Once again, living my life according to movies has continued to hinder my progress as a human being and upstanding citizen. I thought by 2001 we’d have flying cars, awesome space ships, evil computers, and the space baby to deal with. Due to these admittedly naive thoughts, I’ve rediscovered why I love the 3rd Generation iPod so much.
Now before you stand up and degree that I’m one of those people afraid of the continued progression of technology and such (otherwise known as a Luddite), I would like to explain that my reasons for loving this “old” device is on a completely aesthetic basis.
I definitely when the engineers when to redesign the iPod of the time, they had just got done re-watching 2001: A Space Odyssey for the 100th time, because this is something Dr. David Bowman would’ve been using while taking a break from performing his duties on the Discovery One.
My curiosity for a connection grew and came across some information on Wikipedia which referenced me to a Wired article stating that the name iPod was definitely inspired by the movie when it came to naming it the iPod.
The name iPod was proposed by Vinnie Chieco, a freelance copywriter, who (with others) was called by Apple to figure out how to introduce the new player to the public. After Chieco saw a prototype, he thought of the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey and the phrase “Open the pod bay door, Hal!”, which refers to the white EVA Pods of the Discovery One spaceship.
The 3rd Gen iPod is an orgy of white and red, a color motif thoroughly present on the sets used on the movie. Stanley Kubrick was a master of his art. You could freeze frame the movie at numerous points and create a beautiful photograph from it.
I am a bit disappointed that the current Classic lineup evolved to become so boring and lifeless. In fact, it seems like the only product Apple’s lineup that still has the “pure” white plastic look is the white Macbook. It somehow survived the aluminum revolution that Apple has been using since the introduction of the original iPhone.
Now I’m not against the durability and supposed eco-friendliness of aluminum. I know they used some white plastic on their 3G iPhones, but it lacked the flair of their earlier products. I also want to state that I love my iPhone 4, iOS4, and the touch screen UI. I’m not knocking what Apple has become as a I company, this is more of a love letter to a great design.
As I type this, the 3rd Gen iPod is sitting right next to me. It truly is one sexy beast. Besides the red backlit buttons, the wheel in slightly indented, giving it a very clean and futuristic look. Combine that with the blue backlit display, nice contoured sides, and this becomes one hell of a looker. Now I know I might be looking at this nostalgic tinted glasses.
I’m not blind.
It’s big and clunky, not to mention it’s rocking a black and white LCD screen and speaking of which, let’s not even get started on how outdated the technology became in 2 generations (quieter drives, the click wheel, smaller size, color LCD, etc.) But like any good design, you can look past the flaws and respect how timeless it still is.
