iPod and iTunes: The Missing Manual, Third Edition

The iPod Family

Apple’s iPods began life as white-and-silver rectangles. But as the family grew and prospered, the case designs changed, shrank, and sported colors. These days, the only thing you can count on in the iPod family is change itself.

• Original iPod. In October 2001, Apple unleashed the first, Macintosh-only model with 5 gigabytes of storage and a moving scroll wheel. It worked with Apple’s free iTunes 2 software for encoding and organizing music files.

• 10-gigabyte iPod. Apple, realizing it had a good thing on its hands, announced the 10 GB iPod in March 2002. It still had a scroll wheel that actually turned, and it was still Macintosh-only—in theory. Windows and Linux users were already at work adapting the player for use with their own systems.

• Windows iPod. In July 2002, the Windows world got what it was craving: iPods formatted to work naturally with Windows and the popular MusicMatch Jukebox software. Apple also introduced a new, thinner version of the 10-gigabyte iPod whose scroll wheel was an immobile, solid-state “touchwheel” that responded to finger pressure.

• 20-gigabyte iPod. The iPod got itself a big sibling that same July day in the form of the 20 GB touchwheel iPod. Both of the touchwheel iPods came with a small remote control that hooks into the headphones cord, and a black carrying case complete with a belt clip. In all, there were then three iPod models—in 5 GB, 10 GB, and 20 GB sizes—in separate Mac and Windows formats.

• 2003 iPods. The third-generation ...