The simplest things often elude our attention.

Do you know what those little plastic-wrapped ends on shoe laces are called? Yup, those things have a name. The things we see everyday are often neglected. How often do you wonder how your cell phone works? Have you ever questioned why your MP3 player is called an iPod? We’ve got the answer for you.

As with many electronics products, the iPod was dubbed a number of codenames during its development. Conflicting accounts suggest that the Apple designers had trouble coming up with a perfect name to call their new product. Shakespeare once wr0te, “What’s is a name?” with regards to Romeo’s love of a rival family’s daughter, but in Silicon Valley, the name is almost as important as the gadget itself.

Meanwhile, Apple had hired Vinne Chieco to help market the new media player. Chieco was a freelance writer, and he was to tackle the problem of how the new product would be introduced to the public. When Chieco first saw the iPod, he was reminded of the 1968 science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Evidently, the iPod looked like a smaller “pod” to a larger mothership (the desktop computer). As with how the pod must eventually return to a larger ship, the iPod must eventually “dock” at a computer to transfer data.  So Apple decided to name the new device a “Pod”. But where does the “i” part of the name come from?

Apparently, the lower case “i” was tacked onto the front of the Pod to align the product with Apple’s then-recently introduced iMac. The result was the iPod name. Evidently, the “i” was so popular that Apple has kept using it in their current line of products.

But the strange tale of science fiction inspiration doesn’t end there. Siri, the iPhone 4s’ data assistant, will sing the same song from 2001 if asked to sing. If asked to open the pod doors, similar to how Dave asks HAL 9000 to open the pod doors in the movie, Siri will refuse. Go ahead, try it out and you’ll see exactly what we mean.

What does Apple have planned for its next device? If we could tell you that, we’d probably be working for Apple. It’s certainly exciting to consider how science fiction influences modern-day innovation. Will the next iDevice have references to 2001? Or will the next iProduct be as intelligent (and dangerous!) as HAL? Only time will tell.