Some computer setups are more Apple-ish than others. Apple-y. Apple-centric. Today’s featured M1 Max MacBook Pro outfit welcomes a new Studio Display to replace a recently “retired” 20-inch Cinema Display, and that’s just the start of the Cupertino madness.
Almost everything else in the setup is Apple, too. The input devices, the audio gear — even some of the wall art. And what’s in the book collection? The Cult of Mac hardcover book.
Surely you already know that the newly redesigned MacBook Air is super thin. But you might not have realized just how very sleek it is. It’s actually slimmer than the original iPhone.
In fact, the macOS laptop is much, much thinner than a lot of other classic and recent Apple devices.
Photographer and writer Chris Denbow puts an interesting twist on his computer setup. He credits its “Dark Mode” — which is obvious in the photographs of the desk and the room, but extends to the machines and the software he uses — for boosting his focus and creativity. He said the dark theme gives him a “space dedicated to creativity.”
“Introducing ‘Dark Mode,’ a minimal, monochromatic home office/workspace that helps eliminate distractions, [and] allows focus and productivity,” Denbow told Cult of Mac.
The following is from the introduction to The Cult of iPod, my 2005 book about the massive impact of the tiny music player. Introduced in 2001, the iPod quickly became one of the most important gadgets of all time. It transformed Apple and it brought a lot of joy into people’s lives. All told, Apple sold about 400 million iPods before officially pulling the plug on the device Tuesday.
I hope this intro captures why I loved the iPod, as did millions of other people.
Fire, the wheel, and the iPod. In the history of invention, gadgets don’t come more iconic than Apple’s digital music player. The iPod is to the 21st century what the big band was to the ’20s, the radio to the ’40s, or the juke-box to the ’50s — the signature technology that defines the musical culture of the era. And what a marvelous technology the iPod is. Inside Apple’s little white box is magic, pure magic, in the guise of music.
Soon after Apple officially killed the iPod on Tuesday, users flooded Twitter with remembrances of the little music player that changed the world when it barged onto the scene in 2001.
From tech influencers to industry analysts to garden-variety music lovers — you know, the folks whose ears lit up when Apple gave them a device that put 1,000 songs in their pockets — it was a genuine iPod lovefest.
Here are some of the finest tributes to the iPod.
It’s the end of an era — Apple has stopped making the once-iconic iPod. The little music player helped save Apple, and made the company a powerhouse in the music industry, but its day is over.
The last model is the iPod touch, which “will be available while supplies last,” Apple said Tuesday in a press release.
Editor’s note: We originally published this illustrated history of the iPod to celebrate the device’s 10th anniversary on Oct. 22, 2011 (and updated it a decade later). We republished it on May 10, 2022, when Apple finally pulled the plug on the iPod.
The iPod grew out of Steve Jobs’ digital hub strategy. Life was going digital. People were plugging all kinds of devices into their computers: digital cameras, camcorders, MP3 players.
The computer was the central device, the “digital hub,” that could be used to edit photos and movies or manage a large music library. Jobs tasked Apple’s programmers with making software for editing photos, movies and managing digital music. While they were doing this, they discovered that all the early MP3 players were horrible. Jobs asked his top hardware guy, Jon Rubinstein, to see if Apple could do better.
For the first computer setup featured in the new year, we look backward. Not to the recently subsided and mostly loathed 2021, but further back to a controversial Apple product launch from nearly a decade ago. And deeper into Apple’s storied history. Cult of Mac reader Michael De Jong shared some interesting older gear and some iconic imagery with us in his setup photographs.
SpotCam recently unveiled its new SpotCam Pano 2, a smart, 5-megapixel cloud security AI camera with free, full-time, continuous cloud recording to make sure you always have your footage. The company, founded in Taiwan in 2013, said it’s the only camera brand to offer that.
An accidental collaboration with Apple saved NBC sitcom The Office from cancellation during its second season.
A fifth-generation iPod took a starring role in an episode of the comedy series. Then, the unlikely cameo spurred sales of reruns of the show on iTunes. And the rest is history.
The iPod’s iconic click wheel had a good run, launching in 2004 with the iPod mini. It joined the fourth-generation iPod’s design later that year. It even auditioned in the odd product concept over the years. Finally, in 2014, the company phased it out with the iPod Classic.
But nothing great is gone forever, as a free new web music player app shows.
It’s Christmas in May, June and July. Many people are taking delivery on the colorful new M1 iMacs. Others are jealously awaiting delivery while drooling over photographic evidence on social media of others’ recent shipments.
And computer setups everywhere are being refreshed with the dazzling new all-in-one machines (see Cult of Mac’s M1 iMac review roundup). Redditor 17parkc is just one example, sporting a brand-spanking-new blue iMac. They even posted a video showing off the upgrade.
Tony Walker has been an Apple user since 2003. As a college student in his early 20s, he did his classwork on a 12-inch PowerBook G4 and a 3rd generation iPod during downtime at his graveyard-shift job.
Things have changed a little almost two decades later.
Picked up a new Apple device at a big discount this weekend? Now it’s time to sell your old ones and make back some cash for the holidays. Cult of Mac is here to help with a sweet Cyber Monday buyback deal.
Sell your old Apple devices to us today and we’ll give you an extra $15 for each one. This deal ends at 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, December 1, so take advantage of it while you can
The seventh-generation iPod nano, Apple’s last model, will be added to the company’s list of “vintage” products later this month.
First introduced in 2015, the device was marketed as the thinnest iPod ever, with the ability to connect to Bluetooth headphones and speakers, a built-in FM radio tuner, and a 2.5-inch color display.
Apple teamed up with the U.S. government to build a modified iPod that might have been a stealth Geiger counter for detecting and measuring ionizing radiation, claims former Apple software engineer David Shayer.
In an article for TidBits, Shayer — who left Apple in 2015 — described the secret project as a “special assignment” only known to about four people at Apple. It was his job to assist two engineers working for a U.S. defense contractor to the Department of Energy.
Rapper 50 Cent claims that he personally pitched Steve Jobs on paying him $150,000 to promote the iPod in his 2003 music video for the hit song “P.I.M.P.”
“You think you could sell an iPod? I could sell an iPod,” 50 recalled telling Jobs in a recent interview. “Jimmy [Iovine] will tell you, in that 10 minutes that I sat there, I got [Jobs] to give me $150,000. [It was] the first time Apple did product placement in anything, any music video.”
Sell your old Apple devices to Cult of Mac now to earn an additional $10 for Earth Day. We typically pay more than other buyback services, and we cough up real cash, fast!
Find out how much your old iPhone, iPad, MacBook, and other Apple devices are really worth — and use our promo code to get even more.
Of all of Apple’s creations, the iPod is a sentimental favorite. For many, it was their first Apple device.
An iPod-inspired action figure called iBoy could be your gateway to other Apple-inspired toys from Hong Kong toymaker Philip Lee.
Fortune asked experts what product designs they consider truly great, and Apple features very prominently in the responses. iPhone and Mac captured the top two places in the list of 100, and has four products in the top 20.
They beat out some other amazing designs, from Lego bricks and the 747 to the Apollo 11 spacecraft.
Unnamed Target retail store employees are sharing details of what some believe are soon-to-be-released Apple updates using purported images of product listings from the companies retail inventory system.
The supposed new products include Apple AirPods X Generation, a 10.5-inch iPad, a new generation Apple TV, a new iPod touch and a series of new Apple Watch bands.
Whether it’s smartwatches or smart speakers, Apple rarely rushes to be the first company to move into a new product category. But once Apple’s decided to commit, it moves pretty darn quickly — as an iPod anecdote shared (indirectly) by former Apple exec Tony Fadell makes clear.
In a tweet made by the CEO of Stripe, Patrick Collison, Tony “Podfather” Fadell reveals the timeline of the original iPod. And it was pretty mind-blowingly intensive.
A large white room filled with row upon row of just about every Apple computer you can imagine, all in pristine condition. On the walls are framed copies of Apple’s black-and-white “Think Different” ads. Sunlight streams through the large windows, giving everything a warm glow.
Is this heaven? The world’s greatest Apple Store? Nope, it’s Dubai, actually. Home to Jimmy Grewal, a collector of vintage Apple computers and one of the most impressive collections you’re likely to find anywhere.
Soccer star Christiano Ronaldo is worth roughly $450 million. He has invested in a hotel chain, owns a $3 million sports car, lives in a $6 million house and has a lifetime deal with Nike worth a reported $1 billion.
But when it comes to listening to music, he’s fine with an iPod shuffle.
Recent rumors suggest that Apple is leaning on another company to help develop its highly anticipated augmented reality headset. At first, I thought that sounded crazy. Apple Glasses look set to be the company’s biggest new product launch since Apple Watch. Surely Cupertino would keep development of something that important in-house?
But when you look back over Apple’s history of joint ventures, it starts to make more sense. Apple tends to partner with third-parties in very specific circumstances — and Cupertino knows exactly what it’s doing.