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Raising the Genius Bar: 7 Years of iPod Evolution

wired.com — It has been seven years since Steve Jobs announced the first "perfect thing" in the fall of 2001. Since then, very few products have come to exact total domination in their respected fields like the iPod has. And really, no other gadget in recent memory (save for maybe the iPhone) has exploded onto the cultural cache with the same impact.

Who dugg this? Made popular Oct 24, 2008

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  • silver26, on 10/23/2008, -3/+46That was a pretty poor attempt at showing the iPods history.
  • 2rri, on 10/23/2008, -0/+30Am I the only one finding this list completely inaccurate? What about the 5. generation iPod which is the base design for the iPod Classic (which is missing as well). The 2. gen nano? The 3. gen nano? The 2. gen shuffle?

    I was thinking about not posting here, since it is really not worth my 30 seconds of writing, but to all diggers who might stumble upon this story: Be warned!
  • Lloydinator, on 10/23/2008, -4/+31Uh... Buried because the list is not on one page.
  • inactive, on 10/24/2008, -1/+20iPods can play MP3s.
  • GregFD3S, on 10/24/2008, -0/+18dsa205 has never owned an iPod.
  • sruffelman, on 10/24/2008, -0/+14Dugg for the iPod prototype image. Missing a lot of information, though.
  • Racer20, on 10/24/2008, -0/+14WTF??? Last time I checked, all three of the iPod's I've owned will play mp3's, since 99% of my music is in that format. iTunes will allow you to rip in either format also.

    I think your problem is a sub-par OPERATOR.
  • hawksfan03, on 10/24/2008, -0/+12that was a very poor article. Missing nearly half the iPods that have been introduced.
  • navvvv, on 10/24/2008, -0/+11the dawn of time.
  • MichaelGBoyd, on 10/24/2008, -1/+10ipod always played mp3. The design is sexy. The functionality is great. the interface is easy and fun. I'd say it's a great product.

    And who wants an AM/FM radio on their mp3 player? I don't.
  • MacParrot, on 10/24/2008, -0/+9Intelligence and social skills aren't exactly your forte is it?
  • inactive, on 10/24/2008, -1/+10Buried.
  • kufu91, on 10/24/2008, -0/+7have you listened to the radio recently?
  • SickofSects, on 10/24/2008, -0/+7Priceless

    CrudOMatic: Ipods cant play mp3s. Appletards piss me off with their lack of knowledge.
    15 mins later: Oops, they can. For 7 years now. But, Appletards piss me off with their lack of knowledge.

    CrudOMatic, you are like that fat woman in that video on digg who can't imagine a president named Obama and answered everything with "the lord will take care of us". Ignorant, and proud of it!
  • RobotBuddha, on 10/24/2008, -0/+7They can play mp3s, not to mention that it's pretty trivial to get past the itunes copy protection. I'd want to burn it to a cd as backup anyway. That said, I usually just buy from amazon as a vote against DRM. Plays fine on an ipod.
  • suprememilo, on 10/24/2008, -0/+6the 3rd gen had the best button layout and the 1st gen shuffle is my favorite.
  • MacParrot, on 10/24/2008, -0/+6I could take the time to refute just about everything you said, but that would actually mean I would have to take valuable time arguing with an idiot. meh, guess I'll just digg down your stupid comments instead.
  • luigi1015, on 10/24/2008, -0/+6I've dropped my iPod many times and it's still working like a charm.
  • navvvv, on 10/24/2008, -0/+5So the iPod puts the mp3 in a location so that it can play it...

    *****, I hope the Zune doesn't do that, I want my mp3's on my desktop computer where they belong.
  • luigi1015, on 10/24/2008, -0/+5It doesn't alter the mp3's structure at all. The mp3 on your iPod is the same as the original.
  • theaverageidiot, on 10/24/2008, -1/+5Not only was it multiple pages, it didn't even cover nearly as many iPods as it should have. Where is the iPod Video? The iPod Classic? Both very important to the history of the iPod.
  • luigi1015, on 10/24/2008, -0/+4@CrudOMatic
    Excerpt:
    "iTunes will not convert your MP3s into AAC (Advanced Audio Codec) files, but it will create a new file structure for your MP3s in a new folder, with all your songs organized. There is a folder for each artist, and within the artist's folder is a folder for each album, which contains the actual song files."

    You realize that's just saying it's moving the files into folders organized by artist and album right? The mp3 isn't changed, it's just in a new folder.
  • LoganT, on 10/24/2008, -0/+4Please tell me you're joking and you're not actually that stupid.
  • inactive, on 10/24/2008, -2/+5Zune = FAIL
  • SteveMax, on 10/24/2008, -0/+3@dsa205
    No, it doesn't. The files on my iPod are all mp3s with weird names, so unless you mean "it reads the MP3s from its disk, converts them to AAC and then decodes to the audio output" (which is really nonsense) you are plain wrong.
  • stark2051, on 10/24/2008, -0/+3agreed. How hard is it to embed a slide show?
  • kihadat, on 10/24/2008, -0/+3I get it. you're anti-ipod. cool. but get the facts straight - it plays mp3s and doesn't do anything to them like add drm. it DOES hide them from you so that you have to use software to get them off and you can't just drag and drop - you have to use itunes.
  • luigi1015, on 10/24/2008, -0/+3Plus the AAC->CD->mp3 process isn't good for audio quality. Another reason to go DRM-free from the get-go.
  • telepheedian, on 10/24/2008, -0/+3CrudOMatic, your tech knowledge sounds like it's just about as good as the average iPod user, and it makes me wonder how you managed to find the Zune in the first place.
  • mrBitch, on 10/24/2008, -0/+3@SickofSects
    RE: " Priceless

    CrudOMatic: Ipods cant play mp3s. Appletards piss me off with their lack of knowledge.

    15 mins later: CrudOMatic: Oops, they can. For 7 years now. But, Appletards piss me off with their lack of knowledge. "

    Ok, now THAT is funny.

    CrudOMatic, you still don't get what SickofSects pointed out? Really?

    I'll try and keep it simple so that you can follow this :

    1. CrudOMatic states : " Ipods cant play mp3s. Appletards piss me off with their lack of knowledge. "

    2. CrudOMatic then states : " Oops, they can. For 7 years now. But, Appletards piss me off with their lack of knowledge. "

    Do you understand why your posts make it so obvious that you are an idiot?

    If not, then please stay off the roads when I am driving.
  • Maxamegalon2000, on 10/24/2008, -3/+5The one thing you get right: Microsoft = tougher.
  • Racer20, on 10/25/2008, -0/+2@CrudOMatic (fitting username)
    Excerpt:
    "iTunes will not convert your MP3s into AAC (Advanced Audio Codec) files, but it will create a new file structure for your MP3s in a new folder, with all your songs organized. There is a folder for each artist, and within the artist's folder is a folder for each album, which contains the actual song files."

    Once again, you've either never even used iPod/iTunes, or you did and you were too illiterate to figure it out. What you just described is an OPTION in the preferences menu. All you have to do is uncheck the box and you can set up and organize your folders however you want.

    Keep 'em coming . . .


  • Electricpigdigg, on 10/24/2008, -0/+2The iPods have come a long way! Surprised nobody's mentioned "Snoop Jobby Jobs"
  • shmittay84, on 10/24/2008, -0/+2Just so we're clear, I dugg you for the 3rd Gen. Not the shuffle.
  • pr0t0, on 10/24/2008, -2/+4"very few products have come to exact total domination in their respected fields like the iPod has"

    I'm sure I could think of quite a few examples. But one relevant one that comes to mind is the Sony Walkman cassette player in the 80's.
  • Racer20, on 10/25/2008, -0/+2They said "very few." Name some more . . .
  • liljay2k, on 10/24/2008, -0/+2Sometimes the iPod frustrates me, I have the 80gb Classic 5G. I wish I could delete a song right from this thing. I also wish it had more buttons, sometimes I want to continue to play the same artist or same album when I have it in the shuffle mode.
  • stark2051, on 10/24/2008, -0/+2and you would still comment about it
  • petewhite, on 10/24/2008, -0/+1www.ipodhistory.com is a better source for this sort of thing
  • Shadoblak, on 10/24/2008, -1/+2correction. dsa205 has never owned a Dell DJ....
  • mrBitch, on 10/24/2008, -0/+1Zing!
  • GregFD3S, on 10/24/2008, -11/+12U2 sucks.
  • kihadat, on 10/24/2008, -0/+1who the ***** uses portable cd players anymore? and don't you mean sony's domination of the cassette tape market with the original walkman?
  • mouthymadness, on 10/24/2008, -0/+1Boy the way he looks to me he would be called Johann Sebastian Jobs.
  • mouthymadness, on 10/24/2008, -0/+1But you have to admit, the color combo for the U2 iPod was kick ass.
  • Racer20, on 10/25/2008, -0/+1I'll give you the original walkman (30 years ago, not really relavant to anything here). But the portable CD player? Big deal. It was a natural evolution of both the walkman and the home CD player. Sony had a majority market share has nothing to do with being ground breaking or revolutionary. For the most part, one CD player was the same as any other. There was no software, no significant user interface, no integration with your PC/Mac/TV/Internet, no new or unique business model.
  • Twee, on 10/24/2008, -0/+1The iPod Photo is on the list.
  • XxtraLarGe, on 10/24/2008, -0/+1Another thing it screwed up was the "Don't eat iPod Nano" caption. That was for the stick version (which they compared to a pack of gum), not the clip on version.
  • mouthymadness, on 10/24/2008, -0/+1At least it doesn't take as long to open as it does on Windows. I think Apple made it slow to start up to piss you off and consider a mac :-).

    But yes I have to agree with you. I think iTunes 5 was the best one.

    Anyone remember when it was called the iTunes Music Store, or ITMS for short?
  • luigi1015, on 10/24/2008, -0/+1@dsa
    You need to check your settings, iTunes only converts the files to aac if its set to.
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