thoughts on the ipod

Five years ago today Apple introduced the iPod. Quite a bit of bandwidth is being used to talk about that, but I'll offer a slightly different perspective as someone who had been involved in the area long before Apple and also as a user.

We had built a few internal players - simple things to show the concept of MPEG-2 AAC on a small device as well as a few home network machines. The research perspective was to worry about interface and user experience and learn from early users. The other focus was working props to make points to executives.

We had been working with Apple to sell them on the idea of AAC as a music codec - mostly the Quicktime group. There was real interest and even more when Apple introduced the iTunes player (which was a repackaging of SoundJam - Apple bought the program and the developer). I was disappointed when the original iPod only supported mp3, but that eventually changed.

It turned out the industry focus in the industry was on the control aspects of SDMI - something those of us in the trenches thought foolish, but it was supported by about 200 companies (essentially everyone but Apple). Apple did work out a "workable" drm scheme, but that came much later - everyone else saw it as a necessary starting point. Is is impossible to stress enough how screwed up the industry was at the time, but that is a different story.

Prior to the iPod many people realized a hard drive player was possible, but most people were focusing on expensive 300 MB and 1GB microdrives. No one had solved the interface problem. A dozen players were on the market and all of them were awful. None were selling well. Most companies felt that jukeboxes in the sky connected to home stereos and satellite radio were the future.

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The iPod was astonishing to anyone who had built a portable audio device to that point. The scroll wheel was the obvious solution and the navigation, although not perfect, had been rendered simple. The new 1.8" five GB hard disks were perfectly suited to the task and Apple had made the process of transferring mp3s workable (auto transfer over a fast firewire connection).

I had to have one.

I showed up at the Apple Store (an 80 mile drive) early and they opened their doors well before the published time. I was the first person to buy one at that store.

I still have it. The mechanical scroll wheel is a thing of beauty and is much better than the touch wheels. The battery died a few years ago, but $40 and 10 minutes fixed that.

It has added quality to my life. I walk quite a bit and much of the walk is through an uninteresting region where any sort of diversion is good. The iPod gives me that. At first it was music, but increasingly I've been time shifting radio and podcasts to my walk and freeing up TV and radio time at home for other pursuits.

The iPod has replaced the radio/CD player in the car using a wire from the iPod to the car stereo and the iTunes library spread across our three Macs has replaced the CD pile. Much of the music has been digitized and we simply stream it to one of the home stereos (you can select which stereo you want) using AirPort Express.

All of this mostly just works and represents a significant improvement in how we consume music and the spoken word. By making regular exercise easy, it has positively impacted my health and quality of life.

So what would I like to see...? I'm not particularly interested in a video iPod. What I want is a retro iPod with "modern" functionality and a beautiful mechanical scroll wheel.

Comments

[bbum]

I have one of the original 5GB units, too -- Apple actually shipped 'em a few days early to folks in the developer program that pre-ordered. It still works. First battery, too.

I, too, love the scroll wheel and vastly prefer it to the touch wheel. Incredibly smooth operation and such a sensual bit of HCI. I totally understand why the touch wheel is superior from a support, manufacturing, and -- ultimately -- surrounding ID (thickness, for one).

But a retro-pod w/a physical scroll wheel would be very cool.

Couldn't play the current crop of games -- some of 'em, anyway -- though as the touch wheels can identify finger position.

[Steve Cisler]

A Canadian working in France asked me to buy a 10 Gb model and take to him, so I plunked down my money at a local Apple store, went home to make sure it worked, and I put a couple of songs on it after charging the battery, listened to it, and then packe it up in my luggage and flew out the next day. Upon arrival it was DOA. Nothing, and of course the manual was of little help. I did not want to take it back home, try to get money back, and get him another (even if it could have been delivered), and my friend knew this. He stayed up all night, futzing with it and finally got it to work. I think he still uses it years later.

After that experience I had not interest in owning one myself (even as an ex Apple worker), and just a few weeks ago Frys had one of their many sales of all kinds of off brands. I got a 2 Gb Hip Street for $60 after rebate. It has a decent voice recorder, serves as a flash drive, and records FM if the signal is strong. It uses AAA and I'll be taking it to Armenia next month, as well as serving as mule for yet another ipod bound for Armenia. A friend asked me to bring another...