Near where I live, there’s a clothing store called Peachfrog that lures people into their store by giving out free little neoprene gadget cases on the street. They each have a spot cut out for the iPod’s touch wheel. The other day, the guy manning the giveaway table was yelling, “Free iPad cases!” I went over and examined the merch.

Him: It’s for your iPhone.

Me: I thought you said iPad.

Him: Yeah, that’s what I mean.

Me: But aren’t these for the iPod?

Him: Huh?

Gosh, I’m so old! You see, back before the iPhone and iPad, there was the iPod. It was for music. It used this thing called Firewire, and the screen wasn’t touchable. I mean, you could touch it but you had to use a “click wheel” to maneuver the device. You couldn’t watch movies on it, or check your email, or make a call. You couldn’t even see album covers. All you could do was listen to music! That’s it! And yet, it was kind of the original magical gadget. It could hold 1000 songs and could fit in your jeans’ pocket! Unless you wore really small jeans. 

Above is the video from the iPod’s release in 2001. My friend Alex Pasternack of Motherboard posted it yesterday along with a thoughtful essay about how the iPod really did change our lives more than most of us realize. 

In the understated keynote address he gave on October 23rd, Steve Jobs (looking heavier than we remember him) introduced iPod. Not the iPod mind you. Jobs had the gall – the genius – to get rid of the “the” completely. Even if we haven’t followed suit yet (I haven’t heard anyone refer to their iPhone as simply “iPhone”), Jobs wants to get us closer to our computer, and we can’t do that if we keep calling it “the computer.” It has to have a proper name, something like Steve or Sally. HAL.

This was simply “iPod.”

Pop over to Motherboard to read the rest.