Apple has introduced the iPod classic - a medial player that is portable. It is the pride of the iPod family of Apple. Till now the market has seen six generations of the iPod classic. The term `classic` has been used to the sixth generation of the device. It made its debut on 5th September 2007. Hitherto the generic term used was just `iPod`.



All iPods have colour displays using anti-aliased graphics as well as text with sliding facilities for animation. All have five buttons but the later ones - from the 4th generation onwards - use a click wheel. This makes the gadget free from cluttering and the minimum of interfacing. The common five buttons are the menu, center (for selecting an item on the menu), play or pause button that is also used for switching on and off the set, skip forward and skip backwards. The special characteristic of the iPod is its storage capacity. The hard disk can spin up and copy of 30 MB of songs coming in into a RAM. This saves on power.

The first generation of iPod classic made its debut on 23rd October 2001. It had a 5GB hard drive that had the potential to store 1,000 songs. The best thing about the iPod classic was its small size. It used a 1.8`` hard drive while its peers in the market used 2.5`` ones. Thus iPod is easier to navigate by controlling a scroll wheel, button for selecting center as well as 4 subsidiary buttons placed around the wheels. The battery lasted 12 hours.

The second generation of iPod classic made its entry on 20th March 2002. The body was the same but the hold switch consisted of a new design. The fire-wire port came with a cover. The mechanical wheel was done away with. Instead there was a touch sensitive wheel. The corners and edges of the front plate were rounded. The price was also reduced while the capacity strength increased to 20 GB.

The third generation of iPod classic that made its debut on 18th April 2003 was totally new in looks and mechanism. The fire-wire port was replaced with a dock-connector. The touch wheel was totally non-mechanical with the buttons placed in a row sandwiched between the screen and touch wheel. A wired remote connector was used. This generation of the iPod classic had a 4-pin jack next to the headphone port. The battery life however was lessened to 8 hours due to the use of lithium iron battery. Previously lithium polymer battery was being used. All the iPods were compatible with Mac and PC. iTunes and musicmatch all crowed inside the iPod classic. Later musicmatch was discontinued.

On July 24th the 4th generation of iPod classic appeared on the scene. It was much slimmer. The button arrangement was different. The touch wheel was replaced with the click wheel. The price too was reduced thus making it within easy reach of a larger consumer group. The strength went up to 40GB and the battery life extended to 12 hours.

The 5th generation was one step ahead and entered the market on 12th October 2005. It came to be known informally as the iPod video having a QVGA screen. The click wheel was smaller. An alternative colour scheme was introduced together with `Signature iPod White.` It has a front plate that is fully flat.

On 5th September 2007 the world was introduced to the sixth generation iPod classic. The body was slimmer with a remarkably improved battery life. Up to 40 hours of music can be played and 7 hours of video. The front plat is anodized aluminum and polycarbonate plastic. This time the signature model of white was replaced by silver.