Gadgetory

all right it's my first real video for TechnoBuffalo got to do something cool what can I do I know I'll use my time travel app now what can I make time travel hmm mouse that'd be kind of a lame video iPod that might be cool all right first gen iPod you guys know what that means it's time for a TechnoBuffalo flashback let's do this so here it is the iPod that started it all now this is really the product that made Apple a market leader in terms of both consumer electronics and multimedia however when you look at it Apple actually started forays into both those sectors much earlier with products such as the power CD in fact check out this quote from the mid 90s shortly after the release of Apple's first portable music player we don't just want to be a leader in multimedia for Macintosh we want to be a leader in multimedia period now keep in mind this was even before the return of Steve Jobs so Apple definitely had its eye on some kind of music player long before the iPod came out of course the iPod was their first real success in this field it has an iconic design in fact the design is where it draws its names from the pod in iPod is actually a reference to a line heard in the movie 2001 a Space Odyssey open the pod bay doors and you can see when you look at the spaceship from that movie how they made that connection the whiting clear plastic is actually very similar to the g4 iMac that was released a couple months later and that really became the standard Apple design motif for the early part of the decade looking at the controls the buttons are actually around the edges of the click wheel as integrated buttons into the wheel didn't happen until the fourth generation another unique feature is that the wheel actually moves it was until the second generation that Apple introduced a touch wheel another thing that stands out from modern users is how thick it is for a device it only has a capacity of five gigs and how are those five gigs transferred through firewire Apple didn't use the 30-pin connector for a couple more generations now why they go with firewire well even though USB 2.0 was released at that time most computer still used USB 1 which Apple felt just wasn't quick enough to transfer music so because of this all the accessories also use firewire 400 look at the user interface it's of course in black and white but it's still overall not that different from the iPod Classic up today many people will point to the Bondi iMac is the beginning of Apple's current success but it probably has a lot more to do with the iPod as without the iPod Apple would not be the quintessential high-end consumer electronics company it is today one more thing if you guys ever need proof the tech pundits are often wrong I suggest googling original iPod review in which many tech writers question whether the iPod would be a success at all