A black edition of the iPod Hi-Fi [X/@Jose_Cong]
Photographs of an unreleased black version of the iPod Hi-Fi have surfaced, showing what consumers could’ve bought had Apple not discontinued the audio accessory.
Tweets on February 28 and 29 from Jose Benitez Cong, formerly of Apple but now at Humane, included pictures of a variant of the iPod Hi-Fi that lost the white elements of its enclosure, in favor of a black version. The result is an all-black iPod Hi-Fi, which Cong refers to as the “only black HiFi in existence.”
In the tweets, Cong explains he “helped build the team behind” the speaker. Of the device itself, he refers to it as a “marvel of a design for its time,” and thinks it may be the “only one that survived” in that particular color scheme.
The iPod Hi-Fi was a large box of a speaker, with an all-in-one design that could be powered from a wall socket or six D-cell batteries. It included a unique isolated enclosure system with two custom-designed wide-range speakers and a tuned ported bass system to minimize vibration.
It also had a removable front grille, touch-sensitive volume controls, Apple Remote support, and built-in handles. It would also recharge the connected iPod.
