In the year of 2005 the Apple came out with four new iPods, the iPod Shuffle First Generation, the iPod Mini Second Generation, the iPod Nano First Generation, and the iPod Fifth Generation!   It also included an upgrade to the iPod Photo, it wasn’t much of a change, mostly just the music capacity.

The iPod Shuffle First Generation, released on January 11, 2005, was created so that the user could easily load the iPod with songs that would be played in a random order. Owners of previous iPod Models used the “shuffle” setting, and the new iPod Shuffle was a way of implementing the ”shuffle” option without having to spend a lot of money. iTunes has the “auto-fill” option, which selects songs at random either from your music library or from a specific playlist, and copies as many as will fit into iPod shuffle’s memory space.

Specs:

Capacity: 512 MB (0.5GB), 1 GB

Connection: USB

Compatibility: Mac / Windows

Battery Life: 12 hours

(iPod Shuffle First Generation)

The brand new iPod Mini Second Generation was released February 22, 2005 with a few upgrades and features.  This iPod it didn’t come with a FireWire cable or an AC power adapter to keep the iPod from being too costly.  This new Mini had brighter color variants with a longer battery life.  The Click Wheel lettering matched body color to increase the eye appeal.  Gold was the only color that was discontinued because it was so un popular.

Specs:

Capacity: 4, 6 GB

Connection: Firewire / USB

Compatibility: Mac / Windows

Battery Life: 18 hours

                                (iPod Mini Second Generation)

The next iPod created a lot of hype because it was such a huge difference in the previous iPods.  This iPod, released September 7, 2005, is the iPod Nano First Generation.

                Apple developers worked on the design of the iPod Nano only nine months before it was released!  The outer shell of this iPod was easily scratched but it was very tough.  A website called ‘Ars Technica” ran this iPod through many tests.  After being sat on, dropped by a jogger, dropped four times from a car moving at various speeds, being driven over twice by the car, and then finally dropped from nine feet onto concrete, the unit’s screen was damaged but it could still play music!  The iPod finally quit playing music after being thrown 40 feet into the air and landing on concrete.

                This iPod Nano kicked off the release of many accessories for the iPod, including armbands and silicone “tubes” designed to bring color to the nano and protect it from scratches, as well as a combination lanyard-earphone accessory that hangs around the neck, which kept the earphone cords from getting tangled up.

Specs:

Capacity: 1, 2, 4 GB

Connection: Firewire (limited) / USB

Compatibility: Mac / Windows

Battery Life: 14 hours

(iPod Nano First Generation)

On October 12, 2005, the iPod Fifth Generation (also known as the iPod Video) was released for sale. 

This iPod a much larger screen and a smaller Click Wheel. This is the first classic iPod to be available in a different color scheme in a non-special edition form, as a black option was added along with the white, and the second full redesign of the iPod’s creative design with its changed proportions.  This upgraded iPod return to a fully flat front plate, but its rear casing is more rounded.

Specs:

Capacity: 30 – 80 GB

Connection: Firewire (limited) / USB

Compatibility: Mac / Windows

Battery Life: 14 – 20 hours

(iPod 5th generation)

Part 1: Here

Part 2: Here

Part 3: Link Coming Soon