{"id":3008,"date":"2011-09-27T10:08:57","date_gmt":"2011-09-27T00:08:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/?p=3008"},"modified":"2011-10-15T09:11:28","modified_gmt":"2011-10-14T22:11:28","slug":"the-brief-history-of-portable-audio-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/culture\/the-brief-history-of-portable-audio-players\/","title":{"rendered":"The brief history of portable audio players"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The portable cassette player changed the way we listen to music. Image: Shutterstock.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The invention that\u00a0revolutionised\u00a0an industry.<\/strong>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sony released the Walkman portable cassette player in July 1979, introducing us to the strange pleasure of private listening in public places.<\/p>\n

The D-50, Sony’s first portable CD player, emerged in November 1984 and was soon nicknamed the Discman.<\/p>\n

The first digital music players appeared in 1998, but most had complex interfaces and limited storage capacity.<\/p>\n

The Personal Jukebox, an oversized, expensive digital music device released in 1999, spurred the iPod’s development because it used MP3 files.<\/p>\n

The iPod was not invented by a single person, but by a team of engineers and designers who worked in total secrecy for Apple.<\/p>\n

Believe it or not, digital product engineer Anthony Fadell<\/a> shaped early iPod prototypes by smashing fishing weights with a sledgehammer.<\/p>\n

Apple’s Phil Schiller <\/a>thought up the iPod’s iconic scroll wheel: “You can’t hit the plus button a thousand times “\u00a6 why not just go around?”\u009d<\/p>\n

Vinnie Chieco, the man credited with coining the name “\u02dciPod’, was inspired by a quote from\u00a0Kubrick’s masterpiece A Space Odyssey 2001<\/em>: “Open the Pod Bay door, Hal.”<\/p>\n