Apple iPod Classic 2nd Gen

iPod Classic 2nd Gen

Product Brand: Apple

Editor's Rating:
3

Pros

• Click wheel for easy navigation
• Slim and portable design
• Long battery life of up to 12 hours
• Support for MP3, AAC, WAV, and AIFF audio formats
• Compatibility with both Mac and Windows computers

Cons

• No color screen
• Limited video playback capabilities
• No built-in FM radio or voice recorder
• No Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connectivity
• No support for newer audio formats like FLAC or ALAC

Apple iPod Classic 2nd Gen Review and Features

The second generation of the iPod was introduced on July 17, 2002. Using a similar body style as the first generation, the top of the iPod was redesigned, switching from a single swooping cutout in the backplate to mount the FireWire port, hold switch and headphone assembly to individual ports to be cut into the backplate to allow these ports to be accessed.

Notably, the second-generation iPods and the updated first-generation iPods were now Windows-compatible. These versions came with a 4-pin to 6-pin FireWire adapter and were bundled with Musicmatch Jukebox. At that time, iTunes was Mac only and unavailable for Windows.

The second-generation class was available in 10GB for US$399 and 20 GB for US$499. The first-generation 5GB iPod was carried over, but its price was reduced to US$299.

In December 2002, Apple unveiled its first limited edition iPods, with either Madonna’s, Tony Hawk’s, Beck’s signature or No Doubt’s band logo engraved on the back for an extra US$50.

The iPod Classic 2nd generation (2002) replaces the scroll wheel used on the iPod 1st generation with a touch-sensitive scroll wheel. Previously users had to turn the wheel physically, now they could only touch to achieve the results.

The iPod Classic 2nd generation also had a larger hard drive, a cover to the Firewire port, a thinner Firewire cable, a hold switch revised, and a wired remote control. A carrying case was added.

Apple used the suffix classic to describe the iPod 2nd generation. However, this definition wasn’t officially included until the 6th generation.

The iPod Classic (stylized and marketed as iPod classic and formerly iPod Video or just iPod) is a discontinued portable media player created and formerly marketed by Apple Inc.

Six generations of the iPod Classic and a spin-off (the iPod Photo) were later re-integrated into the main iPod line. All generations used a 1.8-inch (46 mm) hard drive for storage. The “classic” suffix was formally introduced with the rollout of the sixth-generation iPod on September 5, 2007.

Before this, all iPod Classic models were simply referred to as iPods; the first iPod released in 2001 was part of this line called “Classic”. It was available in silver or black from 2007 onwards, replacing the “signature iPod white”.

On September 9, 2014, Apple discontinued the iPod Classic. The sixth-generation 160 GB iPod Classic was the last Apple product to use the original 30-pin dock connector and the distinctive click wheel.

The iPod’s operating system is stored on its dedicated storage medium. An additional NOR flash ROM chip (either 1 MB or 512 KB) contains a bootloader program that tells the device to load its OS from the storage medium.

Each iPod has 32 MB of RAM, although the 60 GB and 80 GB fifth-generation and sixth-generation models have 64 MB. A portion of the RAM is used to hold the iPod OS loaded from firmware, but most of it serves to cache songs from the storage medium.

For example, an iPod could spin its hard disk up once and copy approximately 30 MB of upcoming songs into RAM, thus saving power by not requiring the drive to spin up for each song.

Custom firmware has also been developed, such as Rockbox (up to 1G – 6G requires emCORE) and iPodLinux (up to 5G, 6G has an encrypted firmware.), which offer open-source alternatives to the standard firmware and operating system.

iPods with colour displays use anti-aliased graphics and text with sliding animations. All iPods have five buttons, and the later generations (4th and above) have the buttons integrated into the click wheel. This design gives an uncluttered, minimalist interface, though the circuitry contains multiple momentary button switches.

Full Technical Specifications