it is actually worth buying an expensive ipod because although it is not fair trade it is more of that then the cheap things

omg i love the ipod nano

OMG OMG OMG I AM IN LOVE WITH THE IPOD NANO. LIKE OMG

i could"nt collect the details about apple 116 ipod circuit&schematic details from this article please guide me.

i could"nt collect the details about apple 116 ipod circuit&schematic details from this article please guide me.

Interesting

I could not stand my iPOD for so many reasons:

1) Earbuds didn't fit 2) No on-board radio 3) Dedicated battery needed entire unit to sustain a recharge instead of popping in batteries 4) Wheel adjusted volume as well as where you were in a track, hence if you didn't tweak it just right when changing volume you could lose your place in the track. 5) When docking the iPOD to PC typically crashed the iTUNES program, occasionally the PC, and usually the iPOD. reboot city. 6) Horror stories of Apple's support of people with battery problems and broken iPODs.

Bottom line, a good looking unit with a good sound, a triumph of marketing and if I'd kept mine an hour longer instead of regifting, it would have gone through a window that piece of crap.

my ipod is of 80 gb , once it fell on the floor since then it won't run properly , songs r skipped rapidly , gets hanged .

plez someone help me

i need information regarding how to open ipod shuffle.

I think that you need to list info like what spacificaly the ipod is made of

Excellent article as well as some good feed back. Any chance anyone can tell me the manufacture / part number for the connector used for the usb cable for power / data management. I have been able to locate a source too purchase them but no description of the mfg or p/n. Please email me at phil_lerma@nexlogic.com

thanks!

Actually the xps gen2 is 8.5 pounds not 17..

Wow, i expected a picture of the inards. Not a 2 page explanation on Button Technology. Good article, but you could have been a little more thorough like listing the components in a bulleted list. Another thing i noticed about ipods is the fact that the Nano version's resin cracks. In some cases it even snapped in two. Could you have shown how the components looked like?

Why would anyone want to spend so much money just to jump on the band wagon and look like every other idiot that bought an iPod. Also if you're serious about your music you'd know the iPods sound quality is lacking when compared to the likes of Sony and iRiver. Seems like most the people that buy these things are blissfully unaware of the alternatives. Do you want the player for the sounds or just because it looks pretty (and common as muck)?

An Open Source design for a "MintyMP3" player designed and built by Limor Fried is fully documented on her website: http://www.ladyada.net/make/minty/index.html Limor is a recent MIT grad, member of the MIT Electronic Research Society (MITERS), and enthusiastic proponent of Open Source electronic hacking. A neat bicycle spoke Persistence of Vision LED display, a low-cost music synthesizer, and other neat hax are all written up in a breezy, informative style.

while this article makes for interesting reading - its not quite enough! those bastards at apple charge a hell of a lot of money for the cradle. I wonder whats inside that small plastic box thats so expensive. Can anyone tell where i can find the pinout details for an ipod & also the circuit diagram for the cradle ( i.e if theres any circuit at all) so that i can build one myself

i was really very excited when i saw the heading of the article but was dissapointed after reading it.but any wat i found some information regarding i-pod but isuggest the writer to explain in detail the components used and the appro. costs.

wat 2 download a charger from my computer now with out buying it just 2 download

Does anyone know if apples "iPod USB Power Adapter" ($29) has any special circuitry inside of it to stop overcharging or anything like that. I got a new video iPod and think it is dumb to have to spend $29 for an “apple charger” when you can get a usb charger off eBay for $6-10. I just wondered if they were all the same or if apples were actually better, thanks for any input you have! (ehenton@hotmail.com

Does anyone know if apples "iPod USB Power Adapter" ($29) has any special circuitry inside of it to stop overcharging or anything like that. I got a new video iPod and think it is dumb to have to spend $29 for an “apple charger” when you can get a usb charger off eBay for $6-10. I just wondered if they were all the same or if apples were actually better, thanks for any input you have!

I have an i pod..But the charger and datacable are missed.Any body help me....I love it so much..please...myemail is talk2anesh@yahoo.co.in

I have an i pod..But the charger and datacable are missed.Any body help me....I love it so much..please...

I have an i pod..But the charger and datacable are missed.Any body help me....I love it so much..please...

i love my ipod...i got the ipod video(5th generation) i kicks all the other ipods *****...sure it was pricy but you can do a lot more with it than just listen to music...its like a computer in my hand...

you people are poor! IPODS are sweet and i could not live a day without mine, i got the video one, Besides i saved up my own money to buy one and it doesn't that that much to buy one...gosh

man this thing kicks butt!!!!! i have the first generation ipod

Just cos you cant afford an iPod. iRivers and Sony things are shite. GET AN IPOD!

your in the gym, trying to work out, listen to some music to aid your pain.... when some ponse with a shiney white thing known as an ipod comes over and starts ******* showing off coz he spent £210 on a complete pile of american rectum ****. iRiver or Sony however, make "slightly" better mp3 players, because they actually develop there products. The 1st generation ipods could play videos on them, its just apple dint want you to know this so they thought they would make double the money from you by making you buy a full price ipod TWICE, and some fool out there has probably done what i've just explained. FOOLS!

but would you actually want one considering sony and iRiver offer nearly double the battery life? and the fact ipod wont take wma? all because apple want more money made from iTunes? i hate iPods and always will. THEY ARE BOLLOCKS

too freaking expensive. cant afford it unfortunately.

umm. sorry ii wrote to this blog and ii thought thiis was the ipod store customer service. haha mmmmmmk. so very deeply sorry.

ii hate the ipod nano cuz ii can't afford iit! ii also hate the ipod video because iit is way to expensive. ii also hate the fact that just because my clothes have holes/stains on them, when ii go into the ipod store the employees don't help me and the people laugh, stare, and point at me. lol. jp

some one somewhere must know what the ipod is made of. it can't be that secret. especially as my product design coursework is farily dependant upon knowing what the i-pod case is actually made from? i'm thinking maybe some sort of ABS or vinyl - at a long shot. and how is the case stopped from scratching? (regardless of the metal back)

what material is the outer casing of the Ipod made from? and how is it manufactured??

It's awesome. I love it. I take it everywhere. Thanks for inventing such a thing.

Its awsome i love it i talk it every were thanks for enventing such a thing u rock man

Personally I am very disappointed with my ipod. It completly died one week after expiration of warranty (without dropping it or doing anything wrong)... I will not buy an iPod next time.

Besides I think that the way Itunes manages mp3s files is rubbish and messy..

Bye bye hard drives.. hello solid state

At what point does the iPod become another palmtop computer. Now that would be a good feature for Palms or iPaqs, a microdrive. Wait, the lifeDrive from palm has it and it's a $500 product. A little pricy but me thinks worth every penny. I put 10 1.5 to 2 hour movies on mine. If you have a long plane or bus ride, nothing beats it. Plus it beats lugging my 17lb Dell XPS Gen2 around. Although movies look a little better on its 17" screen. I got off the subject but my point is get a lifeDrive instead of an iPod.

When my ipod is hooked up to an itrip or third party fm transmitter ( belkin ), there is a continous " hard drive " sound. This occurs mainly in between songs. Is this a common problem and if so, apple fixing it???

Future of MP3 players is flash memory. Check it out here: http://www.techedito.com/archives/200501.html#2

I'm really disappointed in Apple. Their 5G models are gonna kick the crap out of the previous ones and frankly it feels as though Apple doesn't care and just wants to keep us in the dark. After saving for the 4G and finally getting it, I am extremely saddened by the fact that its next generation is going to be a HUGE improvenment--from what it sounds like. Thanks a lot Apple, you jerks.

If only there were decent music being produced by the big record labels, then we'd have something to play on them.

Does anyone happen to know what the metal plate on the back of the ipod is made from and how it is manufactured? I have a piece of product design coursework with a fast looming deadline and I need this piece of info to complete it. Has anybody got any useful links as to where I can find this out?

Very clever, but it seems lame compared to Sony's TPS-L2 "Walkman" of 1979, an example of which I still use. The Sony pushed the technology of the day further I feel, and it sounds better and goes louder! How may SpodPods will there still be in 25 year's time?

It's a good article. Very informative.

IPod Battery Life May Get A Boost March 6, 2005 Apple Computer may soon be able to demolish criticisms of the battery life of its iPod family, thanks to PortalPlayer. PortalPlayer has begun shipping a new processor, the PP5022 system-on-chip (SoC).

This is the next generation of the processor iPods used today--and needs a lot less power to run. PortalPlayer claims devices using the new processor could benefit from three times their current battery life.

PortalPlayer's vice president of sales and marketing Michael Maia says: "Our goal with the PP5022 was to offer a solution that balances lowest operating power while continuing to increase system performance.”

"We achieved this goal and will continue to deliver the lowest operational power during playback and encoding of rich media content-the PP5022 is our most innovative SoC to date, resulting in best-in-class battery life in hard drive jukebox systems."

iPods just keep getting better...

The new iPod mini is a hard-drive player and gets 18 hours of battery life. The shuffle is a flash player that's smaller and only gets 12 hours of battery life. That's pretty sad because everyone knows hard-drive players use more battery. They should put the chip inside the mini into the shuffle to get the better battery life!

all ive heard about the shuffle is that some have a hissing all the time while playing a song and other have pops and clicks between songs. But then again its the low end model so you get what you pay for

"I would personally like to know more about the audio components used, especially in light of recent findings that the Shuffle has superior sound quality to the hard drive based DAPs around: "

dont make me laugh..the shuffle is a bad joke.

Anyone know when the 5-g iPod is launched? I've heard various reports that it could be June or July. Obviously this is U.S., so I was wondering what the time period usually was in terms of the iPods U.S. launch to the U.K. launch? Cheers.

I would personally like to know more about the audio components used, especially in light of recent findings that the Shuffle has superior sound quality to the hard drive based DAPs around:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1777890,00.asp

I bought an iPod Shuffle. Maybe you'd like to take one of those apart, although I'm sure it'd be less interesting with no screen, hard-drive, or click wheel. Probably just one chip on a board, 5 lights, a few buttons, and a battery.

yo...iPod rocks! Podcasting is the future...

Great articles and comments.It looks like apple may be using the new chip by portalplayer. That, along with innovative apple engineering seems to be responsible for the incredible increase in battery life in the new mp3 iPod mini player. From what Ive read, portalplayer teamed up with austriamicrosystems and worked on power management. I am not sure what exactly is in the new iPod, but this seems to very possible with the increase in battery life. Apple makes a beautiful product. Id like to see more iPod related articles and apple articles, and since this is engineering, maybe an article on portalplayer chips too?

Anyone have an idea what the total manufacturing cost for an iPod mini or the 20GB iPod is today?

New mini battery life is 26 hours according to iPod lounge test. Now this would make an interesting article. How did battery life go from 8 hours to 26 in one day? It must have something to do with a change inside the iPod.

Interesting reading. My brother has an iPod but I didn't need so much space so I bought a shuffle as I like to workout. Sad to report my shuffle had faint noises between songs so I sold it. I decided I don't need any music player as my new gym has a stereo playing. If I get an iPod, it will have games and video on it. Music isn't enough for me.

That's pretty damn cool.

I enjoyed reading the article even if there were a few faults here and there. I also would like to know more details. The iPod is a cultural phenomenon and seems to be gaining momentum with podcasting just getting traction in the media. In part two, ( Im hoping there is a part 2 someday) you could go furthur into the features on the varuious SoC's used and explain how the apple engineers went about improving each generation. It seems the new release ( iPod mini) has more than doubled battery life to eighteen hours. I think there would be a few engineers interested in this, especially since portalbe devices are everywhere. All in all an interesting read.

The generation 2 iPod mini just came out with 18 hours of battery life. Congrats to Apple engineers on pulling that rabbit out of a hat. I would like to see a "part 2" as well. They could include more details of the 4th generation and iPod photo, the shuffle, and the new 2nd generation iPod mini. They may have even introduced some chord or cable to connect the iPod photo to the camera. That was unclear. What I did like was that this new iPod photo is only $349 and unfortunately for my wallet I will be buying one! Good article in general. I'd like to see more detail of the iPod photo, new mini, and shuffle in a future design oriented article. Maybe you could get into the battery life and what they did to increase it from 8 to 18 hours in the same device.

Considering the age of this article, it still has a lot of detail on the history, and deelopment of the iPod, it would be good to see a part 2, which could encompass the Gen4, iPod Photo and shuffle in greater detail...

As for sound quality issues in the iPod, as time and technology have always shown, the technology and capabilities get better, as the price gets cheaper... This can be seen first in the development of the Apple Lossless compression algorythm for sound files, and second in the availability of larger and larger capacity iPod's which means you can use a higher quality, larger file size to get even better sound quality...

I highly doubt Apple would do anything at this point in time to jeopardise their massive mp3 player marketshare.

Fig 3 links to Fig 2

The article didn't mention the new shuffle. I just read about Apple notebook trackpad failure in a new design which used to use synaptics. Some advice to the apple engineers: If it aint broke, don't fix it. I think there may be problems at the Apple design team due to cost cuts. Let's hope the shuffle paired down design and new notebooks with poorly designed trackpads aren't a taste of things to come. The article isn't up to date. Scary things are happening in the iPod division.

I think there were a few too many errors in the article (as mentioned in comments). That said, it is always interesting reading about the iPod. The big question is the video iPod, phone iPod, and camera iPod. The idea of an iPod in the cradle used as the "to go" home stereo control/album collection seems to go only so far. Maybe 2 more years and then they'll have to add video. My favorite part of the iPod is the menu system when dealing with a lot of albums (I have 1500). I also like the sound when amped. I don't need or want video. Photo is ok but personally I would never buy a video player with a 2-inch screen. However, now that I think about it, in 3 years they'll probably have micro drives of 200gb. It might be a good way to keep movies like I keep my albums now, all in one mobile unit.

I just bought a 20gb iPod so if they change the iPod to cut costs I have a classic one.

Another mistake in the article was about the scroll wheel. When Apple switched to the touch scroll wheel, the early generation iPods could not detect where the users finger was on the wheel; rather it detected motion and acceleration. In the latest 4g iPods the wheel can detect where the finger is on the face.

Thanks for pointing that out Dfiant. It amazes me when I read an in-depth tech story and the author obviously didn't do their homework which pretty much negates the credibility of the rest of the article.

I thought the article was intersting and the comments enjoyable. My thoughts are about the design in related to after market products like boom boxes and home stereo cradles. If Apple decided to cut costs and say the sound quality of an amped iPod was diminished from the current system , it could spell disaster for the aftermarket audio makers iPod business. Not that Im in that business, ;) but from looking around the internet, it seems a lot of people are. Unless apple takes over the aftermarket with its own low quality line and eliminates aftermarket adaptation somehhow, any reduction in quality of ufuture generation iPods would be exposed by aftermarket products using line out for say an iPod based home stereo setup. With the iPod, you have to think way beyond the device during the design and cost/quality phase. Given the popularity of audible, and now podcasting, and the aftermarket for iPod accessories, design factors must get very broad and complex beyond the device itself.Great article. I never tire of reading about the iPod phenomenon.

I continue to be amazed by the sheer stupidity of people who comment on these discussion boards. Why in the world do people believe every little tidbit of information they read on the internet? For cryin' out loud, you're not reading the NY Times. Grrrrrr. This is just so frustrating.

I can confirm that a version of the PP5020 is used in the iPod photo. About the new chip from portalplayer :Players using the latest chip (not released to date) probably won't show up till later this year. It will be interesting to see whether Apple chooses innovation and quality over cost. With flash memory prices coming down it will also be interesting to see which route they go with for thier first flash player with a screen. (possibly 2gb) As far as engineering design goes, the shuffle was a dissapointment. (However, the marketing was brilliant.) Now, designing the 2gb iPod junior, that would be exciting. Imagine a tiny little iPod with screen and wheel to slip in the pocket with your "wireless" ear buds!

There will be a new chip from portalplayer coming out around March 2005 called the multimedia edition or something like that. From what I can gather it will improve greatly on power management with added new advanced features. The next wave of mp3 players will probably use this chip for full-featured flash players & HDD of more than 2gb. An exciting time to be in the mp3 business. I don't know what iPod will be using but I hope they stay with the high-quality chips. The smart HDD and high-end flash-player makers will be using the new Portalplayer chip and putting in as many features as they can design in.

The third- and fourth-generation iPods have had a problem with screen cracks. Apple has consistently maintained that these have invariably been due to user abuse. However, there are more and more complaints on discussion forums, including Apple's own website, of cracks appearing spontaneously in iPods which have not been abused and are otherwise well looked after. This is likely to be due to an engineering problem. It may be that the screen needs better thermal insulation. or that it is unable to expand in the space allowed in its mounting. The earlier-generation iPods, apart from being larger in size, also were more rigid by virtue of the metal back of the case.

Hot topic. Decent content. Needs more technical detail. Sometimes reads like a brochure. here is a lot of history to cover, so I can see why some info was left out. Maybe it would have been better to just concentrate on dissection -- the meat of the article -- and leave history alone. Screen shots are very poor; why bother.

Here's the deal: why is this different from any other low-power device on the market? Your article doesn't help us understand this. I submit there is nothing wonderful in this but good solid engineering design; so maybe you should have broken it down into the tradeoffs that were made from model to model. You had enough information to write an insightful technically savvy article but didn't. Example: compare disks on each model side by side. Then compare processors side by side. Sure, I can do that, but then I don't need to read your article now, do I?

What's the mystery? A pocket PC with a CF microdrive can do the same thing and more. The iPod just uses a dedicated interface and excellent power management -- keeping the microdrive off except to fill its buffers.

This article is just a historical rambling.

Some noises I've heard from inside Apple suggest they are highly motivated to design-out the PortalPlayer IP in order to cut costs. But based on this article, it's clear that the iPod Mini relies on a latest-gen PortalPlayer SOC (PP5020D-TF). Is cutting-edge PortalPlayer IP found in the latest high-end, high-margin iPod Photo? From this article, we'll never know...

I am interested in buying an iPod. The iPod shuffle seems to be not enough. I have a WindowsZXP. I'm thinking of going into 4gb type iPod. I really don't need a 40gb type. Are there iPods that have 4gb with flash memory? I want to be able to record my cd's, mini-discs, and vinyl records. I never used the computer to record music, but i guess now is as good as time as any. I have real-one player, and e-music downloads. What's the best way to go? I read that first generation iPods went bad with the sound after 40 days of use. I also heard that i-music was not customer friendly. Any suggestions? Is Apple the way to go?i know you can't make reccommendations, but let's say you were comparing, what would you do? How many songs un-compressed can I get into 4gb? Before I go buy my music downloads, which of these will help get the job done?-- rhapsody, e-music, real one player music match, napster, streamwaves, or media player. I hope you can help with some of your technical knowledge.

I was excited to see this article, but disappointed after reading it. Why not get into more detail, block diagrams and such, as another poster said? The article was pretty useless. Why not make this a monthly article where you tear down some piece of equipment (wireless router, palm, cell phone, etc.) but give lots of detail (schematics)? Make it a 10-page article that I would read.

For now, I read Pease Porridge and then pitch the magazine.

Why no block diagram(s)? Why no BOM(s) with cost estimates? Those would be helpful to people working on similar but different products.

Thanks. I enjoyed the read. I have always wondered about the screens. I mean, have they remained constant in quality or have there been slight or any improvements, apart from the photo iPod ?

"By that tally, he suggested that the iPod 'may be as much a hook to sell Macs as a profit generator in itself.'"

Possible, but don't forget to factor in costs for R&D, manufacturing, shipping and marketing.

OK MacHeads - mellow out. ED is FOR Engineers, by Engineers. One of the few Tech Mags that I value. Important details here are the ELECTRONICS, not the color scheme or other aesthetics. Now, I'll try to read the article, and still get some work done this morning. zac4mac

>But all these technical details...seems to miss the point completely.

Well, considering this is Electronic Design magazine, obviously aimed at electrical engineers, it appears that you're the one who's missing the point.

Would you dissect your cat to understand why you love it?

I found the article fascinating. But all these technical details do very little to describe the earth-changing way that my iPod has allowed me to enjoy my CD collection again. The iPod might be 2 CD's thick, or 2.1 CDs thick. It might have 8 hours or 12 hours of battery life... It might use a Hitachi drive or a scroll wheel... but all that seems to miss the point completely.

Mac Rocks! Thanks for the inside story on the creation of the greatest gadget known to man, well, since the advent of the Microchip anyway

Good stuff. I love going retro, even if retro means going back just 3 years...

missing too much information about the 4th gen model and the photo.

"umm, no they were under the screen, the went around the outer edge of the scroll wheel for the newest generation."

Umm, yeah, idiot, the buttons for each generation in fact were exactly as he described them. 4G buttons are underneath the scroll wheel, not around it.

1st and 2nd gen were around wheel as separate buttons. 3rd was under the screen, they lit up. 4th (latest) are part of the wheel.

This reads more like a historical advertisement than a technical teardown.

Okay story, tells a bit of the 'facts' of the iPod.

But, there are some errors with the description of the first iPod. First of all, it wasn't technically 'all-white'. Though the front was held in the same white, the back was polished steel. Second, the iPod's buttons weren't aligned under the screen (that was first the case with the 3rd generation iPod), they were rather aligned around the scroll wheel. 'Menu' on top, on the left was 'Back', on the right was 'Forward' and below was 'play/pause'.

See this image for reference: http://www.envynews.com/reviews/images/41/bigthumb.jpg

Greetings,

Dfiant