Steve Job’s most Impulsive Decision

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The most mysterious iPod ever made: https://nebula.tv/videos/lowspecgamer-the-great-ipod-mystery

As Apple tries to find his way in the word again an impulsive decision by Steve Jobs turns into an adventure for a group of engineers that would define the future of handheld technology forever.

0:00 Intro
0:33 The fall and return of Jobs
1:11 The iMac
2:10 Napster and the MP3 revolution
3:35 The Rise of MP3 players
5:29 “We need to make a pocket sized music player”
7:08 Tony Fadell
8:32 PortalPlayer
10:13 “Managing” jobs
11:56 Final touches
12:35 The Battery problem
13:43 The reveal

Corrections
10:00 This is particularly weird given that ARM was partially and Apple venture. I have no idea at the moment why their dev tools were Windows only.

Thank you to Patrick Willems for being the guest voice for Steve Jobs: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF1fG3gT44nGTPU2sVLoFWg

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Credits:
Research and Writing: LowSpecAlex, F4mi
Voice over: LowSpecAlex
Editing: LowSpecAlex
3D animation: Windy, Divye
Art: Maiku no Koe
Spanish Translation, Audio editing and QA: Henrique von Buren
Thumbnail design: Maiku no Koe
VA director and sourcing: Jesús Hernández/Dubbing Home

Sources:
Story of Audion: https://panic.com/extras/audionstory/
On the Origin of the iPod:
https://www.wired.com/2006/10/straight-dope-on-the-ipods-birth/
On the Fadell side of the story: https://www.macworld.com/article/214911/the-birth-of-the-ipod.html
On the PortalPlayer side of the story: https://www.wired.com/2004/07/inside-look-at-birth-of-the-ipod/
On Apple using ARM dev kits that only run on Windows: https://tidbits.com/2020/08/17/the-case-of-the-top-secret-ipod/
On the real origin of the touch wheel: https://www.fastcompany.com/3016910/apples-inspiration-for-the-ipod-bang-olufsen-not-dieter-rams
On Steve Jobs throwing the prototype in an aquarium: https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/Heres-Why-Steve-Jobs-Dropped-The-First-iPod-Prototype-Into-An-Aquarium-To-Prove-A-Point/articleshow/45194583.cms
On the price and details of the Nomad Jukebox: http://www.iretron.com/blog/posts/technology-flashback-creative-nomad-jukebox-2000/

On the lawsuit that made mp3 players legal: Recording Industry Ass’n of America v. Diamond Multimedia Systems, Inc, 180 F.3d 1072 (9th Cir. 1999).

Steve Jobs by Walter Issac, page 865

Music by Epidemic Sound: http://epidemicsound.com/creator
Stock Footage from Getty

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