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Apple iPod | New Technology News – IT Tech | Apple iPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc.The product lineup currently consists of the hard drivebased Apple iPod Classic,the touchscreen Apple iPod Touch,the compact Apple iPod Nano,and the ultracompact Apple iPod Shuffle. Apple iPod Classic models store media on an internal hard drive,while all other models use flash memory to enable their smaller size.As with many other digital music players, Apple iPods can also serve as external data storage devices.Storage capacity varies by model,ranging from 2GB for the Apple iPod Shuffle to 160GB for the Apple iPod Classic. Apple iPod line was announced by Apple Inc. onOctober23,2001,and released onNovember 10,2001.All of the models have been redesigned multiple times since their introduction.The most recent Apple iPod redesigns were introduced onSeptember 1,2010.

Apple\s iTunes software can be used to transfer music to the devices from computers using certain versions of Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows operating systems.For users who choose not to use Apple iTunes or whose computers cannot run Apple iTunes,several open source alternatives are available for the Apple iPod. Apple iTunes and its alternatives may also transfer photos,videos,games,contact information,email settings,Web bookmarks,and calendars to Apple iPod models supporting those features.

Discontinued models of the line include Apple iPod Mini and the Apple iPod Photo,the former being replaced by the Apple iPod Nano,and the latter reintegrated into the main Apple iPod line(now the Apple iPod Classic).

In iOSversions prior to iOS 5,Apple iPod branding is also used for the media player applications included with Apple iPhone and Apple  iPad; Apple iPhone version is essentially a combination of the Music and Videos apps on the Apple iPod Touch.As of iOS 5,separate apps namedMusicandVideoare to be standardized across all iOS powered products.While Apple iPhone and Apple iPad have essentially the same media player capabilities as Apple iPod line,they are generally treated as separate products.In the last few years, Apple  iPhone and Apple iPad sales have overtaken those of Apple iPod.

Apple iPod line came from Apple\s"digital hub"category,when the company began creating software for the growing market of personal digital devices.Digital cameras,camcorders and organizers had well established mainstream markets,but the company found existing digital music players"big and clunky or small and useless"with user interfaces that were"unbelievably awful,"so Apple Inc. decided to develop its own.As ordered byCEO Steve Jobs,Apple\s hardware engineering chief Jon Rubinstein assembled a team of engineers to design Apple iPod line,including hardware engineers TonyFadell and MichaelDhuey,and design engineer JonathanIve.The product was developed in less than one year and unveiled onOctober23,2001.Jobs announced it as a Mac compatible product with a5 GBhard drive that put"1000 songs in your pocket.\"

Apple Inc. didnt develop Apple iPod software entirely inhouse,instead using PortalPlayer\s reference platform based on two ARM cores.The platform had rudimentary software running on a commercial microkernel embedded operating system.PortalPlayer had previously been working on an IBM branded MP3 player with Bluetooth headphones. Apple Inc. contracted another company,Pixo,to help design and implement the user interface under the direct supervision of Steve Jobs.As development progressed, Apple Inc. continued to refine the software\s look and feel.Starting with Apple Mini,the Chicago font was replaced with Espy Sans.Later iPods switched fonts again to Podium Sans—a font similar to Apple\s corporate font,Myriad. iPods with color displays then adopted some Mac OS X themes like Aqua progress bars,and brushed metal meant to evoke a combination lock.In2007, Apple Inc. modified Apple iPod interface again with the introduction of the 6th-generation Apple iPod Classic and 3rd-generation Apple iPod Nano by changing the font to Helvetica and,in most cases,splitting the screen in half by displaying the menus on the left and album artwork,photos,or videos on the right.

InSeptember2007,during a lawsuit with patent holding company Burst.com,Apple drew attention to a patent for a similar device that was developed in1979.KaneKramer applied for aUK patent for his design of a"plastic music box"in1981,which he called the IXI.He was unable to secure funding to renew the US$120,000worldwide patent,so it lapsed and Kramer never profited from his idea.

The name iPod was proposed byVinnieChieco,a freelance copywriter,who was called by Apple Inc. to figure out how to introduce the new player to the public.AfterChieco saw a prototype,he thought of the movie2001:A Space Odyssey and the phrase"Open the pod bay door,Hal!",which refers to the white EVA Pods of theDiscoveryOne spaceship.Chieco saw an analogy to the relationship between the spaceship and the smaller independent pods in the relationship between a personal computer and the music player.Apple researched the trademark and found that it was already in use.JosephN.Grasso of NewJersey had originally listed an"iPod"trademark with theU.S.Patent andTrademark Office(USPTO)inJuly2000 for Internet kiosks.The 1st Apple iPod kiosks had been demonstrated to the public inNewJersey inMarch1998,and commercial use began inJanuary 2000,but had apparently been discontinued by2001.The trademark was registered by theUSPTO inNovember2003,andGrasso assigned it to Apple Computer Inc. in2005.

The earliest recorded use in commerce of an"ipod"trademark was in1991by ChrysalisCorp.of Sturgis,Michigan,styled "\iPOD"

Apple iPod line can play several audio file formats including MP3,AAC / M4A,Protected AAC,AIFF,WAV,Audible audiobook,and Apple Lossless. Apple iPod Photo introduced the ability to display JPEG,BMP, GIF,TIFF,and PNG image file formats. 5th and 6th generation Apple  iPod Classics,as well as 3rd generation Apple iPod Nanos,can additionally play MPEG-4(H.264/MPEG-4 AVC) and QuickTime video formats, with restrictions on video dimensions,encoding techniques and data-rates.Originally, Apple iPod software only worked with Mac OS;Apple iPod software for Microsoft Windows was launched with the 2nd generation model.Unlike most other media players,Apple does not support Microsoft\s WMA audio format,but a converter for WMA files without Digital Rights Management(DRM)is provided with the Windows version ofiTunes. MIDIfiles also cannot be played,but can be converted to audio files using the"Advanced"menu in iTunes.Alternative open source audio formats,such as Ogg Vorbis and FLAC,arent upported without installing custom firmware onto an Apple  iPod.

During installation,an Apple iPod is associated with one host computer.Each time an Apple iPod connects to its host computer, Apple iTunes can synchronize entire music libraries or music playlists either automatically or manually.Song ratings can be set on an Apple iPod and synchronized later to the iTunes library,and vice versa.A user can access,play,and add music on a second computer if an Apple iPod is set to manual and not automatic sync,but anything added or edited will be reversed upon connecting and syncing with the main computer and its library.If a user wishes to automatically sync music with another computer,an Apple iPod\s library will be entirely wiped and replaced with the other computer\s library.

Apple iPods with color displays use anti aliased graphics and text,with sliding animations.All Apple iPods(except the 3rd-generation Apple  Apple iPod Shuffle,the 6th generation Apple iPod Nano,and Apple iPod Touch)have 5 buttons and the later generations have the buttons integrated into the click wheel–an innovation that gives an uncluttered,minimalist interface.The buttons perform basic functions such as menu,play,pause,next track,and previous track.Other operations,such as scrolling through menu items and controlling the volume,are performed by using the click wheel in a rotational manner.The 3rd-generation Apple iPod Shuffle does not have any controls on the actual player;instead it has a small control on the earphone cable,with volume-up-and-down buttons and a single button for play and pause,next track, etc. Apple iPod Touch has no click wheel;instead it uses a 3.5 "touchscreen along with a home button,sleep / wake button and(on the 2nd and 3rd generations of Apple iPod touch)volume-up-and-down buttons.The user interface for Apple iPod Touch is identical to that of Apple iPhone.Differences include a lack of a phone application.Both devices use iOS.