WEBVTT - TechStuff Looks at the iPod 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.960 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:08.920 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:09.039 --> 0:00:18.200 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone, then, 0:00:18.239 --> 0:00:20.480 welcome to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Poulette, and 0:00:20.480 --> 0:00:22.919 I am an editor here at how stuff works dot com. 0:00:22.920 --> 0:00:26.440 Sitting across from me as always, his senior writer, Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:26.640 --> 0:00:31.600 I've got a hole in me pocket. I like that one. 0:00:32.479 --> 0:00:34.640 So you might hear some giggles in the background, just 0:00:34.720 --> 0:00:38.639 ignore that. That's our that's our our podcasting sprite who 0:00:38.720 --> 0:00:42.120 was joining us today. Yes, yes, because it's a magical 0:00:42.159 --> 0:00:46.000 time of year, we're recording this just before the new year. Yes, 0:00:46.120 --> 0:00:49.040 that's true. Actually, uh, it's right after the holidays in 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:53.080 the aforementioned sprite actually has a bearing on what we're 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:56.720 talking about, because, uh, this the the spriting question would 0:00:56.720 --> 0:01:01.720 be my daughter and she just received her very first iPod. Yeah, 0:01:01.720 --> 0:01:03.960 and we wanted to talk today about the iPod. This 0:01:04.000 --> 0:01:06.880 actually comes to us courtesy of a little listener mail. 0:01:11.720 --> 0:01:14.840 This listener mail comes from Nick, and Nick says, Hey, guys, 0:01:14.880 --> 0:01:16.880 I love your podcast and I've been a loyal listener 0:01:16.880 --> 0:01:18.880 for a long time. Now, I really think that you 0:01:18.880 --> 0:01:20.880 guys choose good topics, and I really like that you 0:01:20.959 --> 0:01:25.000 always release episodes on time. Thanks Nick, we like that too. 0:01:25.520 --> 0:01:27.360 I was wondering if you could do a podcast on 0:01:27.400 --> 0:01:30.360 the history of the Apple iPod line, or for another idea, 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:32.720 you could do a podcast on how Xbox Live, PlayStation 0:01:32.720 --> 0:01:35.160 network game center work and how they compare. These are 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:36.760 just a few ideas, and I would love for you 0:01:36.800 --> 0:01:39.040 to do one either way. Keep up the good work 0:01:39.280 --> 0:01:43.800 sent from my iPod. So we decided we were going 0:01:43.840 --> 0:01:46.039 to tackle the iPod today and kind of talk about 0:01:46.040 --> 0:01:50.080 its history and its place in technology. Of course, there's 0:01:50.080 --> 0:01:54.200 no denying the iPod has taken a prominent place in 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:58.160 technology today. That's true. But it wasn't. It wasn't the 0:01:58.400 --> 0:02:02.720 very first and three player on the market. In fact, 0:02:03.200 --> 0:02:07.040 it was relatively late to the game. That's true. Um 0:02:07.040 --> 0:02:10.359 although a lot of people think the very first MP 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:14.640 three player was was from a company called Diamond, the 0:02:14.680 --> 0:02:19.000 Diamond Multimedia Rio p MP three. Yes, that was not 0:02:19.360 --> 0:02:23.840 the first shut your mouth, okay, but it's going to 0:02:23.919 --> 0:02:27.520 be a really boring podcast. Um. No, it was the 0:02:27.520 --> 0:02:32.200 the MP three man from Sayhand, which was actually launched 0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:35.880 in Asia in the late spring. I found that out 0:02:35.880 --> 0:02:39.320 from Elliott Van Buskirk Att c NET, who then moved 0:02:39.320 --> 0:02:43.400 on to write for Wired. Indeed, um it was actually 0:02:43.400 --> 0:02:46.000 released in the United States by Igor Labs, the MP 0:02:46.200 --> 0:02:50.880 man F ten and F twenty again, and just a 0:02:51.080 --> 0:02:54.600 scant few months before Diamond released the Rio here in 0:02:54.639 --> 0:02:58.560 the United States. There was also before that there was 0:02:58.600 --> 0:03:01.960 a device called the Listen Up Digital Audio Player. But 0:03:03.160 --> 0:03:05.680 you can argue whether or not that truly fits the 0:03:05.840 --> 0:03:09.919 MP three player model. It was definitely a digital audio player, 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:15.040 but I would say that the MP man and the 0:03:15.040 --> 0:03:18.880 the Diamond Ultimate Multi Media Rio, those are probably more 0:03:19.280 --> 0:03:22.800 traditional MP three players the way we think of them. Uh. 0:03:22.840 --> 0:03:25.680 And so so you guys know, do you did you 0:03:25.720 --> 0:03:27.840 happen to see how many I had to look this 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:29.480 up in another source. Did you have to see how 0:03:29.480 --> 0:03:32.160 many megabytes of music it held? Yeah, it's funny you 0:03:32.280 --> 0:03:35.720 should say that megabytes, not gigabyte. No, No, we're not 0:03:35.760 --> 0:03:39.680 talking about gigabytes, thirty two megabytes because these were these 0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:42.960 were flash memory based and at the time when they 0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:46.520 were released, flash memory was still very a very young 0:03:46.560 --> 0:03:51.280 technology compared to hard drives, but no one had really 0:03:51.640 --> 0:03:54.480 invested in making a hard drive version of an MP 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:57.000 three player. Yeah, yeah, that's true. And uh as a 0:03:57.000 --> 0:04:00.360 matter of fact, it was also an expensive technology compared 0:04:00.400 --> 0:04:02.240 to what it is now. You can go into ah, 0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:05.360 go into convenience stores and pick up a gigabyte thumb 0:04:05.440 --> 0:04:08.760 drive for you know, four or five dollars now may 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:11.320 be exaggerating, but not by much. Well, let me put 0:04:11.320 --> 0:04:13.280 it this way. When you go to something like the 0:04:13.320 --> 0:04:16.279 Consumer Electronics Show, a lot of them will put their 0:04:16.560 --> 0:04:20.359 press kits on digital formats on a thumb drive, and 0:04:20.920 --> 0:04:23.080 the average size of those thumb drives, I would say, 0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:26.159 is two gigabytes. So these are companies that are are 0:04:26.240 --> 0:04:29.520 creating hundreds of these to give away to vendors and 0:04:29.600 --> 0:04:32.640 the press. So it's clearly not as expensive as the 0:04:32.640 --> 0:04:37.880 old ones. That's true. But so so. The MP three player, 0:04:38.160 --> 0:04:41.520 as it was before the launch of the iPod was 0:04:42.320 --> 0:04:46.520 um a very small device as far as storage goes, 0:04:46.920 --> 0:04:49.080 there was, although it was you know, in general solid 0:04:49.120 --> 0:04:54.240 state UM, so that seemed very very high tech. Um. 0:04:54.360 --> 0:04:58.040 They also sort of resembled the cassette players of the time. Yes, 0:04:58.080 --> 0:04:59.680 they were a little clunky. They had a lot of 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:02.919 button I will say that I in my research. I 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:07.200 did uncover one hard drive MP three player that predated 0:05:07.240 --> 0:05:12.679 the iPod. It was the Hango Slash Remote Solutions Portable 0:05:12.760 --> 0:05:17.159 Jukebox p j B DASH one hundred, which was released 0:05:17.160 --> 0:05:21.599 in actually and it could hold up to six gigabytes 0:05:21.640 --> 0:05:25.680 of music, but that was mainly limited to Asia. There 0:05:25.720 --> 0:05:28.680 wasn't really, there wasn't an attempt to break into the 0:05:29.040 --> 0:05:33.120 Western market. Yes, it's actually funny that you would say that, because, uh, 0:05:33.720 --> 0:05:36.160 that sounds sort of foreign, but it kind of wasn't 0:05:36.200 --> 0:05:39.640 because Van Busk points out that was actually developed by 0:05:39.720 --> 0:05:46.240 Compact but licensed to Hango, which was Korean company. Um, 0:05:46.360 --> 0:05:49.280 and uh, you know at that point, you know, as 0:05:49.320 --> 0:05:53.080 a matter of fact, when Hewlett Packard acquired Compact, they 0:05:53.120 --> 0:05:57.159 licensed the iPod. Yeah, it's kind of funny. It's funny 0:05:57.160 --> 0:05:59.960 that they could have gotten a jump on the market 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:01.839 in the United States, But of course there was no 0:06:01.880 --> 0:06:05.520 way of knowing at that time. No, So why would Apple, 0:06:06.040 --> 0:06:09.080 a company that at that point was known mainly for 0:06:09.240 --> 0:06:12.800 creating computers, that did try to do some personal electronics 0:06:12.800 --> 0:06:15.840 that to one extent or another did not work out 0:06:15.839 --> 0:06:18.840 So well, Newton, I'm looking at you. I'm sorry, did 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:24.040 you say Pippen, So why what what would lead them 0:06:24.080 --> 0:06:31.159 to invest in creating a digital music player. Actually, uh, 0:06:31.400 --> 0:06:36.640 it's funny too, because it wasn't really Apple's idea. According 0:06:36.680 --> 0:06:39.280 to some of the information that I've read, the idea 0:06:39.360 --> 0:06:42.640 came from outside the company, from a from a guy 0:06:42.800 --> 0:06:47.880 named Tony Tony Fidel or Fatal. I'm going with Fidel. 0:06:48.120 --> 0:06:50.560 I would say that a D E. L. L yea. 0:06:50.720 --> 0:06:53.080 He he had worked with Phillips in the past and 0:06:53.120 --> 0:06:57.560 with General magic um, but basically was pitching the idea 0:06:57.720 --> 0:07:01.680 of I don't know, an MP three environment, a music player, 0:07:01.880 --> 0:07:04.680 and something where you could get your music from your 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:07.160 computer to the MP three player. Yeah, he was looking 0:07:07.160 --> 0:07:11.080 at an entire ecosystem, everything from the software that would 0:07:11.120 --> 0:07:13.600 live on your computer that would organize your music and 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:17.080 let you put it into different formats or different playlists, 0:07:17.080 --> 0:07:20.400 that kind of thing, and as also a device that 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:22.200 you would store that music on and you could play 0:07:22.240 --> 0:07:24.600 it back later. So he was definitely looking at the 0:07:24.640 --> 0:07:27.560 big picture, and he thought that no one had nailed this. 0:07:27.720 --> 0:07:30.360 People had created some devices that you could put music on, 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:34.200 but no one had really taken the model so that 0:07:34.800 --> 0:07:39.280 it had everything encapsulated in one big package, and so 0:07:39.320 --> 0:07:42.920 he actually shopped this idea around to several companies, yes, 0:07:43.000 --> 0:07:46.720 including a couple that probably were kicking themselves years later. 0:07:47.360 --> 0:07:52.640 Real Networks was one UM, Real being famous for providing 0:07:53.440 --> 0:07:58.280 computer software that would allow you to play streaming content, 0:07:58.840 --> 0:08:03.000 audio and video files on your computer. UM. They were 0:08:03.040 --> 0:08:06.720 looking at the Rhapsody music service, which still exists in 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:11.960 a form or two. UM, but also Phillips, his former employer, 0:08:12.680 --> 0:08:16.480 known for consumer gadgets of all different kinds. UM. You 0:08:16.760 --> 0:08:19.280 have thought that one or both of them would have 0:08:19.320 --> 0:08:21.640 been interested in the idea of coming out with something 0:08:21.720 --> 0:08:24.840 like this, but they weren't, and he turned to Apple instead. Yep. 0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:28.720 And strangely enough, Apple at that time said this sounds interesting. 0:08:28.760 --> 0:08:31.720 We are going to invest in it, and essentially Fidel 0:08:31.840 --> 0:08:35.120 got hired to work on this project. He was assigned 0:08:35.120 --> 0:08:38.079 a team of about thirty people from Apple. He also 0:08:38.200 --> 0:08:42.440 had a company called portal Player that was helping UM 0:08:42.480 --> 0:08:45.440 and there were about two hundred or more people and 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:48.680 at portal Player who are also working on this project. UH. 0:08:48.720 --> 0:08:51.320 And then as the project went on, as they began 0:08:51.400 --> 0:08:55.720 to develop what would eventually become the iPod, a certain 0:08:55.800 --> 0:09:00.120 Mr Steve Jobs got very involved in the process to 0:09:00.160 --> 0:09:03.360 the point where I saw it described as being one 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:08.440 involved that it became almost a daily activity for Jobs 0:09:08.440 --> 0:09:11.080 to check in on the project to and to give 0:09:11.120 --> 0:09:14.760 notes which essentially said it's not loud enough. Make it louder, 0:09:16.400 --> 0:09:19.079 which I saw was attributed according to one writer, to 0:09:19.360 --> 0:09:24.000 Jobs having uh some hearing problems. Which is why the 0:09:24.600 --> 0:09:27.320 which is why the the iPod is louder than some 0:09:27.400 --> 0:09:30.640 of its uh some other MP three players. Why the 0:09:30.640 --> 0:09:34.559 settings go this one goes to eleven. It's one louder. 0:09:35.600 --> 0:09:41.079 But yeah, there was another fellow who was very likely 0:09:41.559 --> 0:09:45.320 heavily involved in the design of the iPod, the physical 0:09:45.360 --> 0:09:51.400 design Jonathan I've, who is the He's a senior vice 0:09:51.400 --> 0:09:56.600 president of of design over at Apple and has had 0:09:56.640 --> 0:09:59.360 a hand in designing all sorts of Apple products. And 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:02.280 when when you sit there and talk about how Apple 0:10:02.280 --> 0:10:06.199 products are really sleek and beautiful and they have great 0:10:06.280 --> 0:10:09.120 lines and uh you know, even the whole no buttons thing, 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:12.280 we can we can thank Jonathan i for a lot 0:10:12.320 --> 0:10:15.280 of that. Yeah, uh, Steve Jobs as well, so Jobs 0:10:15.280 --> 0:10:19.680 and I've together they really shape the way things look 0:10:20.000 --> 0:10:24.600 coming from Apple. Yes. Indeed, so this um this project 0:10:24.920 --> 0:10:29.240 that goes on UH. It actually comes to fruition UH 0:10:29.280 --> 0:10:34.840 and in late two thousand one, UM actually October two 0:10:34.880 --> 0:10:40.720 thousand one, the first generation iPod debuts. Yes, yeah, on 0:10:40.760 --> 0:10:44.080 the twenty three, they had the first generation iPod. Now, 0:10:44.160 --> 0:10:50.120 when they announced this UM, Apple had rented UH presentation 0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:53.600 space in California and basically all they had told the 0:10:53.640 --> 0:10:56.760 media was, Hey, we've got a big announcement coming and 0:10:56.800 --> 0:10:58.880 it's not going to be about the Mac. Yeah. It 0:10:58.960 --> 0:11:01.920 was really really seek. In fact, they were so secretive 0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:04.720 about this that even within Apple people were not allowed 0:11:04.760 --> 0:11:06.800 to look at this. That's right. It was only the 0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:09.320 design team that had any access to what it looked like. 0:11:09.400 --> 0:11:11.839 And if anyone was going to test it, anyone from 0:11:11.880 --> 0:11:14.520 outside that team, they would have to go into a 0:11:14.600 --> 0:11:17.760 room where the iPod would be kept in a box 0:11:18.000 --> 0:11:20.520 that had only a couple of little windows and access 0:11:20.520 --> 0:11:22.840 points for you to kind of poke your fingers in 0:11:22.880 --> 0:11:26.160 and push the different buttons and and to to play 0:11:26.200 --> 0:11:29.120 with it without getting a full look at the device. 0:11:29.200 --> 0:11:32.040 So no one from outside that team would be able 0:11:32.080 --> 0:11:39.320 to describe what it looked like. It's a great, great 0:11:39.320 --> 0:11:44.959 design method. So yes, the first generation iPod UM. There 0:11:44.960 --> 0:11:48.360 were two versions. You know, the first one only could 0:11:48.400 --> 0:11:50.920 well could hold five gigabytes worth of music. I say only, 0:11:50.960 --> 0:11:53.760 but really, when you think about it competing NP three 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:55.960 players at the time, we're between thirty two to sixty 0:11:55.960 --> 0:11:59.959 four megabytes, so five gigabytes was quite a lot. Yeah, 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:02.160 and that was one of the big selling points. Um. 0:12:02.280 --> 0:12:05.520 Of course it didn't achieve this with flash memory. It 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:09.120 used a physical hard drive, very hard drive inside a 0:12:09.280 --> 0:12:12.440 very small hard drive. And then the later one that 0:12:12.520 --> 0:12:16.280 was added was because the very first one five gigabytes. 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:19.920 It was shortly followed by a ten gigabyte model, but 0:12:20.080 --> 0:12:23.760 otherwise had the same specs. Uh. And this one, this 0:12:23.920 --> 0:12:28.360 iPod was a little different from all future iPods. Uh. 0:12:28.559 --> 0:12:31.559 Do you want to talk about the the the interface 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:35.040 that was, so that's unlike all the other iPods. Yes, this, 0:12:35.200 --> 0:12:39.720 this particular iPod UM had a mechanical wheel that you 0:12:39.720 --> 0:12:43.040 would use to scroll through the songs. Now, Um that 0:12:43.240 --> 0:12:45.320 actually the the interface was one of the things that 0:12:45.520 --> 0:12:48.560 set the iPod apart from its competition, because if you'll 0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:51.199 remember when I mentioned it a few minutes ago, Um, 0:12:51.320 --> 0:12:54.199 everybody else was still stuck in the old fashioned using 0:12:54.240 --> 0:12:58.760 buttons for play fast forward and rewind. Yeah, it was. 0:12:58.840 --> 0:13:02.800 It was making navigate. It was hard to navigate long playlists. 0:13:03.000 --> 0:13:06.000 It's really tedious to use that kind of feature. And 0:13:06.200 --> 0:13:09.040 especially when you're talking about a player that could hold, 0:13:09.320 --> 0:13:12.640 you know, thousands of songs in comparison with the older ones, 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:14.960 you were going to be spending a lot of time 0:13:15.320 --> 0:13:19.080 just skipping songs. So they wanted something that they could use, 0:13:19.080 --> 0:13:21.520 and they came up with the scroll wheel. But this 0:13:21.600 --> 0:13:24.840 was a mechanical scroll wheels instead of later editions where 0:13:24.880 --> 0:13:26.800 you used you know, we'll get into that in a moment, 0:13:26.840 --> 0:13:30.240 but a touch a touch scroll wheel, um. And it 0:13:30.280 --> 0:13:33.200 did have a ring of buttons, um, you know, for 0:13:33.240 --> 0:13:37.200 the menu and for ford and back that surrounded the 0:13:37.240 --> 0:13:39.280 outside of it. And of course a black and white screen. 0:13:40.000 --> 0:13:42.400 Uh used the old Chicago font for those of us 0:13:42.480 --> 0:13:44.560 here a long time, I was wondering if you were 0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:47.480 going to go with the fonts too. Had that I 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:50.640 had that written down as trivia at the end. Yes, 0:13:50.760 --> 0:13:54.079 you scooped me. Let you scooped me. You know what happens. 0:13:54.600 --> 0:13:57.200 And you used a FireWire as far as the interface goes, 0:13:57.240 --> 0:13:59.359 so you could hook it up to your your Macintosh 0:13:59.360 --> 0:14:01.320 confect that's all you could hook it up to It 0:14:01.360 --> 0:14:05.320 was not Windows compatible. The very first iPod was only 0:14:05.320 --> 0:14:08.520 compatible with Mac computers that used the FireWire cable to 0:14:08.640 --> 0:14:13.160 sink and to charge. It had an arm processor. Uh, 0:14:13.200 --> 0:14:15.720 and the operating system was designed by a company called 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:19.640 Pixel and the Do you know how much it originally cost? 0:14:20.280 --> 0:14:24.440 I believe it was four It was four hundred dollars 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:28.440 four hundred smackers for this thing. And uh and so 0:14:28.720 --> 0:14:30.840 the very first iPod, you can't really call it a 0:14:30.880 --> 0:14:34.120 runaway success, although it did definitely make a huge impression 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:36.600 on everyone at the event because no one knew what 0:14:36.720 --> 0:14:39.720 was coming and no one no one really thought of 0:14:39.760 --> 0:14:42.480 Apple as a music company. You know, today it's hard 0:14:42.480 --> 0:14:45.720 to think of Apple as a computer company. Sometimes you 0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:47.960 think of it as a music company. Of course, it's 0:14:48.000 --> 0:14:50.600 changed its name since then too, since its success in 0:14:50.800 --> 0:14:54.360 portable electronics. Now Apple is not Apple Computer, it is 0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:58.800 Apple Inc. Also, of course, there was something else that 0:14:58.880 --> 0:15:00.880 we have mentioned in a few times in the past, 0:15:01.480 --> 0:15:07.120 that being Apple's uh feud with Apple Core, the Beatles company, um, 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:12.200 you know, over its music capabilities. Of course they were butting. 0:15:12.200 --> 0:15:14.560 The two companies butted heads for a while, whether or 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:17.520 not they were allowed to uh to play music on 0:15:17.560 --> 0:15:19.800 a Macintosh computer or any of the other mac or 0:15:19.920 --> 0:15:24.000 the excuse me, any of the other Apple computers up 0:15:24.040 --> 0:15:26.640 until that point. That is where uh it is famously 0:15:26.720 --> 0:15:32.240 said the so sumi uh sound came from error sound. Um. 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:34.200 But yeah, so that that was one of those things. 0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:38.120 I mean, you know Apple a music company. Oh yeah. 0:15:38.240 --> 0:15:40.720 And and the iTunes version they ahead at the time, 0:15:40.760 --> 0:15:44.240 which was iTunes two point one. Um, it was really 0:15:44.240 --> 0:15:48.120 a music management system. It wasn't designed to um, you 0:15:48.360 --> 0:15:52.160 couldn't purchase music. There was no music store at that time. No, no, 0:15:52.760 --> 0:15:55.760 so you would you used it to manage your music, 0:15:55.800 --> 0:15:58.280 but you didn't use it to acchoir music. Yeah, that 0:15:58.360 --> 0:16:00.680 was that was One of the things that l didn't 0:16:00.720 --> 0:16:04.120 know when he came to Apple was that Apple had 0:16:04.120 --> 0:16:08.640 already purchased a company that made a software called sound Jam. 0:16:08.680 --> 0:16:11.920 And those of us who are fans longtime fans of 0:16:12.040 --> 0:16:16.440 another at that point competing company Panic they make really 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:20.400 awesome uh mac software. They made a program called Audience, 0:16:20.720 --> 0:16:23.360 which was in a feud that they were the two 0:16:23.440 --> 0:16:26.680 big MP three players for the Macintosh at that time. 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:28.400 There were others, but those were the two big ones. 0:16:28.960 --> 0:16:31.200 And UM, a lot of people were kind of upset 0:16:31.240 --> 0:16:33.960 that sound Jam ended up getting purchased by Apple, but 0:16:34.520 --> 0:16:37.840 that the acquisition was actually kept quiet and sound Jam 0:16:37.880 --> 0:16:42.120 became what you know became iTunes in its later incarnations. 0:16:42.800 --> 0:16:47.080 But it was originally a very uh simple management program 0:16:47.080 --> 0:16:52.160 and music player for the Macintosh. Right, and then let's uh, 0:16:52.240 --> 0:16:55.680 let's skip ahead a little bit. On July sevento two, 0:16:56.240 --> 0:16:58.920 we got the second generation of the iPod. Now, this 0:16:59.080 --> 0:17:03.400 one came in ten and twenty gigabyte versions gigabytes, yes, 0:17:03.760 --> 0:17:07.640 and it worked with Windows uh to some extent. There 0:17:07.720 --> 0:17:10.280 was a new scroll wheel. It was the tactile scroll 0:17:10.280 --> 0:17:13.280 wheel that we're familiar with now. It's not no longer mechanical. 0:17:13.359 --> 0:17:16.200 Now it's like the touch screen type, well not touch screen, 0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:18.880 but the tactile like the touch pads you would find 0:17:18.880 --> 0:17:24.280 on laptops. It's a capacitive, capacitive touch surface. Um. Yeah, 0:17:24.440 --> 0:17:26.360 and that was that was what you were familiar with. Now. 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:28.439 The look seemed pretty similar. It still has the ring 0:17:28.440 --> 0:17:29.880 of buttons around there and they still has the black 0:17:29.880 --> 0:17:33.359 and white screen with Chicago still uses FireWire, although you 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:36.240 can get an adapter to work with PCs and UH 0:17:36.280 --> 0:17:38.680 it also on PCs it did not use iTunes because 0:17:38.720 --> 0:17:41.560 there was still no iTunes for PC yet. It used 0:17:41.720 --> 0:17:46.159 music Match Jukebox instead, I remember them. So that was 0:17:46.240 --> 0:17:49.280 so you could still uh. Well, now now they've opened 0:17:49.320 --> 0:17:52.000 up to a much larger market, it's still pretty expensive, 0:17:52.440 --> 0:17:55.320 um and the price will go down in the next generation. 0:17:55.359 --> 0:17:58.119 But we'll talk about why that is in a second. 0:17:58.480 --> 0:18:01.600 So this was this was a pretty big leap for Apple, 0:18:01.640 --> 0:18:04.280 and they're now taking aim at a market beyond just 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:08.920 the Apple die hard enthusiasts, you know. Uh. So let's 0:18:08.960 --> 0:18:11.800 talk about the third generation, which comes out in April 0:18:12.200 --> 0:18:15.960 of two thousand three. Yes, a in fact, and then 0:18:16.040 --> 0:18:20.280 this one came out in a series of sizes. They're 0:18:20.280 --> 0:18:24.479 released ten, fifty, thirty and forty gigabyte versions of this 0:18:25.000 --> 0:18:29.119 third generation iPod UM. The scroll wheel no longer had 0:18:29.160 --> 0:18:32.440 the buttons surrounding it. In fact, it had a series 0:18:32.440 --> 0:18:35.920 of buttons above the scroll wheel. But it's still black 0:18:35.960 --> 0:18:40.040 and white, right, and it fully supported Windows. Uh. It 0:18:40.160 --> 0:18:43.280 used iTunes four point one or early on you can 0:18:43.320 --> 0:18:46.560 still use music Match Jukebox, but quickly it became iTunes 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:50.320 uh specific, and that was the only management software you 0:18:50.320 --> 0:18:54.399 could use to to well legally used I guess you 0:18:54.400 --> 0:18:58.680 could say or sanctionally used on your iPod. Sanctionally Yeah, 0:18:58.720 --> 0:19:00.960 it's not a real word, that's a uh so it 0:19:01.040 --> 0:19:04.280 Also they switched they changed up the battery used to 0:19:04.320 --> 0:19:06.960 be a lithium polymer battery in the first two generations, 0:19:06.960 --> 0:19:09.879 but they switched to lithium ion, which sadly meant that 0:19:09.960 --> 0:19:13.240 the playtime actually decreased from the second generation to the 0:19:13.240 --> 0:19:16.240 third generation. That went from ten hours to eight hours playtime. 0:19:17.600 --> 0:19:20.959 But now it was a fully support Windows so you 0:19:21.000 --> 0:19:23.639 didn't have to worry about this kind of namby pamby support. 0:19:23.720 --> 0:19:27.840 And also it had a USB sinking capability, which you 0:19:27.880 --> 0:19:29.879 know that was the next big step was that that 0:19:30.200 --> 0:19:33.600 still supported FireWire, but you could also use the USB 0:19:33.800 --> 0:19:37.320 to to sink it. Now. Also, if you just throw 0:19:37.320 --> 0:19:40.880 it in water by itself, right, don't do that, they 0:19:40.880 --> 0:19:43.440 don't support it if you if you get your iPod wet, 0:19:43.480 --> 0:19:45.800 you will not get it fixed. Do not throw your 0:19:45.800 --> 0:19:48.880 iPod in water. So right around this time in two 0:19:48.920 --> 0:19:51.399 thousand three, there was something else that was starting. It 0:19:51.480 --> 0:19:54.280 was a kind of a revolution in uh in in 0:19:54.960 --> 0:19:58.800 getting information out into the wild. Um. It was this 0:19:58.880 --> 0:20:02.800 thing that was called eventually it was called pod casting, 0:20:04.240 --> 0:20:06.399 so yeah, it's what we're doing right now. But right 0:20:06.440 --> 0:20:10.040 around the two thousand three was when Christopher lydon h 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:14.360 began to to podcast, although at the time it wasn't 0:20:14.440 --> 0:20:17.879 called that. It was kind of called audio blogging or 0:20:18.400 --> 0:20:20.119 you know, they had a lot of different words for it. 0:20:20.400 --> 0:20:23.080 Somebody talking into a mic and then you download it 0:20:23.119 --> 0:20:25.480 and stick it on your m P three player. Ring. Yeah. 0:20:25.520 --> 0:20:28.120 The earliest mention of the word podcasting that I could 0:20:28.119 --> 0:20:31.920 find came from an article in The Guardian called Audible Revolution, 0:20:31.960 --> 0:20:35.040 written by Ben Hammersley, and it was just in what 0:20:35.080 --> 0:20:38.159 do we call this podcasting? I had always heard it 0:20:38.160 --> 0:20:41.879 attributed to Adam Curry. It would not surprise me. But 0:20:42.160 --> 0:20:45.159 that doesn't mean it, you know, that's true. That's always 0:20:45.160 --> 0:20:47.080 what I had heard. It could very well be true. 0:20:47.240 --> 0:20:52.440 So at any rate, that also helps propel the iPod 0:20:52.800 --> 0:20:56.200 and MP three players in general to even greater prominence 0:20:56.240 --> 0:20:58.520 because now now people are starting to use it for 0:20:58.600 --> 0:21:01.920 things beyond just managing music it. Uh So in two 0:21:01.960 --> 0:21:06.240 thousand four we get a new product in the iPod line, Yes, 0:21:06.560 --> 0:21:10.480 the iPod Mini. Yes, that's true and uh and in 0:21:10.560 --> 0:21:16.280 keeping with the uh still popular iMac series of computers 0:21:16.600 --> 0:21:19.600 at that point, which we're coming in a different, uh 0:21:19.800 --> 0:21:22.360 line of color, the whole range of colors. They did 0:21:22.359 --> 0:21:25.399 that with the iPod Mini as well, right, because early 0:21:25.480 --> 0:21:28.720 the early iPods were only arriving in white. That was 0:21:28.760 --> 0:21:31.640 the only color that they came in, So the iPod 0:21:31.640 --> 0:21:33.480 Mini gave a little bit of a splash of color. 0:21:33.840 --> 0:21:37.479 They were of course smaller than the other iPods. That 0:21:37.560 --> 0:21:40.120 was also in the air storage capacity. They could only 0:21:40.160 --> 0:21:43.000 hold up to four gigabytes of music. That's still, granted, 0:21:43.240 --> 0:21:46.080 more than any of the flash based players that were 0:21:46.200 --> 0:21:49.040 around at that time, although by this time there were 0:21:49.080 --> 0:21:52.760 other players on the market that also used many hard drives, 0:21:53.160 --> 0:21:55.400 um you know, like Creative had come out with a few, 0:21:55.560 --> 0:21:58.720 and there were others as well. Yeah, I think it's 0:21:58.720 --> 0:22:02.440 I think it's uh worth noting that at this point 0:22:02.480 --> 0:22:06.359 the iPod was competitive but not dominant in the market. 0:22:06.640 --> 0:22:09.560 I mean, the machines were held far more music, but 0:22:09.560 --> 0:22:12.240 they were so expensive. I mean that's you know, at 0:22:12.240 --> 0:22:14.640 this point in two thousand four, when the iPod Mini 0:22:14.800 --> 0:22:17.280 was released, I started thinking about the possibility that maybe 0:22:17.359 --> 0:22:19.160 at some point I would actually go out and buy 0:22:19.160 --> 0:22:22.080 one of these things. But they were so darned expensive. Um. 0:22:22.119 --> 0:22:25.440 And I actually had a Sonic Blue Uh. They were 0:22:25.600 --> 0:22:28.520 the company that had acquired the Rio. Uh. I had 0:22:28.520 --> 0:22:34.200 a real volt Do you remember those? I remember seeing them. Yes, 0:22:34.320 --> 0:22:38.960 they they were CD players, UM, so you could play 0:22:39.040 --> 0:22:41.639 regular CDs on them. But they were MP three players too. 0:22:41.760 --> 0:22:45.359 They could record a a a disc with MP three's 0:22:45.359 --> 0:22:48.000 on them if you were uh encoded in the Windows 0:22:48.000 --> 0:22:50.520 format if you don't think it would read Mac discs 0:22:50.520 --> 0:22:53.600 if I remember correctly, I no longer have it. But um, 0:22:53.680 --> 0:22:57.160 you could you know store. It was sort of iPod 0:22:57.240 --> 0:22:59.840 like for me because you could store you know, however, 0:23:00.000 --> 0:23:02.280 any CD songs you could fit on a single CD. 0:23:02.440 --> 0:23:05.199 You know, seven hundred megabytes worth of music. That was 0:23:05.240 --> 0:23:09.160 far more than you know, the little pocket flash players. Sure, yeah, 0:23:09.359 --> 0:23:11.080 but it wasn't as much as like a you know, 0:23:11.359 --> 0:23:13.640 forty gigabyte. You still needed a disk to be able 0:23:13.680 --> 0:23:18.040 to play stuff. I mean, but but yeah, storing stuff 0:23:18.040 --> 0:23:20.879