Cult of Mac

Talking of iPod babies, on Monday (Halloween), Nick Fruhling sent an email:

“This is me and my son Felix this morning going into the office…”

“I was Steve and he was a shuffle, if you can’t tell.”

IPodMyBaby.com is running a contest to find the World’s Cutest Baby —
and the top prize is a family of iPods: a video iPod, a Nano, a Shuffle, “and much more,” according to the site.

IPodMyBaby is the baby-clothing operation of iPodMyPhoto.

The rules are:

“In order to participate, the baby must be photographed wearing the iPodMyBaby Click Wheel Outfit or the (newly added) Click Wheel Long Sleeve T-shirt. Submissions must be sent to ipodmybaby@gmail.com by 11:59 PM Pacific Time on December 15th, 2005. The winner will be determined by our celebrity panel of Judges. Their decision will be final.”

The contest opens today, and I’m one of the judges — bribe details to leander -AT- cultofmac.com ;-).

Apparently Yegor Simpson of SmashMyiPod.com didn’t get a note I sent him a few days ago asking why he smashed an older, cheaper iPod and what he did with the extra money he raised.

(I know e-mail isn’t reliable but there’s no other contact details in the Whois database or on the web that I could find).

Simpson sent a note earlier today in response to yesterday’s post, accusing me of fabricating “lies” about his project. He wrote:

“Everything I need to say has been posted on my site. I didn’t receive any emails from you other than the initial interview questions which I answered.

Where is the base for your hypothesis that we scammed everyone? We bought a 4g ipod, since video (5g) wasn’t available at the time, and smashed it. I agree video sucked, but we didn’t scam anyone.”

I wrote back saying I didn’t make anything up, and that I noted widespread suspicion about why he bought and smashed an older iPod. I also asked what he did with the extra money that was raised.

Simpson replied:

“So your sources for the story were comments posted by ipod fans on engadget? Talk abou solid, unbiased info….. I hear ipod video screens cause impotence and hair loss.

Anyhow…..

Ipod cost us $365 cnd. That’s due to the unexpected “student discount” of $50. We planned for $415 cnd, which was the price on their site (including 15% sales tax). We raised $550 usd “on paper” but you forget that paypal takes a large % of especially when you have a lot of small payments. In the end we got about $120 cnd of usable surplus, which I used to pay the hosting bills.

The only “pocket money” I’m making from this is coming from the ads.”

Wu-Tang’s new album — Think Differently Music; Wu-Tang Meets Indie Culture — is the oddest homage to Apple I’ve ever seen in pop culture. It’s so cultish, it’s disturbing.

The title borrows Apple’s “Think Different” advertising slogan, and the cover image is Wu-Tang’s symbol remixed with Apple’s old rainbow-stripped logo.

At first, I thought it was phony — a fanboy mockup — the kind of desktop wallpaper you’d see at The Apple Collection. Perhaps it’s ironic, but I don’t think it is.

According to an Amazon reviewer: “Wu Tang Meets Indie Culture is a compilation album put together by Dreddy Kruger, an affiliate of the Wu Tang Clan and a part time rapper … The concept was bringing Wu Tang affiliated rappers/producers and the best of the hip hop underground together for some crazy collaberations (sic).”

A lot of rappers are big Apple fans. There are more shout-outs to Apple in hip-hop than any other music genre. The Coup’s “Me and Jesus the Pimp in a ’79 Granada Last Night,” for example, goes: “Microsoft muthufuckas let bygone be bygones / but since I’m Macintosh imma double-click your icon.” Gunshots.

Still, this is weirder than that. If anyone knows what’s going on here, please post an explanation in the comments. I’m pretty sure you guys know more than I do.

(Via MacFeber and TUAW)

Instead of dressing up as an iPod for Halloween, this iPod was dressed up for Halloween — as the Grim Reaper.

It must have been hacked for the screen to display the reaper’s face. He’s quite a friendly little fellow, for a reaper.

Update: Reader Trevin Ward in the comments suggests something that never occurred to me: that the iPod is an iPod photo. No hacking required!

Even dogs dress up as iPods on Halloween.

This group of Halloween revelers coordinated their costumes: it’s the entire iPod lineup!

Apple has sold more than 1 million videos in three weeks through the iTunes music store.

“Selling 1 million videos in less than 20 days strongly suggests there is a market for legal video downloads,” said CEO Steve Jobs said in a statement. “Our next challenge is to broaden our content offerings, so that customers can enjoy watching more videos on their computers and new iPods.”

The ITunes store offers about 2,000 music videos, popular TV shows and shorts from Pixar.

In 2003, when the iTunes store launched, it sold one million songs in its first week.

Yegor Simpson, the 19-year-old student behind SmashMyiPod.com, has finally posted video of his iPod smashing — but it’s not worth watching.

About 10 minutes long, the first nine minutes is the deadly-dull documentation of Yegor buying the iPod at an Apple store.

The last minute or two concerns the actual smashing, but there’s not much joy in it. Simpson and a friend first try to smash the iPod inside the Apple store, underfoot, but are escorted out. They finish the job on the sidewalk with a hammer. It’s pretty joyless.

To refresh: Simpson raised more than $500 in donations to buy and smash an iPod. He promised to post video for the jollies of everyone concerned.

The actual smashing happened last week but until now was no video. Simpson did post pictures — but of an older $300 iPod, not a brand new $500 one. This raised a lot of suspicion he was pulling an elaborate scam.

“They collected $400 (+$151 extra) and spent it on an iPod 20GB???” noted one skeptic among many at the Engadget blog. “How stupid. They probably already owned the 20GB, smashed it, and bought a brand new 5th gen for themselves. Anyone that donated is officially a sucker.”

Over at TUAW, there was a similar note of suspicion: “The guy had a destroyed 4G, got the $400, and got a new 5G,” wrote one commentator. “He smashed up the 4G good and is laughing all the way to the Apple store with a new iPod.”

Scam.com says it was an “obvious scam.”

Simpson didn’t respond to a request for comment. But in the video, you can see him buying a new iPod for yourself.

Meanwhile, Simpson is full steam ahead with his other smashing projects: SmashMyXBox, SmashMyPS3, and SmashMyRevolution.

Not surprisingly, there’s a bunch of iPod-inspired Haloween costumes popping up after this weekend’s partying.

The one above, found on Flickr, is fairly typical. But look at the one below; here’s a party attended by a silhouette, an iPod and Steve Jobs. Now that’s a freaky party!

Cartoonist Fred Seibert, the brains behind a string of hits on Nickelodeon, including number one show The Fairly Oddparents, has launched his own cartoon network for the video iPod — no network or cable required.

Channel Frederator offers a handful of short animations every week as a video podcast. Billed as “Straight from the interweb,” and formatted for the PSP as well as iPod, the site says:

“We really love cartoons and the people who make them. Because of our day job, we see lots of excellent stuff that never gets seen by most people. Channel Frederator gives all cartoons a shot at being shown to the wired world’s masses. And if we can spread the love – or at least spread something – then we will. ”

I watched a podcast and thought it pretty good. The first cartoon was charmingly inscrutable and the second boasted great production values, fast-paced storytelling and a Shrek-like wit. The third, well, er…

In the world of Japanese anime, Central Park Media is podcasting anime trailers and full episodes (promised “soon”) for the iPod and PSP.

Every year Forbes pokes fun at captains of industry by turning them into Halloween masks. This year, Steve Jobs is cast as Darth Vader because of his recent turn to “the dark side.”

Steve Jobs as Darth Vader. Net worth: $3.3 billion. Source of wealth: Apple Computer and Pixar. Steve Jobs was the chosen one who promised to make things right in the computing world. But as time passed, his hunger for power took over, leading him to sue hapless bloggers and embrace dark arts, like digital-rights management.

Over in the comments section of my other blog, reader Lone Star kindly posted the five steps needed to configure your illegally pirated copy of FrontRow, including a keyboard shortcut to launch it.

Click the link for Lone Star’s tutorial. Be warned, I haven’t tested it.

Apple’s PowerBooks and iBooks are generally well-made, value-for-money machines, but they suffer from a critical design flaw — the tip of the AC power adapter is prone to breaking off inside the power port.

It’s a costly and time-consuming repair, and it’s almost impossible for owners to fix themselves. I know, because it’s happened to me three times in the last three years.

The last time was just last week, and the story of how I fixed it is a saga you can read after the jump. Long story short: I finally dug it out in a frenzy of rage and frustration that almost ruined a $2,500 computer.

Apple’s FrontRow and PhotoBooth software are both available on BitTorrent, even though they’re supposed to be restricted to the new iMac.

It took about two minutes to find and download PhotoBooth. Thirty seconds later I was snapping fun pics with the kids using a PowerBook and an iSight camera.

FrontRow, which allows you to control your music, photos, and DVDs from the couch, has been hacked so that it doesn’t look for the iMac remote control it is supposed to ship with. Instead, the hacked version works with any keyboard. I got it running on the PowerBook and a Power Mac G5.

In fact, FrontRow is pretty useless without a remote, but I hooked it to an old Keyspan external USB remote-control, and it works perfectly, though it is slow to load the music and video libraries.

There are also reports of it working with bluetooth keyboards and the free Romeo remote-control software (which is compatible with a limited selection of Sony Ericsson phones and the Nokia 3650).

Update: The DVD player in the hacked FrontRow doesn’t work — at least not for me. Too bad.

Designer Scott Wilson, the brains behind the $13 iBelieve iPod-crucifix-lanyard, said it celebrates both Jesus and the iPod.

Asked if it was genuinely Christian, or a comment on the popularity of ipods, Wilson replied:

“It is both. People will see what they want in it. They may want to visibly show their faith in a more fashionable way. The intertwined meaning is what is interesting. I think we are obsessed with objects today and none more than maybe the iPod. The idea was too funny, controversial, sad, not to visualize.”

See IPod is Bigger Than Jesus?

Left: Lugz; Right: Apple.

The growing spat over Apple’s new Eminem iPod ad, which appears to have been ripped-off from a 2002 spot for Lugz footwear, may result in legal action, according to the New York Times.

“We’re going to take all the steps we need to protect our rights,” a Lugz spokesman told the Times.

“We’re very upset,” Larry Schwartz, executive vice president and principal at Lugz in New York, said in an interview. “The look and feel are awfully similar.”

“We think very highly of Apple,” Mr. Schwartz said. “We don’t understand how this could have happened.”

In response, Apple’s ad agency, TBWA/Chiat/Day, has issued its first statement about the ad.

In the statement from TBWA/Chiat/Day, part of the TBWA Worldwide unit of the Omnicom Group, the agency described itself as “dedicated to creating original ideas.”

“We do not plagiarize, borrow, or steal them, and have a strict policy of not accepting third-party ideas in our creative process,” the statement read. The agency’s Playa del Rey, Calif., office has long created campaigns for Apple including award-winning ads that carried the theme “Think different.”

… But in its statement, TBWA/Chiat/Day said, “We can assure you that the ‘Detroit’ spot was created without any reference by TBWA/Chiat/Day to the ‘Arrow’ spot.”

“Our intention was to develop a campaign that was a natural and independent evolution of the ‘Silhouettes’ campaign,” the statement read. “Any similarities between the two spots are regrettable.”

Tomi, the Lego-loving artist behind the PodBrix mini-figures, is selling a Lego case for the iPod Shuffle. He writes:

“We are just about to release a new product called the BrixPod Classic. Obviously I’m looking to promote it.

It’s a LEGO® iPod shuffle case that gives the effect of a full-sized functional LEGO® iPod. It will be released this Thursday at 9:00pm EST for $49.99.

The limited edition run will be 300, but we are releasing 150 units first, then 150 units in about 3 weeks.”

The iBelieve is a $13 cap and lanyard for the iPod shuffle that turns the player into a cross when hung around your neck.

The site, which is very slick, appears to be genuine — at first glance. But there’s something fishy about it. First off, the site says:

“Inspired by the world’s obsession and devotion to the iPod, iBelieve is a replacement lanyard for your Shuffle. It is a social commentary on the fastest growing religion in the world.”

This clearly refers to the iPod — the iPod is the fastest growing religion in the world.

Then there’s the “biblical” quote in the upper right corner, taken from “2 Jobs 3:15.” It reads:

“But now bring me a man who plays music. And when the man played music, the groove came upon them.”

According to BibleGateway, the quote is a version of 2 Kings 3:15, which says: “‘But now bring me a man who plays music.’ And when the man played music, the power of the Lord came upon Elisha.”

A quick Whois search reveals the iBelieve site is registered to Scott Wilson of Portland, Oregon, who happens to be an award-winning designer. Wilson currently works at Nike, was formerly at IDEO, and is founder of design shop MOD.

So is the iBelieve lanyard real? It seems to be. The shopping mechanism works, and transports you to PayPal when you place an order.

I’ve e-mailed Scott and will post his response here if/when I get a reply.

Update: I blogged this as I figured it out, but a bit of digging around first would have made things a lot easier. It is in fact by Scott Wilson, who first sent notice of the iBelieve to MoCo Loco, from whence it spread around the blogosphere.

A smattering of movies and TV shows formatted for the iPod are starting to show up on BitTorrent — all unofficial, of course.

They include recent(ish) releases like Sin City and Amityville Horror, and edisodes of TV shows, including Lost, Nip/Tuck, Xena and World Series of Poker.

But there’s also unexpected oddities like Metropolis, Battle of the Bulge and Reefer Madness, which were all uploaded by the same person, and downloaded by none.

“Drown out annoying roommates and co-workers today!” says the developer of Noise, a handy little ap for generating pink noise.

“Also known as a signal with even power distribution on a logarithmic frequency scale, pink noise masks background noise to help you concentrate.”

(Via MacFeber)

The problem with having yuppie customers is they are so quick to sue. The class-action lawsuit against Apple over scratched nanos strikes me as petty and greedy — even though I own a nano (scratched, natch) and am probably eligible to join.

Digital-Lifestyles has a summary of the suit:

More details about Jason Tomczak’s class action against Apple for releasing defective iPod Nanos have emerged on The Inquirer’s site.In the action, started in a San Jose district court, Tomczak alleges that the iPod Nano’s easily-scratched screen renders the display unreadable and thus breaches state consumer protection statutes.

Tomczak alleges that Apple kept on shifting the Nanos even when they knew that there were problems with the design and by failing to recall the MP3 players, the company “passed the expense, hassle and frustration of replacing the defectively designed Nanos along to class members.”

The plaintiff alleges that with Steve Jobs whipping the Nano out of his pocket in a TV advert, Apple led consumers to believe the machine was durable.Tomczak argues that even this simple act could lead to a scratched screen, claiming that the resin used in the product was not as thick and strong as in previous iPods.

The plaintiff wraps up his case by alleging that Apple knew about the dodgy quality problems before release but, “fierce competition on the digital music industry” compelled them to release it anyway.

From the heart of Japan’s youth culture — Tokyo’s trendy Shibuya district — Flickr user Purpin describes how Apple is advertising the iPod nano:

As part of their rather unique advertising campaign, huge iPod nano posters now adorn the platform walls of Toyoko Line Shibuya Station.

As you depart the train you’ll be faced with a stream after stream of 1:1 iPod nano cutouts, in which you can pull off and take home. Obviously, I helped myself to a few as well.

Needless to say, with its tens of thousands of people passing through Shibuya station daily, those iPod cutouts won’t last very long.

Fortunately, I was lucky enough to be able to catch a glimpse of the staff furiously “refilling” the empty spaces with new cutouts in between the waves of departing passengers (I took the pictures after the evening rush. I can only imagine how busy these guys can be during rush hour!).

Much to my suprise, I later realised that these cutouts weren’t made of cardboard but of plastic, and are very rigidly built too. On the reverse side were the URL and QR Codes of a site where you can download iPod nano wallpapers for your mobile phone.

Having living somewhere way out from Tokyo, I was very lucky to be able to get my hands on these cutouts AND witness those “refillers” in action. Hats off to Apple and their wonderful advertising.

Update: Apple Japan has more pix of the nano promotion, which give a good idea of its placement in the subway.

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Yahooligan and occassional-OS-X-critic Russell Beattie bought a new video iPod, and he absolutely loves it. Russell’s no slouch. He’s one of the sharpest observers of tech and Silicon Valley. He writes:

I got the new 30GB White iPod yesterday and it completely rocks. Apple did a great job with this gadget. Much thinner than previous iPods, super-fast syncing over USB, and the screen is *great*. Anyone who complains about the screen size is either 1) blind 2) a whining tempermental jerk 3) someone who hasn’t actually seen the screen. It’s beautiful.

I’m telling you right now, Video Podcasts are going to be huge. HUUUUGE… Making it so easy to rip or download new music and sync it to your device made the iPod what it is today. The same functionality for Videos is what is going to make the new iPod the standard bearer for portable video as well, even though it has a much smaller screen than the PSP.

…I can’t wait for iFilm and AtomFilms and JibJab and all the rest to start creating content for my iPod and other devices as well, available via an RSS feed (do they already?). And I can’t wait for the Podcast guys to start ramping up their content like RocketBoom and Mobuzz have as well.

…It’s all related, can you see it? Portable video is really here at least… and it’s going to be huuuuge!

Via Fscklog, a slow-loading video of the world’s longest startup sound. The anticitpation is funnier than the payoff, but worth a look.