October 21, 2024

— Steve Jobs

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Ultra-Portable

Back at the turn of the millenium, there was a debate. Did the new century start in 2000, or did we technically have to wait until 2001?

Mathematics aside, most everyone went with January 1, 2000.

But I think people also realized that chronological eras -- the way we think of what life was like in the 1960s or the 1980s or the 1990s, for example -- don't usually line up exactly with the calendar.

As an example, I think a lot of people might have agreed the date on which the actual 21st century started -- at least, the 21st century American century -- was September 11, 2001.

But, I think there's reason to consider a few other dates -- especially as more time goes by, and we can look back and see what milestones we didn't even notice at the time actually had significant effects down the road.

I think there's a case to be made for October 23, 2001 -- so, 23 years ago this week.

That was the date on which Steve Jobs took the stage at a very low-key event to explain that Apple had developed a portable audio storage device that could hold 5 GB of data.

Actually, that's the technical description; what he really introduced was the original iPod.

But, he was savvy enough to convert the idea of 5 GB -- which few people had any frame of reference for -- into something much more relatable: a device that would allow you to carry 1,000 songs, the equivalent of most people's entire music library at the time, in your pocket.

I'm aware that this was two decades ago, that an iPhone can now store more than 200 times as much without even thinking about the "cloud," and that there were MP3 players before the iPod.

Still, this was the product with which Apple moved past personal computers.

Seriously, if you take the time to go back and look at the presentation Jobs did, a big part was just how small it was compared to everything else on the market.

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"It's ultra-portable," he said. "Let me show you what I mean. The iPod is the size of a deck of cards: 2.4 inches wide, 4 inches tall, and it is barely over three-quarters of an inch thick. This is tiny, and it also weighs only 6.5 ounces, less than most of your cell phones."

Then, 10 minutes into the presentation, Jobs reached into his pocket and showed that he'd been carrying one the entire time.

Again, a bit of a blah moment now but groundbreaking at the time, and that's the point. (It's also striking how small the audience was, how low-tech the presentation was -- and frankly to realize that Jobs would live only 10 more years after this moment.)

No, the launch of the iPod didn’t initially attract widespread acclaim. Some in the tech world were skeptical, with critics pointing to its $399 price tag as prohibitively expensive.

In fact, a poll of Apple superfans immediately after the unveiling showed that 40 percent said they weren't interested, with price being a key factor. That said, however, "the remaining 60 percent had either already ordered iPods or were virtually drooling onto their keyboards," as David Pogue put it in the New York Times a day or two later.

In the end, the iPod’s elegant design, ease of use, and capacity to hold an entire music library set it apart from its competitors. Its seamless integration with iTunes would prove critical, and over the next few years, it would become synonymous with the digital music revolution.

The iPod lasted 21 years, with Apple ending production of the last descendent product in 2022, after selling 450 million of the devices.

And from there, you can draw a straight line to the iPhone (and its Android competitors), and to social media, artificial intelligence, and all of the ways that the digital world is now converging with the physical world for better and for worse.

So, that's progress, and sometimes we can only see it in retrospect.

Let's give the late Steve Jobs the quote of the day. He was talking about his own life when he said the following, but I think it applies to these big societal moments as well:

"You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something—your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."

I'm interested to know what you think: When did the 21st-century start, or the 2020s, for that matter (actually, I think that one is kind of a no-brainer, probably March 2020 when we all started to recognize that Covid was a thing)?

But what moments do you think became momentous only in retrospect? Let us know in the comments.

Did you see ...

• Kamala Harris celebrated her 60th birthday on the campaign trail on Sunday while Donald Trump visited a McDonald’s and doubled down on his dangerous rhetoric labeling Democrats as “enemies from within,” as both candidates tried to shore up support in key states ahead of the US presidential election. (The Guardian)
• Elon Musk, who's gone all-in on Republican Donald Trump's candidacy for the White House, is pledging to give away $1 million a day to voters for signing his political action committee's petition backing the Constitution. The giveaway is raising questions and alarms among some election experts who say it is a violation of the law to link a cash handout to signing a petition that also requires a person to be registered to vote. (AP)
• Just under 14 million Americans have already voted in the November election, either by mail (I'm one of them) or in-person early voting. If you'd like to drive yourself crazy discerning a trend or a preview, here's a link. (NBC News)
• Cuba's electrical grid collapsed again on Sunday, the fourth such failure in 48 hours, with a hurricane making landfall to compound the island's misery and threaten further havoc on its decrepit infrastructure. Cuba earlier on Sunday had said it was making headway restoring service after multiple false starts, though millions of people remained without electricity more than two days after the grid's initial collapse. (Yahoo News)
• John Kinsel, one of the last remaining Navajo Code Talkers, has died at the age of 107. Born in Cove, Arizona, Kinsel lived in the Navajo community of Lukachukai. He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1942 and became one of the elite Navajo Code Talkers during World War II. Kinsel served with the 9th Marine Regiment and the 3rd Marine Division during the Battle of Iwo Jima. (Arizona Central)
• It feels like a distant memory, but once upon a time America's carmakers produced vehicles in a veritable rainbow of colors. As recently as 2005, more than half of all automobiles on the road were painted a color other than black, white, silver, or gray. Some of the tints even sported names straight out of a Hot Wheels collection: Tangerine Scream, Go Green, Plum Crazy. Today, less than 20% of vehicles listed in our database of 1.7 million cars are a color other than black, white, silver, or gray. In an age of infinite digital luminosity, America's roads have become as dull and washed out as a Civil War daguerreotype. (Business Insider)
• Major League Baseball got probably its best-possible matchup in the World Series starting Friday, after the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers clinched the ALCS and NLCS over the weekend. This is the 12th time they've played for the championship, but the first time since 1981. (ABC 7 Los Angeles)