Why a working iPod?
On 23 October 2001 Apple announced the iPod. Today, 23 October 2026, it is 25 years old: National iPod Day. A timeline would tell you about it. We wanted you to hold one again.
What's here
- The iPod: a playable iPod with a working click wheel, the clicker sound, menus, Now Playing, 24 invented songs, the four classic built-in games (Brick, Parachute, Music Quiz and an iPod Quiz), a Clock that counts the iPod's age, a Stopwatch, Notes, 13 achievements and 14 shells.
- The Museum: 27 iPods from 2001 to 2019, a chart of how many songs each could hold, and Higher or Lower.
- The Engraving Studio: engrave the back, fill an On-The-Go playlist, then share a link or download a PNG.
- Pocket Maths: your listening, measured in 2001 iPods.
How it works
The wheel. When you drag round the wheel, we measure the angle of your finger from the centre. Every 15° of turn is one “click”, so a full circle is 24 clicks. Clockwise scrolls down. A short tap on the top, left, right or bottom of the ring presses MENU, previous, next or play/pause. Hold the centre button for a little over a second to trigger hidden things.
The music. There are no audio files. Every song in the library is a short recipe: a tempo, key, mode, chord progression, style and random seed. A tiny synthesiser built on the Web Audio API turns that recipe into drums, bass, chords and a melody, live, in your browser. The songs, bands and albums are all invented. Any resemblance to a real 2006 emo band is a coincidence. Mostly.
Your data. High scores, achievements, settings and your engraving are saved only in your browser's local storage. Nothing is sent anywhere. Share links carry their state in the URL itself.
Keyboard. Click or tab to the iPod, then: ↑/↓ scroll, Enter select (hold it for the long press), Esc Menu, P play/pause, ←/→ previous/next. In games, ←/→ also steer and Space fires.
Sources
- Apple's original press release, “Apple Presents iPod” (23 October 2001): 5 GB, 1,000 songs, 6.5 oz, 10 hours, $399, 10 November availability, FireWire speeds and the Steve Jobs quote.
- Wikipedia, iPod: model timeline, ~450 million units sold, the name's origin, project P68 Dulcimer, Tony Fadell, Toshiba drive, Braun T3 inspiration and discontinuation dates.
- Wikipedia, iPod Classic: screen resolutions, battery life, special editions and the 2014 discontinuation.
- Wikipedia, iPod game: Brick as a hidden easter egg, Parachute, Solitaire and Music Quiz.
- Wikipedia, iPod advertising, and iMore: the silhouette campaign (2003–2008), “Hey Mama”, “Jerk It Out”, “Vertigo” and “1234”.
- National Today: National iPod Day on 23 October.
- BGR: speculation about a 25th-anniversary iPod.
Launch prices are US base-model prices at introduction as widely reported at the time. Song counts follow Apple's own rules of thumb. If you spot an error, the iPod would forgive you, and so would we.
Credits
Concept, code, songs, drawings and words are original to this site. Fonts: Inter, Inter Tight, VT323, Dancing Script and Courier Prime from Google Fonts. No trackers, no cookies, no accounts.
Not affiliated with Apple. iPod, iTunes, Click Wheel and related names are trademarks of Apple Inc., used here only to describe the products this tribute is about. No Apple logos or audio are used.