October 26, 2004: Apple debuts its iPod Picture, a tool able to placing not simply 15,000 songs in your pocket, but additionally 25,000 images.
It’s the first iPod to supply a shade display and the flexibility to show digital photographs and album cowl artwork. The iPod Picture represents an enormous step ahead within the performance of Apple’s iconic music participant.
iPod Picture: The height of the iPod’s success
A fourth-generation iPod, the iPod Picture entered the product line on the peak of its cultural affect. The system introduced some revolutionary new options along with its 2-inch, 65,536-color LCD display with LED backlight.
Enhancements included elevated playtime and the flexibility to ship photographs to a TV by way of composite- or S-video cables. Past the display and different updates, it retained the identical Click on Wheel controller as different iPods, together with then-standard FireWire and USB 2.0 connections.
It got here in two configurations: a 40GB mannequin that retailed for $500 and a 60GB model that value $600. This made the iPod Picture a comparatively pricy (though tempting) proposition.
iPod Picture: All concerning the display
After all, that candy shade display was the iPod Picture’s massive promoting level. It made an enormous distinction when in comparison with earlier iPods’ drab, monochrome shows.
Menus appeared cleaner and the built-in Solitaire recreation lastly proved playable. Even higher, artist names or tune and album titles that didn’t match on the display now not received lower quick with an ellipsis. Now, they scrolled throughout the display. It was like dwelling sooner or later!
Trying again from immediately’s vantage level, it’s apparent that gadgets just like the iPod Picture weren’t merely makes an attempt to lengthen the lifespan of a product getting lengthy within the tooth by slapping on just a few low cost (or not-so-cheap) gimmicks. As a substitute, the flexibility to hold a high-end shade show in your pocket, and to have the ability to use this to view images, was a part of the build-up to the iPhone, which Apple unveiled three years later in 2007. In that approach, the iPod Picture launch helped pave the way in which for Apple’s arrival as a real “cell first” firm.
The iPod line continued lengthy after the iPhone’s launch, nevertheless. Apple lastly pulled the plug on the iPod contact in Could 2022.
Did you personal the iPod Picture? Depart your feedback under.