I hope I'm not the only one here that is majorly disappointed with the Apple of today. Sure, I could get upset by the lack of innovation, stale products, or just gripe about the Vision Pro, but... I think what upsets me the most is how Apple has now become the corporate giant it set out to fight against at one time. Remember the 1984 ad? Yeah, it's not Apple throwing the hammer anymore... Growing up in the early 2000s, Apple was really and truly the underdogs of the tech world. They offered a really unique and different approach to PCs and accessories... the 'walled garden'... (Yes Apple Watch users without an iPhone, the walled garden was once only a dream). For perspective, when I got my first iPod, Apple controlled a measly 4.8% of the PC market, and even the iPod itself was a drop in the river of Sansas, Zens, iRivers, and other such MP3 players. Even so, they had such attitude and freshness even amongst us youngsters. Even in early primary grades, everyone knew the iPod, and even to 6 year old me, the silhouette commercials struck a chord in my soul... I could watch them forever, and I've been extra nostalgic for this era of Apple lately... So, in honor of remembering where Apple was 20 years ago, and for the great TV ads of old, I decided to take one of my favorite iPod models of all time, which is also 20 years old, and unbox it with you along for the ride. This is the 20GB iPod (Click Wheel), in the silhouette box: Crisp and sealed. What's interesting about this box is, it's the only time Apple actually showed the silhouette characters on a product. Sure, the marketing campaign was on posters, TV ads, and in magazines... but never on a iPod box except for here. I think this box looks really clean, and I can imagine customers who lusted after the iPod during those TV ads feeling quite satisfied upon holding this box... heck, even 20 years later, I certainly did. No turning back now, the seal. is. broken... Now here is something missing from modern Apple products... dramatic packaging! Seriously, unfolding the box like a book is so satisfying, and the experience never gets old. We have all of the accessories and documentation to the left, and the actual unit to the right! Here's something else missing from new Apple products... literally anything other than the product you paid for. Look at all of these goodies! We have a USB sync cable AND a Firewire sync cable, plus some OG earbuds with their foam bits still (kinda) in one piece... There is a Firewire wall wart in here too (behind the device), but I didn't photograph it. Now for the main event... this iPod hasn't seen the light of day in 20 years! I just love how crisp it looks in it's original plastic wraps. This box has truly been a tomb for this old beast. Don't steal music. I wonder how many people read this and said, "Well I was going to head to MP3Skull and download the entire U2 collection for free, but now, just because of this message, I will repent and buy it for $150 on the iTunes Store"... Carefully removing the plastic film, we can finally see the actual unit's most important side... and just look at this stainless back! So clean, no scratches to be seen anywhere. If I decided to use this on the daily, it would stay like this for maybe 20min of use even if I wore white gloves out. Even now, I have placed it delicately on a cotton shirt to keep it fresh. I may get a case and use this thing lightly, so I decided to 'arm the nugget' and plug her in... It holds music, it makes sound, and the battery is doing something after a 4 hour charge over USB. (I hooked it up to my 2010 Mac Pro running OSX 10.6.8). It wasn't easy. It took forever to get past the low battery screen, and when it did, it boot looped for 10min before finally connecting. lol I wonder how long the battery will actually last after being in a comatose state for 20 years. I would replace the battery, but it's difficult to do without leaving tool marks or breaking the fragile plastic clips inside. In summary, what I love about the 4th gen iPod is that it combines the classic UI and feel of the early Apple Y2K days, but with the revolutionary click wheel. It's apple's most simple, easy to use iPod, and it can easily be modded to use flash storage, and getting into it is not as dicey as the later units. It was truly a time to be an Apple fanboy, not for the past, but for where Apple was headed in the mid 2000s. Hope you enjoyed the photos!
Hey, nice one Recaptcha. This was when Apple gave you quite a bit for your money. Good old days. Enjoy.
Wow, that has to be fun, I love how computers (or vintage computers) can still work together and get it done. For us older guys the McIntosh was the killer, what nobody talks about is all the fonts you could now do, the screen no longer had the MS-Dos Typeface Readout. I've told the story before of a print shop customer that had just bought a type machine for a ton of money in the 80's, a few months later, the McIntosh came out and for a short time, it was the print shop standard. The poor women went bankrupt, I think the Mac was around $1200 back then, a fraction of what she owed. There's not much around anymore that we see what the new version is going to have, maybe larger TVs, but back then the storage wars were going on and before that, the chip processing was exciting.
Haha, I love his videos, but alas, I have the heart of a blogger... so blog style posts are my personal forte.
