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A Prototype Original iPod

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Re: A Prototype Original iPod

#91

Post by xxpor »

reaperducer wrote: post #71
MBCook wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It became so popular, especially after it was officially available on Windows in 2003. And it remained THE thing until the iPhone really exploded when unleashed from AT&T around 2011. It’s heyday was only about 8 years but it had such a MASSIVE effect on the technology and music industries. Has any other product been so important but only been around for a relatively short amount of time?

the iPhone really exploded when unleashed from AT&T around 2011. Cingular.

Cingular was renamed to AT&T in 2006.

Re: A Prototype Original iPod

#92

Post by thought_alarm »

em500 wrote: post #79
macNchz wrote: post #17

Hard to believe it has been 20 years. When talking about the impact of the original iPod on the last two decades of Apple's extraordinary success, I like to jump back to this forum thread from October 23rd 2001 (it is always easy to find because it is thread number 500!) and see the reactions from the time: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apples-new-thing-ipod.5...

During the heydays of the iPod craze, around 2005-2008, I was convinced that product line would be short lived. It was apparent that music playing was a trivial application of mobile phones, which were already becoming ubiquitous. In those days, Nokia was a far bigger cultural phenomenon outside of North America (where Nokia never gained much of a foothold). And it was truly global, not just European: even tiny villa…

Anyone with a moderately sized music collection depended entirely on iTunes to manage their library, and were hence locked in to the iPod/iTunes eco-system. There was no reasonable alternative.

Manually copying mp3 files to a Nokia or Blackberry just didn't come close to cutting it, and any attempts by those companies to compete with iTunes on the desktop ended in miserable failure due to piss-poor software quality.

Re: A Prototype Original iPod

#93

Post by happytoexplain »

ubermonkey wrote: post #88
happytoexplain wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment (especially the colloquial use of the word "literally" as emphasis) implies that I didn't address the existence of that photo, but I did when I said "scroll down to see photos that actually demonstrate its size". Your comment and subsequent lack of clarification ("Yes.") is confusing and has the appearance of rudeness, but I can't guess why you would want to use that tone (if it's on purpose).

K.

Always try to either engage or not engage, rather than falling for the temptation of trolling.

Re: A Prototype Original iPod

#94

Post by dylan604 »

handrous wrote: post #58
dylan604 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The one thing I had always wanted my ipod to do was stream, so I def agree with the lack of wireless being lame. Just because the greater majority of users felt it was okay and made it the most popular music device doesn't mean it wasn't lame to not have it.

Wifi's still pretty bad, but it was really bad then. Especially on consumer wifi routers, but most business set-ups sucked then, too. Dropped packets galore, signal-loss hiccups, and not enough bandwidth to make up for that by transferring large buffers really fast. Terrible for streaming. Probably way more battery-draining then than now, as well, since that kind of hardware has generally gotten a lot more efficient.…

As soon as I got an iPhone, I remember pointing Safari at an M3U link and was so happy to have streaming on a hand held device. It took many years, but it was finally doable. I was pleasantly surprised when the stream continued flowing even once the screen locked. That was still years before music apps became a thing, but I was snug as a bug listening to my website streams on mobile.

Re: A Prototype Original iPod

#95

Post by gbrown »

thought_alarm wrote: post #92
em500 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

During the heydays of the iPod craze, around 2005-2008, I was convinced that product line would be short lived. It was apparent that music playing was a trivial application of mobile phones, which were already becoming ubiquitous. In those days, Nokia was a far bigger cultural phenomenon outside of North America (where Nokia never gained much of a foothold). And it was truly global, not just European: even tiny villa…

Anyone with a moderately sized music collection depended entirely on iTunes to manage their library, and were hence locked in to the iPod/iTunes eco-system. There was no reasonable alternative. Manually copying mp3 files to a Nokia or Blackberry just didn't come close to cutting it, and any attempts by those companies to compete with iTunes on the desktop ended in miserable failure due to piss-poor software quality.

And then, of course, iTunes got steadily and uniformly worse for years.

Re: A Prototype Original iPod

#96

Post by crate_barre »

moron4hire wrote: post #89
crate_barre wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a manner of speaking, don’t get so woke on me now. Many people can’t figure out tech. Here comes another cliche, have you ever been the IT guy for everyone around you? Why was that? We really didn’t take User Experience seriously until about the iPhone/Apps age. That’s when people didn’t need handholding, the apps were designed well.

At best, this is ignorance. At worst, it's willful revisionism. It was the iPhone apps that drove setting HCI back almost 2 decades. Hiding functionality behind skeumorphisms, coupling file access to apps, tiny screens, reinventing the accessibility wheel. Both Apple and Microsoft had very well-regarded UI design guidelines that, if followed, made apps that afforded the same metaphors as all the other apps on the sys…

Explain all that to my mother.

Re: A Prototype Original iPod

#97

Post by hunterb123 »

xxpor wrote: post #91
reaperducer wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the iPhone really exploded when unleashed from AT&T around 2011. Cingular.

Cingular was renamed to AT&T in 2006.

Bit more complicated than that:

https://www.att.com/Common/merger/files/pdf/Cingular_timelin...

Re: A Prototype Original iPod

#98

Post by warning26 »

xxpor wrote: post #91
reaperducer wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the iPhone really exploded when unleashed from AT&T around 2011. Cingular.

Cingular was renamed to AT&T in 2006.

Exactly -- during the iPhone unveiling all the demo screenshots showed "Cingular", but by the time it had been released, Cingular had been rebranded to AT&T.

Re: A Prototype Original iPod

#99

Post by warning26 »

moron4hire wrote: post #89
crate_barre wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a manner of speaking, don’t get so woke on me now. Many people can’t figure out tech. Here comes another cliche, have you ever been the IT guy for everyone around you? Why was that? We really didn’t take User Experience seriously until about the iPhone/Apps age. That’s when people didn’t need handholding, the apps were designed well.

At best, this is ignorance. At worst, it's willful revisionism. It was the iPhone apps that drove setting HCI back almost 2 decades. Hiding functionality behind skeumorphisms, coupling file access to apps, tiny screens, reinventing the accessibility wheel. Both Apple and Microsoft had very well-regarded UI design guidelines that, if followed, made apps that afforded the same metaphors as all the other apps on the sys…

Ah yes, because as we know Windows CE was the pinnacle of mobile UI design.

Re: A Prototype Original iPod

#100

Post by InitialLastName »

mywittyname wrote: post #82
macNchz wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Replying to myself as I reread the thread: I found a comment a few pages in about Apple's stock being down $1 on the day. So what if you'd skipped the iPod and just bought $399 worth of AAPL? According to this site which seems to use real data, it'd be worth... $211k today. http://stockchoker.com/?s=AAPL&d=20011023&a=399

I always find it fun to think about what the biggest companies in the world will be in 10, 20, 30 years. There's a good chance that some haven't actually been founded yet, but I'm sure others are household names even now. FWIW, I think media will displace tech on the top spot and Disney will lead the pack in 2040. It's also fun to do with future presidents.

Presidents are tricky because (recent circumstances excluded) US voters don't tend to reward people who have been in the public eye for a long time with the presidency. Looking at recent presidents, almost none were in nationally visible political offices 20+ years before their elections (though a number were famous outside of politics). The 20th/21st century presidents, and their situation 20 years before election (it would have taken a hell of an eye even identify any but Biden, Trump and Reagan):

- Biden (2000): 27th year in the US Senate

- Trump (1996): Tabloid-famous real estate developer

- Obama (1988): First year at Harvard Law School

- W. Bush (1980): Oil executive son of the VP-elect

- Clinton (1972): Arkansas Attorney General-elect

- H.W. Bush (1968): 1st-year US House Rep

- Reagan (1960): President of the Screen Actors Guild, movie star

- Carter (1956): Farmer, son of a briefly seated US House Rep

- Ford (never elected, 1954): 5th-year US House Rep

- Nixon (1948): 2-year US House Rep

- Johnson (as elected VP, 1940): 3-year US House Rep

- Kennedy (1941): US Navy Officer, son of Ambassador to the U.K.

- Eisenhower (1932): Executive officer to the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Army

- Truman (1924): Former county court judge

- F.D. Roosevelt (1913): former 3-year senator, Assistant secretary of the Navy, Ex-president's cousin

- Hoover (1909): Successful mining engineer

- Coolidge (1900): City Solicitor of Northampton MA

- Harding (1900): 1st-year Ohio State Senator

- Wilson (1892): Head of the Princeton Political Science department

- Taft (1888): Judge in the Superior Court of Cincinnati, son of an ex-cabinet secretary

- T. Roosevelt (1880): New college grad, heir to a family fortune.

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