To shed even more light on the birth of the iPod, Wired News writer and “Cult of iPod” author Leander Kahney has written an informative articled entitled the “Straight Dope on the iPod’s Birth.” In the article, Kahney provides all of the Apple executives’ individual roles in developing the device, as well as details on design and prototyping, original parts and components, the genesis of the scroll wheel, Apple’s licensing of the SoundJam software, and the origin of the iPod’s name—according to Kahney, the iPod name came from an earlier, cancelled Apple project to build an internet kiosk.
On July 24, 2000, Apple registered the iPod name for “a public internet kiosk enclosure containing computer equipment,” according to the filing.
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