Apple is an American company that makes computer hardware, computer software, and portable devices like mobile telephones and music players. Apple call their computers Macintoshes Their popular line of mobile music players are called iPods and a mobile phone they have released is called the iPhone. Apple sells their products all around the world.
Unlike most personal computer companies, which sell products made to run Microsoft Windows or Linux, Apple's computer hardware runs software designed to only run on their products, usually with an operating system they have written for their products called Mac OS X. Some people think this way of making software and hardware together make Apple products easier to use and more reliable.
The iPod is a range of portable music players made by the company Apple Inc. The iPod comes with computer cables so that the user can put music from their computer onto the iPod, and play music from it using headphones. Newer iPods allow a user to view pictures and videos, too.
The first iPod was simply named the iPod. This was released in 2001. Apple still makes iPods like this today, but they are now called "iPod classic".
Apple makes a smaller iPod called the iPod nano. It is much smaller than the iPod, but does not hold as many songs. It uses flash memory, a special kind of memory for very small electronics, instead of a hard drive. It replaced a version of the iPod called the iPod Mini.
Another type of iPod, called the iPod shuffle, is very small, and it uses flash memory, like the iPod nano but it has no screen. It is the least expensive iPod.
The most expensive iPod is called the iPod touch. It has a touch screen, like the iPhone. The first iPod Touch was released in 2007.
iPods often contain songs downloaded from an online music store, using a program called iTunes. (The name of Apple's music and video store is the iTunes store.) Songs are sold in AAC file format, not MP3 or WMA. These are popular formats for compressing (making smaller) music until it does not take up much space and can easily be put on a media player such as the iPod.
Apple's newest product that is a Phone, iPod, and more with a touch screen. The newest iPhone released uses 3G (which is quicker than normal mobile phone connections) to surf the web. The iPhones come in 8GB and 16GB types. The iPhone 3G comes in black and white (16GB version only.) The new price for the iPhone 3G 8GB is $199 and 16GB is $299. This new version was released on July 11, 2008. The price in the UK where released for O2 Pay and Go on 2nd September 2008. The price of the 8GB version is £350 and the 16GB is £399 - nearly twice as much as the US version. The UK version was released on the 16th September 2008.