Looking back on 25 years of the original iPod on the Apple Music website, users can interact with the clickable click wheel and enjoy popular early 2000s songs, along with a hidden Brick game concealed within the menu.
Apple is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the iPod by hiding a special feature, or Easter egg, on the Apple Music website. Visitors to music.apple.com/ipod using a web browser will find a digital, fully functional first-generation iPod, complete with a rotating and clickable click wheel and a library of sample tracks from prominent early 2000s artists to listen to.
The songs available on this device are sample clips, not full tracks, from artists such as Coldplay, Gorillaz, Daft Punk, and Eminem.
In addition to the music, the device hides the game Brick—a brick-breaking game similar to Breakout. To play, users go to the Settings menu, select About, then press and hold the center button of the click wheel for five seconds. The Breakout game is historically connected to Apple, as Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak helped develop it while working at Atari in the 1970s.
The original iPod was officially unveiled on 23 October 2001 and went on sale for the first time on 10 November 2001.
Apple officially discontinued all iPod production in May 2022, with the seventh-generation iPod touch being the final model.