Everybody knows about the iPod. But, for those who don't, well, you must have been living on Mars or something for the last little while. Anyway, the iPod, the iPod Nano, Shuffle and all other kinds of iPod items are portable music players that can store and play digital music - and even movies and videos -  by downloading it from a computer onto the player. The iPod has literally changed the way the world thinks about music, and where and how it can be listened to and enjoyed. Needless to say, the iPod is one of the greatest technological inventions and innovations of this - or any other - generation.

The iPod isn't quite like previous portable music players, like a walkman, discman or even a ghetto blaster. While they all do the same thing - which is play music in a portable format - the latter three items were severely limited by the fact that they could only play a specified amount of music. A walkman could only play the amount of music that was contained on a cassette tape, and that was tempered by the amount of tapes one wished to carry on them. With a discman, the same principle applied, just only with CDs instead of tapes.

However, with an iPod, iPod Nano or any other kind of iPod, one could literally take a thousand songs with them wherever they go - transported in an easy to carry vehicle. That's what makes the iPod so unique is the sheer number of songs that anyone can carry at any time. With an iPod, there are no restrictions to how many songs one can take with them, or where they could take them.

Another innovative aspect of the iPod is that, because of its small size and design, it can be taken anywhere, at any time, without much notice or fanfare. A ghetto blaster, for example, can't really be taken to school, on a train, a plane or any other area of that nature. And if it could, as stated before, the song selection and library would be limited because of the bulky nature of the device. The iPod or an iPod Nano can take a whole library consisting of thousands of songs and bring them anywhere you want without anyone even noticing.