What is iPod

[What is iPod?]
The iPod is a combination portable digital media player and hard drive from Apple Inc. and launched on October 23, 2001.

[Size]
The original version was about the size of a deck of playing cards, with a monochrome screen and a 5 gigabyte capacity. iPod's can be now be purchased with up to 160 GB of hard drive capacity and color screens capable of playing television shows, videos or movies uploaded from a PC.

[Connectivity]
An iPod can be connected to a computer with either a FireWire or USB port, with many of the latest versions depending upon USB 2.0. iPods have a reputation for being user-friendly. Users navigate with what Apple calls a "touch wheel," a centrally-placed circular disk designed for one-hand operation.

[Applications]
Popular iPod features include a calendar, address book, to-do list, alarm clock with sleep timer, games and text reader.

[Peripheral]
A large variety of peripherals exist for the iPod beyond its iconic white ear buds, including modules that allow songs to be broadcast on radio frequencies, docks for digital cameras, digital voice recorders and docking stations that are integrated with stereo systems, powered speakers or even automobile entertainment systems.

[Magnificent]
While the iPod was originally platform dependent, after July 2004 iPods (and Apple's iTunes software, included with each unit) worked on either Windows or Mac. iTunes makes it possible to load an entire CD onto an iPod in as little as ten seconds, organize thousands of songs into favorite playlists, purchase songs, albums, videos and movies from the online store and subscribe to podcast.

[Varieties]
The product line-up includes the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the video-capable iPhone Nano, and the compact iPod Shuffle

[History]
Former iPod models include their Pod 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.