It‘s hard to fathom, but since the iPod burst onto the scene in October 2001, Apple has released no less than 104 different capacity and color combinations of its iconic media player. From lavender aluminum to glossy black, clickwheels to back-lit buttons, the iPod has evolved far beyond its monochrome beginnings, blending fashion and function into a package that continues to defy expectations.

Among all those models, however, there are bound to be a few that stand out among the sea of white, for better or worse. So, in case you don’t want to go rummaging through all 100-plus models, we’ve made a definitive list of the best -- and worst-- iPods ever:

2G iPod
By the time the 2002 New York Mac Expo rolled around (the final hurrah for the once-heralded East Coast event), Apple was struggling to gain any sort of foothold with the iPod. However, the second generation got things back on track, with twice the capacity, a solid-state scroll wheel, remote, calendar, clock, Audible playback and the big kahuna: Windows support. While iTunes wouldn’t follow for another 15 months, Apple wisely brought the iPod to the PC masses as quickly as possible, raising the visibility of a device at the forefront of a bubbling revolution.

 

3G iPod
No one really knew what to expect when, in April 2003, Apple sent out invitations for its first standalone iPod event, and nothing could have prepared us for what was waiting behind the black curtain. With an entirely new lineup dressed in an ultra-thin enclosure, the first audio-out dock, On-the-Go playlists, back-lit, touch-sensitive buttons, and AAC decoding, the 3G iPod was (and, by all accounts, still is) the greatest update the iPod had ever seen.

 

 

 

iPod mini
It took Apple more than two years to sell its 2 millionth iPod, but at the San Francisco Mac Expo in 2004, it set its sights a little higher. Armed with an even smaller version of its diminutive music player, Steve Jobs kicked the digital music revolution into high gear with the release of the mini, a multi-colored, ultra-chic version of the iPod that was as much a fashion statement as a tech gadget. The mini vaulted the iPod to heights unseen and sent a message that Apple wasn’t going to settle for a measly 2 million sales.

 

 

3G nano
When the mini was retired in September 2005, Apple threw down a gauntlet to its competitors with a jaw-dropping replacement: pencil-thin, feather-light and silky-smooth, the iPod nano brought the game to a whole new level. Two years later, however, Apple gave the nano an extreme makeover, building the enclosure around the screen and Click Wheel to create a fitter, slimmer player with a drop-dead gorgeous, all-metal enclosure. The 4G nano reverted to its tall enclosure, but the “fatty” will always hold a place in our hearts.

 

 

1G iPod
With a $399 price tag, a strange name and an uncertain market, the iPod was declared DOA by some, ridiculed by others and praised by few. Unmistakably gorgeous and irresistibly touchable, the iPod seemed doomed to the dungeon of Apple products just slightly ahead of their time. Little did we know that the iPod was simply the first step in a global strategy that would change the face of the music, computer and wireless industries. Seven years on, Apple has stayed (mostly) true to Jonathan Ive’s original design, but sadly, it looks like the spinning wheel is gone for good.
 

 

 

4G iPod
In 2004, the iPod was so big, Apple was given the cover of Newsweek as a launch pad. Borrowing cues from the wildly popular iPod mini, Apple finally incorporated the clickwheel into its fourth-generation player, but brought little else to the table. The 4G iPod trimmed $100 off the price, but aficionados had to wait until the following September for anything worth buying (unless, of course, they absolutely had to have the new “Shuffle Songs” menu item).

 

 

iPod Photo
Released just three months after the lackluster fourth-generationn model, iPod Photo (later changed to a proper lowercase “p”) should have been the iPod of everyone’s dreams. The first of its kind to sport a color screen and break the 15,000-song barrier, iPod Photo certainly changed the face of Apple’s popular music player, but created several problems in the process, most notably a muddy lineup ranging in price from $249 to $599 and capacity from 4GB to 60GB. It didn’t take long for Apple to come to its senses — by the following June, iPod and iPod photo merged, shedding the redundancy (and a few hundred dollars).

 

7G iPod (iPod Classic)
Sitting on shelves alongside a new nano, touch and shuffle, the new iPod Classic (as it’s now called) is surprisingly disappointing. Targeting music junkies who have 40,000 songs, and apparently need to carry them everywhere they go, Apple last year wrapped the iPod in anodized aluminum and took away much of the guesswork, stripping the line down to just two models — 80GB and 160GB — available in black or white. But when the line was refreshed a few weeks back, Apple didn’t cross the 200GB threshold many were hoping for; instead, a lone 120GB model was announced. Sure, each gigabyte may be cheaper, but we’d sure like to know what happened to the other 40GB.

 

Celebrity iPods
First there were Madonna-, Beck- and Tony Hawk-etched autographs. Then, a U2 model with a red Click Wheel. And who can forget the Harry Potter Collector’s Edition? Trying to increase the iPod’s cachet and visibility through cheap gimmicks and high-profile stunts, these so-called Special Edition iPods smacked of desperation and didn’t offer much for anyone who wasn’t already a die-hard fan: Did anyone really need 400 U2 songs? And how many nuts were going to pay $548 for an engraved Hogwarts crest? Thankfully, we haven’t seen any Hannah Montana or Jonas Brothers tie-ins, but with all those new teeny-bopping colors, you never know.

 

 

iPod + HP
Just hours after releasing the iPod mini at the San Francisco Mac Expo in 2004, Steve Jobs shuttled over to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to join then-HP CEO Carly Fiorina in announcing an alliance to deliver “an HP-branded digital music player based on Apple’s iPod.” Apparently, “based on” really meant “exactly the same,” and “HP-branded” meant nothing more than a honking HP Invent symbol positioned just below the Apple logo. The partnership was an exercise in confusion, with Apple refusing to support HP-branded units, HP often selling models past their expiration dates, and consumers caught up in a mix of tattoo residue and rebates. A year and a half later, the two abruptly ended their partnership, which accounted for some 5 percent of sales, and Apple’s flown solo ever since.