's to another seven years iPod!