iPoddery
Tony Fadell, one of the creators of Apple’s defining product, the iPod, recently reminded us that the music player was launched on October 23, 2001. As I was in the process of moving back to New York, I bought one from a local Apple dealer. Soon, I observed an interesting social behavior upon my arrival: people with white headphones nodded at each other in public, as if acknowledging a shared coolness. We were all part of a tribe — smaller than most realized. It was weird kind of a snobbery. Today, while Apple seems ubiquitous, back then, it was distinctly the underdog.