iPod is a brand of portable media players designed and marketed by Apple and launched on October 23, 2001 . The product line-up includes the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the video-capable iPod Nano, and the compact iPod Shuffle. The iPhone can function as an iPod but is generally treated as a separate product. Former iPod models include the iPod Mini and the spin-off iPod Photo (since reintegrated into the main iPod Classic line). iPod Classic models store media on an internal hard drive, while all other models use flash memory to enable their smaller size (the discontinued Mini used a Microdrive miniature hard drive). As with many other digital music players, iPods can also serve as external data storage devices. Storage capacity varies by model.
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's software or whose computers cannot run iTunes software, several open source alternatives to iTunes are also available. iTunes and its alternatives may also transfer photos, videos, games, contact information, e-mail settings, Web bookmarks, and calendars to iPod models supporting those features. The Apple iPod is the only device compatible with iTunes, although select devices from Archos are compatible. As of September 9, 2009 , more than 220,000,000 iPods had been sold worldwide, making it the best-selling digital audio player series in history.
History and design
The 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 decided to develop its own. As ordered by CEO Steve Jobs, Apple's hardware engineering chief Jon Rubinstein assembled a team of engineers to design the iPod line, including hardware engineers Tony Fadell and Michael Dhuey, and design engineer Jonathan Ive. The product was developed in less than one year and unveiled on 23 October 2001. Jobs announced it as a Mac-compatible product with a 5 GB hard drive that put "1,000 songs in your pocket."
Apple did not develop the iPod software entirely in-house, instead using PortalPlayer's reference platform based on 2 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 contracted another company, Pixo, to help design and implement the user interface under the direct supervision of Steve Jobs. As development progressed, Apple continued to refine the software's look and feel. Starting with the iPod 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. In 2007, Apple modified the iPod interface again with the introduction of the sixth-generation iPod Classic and third-generation 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 (whichever was appropriate for the selected item).
In September 2007, during the course of a lawsuit with patent holding company Burst.com, Apple drew attention to a patent for a similar device that was developed in 1979. Kane Kramer patented the idea of a "plastic music box" in 1979, which he called the IXI. He was unable to secure funding to renew the US$ 120,000 worldwide patent, so it lapsed and Kramer never profited from his idea.
Trademark
The name iPod was proposed by Vinnie Chieco, a freelance copywriter, who (with others) was called by Apple to figure out how to introduce the new player to the public. After Chieco saw a prototype, he thought of the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey and the phrase "Open the pod bay door, Hal!", which refers to the white EVA Pods of the Discovery One spaceship. Apple researched the trademark and found that it was already in use. Joseph N. Grasso of New Jersey had originally listed an "iPod" trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in July 2000 for Internet kiosks. The first iPod kiosks had been demonstrated to the public in New Jersey in March 1998, and commercial use began in January 2000, but had apparently been discontinued by 2001. The trademark was registered by the USPTO in November 2003, and Grasso assigned it to Apple Computer, Inc. in 2005.
Software
The iPod line can play several audio file formats including MP3, AAC/M4A, Protected AAC, AIFF, WAV, Audible audiobook, and Apple Lossless. The iPod Photo introduced the ability to display JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, and PNG image file formats. Fifth and sixth generation iPod Classics, as well as third generation 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, iPod software only worked with Mac OS; iPod software for Microsoft Windows was launched with the second 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 of iTunes. MIDI files 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, are not supported without installing custom firmware onto an iPod (e.g. Rockbox).
During installation, an iPod is associated with one host computer. Each time an iPod connects to its host computer, iTunes can synchronize entire music libraries or music playlists either automatically or manually. Song ratings can be set on an 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 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 iPod's library will be entirely wiped and replaced with the other computer's library.
User interface
iPods with color displays use anti-aliased graphics and text, with sliding animations. All iPods (except the current iPod Shuffle and iPod Touch) have five 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 current 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/pause, next track, etc. The iPod Touch has no click-wheel; instead it uses a 3.5" touch screen in addition to a home button, sleep/wake button and (on the second and third generations of the iPod touch) volume-up and -down buttons. The user interface for the iPod touch is virtually identical to that of the iPhone. Both devices use the iPhone OS.
iTunes Store
Main articles: iTunes and iTunes StoreThe iTunes Store (introduced 29 April 2003) is an online media store run by Apple and accessed via iTunes. Since no other portable player supports the DRM used, only iPods can play protected content from the iTunes Store. The store became the market leader soon after its launch and Apple announced the sale of videos through the store on 12 October 2005. Full-length movies became available on 12 September 2006.
Purchased audio files use the AAC format with added encryption. The encryption is based on the FairPlay DRM system. Up to five authorized computers and an unlimited number of iPods can play the files. Burning the files onto an audio CD, then re-compressing can create music files without the DRM, although this results in reduced quality. The DRM can also be removed using third-party software. However, in a deal with Apple, EMI began selling DRM-free, higher-quality songs on the iTunes Stores, in a category called "iTunes Plus." While individual songs were made available at a cost of US$1.29, 30¢ more than the cost of a regular DRM song, entire albums were available for the same price, US$9.99, as DRM encoded albums. On 17 October 2007, Apple lowered the cost of individual iTunes Plus songs to US$0.99 per song, the same as DRM encoded tracks. On January 6, 2009, Apple announced that DRM has been removed from 80% of the music catalog, and that it will be removed from all music by April, 2009.
iPods cannot play music files from competing music stores that use rival-DRM technologies like Microsoft's protected WMA or RealNetworks' Helix DRM
Cucusoft DVD to iPod Converter
Cucusoft DVD to iPod Converter is extremely easy to use. It can convert almost any kinds of DVD to iPod Movie / iPod Video format. Furthermore, it can act as extremely fast ...
Best DVD to iPod Video Converter ⇒ Free Download ⊕ iPod Movie ...
Convert Tivo to iPod, DivX/XviD to iPod movie, AVI to iPod movie, WMV to iPod movie ... to high-definition ".mp4" or even H.264(rarely found in other programs) format for iPod ...
iPod Movie Converter-professional movie to ipod converter
iPod Movie Converter is a professional movie converter for ipod to turn movie into ipod format.
Free iPod Video Converter - 500% Faster convert Video/Movie/WMV/AVI to ...
E-Zsoft iPod Video Converter - 500% Faster convert all popular video formats to iPod and transfer to iTunes directly, Video to iPod, Moive to iPod, AVI to iPod, It's Free Download!
Ultra iPod Movie Converter Shareware download and review - convert ...
Ultra iPod Movie Converter enables you to convert most popular video formats to iPod Movie MP4 (MPE
Download ultra_ipodconverter.exe Free - Ultra iPod Movie Converter
Download: ultra_ipodconverter.exe, Size: 5.16 MB, Released: 07 Nov 2009. Ultra iPod Movie Converter:Convert any video movide to ipod MP4 H264 format. iPod MP4 Converter.
ipod movie converter :: ipod movie converter - Boating Forums
movie converter to ipod format free movie converter to ipod cucusoft ipod movie converter 7.06 crack cucusoft ipod movie-video converter v3.15 9 Jun 2009 Download imtoo ipod movie ...
How do I convert movie to iPod format? | Video Converter, AVI to iPod
How do I convert movie to iPod format? Introduction. As popularity of portable video players grows, special programs appear, allowing user to produce high quality picture and sound ...
ABC iPod Video Converter, AVI to iPod, DivX to iPod, WMV to iPod
This site provide iPod video converter softwares. It can convert DVD, DivX, XviD, MOV, RM, rmvb, MPEG, WMV, AVI to iPod Movie / iPod Video format
MP4 Converter - Convert popular video format to iPod MP4
It can convert almost all video formats, e.g. DivX, XviD, MOV, rm, rmvb, dvr-ms, MPEG, WMV, AVI to iPod Movie/iPod Video format. See more. Supported file formats: