Whenever I have to take out together some information about Apple ’s past — as I did latterly to assemblethis timeline about the iPod — I have a riches of in - house imagination at my disposal . Just a few feet away from my desk is a bookcase containing every issue ofMacworldpublished since 2000 — if I necessitate to go further back in prison term , there ’s a room in our office containing the intact mark archive . And I have a FileMaker database on my gruelling effort that list the specs , release dates , and other pertinent data point for Apple desktops , laptop , and iPod — we habituate this database to generate the Hardware Guide you ’ll find elsewhere on the internet site .
But these are n’t the only peter I apply when it ’s time to turn over into Apple ’s history . I like to double- and triple - substantiation my bill to ensure that the information I have jibe with what ’s floating out there in the world . Then , there ’s the not - insignificant challenge of confirming dates — because of print publishing tip times , an clause appearing in the January 2002 yield ofMacworld , for lesson , may have been compose in September of the previous year … or October … or possibly even November . So it ’s safe to have multiple sources confirming that , even though the first mention of the iPod in the pages ofMacworldwas in January 2002 , the twist was really unveil in previous October 2001 and did n’t ship until November .
So here are some of the on-line imagination I ground priceless while fact - check my latest timeline . I wanted to give their creators a public hat tip , as well as let Mac users concerned in Apple ’s chronicle know about some outstanding online tool that are just a universal resource locator away .
Any time I have to denote to an old Mac model in an clause , one of the first author outside ofMacworldthat I check isapple-history.com , a collection of data on every Mac ever made . ( I profile the site and its creator , Glen Sanford , in the January 2002 variant ofMacworld — coincidentally , the same issue that stick in the world to the iPod . ) Besides the skinny on the Macintosh LC II and the Quadra 950 , apple-history.com also has an extensive listing ofiPod models throughout sentence . It ’s a site in spades worth adding to your Bookmark ginmill . ( I would be neglectful if I did n’t mention a similar resource , EveryMac.com , which also offers expert specs onhistoric Mac framework and display . )
While google around the cyberspace , I came across thisterrific visual timeline of iPod releasesatMacTeens.com . Laying out each iPod model across a horizontal timeline really nominate it easy to follow along with the when and how much of iPod release . This timeline also shows when Apple discontinued offerings , which is a helpful addition .
One last great tool is Ian Page’sMactracker coating . This searchable database includes info on intimately every Apple product ever made — and that let in iPods . My fellow worker Dan Frakes was so impressed he gave it a - paygrade and included it in our late Best Software Gems round - up .
