Happy Birthday iPod

This day, 23rd October, Apple celebrates the 6th birthday of its brainchild the "iPod". Its unbelievable how things have changed in these 6 years after its introduction. In fact I still very clearly remember. August 2001 was the time I came to US to do my masters, and I proudly carried my Sony CD player wherever I went. For many it was cool, but for me it was the purity and clarity in music which I loved. And come October I saw this news of Steve Jobs announcing a new music player which can store up to a 1000 songs and not only that, it can also fit in one's pocket. The only downside was the huge price of about $450 with tax. I mean c'mon ...that was the freakin money i made from my off campus job in a month...oops i hope i didn't say that out loud...aah well ..who cares now.

And ofcourse the other thing was I had all this cd collection which I couldn't let go off. I still have them, all scratched :(..but remain as memories. But that time I never ever in my wildest dreams though that iPod would dominate the market so much in the future. In fact so were many of them who were very skeptical after its first launch. If you remember, it had a very slow start in the very beginning. But then the rest is what you all know ...history. Now, there's no place where I don't take my iPod with me. Gym, shopping, long drives, office, and ofcourse my home where its always with me.

Take a look at the video from the Special Event, where iPod was officially brought to the world :

The best part about the whole event was that nobody applauded..Nobody had a minutest clue of whats happening. Everyone were like " Whattttt ?? Another music player...you must be kiddin me...who's gonna pay so much for that thing ? " Everyone except one...Steve Jobs. For me I always feel he's way ahead of his time. His foresight is unbelievable. And I'm pretty sure he knows what people are gonna like 6 yrs from now. If I had a time machine of some sort I really feel I would have gone back to that event, stood up, clapped and said..."Hey you guyz know in the future...this thing would come in many forms, one of which can even be clipped to your clothes :)".

Happy Birthday iPod.

Steve Jobs responds to iPhoners

Wow..now this was very fast. I just posted my previous post an hour ago about how furious the early iPhoners would be after they come to know about $200 price drop in the new 8GB iPhone. And in no time I see this open letter from Steve Jobs to all iPhone owners, where he explains very neatly and brilliantly in 3 points why this price drop was necessary.

Read the entire letter here http://www.apple.com/hotnews/openiphoneletter/

Long story cut short, everyone who purchased iPhone from either Apple store or AT & T store are going to get a $100 store credit towards the purchase of any product at an Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store. I think this is a very nice gesture by Jobs. Its a 'Job's well done :)

I liked what he mentioned in his letter - "If you always wait for the next price cut or to buy the new improved model, you'll never buy any technology product because there is always something better and less expensive on the horizon."

Very true and very well said.

..and my 30 gig ipod is now Obsolete

Apple has announced yesterday a new line up of iPod music players. And what a time to do that, when the holiday season is just coming up. They've developed this trend of stealing the top spot of best holiday gifts every year.

I'm a hardcore devotee of apple ipod brands, having the latest ipod nano, 5th gen ipod and new ipod shuffle...but just in one day 2 of them have become obsolete :(. I'm glad atleast ipod shuffle didnt change. Enough of my sad part, lets go to the exciting additions.

- There's no more 4 gigs iPhone. Apple slashed 8 gig iPhone from $599 to $399, and thats the only new iPhone model which is gonna be available. Imagine the plight of people who bought 4 gig iPhone for the price of 8 gigs just 2 months ago...

- 5th gen iPods have now become iPod Classic, coming in 80 gigs and 160 gigs of storage space for $249 and $349 respectively. Now this is a steal...I had bought my 30 gigs iPod for the same price. Is it time to upgrade ??

- Now this is a great upgrade. The new iPod nano, much smaller and thinner than its predecessor. Best add-on is that it can now display video. But why do I want to watch video in small screen ?? It comes at $149 for a 4GB version, and 8GB version that will cost $199

- And now for the grand numero uno addition to the iPod line up....the newest and the latest iPod Touch. Almost identical to the iPhone, except that you can't make calls. You've got multi touch technology, Apple's Safari Web browser, has built-in Google and Yahoo search. And best part is you don't have to get the shitty AT & T service...woooohooo..There's Wi-Fi wireless Internet capabilities which is cool. They've partnered with Starbucks which would now let users automatically download songs that are playing at Starbucks stores within Wi-Fi range. Smart move. But hold on there's a bit of a downside too for this model. It just comes in 8GB and 16 GB versions :(. Now why would they do that ? 2 months later, they would again come up with a 30 GB iPod Touch for the same price...arrghhhhh...

On the whole, i think its a great move by apple. All the new products are exciting, but my favorite is gonna be iPod Classic with 80 Gigs. My dream iPod would be 30 Gig iPod Touch which would have a built-in radio that would allow me to download songs as i listen to them...Sweet deal right ??? I'm very eager to see what SNL is going to come up with on this new iPod line up :)