1. iPods and MP3 Players - past, present and future – Part 1
iPod Repair Hawaii: some thoughts from the professionals at MobileREMEDIES®
The Beginnings:
In the late 1990’s tape players were fading out and CD players were the new undisputed
champions of portable music. They weren’t any smaller than the cassette players but recordings were now
digital, without the distortions and noise inherent in any analog system. Sound quality and the ease of not
having to “rewind” and “fast-forward” to find the beginning of a track were enough to win the hearts of
music lovers everywhere! People bought stylish CD organizers, blissfully shuffling their disks to and from
their portable CD players, scratching a few along the way.
The problem created by digital sound was how to store and access the staggering amount of data
required to faithfully reproduce even a single song. The Compact Disk, a variation on HDD (hard disk
drive) technology, could squeeze 780MB of data onto a single disk, enough to hold a typical album of
about an hour of music, but required the microscopic synchronization of a rapidly spinning disk and a laser
beam. If you bumped your CD player or tried to jog with it, it would often skip. If you dropped it from
any height on a hard surface, it was time to get a new one! Wouldn’t it be great if a portable music player
could survive the “slings and arrows” of daily life?
This was the motivation behind the first MP3 players that emerged in
1998. They took advantage of two technological advances developed in the
late 1980’s and early 1990’s. The first was data compression algorithms,
standardized by the Motion Picture Experts Group (MP3 = MPEG Audio
Layer III), that reduced the amount of data required to reproduce quality
music, and the second was flash memory that could store data faithfully and
indefinitely in banks of transistors with no moving parts, even after the
electrical current was turned off. Flash memory was unaffected by bumps and
motion and could exchange data at much faster rates, but these modules were
very expensive and bulky in 1998 and the first MP3 player cost $250, had
32MB of flash memory and held only about 6-8 songs! The CD industry could
only laugh at such a device!
In the meantime, HDD technology was progressing rapidly and when
Toshiba developed a high capacity, miniature drive mechanism that could
withstand significantly more motion and impact before failing, Apple® saw the
light. In 2001, they produced their first iPod, linking it with their online music
store. It had 5GB of memory and comfortably held 1,000 songs! People took
notice and the love affair began!
TO BE CONTINUED…

2. iPods and MP3 Players - past, present and future – Part 2
iPod Repair Hawaii: some thoughts from the professionals at MobileREMEDIES®
(If you haven’t read Part 1, read it first)
Today’s Devices:
The iPod Classic now has up to 160GB of memory and according to Apple®, easily holds 40,000
songs, 200 hours of video or 25,000 photos! But, it still stores your data on a slow, bulky, energy
consuming, fragile, miniature hard drive and the writing is on the wall. The flash
memory of the original MP3 players,
initially embarrassed but never forgotten,
has flourished during these last 15 years
and has now advanced into its birthright!
The newest iPod Touch has up to 64GB
of flash memory meaning 16,000 songs,
10,000 photos or 80 hours of video with
no moving parts and phenomenal data
transfer speeds. More important, with this
and other new technologies, these devices
have evolved into something that can no
longer be simply called an “MP3 player” since that function
represents only a small fraction of its capabilities.
Some Predictions:
So, what does this tell us about the future? Is it a coincidence that
you must possess some expertise to tell the difference between a new iPod
Touch and an iPhone? We think not. Technology has brought us to a
point where our hand held computers have the sophistication and capacity
to multitask for us and to take over the functions of many other previously
“dedicated” devices. In short, music and movie players, cell phones,
cameras, voice recorders, GPS and game systems, watches, compasses, and
even flashlights, to name only a few, are now becoming incorporated into a
single “personal assistant” that doesn’t yet have its own official name but
that we presently call our cell phone. These devices will continue to
become more sophisticated and to merge slowly into a few useful formats
that fit our every need. Their internal memory functions will continue to
grow and high-speed data transfer combined with cloud technology leave
no end in sight!
iPod Repair Hawaii:
We are confident that these devices, in one form or another, are here to stay and will continue to
become more valuable and less disposable. We can all save money and resources by repairing them, often
recovering important data. At MobileREMEDIES®, we repair ALL Cell Phones, Game Systems,
iPod/MP3 Players, iPad/Tablet PC's and Computers, including water/liquid damage. If we can’t repair
your device, you pay nothing for the attempt. We sell refurbished units at low prices and pay cash or give
in-store credit for many used and broken devices. All of our products and services come with a 1-year
warranty. Go to www.mobileremedies.com or call 1-800-867-5048.