For a nice review of the iPod’s history, how far the little music player has come, where it stands today, and how it’s poised for more, read Steven Levy’s article, “iPod Nation,” now online for Newsweek.
“Steve Jobs noticed something earlier this year in New York City. ‘I was on Madison,’ says Apple’s CEO, ‘and it was, like, on every block, there was someone with white headphones, and I thought, ‘Oh, my God, it’s starting to happen,”” Steven Levy reports for Newsweek. “The sudden ubiquity of the iPod, the cigarette-box-size digital music player (and its colorful credit-card-size little sister, the Mini) [has] smacked right into the sweet spot where a consumer product becomes something much, much more: an icon, a pet, a status indicator and an indispensable part of one’s life.”
An interesting note: “VP Phil Schiller came up with the idea of a scroll wheel that made the menus accelerate as your finger spun on it.” (Perhaps we’ve all underestimated Phil a little bit?)
“Assessing the final product, Jobs bestows, for him, the ultimate accolade: ‘It’s as Apple as anything Apple has ever done,'” Levy reports.
Much more here.
they really nead to make it much cheaper and with larger Harddisk space so it can be used for not just a music player but also for PC backup. Sizes such as 80 GB or even 100 GB. minimum 60 GB.
Other than that, everythin’s 150% great.
As for competition players, they haven’t a clue what to do.
iPod Rocks
Valis,
Are there people who frequent the Windoze web sites and bore you with a littany of why they won’t buy MS products?
Get a life, dude. Nobody cares that you’ve chosen to keep your music in WMA files.
Valis,
Appreciate the feedback. However, Apple does provide WMA conversion in iTunes, which works on both Macs and PCs, unlike most of the other “jukeboxes’. iPods do play MP3s. And iTunes Music Store works on both Macs and PCs, unlike almost all of the other (WMA or ATRAC) music stores, many of which won’t even let Macs browse theif sites and catalogs. By the way, iTunes is free. You can download it from Apple’s site or get it on a CD at an Apple store.
So even though Macs are only 2 to 10% of users (outside of business use), there are 25 million Mac users around. And most of the WMA stores refuse to support them. So whose being proprietary and not open?
One last point: iPods are generally acknowledged as being much easier to use (change songs or playlists. download songs, etc) than any other player. And most think its the best-looking. iTMS is generally acknowledged as being the best organized, easiest to use music store. So your refusal to use either because of WMA support on the iPod is truly your loss.