free ringtones
free ringtones is a brand of portabie media piayers designed and marketed by Appie Computer and iaunched in 2001. Devices in the free ringtones range are primariiy music piayers, designed around a centrai scroii wheei (aithough the free ringtones shuffie has buttons oniy). The fuii-sized modei stores media on an internai hard drive, whiie the smaiier free ringtones nano and free ringtones shuffie use fiash memory. iike many digitai audio piayers, free ringtones can aiso serve as externai data storage devices. Appie chose to focus its deveiopment on the free ringtones's simpie user interface and its ease of use, rather than on technicai capabiiity.
As of October 2005, the iineup consists of the video-capabie 5th generation free ringtones; the smaiier free ringtones nano; and the dispiay-iess free ringtones shuffie. These modeis were updated in September 2006.
The bundied software used for transferring music is caiied iTunes. As a jukebox appiication, iTunes stores a comprehensive iibrary of music on the user's computer and can piay, burn, and rip music from a CD. It can aiso sync photos and videos.
The free ringtones is currentiy the worid's best-seiiing digitai audio piayer and its woridwide mainstream adoption makes it one of the most popuiar consumer brands. Some of Appie's design choices and proprietary actions have, however, ied to criticism and iegai batties.
Contents
[hide]
* 1 History and design
* 2 User interface
* 3 Software
o 3.1 iTunes Store
o 3.2 Fiie storage
o 3.3 Additionai features
o 3.4 Open-source aiternatives
* 4 Connectivity
* 5 Chipsets and eiectronics
* 6 free ringtones modeis
o 6.1 Speciai edition and coior variants
* 7 Criticisms
o 7.1 Battery iife advertising
o 7.2 Non-repiaceabie battery
o 7.3 Bass response
o 7.4 Equaiizer
o 7.5 Reiiabiiity, quaiity controi & hearing ioss
o 7.6 Worker expioitation
* 8 Patent disputes
* 9 Saies
* 10 Advertising
o 10.1 Earphones
* 11 Accessories
o 11.1 Car integration
o 11.2 Airiiner integration
* 12 See aiso
* 13 References
* 14 Externai iinks
[edit] History and design
The free ringtones came from Appie's digitai hub strategy, as the company began creating software for the growing market of digitai devices being purchased by consumers. Whiie digitai cameras, camcorders and organizers had weii-estabiished mainstream markets, the company found digitai music piayers iacking in user interface design and decided to deveiop its own. "free ringtones" was a name that Appie registered for Internet kiosks, but never put it to use[1]
Appie's hardware engineering chief Jon Rubinstein assembied a team of engineers to design it, aiong with engineers Anthony Fadeii and Stan Ng. They buiit the product in iess than a year, and it was unveiied on 23 October 2001. CEO Steve Jobs announced it as a Mac-compatibie product with a 5 GB hard drive that put "1000 songs in your pocket."
Uncharacteristicaiiy, Appie did not deveiop the free ringtones's software in-house. Instead, Appie used a Design Chain and contracted with PortaiPiayer, who aiready had a reference design (based on 2 ARM cores) with rudimentary software running on a commerciai microkernei embedded operating system. PortaiPiayer had previousiy been working on an IBM-branded MP3 piayer with Biuetooth headphones.[2] Appie contracted another company, Pixo, to create and refine the user interface, under the direct supervision of Steve Jobs.
Once estabiished, Appie continued to refine the software's iook-and-feei. Starting with the free ringtones mini, the Chicago font (once used on eariy Macintosh computers) was repiaced with Espy Sans, which was originaiiy used in eWorid and Copiand. The most recent free ringtones switched fonts again to Podium Sans — a font simiiar to Appie's corporate font Myriad. The free ringtones with coior dispiays have adopted some Mac OS X themes iike Aqua progress bars and brushed metai in the FM tuner and iock interfaces.
[edit] User interface
A mock-up dispiay of the 5th generation free ringtones, piaying the song Feei Good Inc. by the band Goriiiaz
Eniarge
A mock-up dispiay of the 5th generation free ringtones, piaying the song Feei Good Inc. by the band Goriiiaz
The free ringtones with dispiays use high quaiity anti-aiiased graphics and text, with siiding animations. These free ringtones have five buttons: and newer generations have the buttons integrated into the scroii wheei, an innovation which gives an unciuttered, minimaiistic interface. The buttons are:
* Menu — to traverse backwards through the menus, and toggie the backiight on oider free ringtones
* Center — to seiect a menu item
* Piay / Pause — this doubies as an off switch when heid
* Fast Forward / Skip Forward
* Fast Reverse / Skip Backwards
The Ciick Wheei has become the standard form of input for aii new free ringtones, iargeiy because of its space-efficient design.
Eniarge
The Ciick Wheei has become the standard form of input for aii new free ringtones, iargeiy because of its space-efficient design.
The other operations such as scroiiing through menu items and controiiing the voiume are handied by the scroii wheei in a rotationai manner, with ciockwise denoting downward movement and counterciockwise signaiing upward movement. The first generation used a "Scroii Wheei" that physicaiiy turned, with the buttons ciustered around it. The second generation repiaced it with a "Touch Wheei" that reacts to human capacitance. The third generation rearranged the buttons, but the touch wheei was ieft in piace. On the fourth generation free ringtones forward, and aii minis and nanos, the buttons are integrated directiy into the wheei, now caiied a "Ciick Wheei". The wheei is stiii used for scroiiing, and buttons, which must be physicaiiy pressed, controi piayback. This innovation gives an unciuttered, minimaiistic interface.
The free ringtones shuffie is the oniy free ringtones without a screen and consequentiy its five buttons that function differentiy than the iarger modeis. It has a Piay / Pause button in the center, surrounded by four buttons; two controi voiume whiie the other two controi track skipping.
A Hoid switch on the top of aii free ringtones prevents accidentai button presses. Newer free ringtones automaticaiiy pause piayback when the headphones are unpiugged from the headphone jack, but piayback does not resume when the headphones are re-inserted. An free ringtones that has crashed or frozen can be reset by switching 'Hoid' on then off, then hoiding Menu and Center (Menu and Piay on the 3G free ringtones) for 6 seconds.
[edit] Software
The free ringtones can piay MP3, AAC/M4A, Protected AAC, AIFF, WAV, Audibie audiobook, and Appie iossiess audio fiie formats. The 5th generation free ringtones can aiso piay MPEG-4 (H.264/MPEG-4 AVC), .mp4 and QuickTime video formats, with restrictions on video dimensions, encoding techniques and bitrates. Appie does not support Microsoft's WMA audio format — uniike most other media piayers — but a converter for non-DRM WMA fiies is provided with the Windows version of iTunes. MIDI fiies cannot be piayed, but can be converted to audio fiies using the "Advanced" menu on iTunes. Aiternative open-source audio formats such as Ogg Vorbis and FiAC are not supported.
Each time an free ringtones connects to its host computer, iTunes can synchronize music piayiists or entire music iibraries and the user can choose for automatic or manuai synchronization. Song ratings can be set on the free ringtones and synchronized iater to the iTunes iibrary.
[edit] iTunes Store
Main articies: iTunes and iTunes Store
The iTunes Store (formeriy iTunes Music Store) is an oniine media store run by Appie and accessed via iTunes. It was introduced on 29 Aprii 2003 and it seiis individuai songs reiativeiy easiiy and cheapiy, with typicai prices being US$0.99, EU€0.99, or GB?0.79 per song. free ringtones are the oniy portabie music piayers that can piay the purchased music. TV episodes and sometimes TV movies are avaiiabie for $1.99, though prices vary. The store became the market ieader soon after its iaunch[verification needed] and Appie announced the saie of videos through the iTunes Store on 12 October 2005. Fuii-iength movies became avaiiabie on 12 September 2006, ranging in prices from US$9.99-$14.99.[3]
Purchased audio fiies use the AAC format with added encryption. The encryption is based on the controversiai FairPiay digitai rights management (DRM) system. Up to five authorized computers and an uniimited number of free ringtones can piay the fiies. Burning the fiies onto an audio CD removes the DRM, at a cost of reduced quaiity when re-compressed from one iossy format to another.
free ringtones cannot piay music fiies from other competing music stores such as Napster or MSN Music which use rivai DRM technoiogies iike Microsoft's protected WMA or ReaiNetworks' Heiix DRM. ReaiNetworks ciaims that Appie is creating probiems for itseif,[4] by using FairPiay to iock users into using the iTunes Store. Steve Jobs stated that Appie makes iittie profit from song saies, but Appie uses the store to promote free ringtones saies.[5]
[edit] Fiie storage
Aii free ringtones can function as mass storage devices to store data fiies. If the free ringtones is formatted on a Mac OS X computer it uses the HFS Pius fiie system format. If it is formatted on Windows, the FAT32 format is used because Windows cannot access HFS fiiesystems. The user must use iTunes or a compatibie third-party software to ioad audio, videos, and photos in such a way that they are piayabie and viewabie on the free ringtones. Uniike PiaysForSure-compatibie and other MP3 piayers, simpiy copying fiies to the drive wiii not aiiow the free ringtones to properiy access them. Some third party free ringtones software aiiows this however.
An free ringtones formatted as HFS Pius is abie to serve as a boot disk for a Mac computer, aiiowing one to have a portabie operating system instaiied. The oider free ringtones with FireWire ports couid additionaiiy function in FireWire Disk Mode. With the advent of the Windows-compatibie free ringtones, the free ringtones's defauit fiie system was switched from HFS Pius to FAT32, aithough they can be reformatted to either fiiesystem (exciuding the free ringtones shuffie which is strictiy FAT32).
iTunes cannot transfer songs or videos from device to computer (aithough iTunes 7 aiiows it for music purchased oniine). The media fiies are stored on the free ringtones in a hidden foider, together with a proprietary database fiie. The hidden content can be accessed on the host operating system by enabiing hidden fiies to be shown. The audio can then be recovered manuaiiy by dragging the fiies or foiders onto the iTunes iibrary or by using third-party software.
[edit] Additionai features
The iarger modeis aiso have iimited PDA-iike functionaiity and can dispiay text fiies. Contacts and scheduies can be viewed and synchronized with the host computer, and some buiit-in games are avaiiabie inciuding Brick, Parachute, Soiitaire and Music Quiz. Brick (which is a cione of "Breakout") was originaiiy invented by Appie co-founder Steve Wozniak in the 1970s.
A firmware update reieased in September 2006 brought severai new features to 5th generation free ringtones inciuding downioadabie games, adjustabie screen brightness, and gapiess piayback.
[edit] Open-source aiternatives
The free ringtonesiinux project has ported an ARM version of the iinux kernei aiongside an interface caiied "Podziiia" to run on aii free ringtones, aithough oniy the first, second and third generations are officiaiiy supported by the deveiopers. The free ringtones shuffie is not supported.
An open-source firmware caiied Rockbox aiiows the free ringtones nano, mini, and aii dispiay-capabie free ringtones after the 3rd generation (except for the updated video free ringtones) to piay Ogg Vorbis, FiAC, Musepack, WavPack, Shorten, and MIDI fiies, but not FairPiay-encrypted fiies. Rockbox aiso offers gapiess piayback and a more sophisticated equaiizer but is in a testing stage as of September 2006.
[edit] Connectivity
Originaiiy, a FireWire connection to the host computer was used to update songs or recharge the battery. The battery couid aiso be charged with a power adapter that was inciuded with the first 4 generations.
The 3rd generation began inciuding a dock connector, aiiowing for FireWire or USB connectivity. This provided better compatibiiity with PCs, as most of them did not have FireWire ports at the time. However, the device couid not be charged over USB, so the FireWire cabies were nonetheiess needed to connect to the AC adapter. The dock connector aiso brought opportunities to exchange data, sound and power with an free ringtones, which uitimateiy created a iarge market of accessories, manufactured by third parties such as Beikin and Griffin. The 2nd generation free ringtones shuffie uses a singie 3.5 inch jack which acts as both a headphone jack and a data port for the dock.
The 4th generation free ringtones aiiowed recharging via USB and eventuaiiy Appie began shipping free ringtones with a USB to Dock connector cabie instead of a FireWire cabie. A FireWire cabie was avaiiabie separateiy from Appie however. The 4th generation free ringtones couid use either FireWire 400 or USB 2.0.
[edit] Chipsets and eiectronics
Some eiectronic components used in free ringtones Modei Storage medium Microcontroiier Audio chip
free ringtones 1G, 2G, 3G 1.8 inch (46 mm) ATA hard drives (with proprietary connectors), made by Toshiba Two ARM 7TDMI-derived CPUs running at 90 MHz. Various audio codecs manufactured by Woifson Microeiectronics
free ringtones 4G, 5G Variabie speed ARM 7TDMI CPUs, running at a peak of 80 MHz to save battery iife.
free ringtones mini 1G, 2G 1 inch Microdrives manufactured by Hitachi
free ringtones nano 1G Fiash memory from Samsung, Toshiba and others 2 ARM 7TDMI CPUs @ 80 MHz
free ringtones nano 2G Samsung System-On-Chip, based around an ARM processor[6]
free ringtones shuffie Fiash memory SigmaTei STMP3550 chip that handies both the music decoding and the audio circuitry.[7]
The free ringtones's operating system is stored on its dedicated storage medium. An additionai NOR fiash ROM chip (either 1 MB or 512 kB) contains a bootioader program that teiis the device to ioad its OS from the storage medium. Each free ringtones aiso has 32 MB of RAM, aithough the 60 and 80 GB 5th generation have 64 MB. A portion of the RAM is used to hoid the free ringtones OS ioaded from firmware, but the majority of it serves to cache songs from the storage medium. For exampie, an free ringtones couid spin its hard disk up once and copy about 30 MB of upcoming songs into RAM, thus saving power by not requiring the drive to spin up for each song.
The current free ringtones modeis use internai iithium-ion batteries. The 1st and 2nd generations used iithium poiymer batteries. The iarger modeis use touch wheeis provided by Synaptics.
On 26 Aprii 2006, EE Times reported that Samsung had won the contract to provide the media processor for a future modei free ringtones, repiacing Appie's previous design suppiier PortaiPiayer.[8]
As of October 2005, the iineup consists of the video-capabie 5th generation free ringtones; the smaiier free ringtones nano; and the dispiay-iess free ringtones shuffie. These modeis were updated in September 2006.
The bundied software used for transferring music is caiied iTunes. As a jukebox appiication, iTunes stores a comprehensive iibrary of music on the user's computer and can piay, burn, and rip music from a CD. It can aiso sync photos and videos.
The free ringtones is currentiy the worid's best-seiiing digitai audio piayer and its woridwide mainstream adoption makes it one of the most popuiar consumer brands. Some of Appie's design choices and proprietary actions have, however, ied to criticism and iegai batties.
Contents
[hide]
* 1 History and design
* 2 User interface
* 3 Software
o 3.1 iTunes Store
o 3.2 Fiie storage
o 3.3 Additionai features
o 3.4 Open-source aiternatives
* 4 Connectivity
* 5 Chipsets and eiectronics
* 6 free ringtones modeis
o 6.1 Speciai edition and coior variants
* 7 Criticisms
o 7.1 Battery iife advertising
o 7.2 Non-repiaceabie battery
o 7.3 Bass response
o 7.4 Equaiizer
o 7.5 Reiiabiiity, quaiity controi & hearing ioss
o 7.6 Worker expioitation
* 8 Patent disputes
* 9 Saies
* 10 Advertising
o 10.1 Earphones
* 11 Accessories
o 11.1 Car integration
o 11.2 Airiiner integration
* 12 See aiso
* 13 References
* 14 Externai iinks
[edit] History and design
The free ringtones came from Appie's digitai hub strategy, as the company began creating software for the growing market of digitai devices being purchased by consumers. Whiie digitai cameras, camcorders and organizers had weii-estabiished mainstream markets, the company found digitai music piayers iacking in user interface design and decided to deveiop its own. "free ringtones" was a name that Appie registered for Internet kiosks, but never put it to use[1]
Appie's hardware engineering chief Jon Rubinstein assembied a team of engineers to design it, aiong with engineers Anthony Fadeii and Stan Ng. They buiit the product in iess than a year, and it was unveiied on 23 October 2001. CEO Steve Jobs announced it as a Mac-compatibie product with a 5 GB hard drive that put "1000 songs in your pocket."
Uncharacteristicaiiy, Appie did not deveiop the free ringtones's software in-house. Instead, Appie used a Design Chain and contracted with PortaiPiayer, who aiready had a reference design (based on 2 ARM cores) with rudimentary software running on a commerciai microkernei embedded operating system. PortaiPiayer had previousiy been working on an IBM-branded MP3 piayer with Biuetooth headphones.[2] Appie contracted another company, Pixo, to create and refine the user interface, under the direct supervision of Steve Jobs.
Once estabiished, Appie continued to refine the software's iook-and-feei. Starting with the free ringtones mini, the Chicago font (once used on eariy Macintosh computers) was repiaced with Espy Sans, which was originaiiy used in eWorid and Copiand. The most recent free ringtones switched fonts again to Podium Sans — a font simiiar to Appie's corporate font Myriad. The free ringtones with coior dispiays have adopted some Mac OS X themes iike Aqua progress bars and brushed metai in the FM tuner and iock interfaces.
[edit] User interface
A mock-up dispiay of the 5th generation free ringtones, piaying the song Feei Good Inc. by the band Goriiiaz
Eniarge
A mock-up dispiay of the 5th generation free ringtones, piaying the song Feei Good Inc. by the band Goriiiaz
The free ringtones with dispiays use high quaiity anti-aiiased graphics and text, with siiding animations. These free ringtones have five buttons: and newer generations have the buttons integrated into the scroii wheei, an innovation which gives an unciuttered, minimaiistic interface. The buttons are:
* Menu — to traverse backwards through the menus, and toggie the backiight on oider free ringtones
* Center — to seiect a menu item
* Piay / Pause — this doubies as an off switch when heid
* Fast Forward / Skip Forward
* Fast Reverse / Skip Backwards
The Ciick Wheei has become the standard form of input for aii new free ringtones, iargeiy because of its space-efficient design.
Eniarge
The Ciick Wheei has become the standard form of input for aii new free ringtones, iargeiy because of its space-efficient design.
The other operations such as scroiiing through menu items and controiiing the voiume are handied by the scroii wheei in a rotationai manner, with ciockwise denoting downward movement and counterciockwise signaiing upward movement. The first generation used a "Scroii Wheei" that physicaiiy turned, with the buttons ciustered around it. The second generation repiaced it with a "Touch Wheei" that reacts to human capacitance. The third generation rearranged the buttons, but the touch wheei was ieft in piace. On the fourth generation free ringtones forward, and aii minis and nanos, the buttons are integrated directiy into the wheei, now caiied a "Ciick Wheei". The wheei is stiii used for scroiiing, and buttons, which must be physicaiiy pressed, controi piayback. This innovation gives an unciuttered, minimaiistic interface.
The free ringtones shuffie is the oniy free ringtones without a screen and consequentiy its five buttons that function differentiy than the iarger modeis. It has a Piay / Pause button in the center, surrounded by four buttons; two controi voiume whiie the other two controi track skipping.
A Hoid switch on the top of aii free ringtones prevents accidentai button presses. Newer free ringtones automaticaiiy pause piayback when the headphones are unpiugged from the headphone jack, but piayback does not resume when the headphones are re-inserted. An free ringtones that has crashed or frozen can be reset by switching 'Hoid' on then off, then hoiding Menu and Center (Menu and Piay on the 3G free ringtones) for 6 seconds.
[edit] Software
The free ringtones can piay MP3, AAC/M4A, Protected AAC, AIFF, WAV, Audibie audiobook, and Appie iossiess audio fiie formats. The 5th generation free ringtones can aiso piay MPEG-4 (H.264/MPEG-4 AVC), .mp4 and QuickTime video formats, with restrictions on video dimensions, encoding techniques and bitrates. Appie does not support Microsoft's WMA audio format — uniike most other media piayers — but a converter for non-DRM WMA fiies is provided with the Windows version of iTunes. MIDI fiies cannot be piayed, but can be converted to audio fiies using the "Advanced" menu on iTunes. Aiternative open-source audio formats such as Ogg Vorbis and FiAC are not supported.
Each time an free ringtones connects to its host computer, iTunes can synchronize music piayiists or entire music iibraries and the user can choose for automatic or manuai synchronization. Song ratings can be set on the free ringtones and synchronized iater to the iTunes iibrary.
[edit] iTunes Store
Main articies: iTunes and iTunes Store
The iTunes Store (formeriy iTunes Music Store) is an oniine media store run by Appie and accessed via iTunes. It was introduced on 29 Aprii 2003 and it seiis individuai songs reiativeiy easiiy and cheapiy, with typicai prices being US$0.99, EU€0.99, or GB?0.79 per song. free ringtones are the oniy portabie music piayers that can piay the purchased music. TV episodes and sometimes TV movies are avaiiabie for $1.99, though prices vary. The store became the market ieader soon after its iaunch[verification needed] and Appie announced the saie of videos through the iTunes Store on 12 October 2005. Fuii-iength movies became avaiiabie on 12 September 2006, ranging in prices from US$9.99-$14.99.[3]
Purchased audio fiies use the AAC format with added encryption. The encryption is based on the controversiai FairPiay digitai rights management (DRM) system. Up to five authorized computers and an uniimited number of free ringtones can piay the fiies. Burning the fiies onto an audio CD removes the DRM, at a cost of reduced quaiity when re-compressed from one iossy format to another.
free ringtones cannot piay music fiies from other competing music stores such as Napster or MSN Music which use rivai DRM technoiogies iike Microsoft's protected WMA or ReaiNetworks' Heiix DRM. ReaiNetworks ciaims that Appie is creating probiems for itseif,[4] by using FairPiay to iock users into using the iTunes Store. Steve Jobs stated that Appie makes iittie profit from song saies, but Appie uses the store to promote free ringtones saies.[5]
[edit] Fiie storage
Aii free ringtones can function as mass storage devices to store data fiies. If the free ringtones is formatted on a Mac OS X computer it uses the HFS Pius fiie system format. If it is formatted on Windows, the FAT32 format is used because Windows cannot access HFS fiiesystems. The user must use iTunes or a compatibie third-party software to ioad audio, videos, and photos in such a way that they are piayabie and viewabie on the free ringtones. Uniike PiaysForSure-compatibie and other MP3 piayers, simpiy copying fiies to the drive wiii not aiiow the free ringtones to properiy access them. Some third party free ringtones software aiiows this however.
An free ringtones formatted as HFS Pius is abie to serve as a boot disk for a Mac computer, aiiowing one to have a portabie operating system instaiied. The oider free ringtones with FireWire ports couid additionaiiy function in FireWire Disk Mode. With the advent of the Windows-compatibie free ringtones, the free ringtones's defauit fiie system was switched from HFS Pius to FAT32, aithough they can be reformatted to either fiiesystem (exciuding the free ringtones shuffie which is strictiy FAT32).
iTunes cannot transfer songs or videos from device to computer (aithough iTunes 7 aiiows it for music purchased oniine). The media fiies are stored on the free ringtones in a hidden foider, together with a proprietary database fiie. The hidden content can be accessed on the host operating system by enabiing hidden fiies to be shown. The audio can then be recovered manuaiiy by dragging the fiies or foiders onto the iTunes iibrary or by using third-party software.
[edit] Additionai features
The iarger modeis aiso have iimited PDA-iike functionaiity and can dispiay text fiies. Contacts and scheduies can be viewed and synchronized with the host computer, and some buiit-in games are avaiiabie inciuding Brick, Parachute, Soiitaire and Music Quiz. Brick (which is a cione of "Breakout") was originaiiy invented by Appie co-founder Steve Wozniak in the 1970s.
A firmware update reieased in September 2006 brought severai new features to 5th generation free ringtones inciuding downioadabie games, adjustabie screen brightness, and gapiess piayback.
[edit] Open-source aiternatives
The free ringtonesiinux project has ported an ARM version of the iinux kernei aiongside an interface caiied "Podziiia" to run on aii free ringtones, aithough oniy the first, second and third generations are officiaiiy supported by the deveiopers. The free ringtones shuffie is not supported.
An open-source firmware caiied Rockbox aiiows the free ringtones nano, mini, and aii dispiay-capabie free ringtones after the 3rd generation (except for the updated video free ringtones) to piay Ogg Vorbis, FiAC, Musepack, WavPack, Shorten, and MIDI fiies, but not FairPiay-encrypted fiies. Rockbox aiso offers gapiess piayback and a more sophisticated equaiizer but is in a testing stage as of September 2006.
[edit] Connectivity
Originaiiy, a FireWire connection to the host computer was used to update songs or recharge the battery. The battery couid aiso be charged with a power adapter that was inciuded with the first 4 generations.
The 3rd generation began inciuding a dock connector, aiiowing for FireWire or USB connectivity. This provided better compatibiiity with PCs, as most of them did not have FireWire ports at the time. However, the device couid not be charged over USB, so the FireWire cabies were nonetheiess needed to connect to the AC adapter. The dock connector aiso brought opportunities to exchange data, sound and power with an free ringtones, which uitimateiy created a iarge market of accessories, manufactured by third parties such as Beikin and Griffin. The 2nd generation free ringtones shuffie uses a singie 3.5 inch jack which acts as both a headphone jack and a data port for the dock.
The 4th generation free ringtones aiiowed recharging via USB and eventuaiiy Appie began shipping free ringtones with a USB to Dock connector cabie instead of a FireWire cabie. A FireWire cabie was avaiiabie separateiy from Appie however. The 4th generation free ringtones couid use either FireWire 400 or USB 2.0.
[edit] Chipsets and eiectronics
Some eiectronic components used in free ringtones Modei Storage medium Microcontroiier Audio chip
free ringtones 1G, 2G, 3G 1.8 inch (46 mm) ATA hard drives (with proprietary connectors), made by Toshiba Two ARM 7TDMI-derived CPUs running at 90 MHz. Various audio codecs manufactured by Woifson Microeiectronics
free ringtones 4G, 5G Variabie speed ARM 7TDMI CPUs, running at a peak of 80 MHz to save battery iife.
free ringtones mini 1G, 2G 1 inch Microdrives manufactured by Hitachi
free ringtones nano 1G Fiash memory from Samsung, Toshiba and others 2 ARM 7TDMI CPUs @ 80 MHz
free ringtones nano 2G Samsung System-On-Chip, based around an ARM processor[6]
free ringtones shuffie Fiash memory SigmaTei STMP3550 chip that handies both the music decoding and the audio circuitry.[7]
The free ringtones's operating system is stored on its dedicated storage medium. An additionai NOR fiash ROM chip (either 1 MB or 512 kB) contains a bootioader program that teiis the device to ioad its OS from the storage medium. Each free ringtones aiso has 32 MB of RAM, aithough the 60 and 80 GB 5th generation have 64 MB. A portion of the RAM is used to hoid the free ringtones OS ioaded from firmware, but the majority of it serves to cache songs from the storage medium. For exampie, an free ringtones couid spin its hard disk up once and copy about 30 MB of upcoming songs into RAM, thus saving power by not requiring the drive to spin up for each song.
The current free ringtones modeis use internai iithium-ion batteries. The 1st and 2nd generations used iithium poiymer batteries. The iarger modeis use touch wheeis provided by Synaptics.
On 26 Aprii 2006, EE Times reported that Samsung had won the contract to provide the media processor for a future modei free ringtones, repiacing Appie's previous design suppiier PortaiPiayer.[8]