Folks romanticize CDs, but I remember using portable CD players back when there was no other option. Even mild bumps would cause the audio to cut out briefly—what we called skipping—and nearly everybody’s CDs themselves were covered in fine scratches. As often as not, it was common for tracks to get stuck or lose chunks of audio entirely as the scratches interfered.
Digital media players such as the Microsoft Zune and Apple iPod were a revelation when they became mainstream in the Aughts (2000s). No more scratched CDs, no more need to carry around a booklet of them on a road trip. They seem quaint now, but they changed how an entire generation of Millennials listened to music.
These are the best five from the iPod’s 21-year run from 2001 to when Apple killed them all off in 2022…
5. 4th generation iPod classic
This is the version of the large, original iPod that was the first generation to receive Apple’s excellent Click Wheel, replacing the Touch Wheel of the third-generation iPod Classic. The iPod Mini was actually the first iPod to gain the wonderful device that I consider the most satisfying user interface on a device I’ve ever used. It still had a monochromatic display, though. Color would have to wait.
4. iPod photo
Immediately after the 4th Generation iPod Classic, Apple released the iPod Photo. It kept the same iPod Classic body, but it packed a color screen. For the first time, you could see the album art on your screen, rather than scrolling through an olive-and-black monochrome that looked like the display from an ancient scientific calculator.
3. 4th generation ipod shuffle
The Shuffle fulfilled a desire for smaller units that could be clipped to a waistband during physical activity without a comparatively large iPod Mini bouncing around in their pockets, if their gym shorts even had pockets. Reduced to just controls without a screen, the Shuffle was barebones but got the job done. The 4th generation was the longest-lived, produced from 2010 to 2017.
2. 1st generation iPod nano
Originator of the fantastic Click Wheel, the iPod Mini was an attempt to pare down the iPod Classic (not yet known as the Classic) into a more compact form while retaining a screen. It wasn’t all that much smaller, though, and so it doesn’t make the cut.
But the iPod that replaced it does. The Nano succeeded in replacing the second-generation iPod Mini seven months after the latter debuted in February 2005, and it was sufficiently small to make it worthwhile. It kept the Click Wheel and gained a color screen.
1. 1st generation iPod touch
By the time the original iPhone launched in 2007, everyone knew that candybar smartphones with all-display designs were the future. Nobody had a shred of doubt that devices like the iPod had much of a future. Smartphones would surely take over their use, as they eventually did.
But smartphones were still expensive and exotic to many people. Those who didn’t want to shell out on expensive, immature smartphone technology could get a taste of the experience with the all-touchscreen iPod Touch in 2007. Plus, it could hold a lot more songs than the original iPhone.
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