iPod Your first MP3 player?

[Analog Kid]

I never knew someone had an MP3 player camera. Weird... I guess I can see the utility in it, but wow... Yeah, I thought MP3 would be a slow growth fad, but saw where it could have some popularity. And now, after the iPod, everything Apple, pretty much, plays MP3s. I thought the first iPod was a disaster, having that physically spinning disc for a control. I saw it as a 'dust magnet', and a problem when it got junked up. And yet the iPod ruled the world for quite a long time.

I get the audio deficiencies of the MP3 music files, but since at the time I was flying a lot, I didn't care. I plugged my Bose QC's into my iPod, and drowned out the screaming kids, and chatty seat mates. 100% fidelity, or even, what, 80% fidelity is kind of overkill. *shrug*

I loved the guy that tried to put 100% accurate files on an MP3 player. He got, what, 6? And it took them a lot of time to get that in it. Tradeoffs... So much of life is about tradeoffs...

It kind of makes sense in some ways-- some of the most common uses of iPhone are probably the camera and music player, but now with the communications and more interactive display added in. At the time though, the small storage available on the storage cards just didn't quite deliver on the promise.

Travel is what sold me on the iPod, frankly. 1000 songs in your pocket, was compelling. The 40i though only had limited storage, so it probably held less than a CD (if you wanted room for photos) but with much less fidelity. I think iPod stepped up bit rate and made audio reproduction a priority whereas this Fujifilm camera probably did not and had storage measured in GB rather than MB. The benefits started to outweigh the drawbacks.

And it's just continued to get better from there, obviously.

As a point and shoot though, Fujifilm did a great job and then an even better job with the F700.

 

[ChinaRye]

The Compaq PA-1. Same size as a pager!
View attachment 1762520

Haha. That was my first MP3 player too. I still have it! If only I were willing to spend the money on the lightening to 3.5mm cable, I could hook up my APM to it...

 

[klpribula93]

Are either of these pages helpful?

Syncing an iPod with macOS Catalina

With the breakup of iTunes, the USB-based syncing of iPods and iOS devices has been moved into Finder. While I am fully on the Apple Music train, there are many users who still plug in their devices to move media onto them, and I'm glad macOS Catalina has been engineered with those users in...

512pixels.net

Use the Finder to sync your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with your Mac - Apple Support

The Finder is one of the ways that you can sync your device with your Mac.

support.apple.com

I'll give this a try tonight or tomorrow. My weekends are becoming busier and busier! Work has me slammed right now with a bunch of events that they want me to take photos of, and we have a couple of graduations at work too (I work for a college as the solo graphic designer and photographer). Trying to take a break from being on the screens a little bit this weekend, but I'll definitely try and see if those links will help. If not, I'll share a screenshot of what my computer is telling me.

 

[maxsquared]

I had a cassette Walkman in the 90s then moved on to Discman, then moved to a mini disc Walkman, all the joys of copying music to that thing.

My first MP3 player before I started my Apple journey iPods, it was a Sony MS Walkman, it uses Sony's proprietary memory stick and I remember the memory stick I had holds only like 20 songs or something, it was a long time ago.

 

[hammie14]

Oops Double post!

 

[hammie14]

Creative JukeBox Zen, I remember someone had an iPod about the same time, and I remember saying "iPod that's rubbish, it will never take off!"

How wrong I was ?

I also still have my Jukebox Zen!

 

[CPelletier]

The original iPod Video. I still have it though it's in pieces. I can't remember when it died but i had hoped that I could transfer music off it somehow and never got around to that.

 

[rafark]

A Dell DJ in September 2004. In January I had gone back to school (12th grade) after Christmas break and the person in the desk next to me had gotten one for Christmas. I had never seen an MP3 player before and was fascinated. I thought it was a minidisc player at first. I immediately wanted one. I started researching MP3 players right away and saw the iPod for the first time. I ended up buying the Dell DJ after going to college for its cheaper price. I watched for sales and found a package deal with the higher capacity model and an in line remote included. I remember rocking out to it on campus walking to class and at my on campus job (cleaning flower pots and watering plants in the botany lab- true story). My Dell DJ broke maybe 2 years later and was replaced with the iPod Video when that came out.

Wow look at that copycat!

 

[fenderbass146]

A Dell DJ in September 2004. In January I had gone back to school (12th grade) after Christmas break and the person in the desk next to me had gotten one for Christmas. I had never seen an MP3 player before and was fascinated. I thought it was a minidisc player at first. I immediately wanted one. I started researching MP3 players right away and saw the iPod for the first time. I ended up buying the Dell DJ after going to college for its cheaper price. I watched for sales and found a package deal with the higher capacity model and an in line remote included. I remember rocking out to it on campus walking to class and at my on campus job (cleaning flower pots and watering plants in the botany lab- true story). My Dell DJ broke maybe 2 years later and was replaced with the iPod Video when that came out.

Same, I loved my Dell DJ, I did have a Zen Micro for a while inbetween

 

[Mike Richardson]

iPod shuffle 1st gen., that I got for free from FreeiPodShuffles.com or some such site. Later I got a video iPod for free and then a first gen iPod touch that I gave to my mom. She still uses it for the timer functionality. (RIP iOS 6 before they had to go and screw it all up.)

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

Like that...brown emoji that people used to put after the ??
??

Um, yep!

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

Haha. That was my first MP3 player too. I still have it! If only I were willing to spend the money on the lightening to 3.5mm cable, I could hook up my APM to it... View attachment 1763715

I got that cable at Worst Try, Open Box.

Yeah, 'Open Box'? I don't understand that either. Huh? What about it didn't they understand? Um...

 

[AppleTO]

Creative MuVo Sport C100.

It was actually great! 256MB built in and there is an SD card slot inside. I’m not sure what the max size it will accept is, but I remember saving up and purchaing a (quite expensive at the time) 512MB SD card. There is even some games on it, an FM tuner, and other extras.

Think I had dropped it a million times. Little scratched up but it still works no problem. Takes a AA I believe.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

Creative MuVo Sport C100.

It was actually great! 256MB built in and there is an SD card slot inside. I’m not sure what the max size it will accept is, but I remember saving up and purchasing a (quite expensive at the time) 512MB SD card. There is even some games on it, an FM tuner, and other extras.

Think I had dropped it a million times. Little scratched up but it still works no problem. Takes a AA I believe.

View attachment 1771597

Wow! I have not seen that one before. (I found a 64M Compact (NOT!!!) Flash card just this morning. First thing I thought of was 'Will it work in the Rio?', and then I could look like a really old imbecile. ???)

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

I had a cassette Walkman in the 90s then moved on to Discman, then moved to a mini disc Walkman, all the joys of copying music to that thing.

My first MP3 player before I started my Apple journey iPods, it was a Sony MS Walkman, it uses Sony's proprietary memory stick and I remember the memory stick I had holds only like 20 songs or something, it was a long time ago.
View attachment 1764031

I remember seeing one of these. I was envious...

 

[TrueBlou]

I was quite late to the MP3 game, my first MP3 player being a 4th Gen iPod (B&W), which along with my other iPods, I still have.

Prior to that my digital music needs were with MiniDisc. I even upgraded to Hi-MD, despite having an iPod by the time. But that was mainly because it, as with my normal MiniDisc system, offered me the ability to do impromptu recordings of the band I was a roadie for at the time.

I’m glad that I’m a bit of a hoarder, I still store some backups of the wife’s and mine information on MiniDisc, floppies and Zip. Best form of security, something hardly anyone would know what to do with these days ?

 

[pshufd]

The Rio - i don't recall who made it. It was yellow plastic with a rubbery section and had a small amount of storage and an SD slot. Took two AAA batteries.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

The Rio - i don't recall who made it. It was yellow plastic with a rubbery section and had a small amount of storage and an SD slot. Took two AAA batteries.

Mine was a fake silver color (plastic) to make me think it was 'real metal', and, well, it sucked.

Somehow I lost the parallel adapter to feed it. I remember having it, but must have left it attached to something (or buried it in the backyard?).

I had that, and a Nomad (II?) that I never used. I do remember having *something* on the massive(ly small) chip that fed the Rio. But, heck, I remember using 8-inch floppies with an early computer I used in early high school. 'SmartCard's, weren't very smart, but considering that they were the first, one of the first, flash memory cards, they rocked the world. Big (physical size)? Yes. Limited capacity? Yes. The only game in town for a few years? Yep...

 

[Uric]

i think the first one was a creative zen stone

 

[urielakos]

yeah that was a good one

 

[urielakos]

yeah that was a good one

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

i think the first one was a creative zen stone

Nope. "In a world of iPod domination...'

 

[JCCL]

20 GB U2 iPod. That was one sexy beast

 

[Jack Neill]

I can't believe I used this thing now, but at the time it was the coolest thing I had ever seen.

 

[jimimac71]

Intel Pocket Concert 128MB Digital Audio Player​