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A Decade of Apple Oddities
harrymcc writes "It's been exactly ten years since Steve Jobs stood on a stage at Apple and explained to a surprisingly small group of journalists that his company was going to make a music player and call it iPod. Technologizer's Benj Edwards celebrated the iPod's first decade by rounding up a dozen iPod-related oddities, including the iPod-powered tooth cleaner, an iPod mount for a semi-automatic sniper system, and the classic 1958 Dieter Rams Braun FM radio that may have helped inspire it all."
Now You Can iPod While You iPod!
Why has there been so much Apple crap here on Slashdot lately? I'm not saying that there shouldn't be a story when Apple does something of a technical nature that's notable, but most of these stories are totally irrelevant and very boring.
There's nothing special about iPods. They're a digital music player, just like every other digital music player out there. People have modded them for many years now, and many of these same "hacks" were done using portable CD and tape players well before then. None of this is remotely interesting, even to those of us who enjoy such hacks.
Can we please have some interesting content here for once? Something not having to do with Apple or American politics, perhaps? Maybe something involving science or math in some way, or maybe even engineering?
I understand that being in the eyeball-grabbing game, a site must post an avalanche of apple related stories especially around new or upcoming marketing drives, so I'll just state that I wish it wasn't so, that the site wasn't in the eyeball-grabbing game, but in the game of building a quality community. And I'll just leave a friendly reminder:
Take heed! Apple is evil. They are out to lock you in and to destroy your freedom.
Some of my favourite people are from th US; Vonnegut, Chomsky, Bill Hicks.
For myself, I could do without a constant stream of articles listing things he may or mat not have designed personally. If Apple release something new and interesting then by all means post it, but I think everyone here knows what an iPod is.
If God forks the Universe every time you roll a die, he'd better have a damned good memory.
No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame.
That quote will go down in infamy as one of the most lamebrained and utterly wrong in history.
This is worse than realizing that the matrix came out in 1999.
I just cannot imagine the amount of garbage which that iPod docking connector has caused.
And every time I walk into an electronics store, I'm thinking: what a waste.
If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
Yeah slashdot! Stop beating a dead horse.
It's been exactly ten years since Steve Jobs stood on a stage at Apple and explained to a surprisingly small group of journalists that his company was going to make a music player and call it iPod.
In 'B' school (yeah yeah, heard it all before) we had a Harvard test case about the PC industry which included Apple Computer, Inc. To make a long and boring story short, the test case basically left Apple for dead saying it had no chance competing in the PC industry because of the slim margins (they all do), small market share, etc ....I mentioned that Apple has other things going on and they'll keep kicking. The prof kicked in "as a computer maker, No.They should liquidate" But before I could finish my point - pointing out the iPod and the change in direction of the company - some fangirl kicked in about the wonders of Macs and blah blah blah blah ....
I was trying to make a point that Apple was no longer a PC Computer maker and they were a personal device maker. And Apple Computer eventually changed their name to Apple, Inc.to reflect that change in direction.;
I learned two things in my MBA cap class: I just wasted 2+ years on a shit degree. Apple fans can be such conformists.
Its starting to look a lot like engadget, sad , the article on the "quantum levitation" killed me.
There's nothing special about iPods. They're a digital music player, just like every other digital music player out there
That's like saying a Ferrari is nothing special. It's a car just like every other car out there.
Fact is that there are differences and the differences matter greatly. The differences in Apple's products and competing products may not matter to you or me but they do matter. If you don't grasp this then you will never understand why Apple sells so many of them.
Seriously 13 slides and zero good content even on the first page. I'm not clicking through that shit.
Actually, that's pretty common, especially for individuals who are that rich. It's tough to buy investments with that amount of money without having to deal with serious SEC red tape. It wouldn't surprise me if a 3rd party was doing most of the investing for him.
That being said, if he owns Apple stock and is hyping it, he could be in hot water about promoting it which is why I rather doubt that he knowingly owns any shares.
You're right, in 2001, the iPod was extremely expensive, ugly and wouldn't work with anything other than a Mac
Ugly is a matter of opinion and taste and based on sales and design awards I'd say your opinion is in the minority on that one but if you think it is ugly that's up to you. The original iPod was pricier than some (though not all) of the competition but it also worked better than most of the competition. Apple seems to have been the first to realize that it wasn't just the device but also the software to manage the music collection as well that mattered. They provided the most complete product, not just a cheap player and crappy, poorly compatible software written by someone else.
It shouldn't really be shocking that Apple started iTunes as a Mac only product since, duh, those are the computers Apple makes and sells. Furthermore USB 2.0 had only just been released and USB 1.0 wasn't fast enough for efficient transfers. Only Firewire was and few PCs at that time had Firewire available whereas every Mac did. I shudder at the thought of trying to sync my music collection over a USB 1.0 cable. Eventually they moved on to selling it to the Windows crowd too once they ported iTunes and USB 2.0 became ubiquitous.
And as for the iPhone, it wasn't going up against Windows phones, it was going up against RIM's Blackberry, who knows what would have happened had RIM not been criminally incompetent.
When the iPhone was first released Windows Mobile was among the market leaders. Nokia sold far and away the largest number of "smartphones" and RIM was the market leader among the business crowd as you mention at least in North America. Few people thought the iPhone would make much of a dent but the iPhone managed to redefine what we expect from a smartphone and pretty much every phone maker out there including Microsoft, RIM, Google and Nokia have blatantly copied from the iPhone.
To say that they're a digital music player is backwards: the rest of the world would say digital music players are bad ipods
I owned a Diamond Rio & Creative Nomad, 2 years before the iPod was ever sold. I enjoyed them more than the first iPod, and I still would take the music management software that I had to use for them over any version of iTunes.
I say this as a iPhone owner. I don't hate Apple, but I hate the incorrect praise they get for inventing things they did not invent.
Grammer Nazis - I mod you "troll" unless you actually add something on-topic. Yes, I know I have mispellings in my sig.
TL/DS (too long, didn't slideshow).
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
I wonder when all these Apple stories "remembering the good ol' days" will finally stop getting flooded into every major news site.
I say this as a iPhone owner. I don't hate Apple, but I hate the incorrect praise they get for inventing things they did not invent.
Nobody with a clue is saying Apple invented the digital music player. Even Apple never claimed to be first. Apple created their own because the ones that were on the market pretty much sucked and they saw an opportunity. And they were right, the competition did pretty much suck.
What Apple did bring to the party in the case of the iPod was a complete system. There were devices that were good and there was software that was acceptable but NOBODY made a good version of both and made them work together. Furthermore, prior to 2001 USB 2.0 was not widely available which meant that most other devices had to sync using very slow connections. The original iPod used Firewire which actually mattered a lot at the time because it allowed syncing of the library SO much faster. Everyone fixates on just the iPod or just iTunes but they don't consider the whole system which was the key to Apple's success. THAT was their innovation.
Well done, I think you've explained it perfectly. I owned several WinMo phones before the iPhone, and I also couldn't get what the big deal was: "Music on my phone? Been doing that for years! Besides, that stupid thing can't multi-task like my phone".
As you say, though, no one else got it until Apple did it. That is precisely what Steve Jobs & others at Apple should get credit for. Not as inventors, but as translators of technology to the masses.
Grammer Nazis - I mod you "troll" unless you actually add something on-topic. Yes, I know I have mispellings in my sig.
You're asking why there is so much news about one of the top tech companies with several of the hottest tech devices on the market? And you even got modded +5 Insightful for it? Slashdot has officially become a haven for Apple-hating idiots.
Less space than a Nomad, right? iPods changed digital music and became a staple of pop culture. They helped legitimize online music stores and innovated several interface ideas. The reason this is getting covered today is, not only did Steve Jobs recently die, but today is also the 10th anniversary of the public introduction of the iPod.
I decided to take a look at the front page and see if it really was filled with "so much Apple crap" as you anonymously (of course) claim:
Hyperion Promises An AmigaOS Netbook
NH Supreme Court To Rule On Bigfoot Video Shoot In Public Park
A Decade of Apple Oddities
Google Not Reciprocating On IFrame Usage?
Why Computer Voices Are Mostly Female
Ask Slashdot: How To Enter Private Space Industry As an Engineer?
UK Government Pushing For 'Trusted Computing'
More Interviews With World Solar Challenge Competitors
A Silicon Valley School That Doesn't Use Computers
Using Fuel Depots Instead of Giant Rockets
3D Printers To Save Hermit Crabs
Universal Uses DMCA To Get Bad Lip Reading Parody Taken Down
Jumentum Introduces a Single-Chip Linux System
Canadian Company Plans Solar-Powered Heavier-Than-Air Airships
Hobby Humanoid Robot KHR3HV Rides Bike At 10k/h
One Apple story out of 15 is some great imbalance? What the hell are you talking about?
You're the third troll to claim there is a whole bunch of Apple stories. Hello? Steve Jobs just died, it's been 10 years since the iPod, and the company has several top-selling devices on the market. I bet you never complain when there are five Google stories on the front page.
Speaking of the front page, there is only one Apple story on it--this one. Where is all the "marketing shit?"
What frosts me is that every flippin' clock radio out there that has external input ("Aux") for connecting an MP3 player or phone also has a nice big iPod dock either on the front or on the top. I don't want a useless-to-me chunk of exposed connectors on the most obvious part of my equipment, particularly when it means that they've made the display smaller and less visible so it's not blocked by the piece of Apple equipment that I would never purchase. I want a radio with decent speakers, a display that I can see from the shower on the other side of the room and either Aux input, Bluetooth or both so I can link my phone to it for music, podcasts, etc. and I'd rather not have to buy a Chumby to get it.
fencepost
just a little off
Even if all that is true, what does it tell you that virtually EVERY guy still wants one?
That virtually every guy feels inadequate.
Nobody dreams about owning a Toyota Camry precisely because
Because they're affordable enough that you don't have to dream about owning one. If it's the right car for your needs, you can probably afford to buy it.
there is absolutely nothing interesting, fast, beautiful, fun or enjoyable about it
But over 10 million people have bought a Camry. There must be something right about it.
And the Toyota Corolla is the all-time best seller with over 36 million vehicles produced.
"A Decade of Apple Oddities"
"iPod Oddities"
Besides if you bothered to watch the "How William Shatner Changed the World" thing on histroy channel a few years ago you would know the biggest inspiration for iPod was to be able to have a computer serve music on demand, just like in TNG
Design was after form ... which is something current apple has lacked
That virtually every guy feels inadequate.
Just because you feel inadequate doesn't mean everyone else does. Guy's like Ferraris because they are cool, fast and amazingly fun to drive. (Yes I have driven a Ferrari though I've never owned one)
But over 10 million people have bought a Camry. There must be something right about it.
There is. It's fairly practical and reliable and relatively cheap basic transportation. That doesn't mean people won't buy something better when they have the means or that there aren't better cars available. A BMW 3 Series is a better car than a Camry but it also is more expensive. There is a reason it is called a luxury car.
And the Toyota Corolla is the all-time best seller with over 36 million vehicles produced.
It provides good value for money. So what? It's still a boring soulless econobox that people almost never buy when they can afford something better.
A lot of basement dwelling nerds get driven around in their moms Toyota "Shopping Trolley" hatchback ... for years, mb even inheriting it.
It must leave some product imprint - like growing up with an Apple SE/30 or G3 or iMac...
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Apple is where it is because they did the visual interface work that geeks traditionally couldn't be bothered with. I'm seeing lot of anti-Apple articles, but they're based on patent actions, or problems with walled gardens, or the Apple-fans, etc. I'm not seeing many articles laughing at the actual design of iPhones. They deserved to be where they are, compared for example with Microsoft's fumbling on the non-gamer entertainment side.
Is it just me but are we riding the "maturity curve" of tech, away from fun hacking unfinished chaotic projects towards "too old to do that stuff anymore?"
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
SoundJam MP.
SoundJam MP was, perhaps, the first genuinely useful MP3 application for the Macintosh. One could easily rip CDs to MP3, mix songs as one wished in playlists, and then burn them to CD.
Rip. Mix. Burn. Where have we heard that before?
It even had support built in for the few MP3 players of the time.
Review of an early incarnation of SoundJam.
Review of the final revision.
And, the ObWiki entry .
MacLife history of iTunes .
Without SoundJam MP. there would likely have been no iTunes, as Apple bought SoundJam MP, filed off the serial numbers, slapped a coat of paint on it and called it iTunes V1.0.
Well, yeah, there still would have been AN iTunes. Apple would have just bought Audion .
So, while the iPod was indeed a seachange for the portable music player (cassette/CD/digital) of the era, without the software to support it as easily and as elegantly as SoundJam, er, "iTunes", it was the software that made the iPod the success it was and remains to this day.
Guaranteed! This comment 100% Anthrax free!
"Page" 10 of this article is slightly NSFW, just in case you work for rather conservative overlords.
The BMW is not more comfortable, nor more reliable, nor lower cost, nor easier to use. It doesn't drive anywhere where the Camry doesn't drive, and it costs more. It will be in the shop more and its repairs will cost a lot more. The few things where it might technically be argued to be better (handling, top speed) don't matter on US roads and highways.
In fact, the only thing that's "better" about the BMW is the fact that it is more expensive: it is conspicuous consumption. In terms of all the things that matter in a car, the BMW is inferior to the Camry.
Mind you, there are expensive cars that give you something extra for your money: electric cars, luxury limousines, etc. But the Ferrari and the BMWs are overpriced, unreliable crap for people who just want to show off.
I can think of at least three Apple products that were Lemons (or Edsels) as far as sales went. ... eventually)
1: The Apple III computer.
2: The Lisa computer (though this was the prototype for the Mac that WAS well received
3:: The Newton PDA (perhaps it was just ahead of it's time)
Guy's like Ferraris because they are cool, fast and amazingly fun to drive.
I thought it was because they were a good indicator that you were rich, and therefore sexually attractive to a certain type of woman.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
It was the late eighties that I suggested two Mac add-ons for Macaholic friends:
1) it dices! It chops! The ultimate kitchen aid, straight from recipe to food: the VegeMactic!
2) It sharpens scissors and knives! Get perfect edges from your computer: Mac the Knife.
mark
That the obnoxiousness of environmentalists doesn't outweigh our freedom, quality of life and overall sanity.
Personally, I fear the dangerously incompetent driving habits of the large number of slow and inattentive people on the road far more than those few fast, aggressive drivers. A Prius makes me fear for my safety a lot more than a Ferrari does.
I fear for the blind people endangered by silent electric cars far more than I fear the noise of a Ferrari, or even an environmentalist's old, clanky biodiesel.
In the end, at least a Ferrari adds beauty to the world, art on wheels, while a Prius just makes the world an uglier place.