A Prototype Original iPod

Hard to believe it has been 20 years. When talking about the impact of the original iPod on the last two decades of Apple&#x27;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: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;forums.macrumors.com&#x2F;threads&#x2F;apples-new-thing-ipod.500&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;forums.macrumors.com&#x2F;threads&#x2F;apples-new-thing-ipod.5...</a>

Was this used to effectively silo developers from each other? Ie, don’t let the hardware team see the real software UI, and don’t let the software team see the real hardware UI.<p>It looks too ridiculous to be real, I suspect it was ugly by design.<p>Apple did this on the iPhone design, the ugly software UI was called “skankphone”.

Is the original poster sure the extra size wasn&#x27;t to accommodate a 2.5&quot; or 3.5&quot; for testing purposes. There doesn&#x27;t appear to be a physical HDD. In the 2nd prototype picture (not much for scale) it looks like a board with control logic, and maybe the decoder IC, and MCU, then a connection to a battery and lcd screen with it&#x27;s controller circuit. I don&#x27;t see an HDD, and solid state drives with capacity corresponding to the original ipod weren&#x27;t on the market yet.

Loved the original iPod so much that I‘ve re-created it as an app once the iPhone came out: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;j-lechner&#x2F;RetroPod" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;j-lechner&#x2F;RetroPod</a><p>Not sure if it still builds, but it was amazing to study and re-build all those little UX details like accelerating scrolling and timeline scrubbing.

I hope Apple will make a 25th anniversary edition of the iPod, with modern connectors and internals but a physically clicky wheel like the original.

Although it doesn&#x27;t cover the iPod, the book &quot;Creative Selection&quot; is a great window into Apple&#x27;s process (at least at the time)<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.goodreads.com&#x2F;en&#x2F;book&#x2F;show&#x2F;37638098-creative-selection" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.goodreads.com&#x2F;en&#x2F;book&#x2F;show&#x2F;37638098-creative-sel...</a><p>It&#x27;s an easy read and the reads a bit like a technology-focused biography, not a &quot;how to.&quot;

&gt; We don’t know much about where it came from.<p>That’s the most important part! How did Panic got it? Why did they had to wait 20 years? Some trade secret deal expired?

I’d like to know more about when Apple started working on the iPod. Especially given how crude this prototype was and the obvious amount of room for design revisions until the 2001 release.

Imagine the battery life if you filled that case with battery.

love <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;xn--n3h.net&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;xn--n3h.net&#x2F;</a> though AFAIK <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;unicodesnowmanforyou.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;unicodesnowmanforyou.com&#x2F;</a> predates it

To me, this makes it so much more obvious that the only innovation they were even aiming for was a scroll wheel. Everything else is just a Diamond Rio with a hard drive attached. That&#x27;s not to diminish the effectiveness or novelty of the scroll wheel, but the larger capacity seems to be the only thing that actually mattered here.

&gt;As you can see, it’s… quite large!<p>In fact, I can not! The photo in question has no reference objects. (scroll down to see photos that actually demonstrate its size)

Ok, who&#x27;s going to get one of these and stuff a raspberry pi inside?