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Apple Hawks Madonna iPods
danamania writes "Apple's latest promotion is a gimmick with Madonna, Tony Hawk or Beck's signature, or a No Doubt logo, on an iPod. It seems Apple's really pushing the iPod as a too-cool fashion accessory as much as a too-cooler MP3 player... is Maddie's signature worth an extra USD49 over the standard iPod?" Instead of $50 for the engraved signature, you can spend $20 to print "Madonna's Signature" in beautiful Helvetica.
Could it not argue that having Madonna's signature on your iPod would decrease the value?
"Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence." - Charles de Gaulle
The Cowboy Neal autographed iPod (really just a big X marked in crayon).
But then I realized, of course, that we're living in a Material World.
Does this mean Steve Jobs is a Material Girl?
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
RED AND YELLOW, brutha! Whatcha gonna do when Hulkamania runs wild on you! Say your prayers, eat your vitamins, and use your Mac.
No. Seriously.
"A microprocessor... is a terrible thing to waste." --
GeneralEmergency
why would anyone do this? if they are a die hard fan they will mostlikely try for the real thing not just cheap engraved fake. I don't see why a person would waste 50 dollars more on this.
I am holding out for the limited edition Devo iPod.
Whip it! Whip it good!
I wouldn't be surprised to see Apple start shipping iPods with 'special tracks' from artists.
I bet the RIAA wold love that.
All I can say is....ewwww! I love my iPod and all, but this is a little too cute for my tastes. I'm sure they'll sell. People are so awestruck by celebrity that they will purchase just about anything to identify themselves in some manner or another.
"too-cool fashion accessory as much as a too-cooler MP3 player"
Two years from now, will it still be cool?
Two years from now, my Nomad Jukebox 5gb (c. 1956) will still nice-looking due to it's timeless design.
But, soon enough the "clean" look will be "out", and iPod sales will drop. Mark my words.
Beware the Madonna iPod, every time you turn around it will shed its outer cover. Plus instead of a blank pause, it will insist on playing "Material Girl" and/or "Like A Virgin" between all your tracks.
Apple will engrave Anonymous Coward for only $19.95!
I was hopping it came with the music she pirated!
If it did there'd be some Whilliam Orbit in there it bet!
Why would anyone want an iPod with a printed signature or logo. I understand branding etc, but with signatures most people don't care unless it is real. Also, for the price you could get it engraved with your own custom item makeing the iPod unique. That seems much more practical to me. Then at a later date when you happen to be at a coffee shop in London and Madonna forgets her purse again you can get her to autograph her iPod when she asks to borrow two pounds for that cake she is buying for her kid.i cle.cf m/103366/115819
http://english.planetarabia.com/content/art
Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't some of Madonna's newest CD's made with one of the new copy protection schemes? Doesn't it seem strange for her to be supporting the ipod while her music can't be played on it?
Personally, I dont really see what's wrong with this. It's just like having a signed by . Hardcore fans pay good money for 'autographed' items.
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
The Iron Maiden iPod... The Metallica iPod (just the irony makes it worth $50 more), the Devo iPod, and of course...
The artist formerly known as the artist formerly known as Prince iPod.
You like your new Mac more than you like me, don't you, Dave? Dave? I asked...She said Yes.
This would make more sense if the iPod came preloaded with a bunch of music from the artist whose name is engraved.
Anybody else find that a bit strange, I'd prefer it to show all of my contacts and appointments.
Dacels Jewelers can't be trusted.
fell on Madonna in the forest and someone recorded the audio, could I get that preloaded on my iPod instead?
Que Deus te de em dobro o que me desejas
[May God give you double that which you wish for me]
because i'm sure all these artists understand that the iPod is often used to store illegally obtained music files. can this be construed as tacit approval? what would hilary rosen say?
or perhaps musicians realize that like the VCR the iPod MAY encourage piracy but it has plenty of non-infringing uses. just like gnutella....
smd4985
I've got a slew of Mac Plusses with Steve Jobs' signature engraved inside and it didn't cost me $50 on top of the original $4000.
Jory
Because Marketing, two chimps and a wolverine, at Apple went to "focus groups" (the three idiots that thought Performa was a strong name) and they said, "I will buy something with Madonna's scrawl on it."
And thus there was crap on the shiny back of an iPod to be covered in the thumb prints of day to day use.
(I have a 20GB iPod - Back gets all printy fast)
First the RIAA will sue me for attempting to put MP3s on my iPod; then Madonna, No Doubt, and Beck will sue me for attempting to steal their iPods. "Why yes officer, that is my iPod, see, that's my signature right there."
You might be correct, but just watch Apple sell a million of these.
"A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing" - Alan Perlis
before we can get our favourite pr0n image engraved on it? No, I'm not nescessarily suggesting that Madonna be involved...
/.Pod - slashdots any computer that you hook up to it. Keeps on wanting to be "beowoulf clustered" with iPods of the opposite gender (but of course is lucky to even get them to acknowledge it).
K&RPod - Trse UsrIntFace, very flexible though
GPLPod - If you sing along, you must record your singing and distribute the original song along with your singing.
M$Pod/SonyPod/RIAAPod - You hate it because you have to.
CaseModPod - iPod with glear plastic case, neon kit, chipped cpu w/water cooling
Nope... guess again. The use of "hocking" as you suggest refers to leaving something with a pawn broker in exchange for a "loan". Derived from one of its meanings as "last resort". Hawking means, among other things, peddling, usually accompanied by a loud noise or shouting. Sheesh, don't any of you guys read anything besides slashdot! ;-)
She's always been one of those Pod People!
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Kevin Mitnick edition iPod (plays music, DOSes your iMac).
Hillary Rosen edition iPod (plays nothing, shops you to the Feds for file-sharing)
Nick Cave edition iPod (plays music, but you hear only silence)
Satan edition iPod (plays music in reverse, you hear voices telling you to 'do it! do it!')
MT.
-MT.
Eddie Bauer
Kathy Ireland
Martha Stweart
Tommy whatshisname
Ad infinitum
Celebrity connection sells. Real signature or just a logo.
How about ipods in *different colors*?? It worked for the iMac, and is a better choice than the signature of the 'flavor of the month'. Cmon, THINK DIFFERENT, indeed.
Better yet, a clear, removable face plate that can cover photos or art of your OWN MAKING.
That sounds more like Apple to me...
I'm posting this anonymously to protect my job. Not that they'll fire me or anything, but why risk it?
For several years, we (Apple) have been working on ways of customizing computers and electronics. It all started back in the Power Mac Cube days, when we were looking into new injection molding processes. That worked okay, but we got a lot of flak from customers who thought the mold lines in the plastic looked like cracks.
Now we're looking at custom laser engraving, trying to figure out ways to get the cost down to less than a dollar per square inch. The idea is that you will be able to order your laptop with anything at all engraved on the surface: your name, a logo, a picture of your kids, whatever.
This little promo is just some of the runoff from that work.
Oh, and incidentally, Apple isn't doing this for the money. I don't want to say anything else too specific, but there's more going on between Apple and these artists than just this. Expect to see more interesting things in the coming months.
Actually, it looks like you get $30 off at checkout.
This didn't work for Palm and it won't work for apple because it's a stupid idea. I'm just waiting for the clip on colored face plates -- that managed to eek a few extra years out of the Gameboy franchise that way.
I am not a number! I am a man! And don't you
It was cool when the iPod was the first easily usable MP3 player with a hard drive that fit in a small space. It was cool when they got linux support. It might've been cool if it was engraved with RMS' signature or CowboyNeal's, or even maybe Steve Jobs'. But remind me one more time why I, a geek/nerd/this/that/whatever, care about this? IANATroll, but this has gone a little too far with the 'slashvertisements'.
Ah well. I can see my karma dropping now. Mods, do your worst...
--j
The foolish and unwary.
:)
It lets you download music to it, then presents you with an EULA informing you that you do not own the music, but merely have a limited licence to listen to it. Pressing the Play button constituted agreeing to the EULA, pressing any other button gives you a BSOD.
MT.
-MT.
This could be cool (rather, worth the money) if Apple and the artists' labels got together and offered unique and compelling content only available for the signature-series iPods. Instead of pushing this as a logo gimmick, maybe selling "a year-long subscription to content only available to these iPods" would make the offer appealing.
Yep, it might reduce the price to nothing... for example would playing "Die Another Day" incite hardware failure? Either by the iPod developing a taste for music (in which case it self destructs) or the listener throws the iPod into a wall? (when users friend has got a waaaay cooler "Q" department issue iPod/iBond with a laser light show or something).
So in the end it is rather worthless, being in little pieces and all, unless Apple develops a special Terminator edition called the iT2000 (for when the film comes out) that can morph back together?
Are you local? There's nothing for you here!
I don't want to get flaimed for this - but honestly - this idea of of a Pop-Star, Skater guy, Loner, and Indy group signing an Ipod baffles me.
I'm all for people who want to get an Ipod - i'm sure it's a cool toy - as well as i'm sure it like all other toys has its +'s and -'s
But WHY? would you be more incligned to buy a Palm Pilot or a Zaurus if it had any of these signatures on it?
Ave Molech Setting
1. Pour plaster or some other softer substance over the signature section of your engraved iPod. Let harden and remove.
2. Buy all the old Madonna albums from the used section of your local music store.
3. Put ink on the tip of your plaster mold.
4. Stamp album covers.
5. Ebay some autographed Madonna albums.
(you knew it was coming)
6. PROFIT!
-B
Ah... I mean more ridiculous than Madonna as a conceptual whole.
-B
Ash and Hickory, straight-grained and true, make excellent bludgeons, dandy for the cudgeling of vegetarians.
It seems like a really bad move from a marketing strategy viewpoint. I am just not able to see how people who buy portable hardware for playing digital music (even the user-friendly Mac flavor) are the same people who would enjoy having something signed by a pop-star. But let us say that they are - I still don't see why you need to advertise a solid hi-tech product with a cheap gimmick. It is not just simple endorsement.
Has anyone ever done it yet? Take off that silvery cover and replace it with, I dunno, a clear case and a blue mini-cold cathode.
Why? Why the hell not...
Cue The Sun...
Why is a Madonna/No Doubt/Cowboy Neal - branded iPod Slashdot-worthy, but this article isn't? Apple is filing a lawsuit against a former contactor for theft of trade secrets. It seems that this contractor posted schematics of new apple hardware onto the internet...
/. *way* more than a Madonna iPod does... Especially since I'm more of a KISS fan myself... ;)
Moderators, punish me if you must, but I think this bears mentioning on
Polymorphism -- It's what you make of it.
They need an Ellen Fiess edition!
Wouldn't it a heckova lot cooler to use flexible displays or electronic paper wrapped around the iPod so you could customize the external appearance yourself? Skins for physical devices -- now THAT is cool!
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
A better, more profitable idea would be to make a cheap-o, 2 GB iPod for $99. Here is the price list: iPod prices. Customer engraving is $19.95.
Remember the Apple IIgs, which had Steve Wozniak's "WOZ" signature on the box?
</apple geek nostalgia>
Wait. I think the Apple/DoCoMo announcement about Quicktime on cellphones might have some bearing on where the iPod is going. There's nothing about iPod that specifically says "music," is there? Apple can do whatever it wants to with it - including slapping a color screen in like the Archos is using, increasing the disk space, creating QT & iPhoto capability, AND adding an input method (a scroll wheel-based keyboard?) - without really having to change the form factor. I used to trumpet the Archos because it is cheaper but, dammit, FireWire rulez!
Apple is trying to sell their product to Joe Sixpack. Joe doesn't know or care what a GB is. He does know, roughly how long a CD or a record takes to listen to.
The default import settings for iTunes is 160kbps MP3 (non-VBR). At those settings, 1000 songs (or roughly 2.6 days worth of music) consumes roughly 4.6GB which leaves enough space for the OS and your calendar, contacts, etc.
If you take a look at the Tech Specs page you'll find: At a 160Kbps compression rate (the default setting for encoding MP3s in iTunes), 20GB equals approximately 4,000 songs, or about 400 CDs. At 128Kbps -- the most popular compression rate people use for MP3s -- 20GB is equivalent to approximately 5,200 songs, or about 520 CDs.
I think I speak for everyone when I say I'm sorry that you happen to remember Madonna videos from 15 years ago. :-)
How many have she got?!
And what when they are all sold - how is she going to listen to music?
And where did she get all those mp3s anyway - did she download them from the net? Eh? Eh? Eh?
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
They had to drop that, it had been taken!
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
...is a Woz signature, of course.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
Ba hahahaha, please mod this up.
Hammer of Truth
I think I speak for everyone when I say I'm sorry that you happen to remember Madonna videos from 15 years ago
And I'm sorry if you happen to remember her video from last month.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
I've got 4 Apple ][gs', two of which are the "Special Woz Edition" - I don't recall them being more expensive when I purchased them; if memory serves well it was first-come-first-serve.
That said, this iPod/Madonna/Tony Hawk/etc. does seem to be a departure from the above; would you pay extra for a "Steve Jobs iPod"? Would you have paid extra for the Woz edition of the ][gs? I think back then in my early Apple days (read: Apple as a religion) I might have actually considered it, and would certainly be tempted by a Woz edition iPod (LOL) - but non-Apple celebrities? I dunno, it cheapens the allure of this product enhancement if you ask me..
It would be pretty interesting to be able to upload a black-and-white GIF or perhaps some similarly colored vector graphics to have engraved on the back. That sounds like the next obvious step after this pre-made designs and text customization.
Fuck that, Mirwais has written most of her hits in the last couple of years.
Never fight naked, unless you're in prison...
Forget iPod, I want the Vinalla iCe Pod. Preloaded with all my favoriate iCe tunes.
Karma: The shiznight, mostly because I am the Drizzle.
I had a friend who asked Apple if they would take a custom TrueTypeFont to engrave. Namely, a TTF for Quenya, and have it engraved in the language of Mordor:
Ash iPod durbatulúk, ash iPod gimbatul,
ash iPod thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul
Apple said no; a pity. I would have liked to have seen The One iPod
Or a portable DivX player with a picture of Jack Valenti on it.
Now I'm no Apple fan, but they may have a good idea here. Forget the scrawls. They are useless and ugly. However, looking at the No Doubt one, that's not a bad idea. They just need more options. I'd love if I could get various band logos of bands I liked scrawled onto an IPod, not just one, but logos of all the bands I like. Apple could have a large database of band logos and let you choose a bunch to throw on it together, make it look sortta raggadly put together.
Because if it doesn't match, my friends will think I'm a total dork.
Vote for Pedro
I predicted pretty much this same scenario in This Post a week or so ago.
I hope you're for real - I'd really like to see this happen.
Cheers,
Jim in Tokyo
-- My Weblog.
People that don't like carrying bricks in their pockets? People that like a good user interface?
I have a website. It's about Macs.
What if I lost my iPod and someone found it and returned it to Tony Hawk?
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
Recently at a motorcycle show I learned that one BMW's newest bikes, the F650CS, comes with an iPod when you purchase the bike: this page has details ...cute
Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
informing you that you do not own the music, but merely have a limited licence to listen to it
;)
But isn't this how most music is currently? Not that you have a EULA, but the copyright holder usually only gives you a limited use license to listen to the music, you at no point actually own the music. Not exactly a M$ specific thing, well at least the license part, the BSOD of course is copyrighted by M$ and it's one they protect (and exercise) rigorously
is Maddie's signature worth an extra USD49 over the standard iPod?
Well, considering one can by a pretty run of mill shirt for $15.00 at Target, or $185 at Neiman Marcus, I would say yes, to many consumers it's worth paying more simply for status.
I think it's a really smart move on Apple's part & plays perfectly into their geek chic motif.
-Bill
SlashSig Karma: Excellent (mostly affected by moderatio
But isn't this how most music is currently? Not that you have a EULA, but the copyright holder usually only gives you a limited use license to listen to the music, you at no point actually own the music.
:(
:)
For items that you can physically hold in your hand (tape,CD,vinyl), the above does not apply, for now. Although the music industry is doing its damnedest to try and rectify that.
My original post was more along the lines of 'All your files are belong to Microsoft', only with better wording.
MT.
-MT.
Best post recognizing that one has been inappropriately mod'ed up... ever!
The enemies of Democracy are
Like it or not, Apple leads the consumer electronics industry in terms of design. When they put out the five fruit-flavored iMacs, lots of people said, "so, that's just stupid, can I get beige?" A year or so later, you could get the mini George Forman grill in five fruit flavors.
If we do get the kids' picture laser-engraved on the powerbook, you can bet in a year everybody will be offering a similar service.
The brilliant part is, of course, it decimates the used equipment market.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
What I'd really like to know is if Beck really signs his cheques with this same signature.
Imagine waiting in line behind Beck at the bank while he endorses all his royalty cheques.
"Sir, there's quite a line behind you, perhaps you's like to step aside?"
"Butterfly pecans in my suitcase. Greasy foundlings like a termite, choking on a splinter. Cold brains. A devil's haircut in my mind."
"Uh...?"
"Just one more curlicue."
"Oh."
-- clvrmnky
Why would anyone want an iPod with a printed signature or logo
Consider the case where the buyer and the user are not the same person. For instance iPod's engraved with a company logo and presented as gifts to employees, clients, etc.