Apple Computer's iPod Photo line was first unveiled on October 26, 2004, and was merged into the mainstream iPod family of products in June 2005.

In addition to being a digital audio player, like other iPods, iPod photo allowed users to store and display color photos. In November 2004, it was quietly renamed iPod photo, with the second word no longer capitalized, apparently to bring it in line with the naming scheme of iPod mini and iPod shuffle. On June, 2005, the iPod photo line was merged with the existing iPod line, giving all full size iPods the same features and color screen as iPod photo; the iPod photo line then ceased to exist under that name.

iPod photo's design was nearly identical to the fourth-generation click-wheel iPod, storing media on a hard drive and synchronizing with the user's computer over FireWire or USB 2.0. However, unlike earlier models which had monochrome displays, its 220x176-pixel LCD was capable of displaying up to 65,536 colors.

iTunes was used to synchronize music and photos from the computer. Photos were displayable either on the built-in display, or on a TV with an additional TV cable. Before iTunes gained the photo-syncing capability in version 4.8, users would use Apple's iPhoto on the Macintosh, or Adobe Photoshop Album 2.0 or Photoshop Elements 3.0 on Windows.

Three models were available:

• 30 GB, for US$349/£249/€389 (introduced February 2005)
• 40 GB, for US$499 (discontinued February 2005)
• 60 GB, for US$449/£309/€489 (originally US$599; accessories removed and price reduced February 2005)

The iPod photo supported JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, and PNG graphic file formats, and can be attached to a television or other external display for slideshows. Apple's advertised battery life for continuous music playback is fifteen hours, or five hours for a continuous slideshow with music.

iPod photo was originally available in 40GB and 60GB models, which cost $499 USD and $599 respectively. On February 23, 2005, Apple discontinued the 1.9-cm [1] 40GB model and introduced a lower-priced ($349) and slimmer (1.6-cm) 30GB iPod photo. Additionally, it dropped the price of the 60GB model (which has always been 1.9 cm thick) to $449. However, the iPod dock and the FireWire and television video cables are now sold separately.

On March 22, 2005, Apple announced the iPod Camera Connector which promised users of iPod photo instant transfer of images from a USB-compatible digital camera to the iPod photo. The main difference between this and Belkin's Digital Camera Link is that Apple's unit supports instant image viewing on the iPod photo after transfer without having to connect the iPod photo to a computer first.

On June 28, 2005, the iPod photo and standard (Click-Wheel) iPod product lineups were merged to create only one form of the white Click-Wheel iPod (Apple renamed it to the iPod with color display). The two models in this lineup come in either 20GB or 60GB sizes, feature color screens, and natively support the Podcasting features built into Apple's iTunes 4.9 (released on the same day). The iPod photo name ceased to be official on that day despite the new models being functionally identical to the old models (except for the reduced hard drive capacity of the thinner iPod photo).

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod_photo