Happy Birthday to You!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy birthday Dear IPOD. Happy Birthday to YOU! Thats right folks. On October 23, 2001 the world saw the launch of the Apple IPOD. Thats right 5 years ago the term IPOD was unknown to the vast majority of people and the idea of having digital music was not maninstream. What a lot of people dont know is that the IPOD was not the first MP3 player.

That distinction can proudly go to the SaeHan Information Systems MPMan F10 in 1997, almost a full 4 years before the Ipod. The first mp3 player which had market success was the Rio PMP300 debuting in 1998.

The Rio became a very popular christmas gift but soon a "higher power" became upset with what they saw. It was in 1998 that the The Recording Industry Association of America(RIAA) filed a lawsuit against the manufacturers Diamond Multimedia. Diamond Multimedia won the lawsuit and the day for the digital music revolution. Unbeknownest to Diamond Media that court victory would start the Golden years for a file sharing system that passed music from one person to another. The writer of the program named it after his own childhood nickname and Napster was born.

While other music players would debut it was not until the Apple Ipod debuted on October 23, 2001 that the digital music revolution exploded. Working on some of the psotives and negaitves of previous products, the Ipod create3d a simple to use product. With the ease of its patented scroll wheel to naviage through your music, to the ease of one button operation, to the simplicity of transfering the music on your computer to your portable, the IPOD made a statment. It clearly demonstarted that you did not have to be some technofile to enjoy the IPOD, anyone could use it. It was this simplcity of ease and the true adage of "plug and play" that really made the Ipod popular. While many other devices such as webcams needed to have extra drivers downloaded or needed a fair amount of time reading the maunal, the Ipod was simple.

Frequent readers will know that Big Tex doesnt like to blow his own horn(ok fine I do)but he was one of the original Ipod users. In fact He purchased his Ipod on Dec 20, 2001. I still have that Ipod and was listening to it today. Compared to the ipod of today, it is certainly inferior. It does not play video, does not have a color screen, and has a microscopic 5 GIG drive. But it has accompanied me everywhere I go. It went with me to my internship at the psychiatric nursing home. It went with me as I scaled the Sears Tower. It went with me on my trips to Tokyo,Buenos Aires, Alaska, and Hawaii. It has kept me company on trains, planes, and automobiles from sea to shining sea and beyond. Here's to you Mr. Ipod: Happy 5th! Heres to another 5!