Hey guys!! Here’s my ds106 assignment related to cyberspace

After reading my friend Keiko‘s blog post on the same ds106 assignment, I found interest in it and thought it would be fun to make another version of it. Since she did her’s on computers, I decided to do mine on iPods Well, here is the description of the assignment :

Alot can happen from birth to death. Be creative, show how things; animals, objects, technology, evolve throughout time. This assignment doesn’t have to be precise, your object evolving doesn’t have to evolve the way is expected during the process of evolution. Be creative!

The Process:

Although I wanted to do this on iPods, I noticed it wouldn’t make sense if I did it on the whole iPod collection. Therefore, I chose to do it on the iPod nano. I chose the nano because the product now is a lot different from the first iPod nano.

First, I went to wikipedia and searched on the history of iPods. Then, I came to this page and used the “Models” section for information for this assignment.

The Story:

For this assignment, I used Picasa to make my collage. Here it is

By looking at this image, we can see that iPod nanos used to be very thin and rectangular. However, if you were to buy a nano now, you would get it in a squared shape with just the touch panel (without the scroll). Personally, I liked the rectangular shape because it was easier to hold and easier to find when lost but I guess the square one is cute too

Here are some background information about the iPod nanos that I thought were relevant to this assignment and useful to refresh our memories on some of the older versions.

1. The first iPod Nano was released on the 7th of September, 2005 and it replaced the iPod Mini. It was available in black or white and had a color screen for picture viewing.
2. The second generation wasn’t so different from the first one other than the fact that it came in 6 colors. It was released on the 12th of September, 2006.
3. The third generation had a 2 inch QVGA screen and came in the color chrome black. It also had a smaller click wheel and it was released on the 9th of September, 2007.
4. The fourth generation reverted to the tall form and it came in 9 colors to chose from. It also added the shake and horizontal viewing, and was released on the 9th of September, 2008.
5. The fifth generation was the first iPod to include a video camera. It also included a larger screen, an FM radio, a speaker a pedometer, and a polished exterior case while retaining the similar colors as the forth generation model. It was released exactly one year after the fourth generation.
6. The sixth generation (the most recent one) was the first iPod nano that included the multi-touch screen and the clip from the iPod shuffle was added. However, the camera and speakers were removed. This was released on the 1st of September, 2010.

The Assignment
In the Visual Assignments, I found an assignment that I could relate to the cyberspace topic. The assignment is called Evolution created by Isaac Thesatus. The directions read:

Alot can happen from birth to death. Be creative; show how things, animals, objects, technology, evolve throughout time. This assignment doesn’t have to be precise, your object evolving doesn’t have to evolve the way it’s expected during the process of evolution. Be creative!

The Process
Because this assignment had to be related to cyberspace, I decided to make a picture of Mac computers evolving. First, I searched on Google for the different computers Apple has produced. Then I went to Flickr to download the photos of the different computers. Using Paint, I combined the photos of the computers.

The Story

It’s very interesting to see how the computers have changed over time. Who would have thought in the past that computers would become really slim and light!!
I remember using an old Macintosh Classic that my father got from his workplace because they renewed the computers. It was very fascinating at that time but now that I think about it, it was really big and slow.
The screens have also changed and in the old computers, the screens were like glass and were hard. The computers we use today have softer screens and have better displays.

Some information about the Mac computers:
-Apple II–produced in 1977, it is an 8-bit home computer. It is the first series of the Apple computers and were very successful.
-Apple III–produced in 1980, it is an business-oriented computer. While businessmen seeked for computers with typewriter-style keyboards, it did not reach the requirements and ended up as a failure product.
-Apple IIe–produced in 1983, it is the most popular computer in the Apple II series. It was sold for 11 years with only minor changes and was a powerful machine that used new chips.
-Macintosh Classic–produced in 1990, and although the computer did not have the newest software, the computers had big improvements from the previous computers. Without the newest software, the computers were stable and prices were reasonable.
-iMac–the newest one, produced in 2011 is a range of all-in-one Macintosh desktop computers. The production of the iMac series have started from 1988 and got huge attentions from its fans. The most fascinating thing was that users needed to go through only two steps to connect to the Internet (in the past, it was a three-step process).

Image: Apple II Computer by gmahender - CC Licensed via flickr, Apple III Plus by Easterbilby – CC Licensed via flickr, Apple IIe by Marcin Wichary - CC Licensed via flickr, Classic Apple Computers-1994 Macintosh LC 575 by JaseyR573 – CC Licensed via flickr, imac 27 inch by chrisdlugosz - CC Licensed via flickr