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Apple Quashes pBop

Posted by pudge on from the oops dept.

mojotunes writes "The pBop (nee pPod) MP3 player mentioned on Slashdot a while back has been officially pulled by its creator StarBrite Solutions, apparently because of legal pressure from Apple. Well, duh. Who didn't see that coming?"

9 of 69 comments (clear)

  1. not a very helpful link... by MatrixBandit · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's funny how the the slashdot article is actually longer than the original source.
    Seriously, does anyone have any useful links on this, as to exactly how they were infringing on Apple, and not just the obvious speculation?

  2. History Repeating by Trurl's+Machine · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Reading similar stories, I always have the same feeling of deja vu. First Apple introduces some new gagdet or a new user interface concept. Then it gets immediate bashing from both pro-Apple and anti-Apple camps - how ugly, dysfunctional and stupid it is! Then we see an avalanche of various clones of the new Apple gizmo for Linux or Windows. And finally we hear a common outrage when Apple sends its famous "cease & desist" letters and the avalanche indeed ceases and desists. We have had that with Aqua, Dock, iTunes etc. - now we have it with the iPod...

    1. Re:History Repeating by CptTripps · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Put yourself in their shoes. Every time they 'invent' something, about 6mos later, someone copies it (this time EXACTLY) and the world is amazed when Apple sues them over it. Remember the eMachines 'iMac' clone back on 2000? Remember the operating system that Microsoft copied back in 1983?

      Can you blame them?

      --


      My .sig can beat up your honor student.
    2. Re:History Repeating by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      For example, CmdrTaco had following to say about the iPod: "No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame." Other trolls on the same page were about the same... so there you go. The experts had spoken, the iPod was truly "lame", while the superior ultra-compact Nomad was the way to go.

    3. Re:History Repeating by raga · · Score: 5, Informative
      Gates saw the Mac interface, not the Xerox interface (which, btw was quite different from the Mac interface.

      Here is the story as recounted by Andy Hertzfeld (one of the original "software wizards" to work on the Mac OS).

      This story by Bruce Horn (who worked at Xerox, and later was hired by Apple to join the Mac team) is a good recount of how the Mac interface came about.

      cheers- raga

    4. Re:History Repeating by raga · · Score: 5, Interesting
      Checkout this reply.

      Everything you wanted to know about Mac development by the guys who did.

      cheers- raga

  3. The Peoples' Hate Affair with Apple by Crash+Culligan · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Then it gets immediate bashing from both pro-Apple and anti-Apple camps - how ugly, dysfunctional and stupid it is! Then we see an avalanche of various clones of the new Apple gizmo for Linux or Windows. And finally we hear a common outrage when Apple sends its famous "cease & desist" letters and the avalanche indeed ceases and desists.

    Yeah... says something, doesn't it?

    So the sequence is:

    1. Apple creates something
    2. People claim that the design [sucks | is ugly | is useless | is stupid | won't sell | clashes with my duvet]
    3. The thing in question sprouts wings and takes off (metaphorically)
    4. People copy the crap out of it
    5. Apple sends in the lawyers
    6. People stop copying
    ...right?

    Step 1 is natural; they design stuff. Step 3 isn't guaranteed, but they seem to come up with quite a few hits, now don't they? Step 4 is also quite natural; if one of something is good, then a copy of it will work almost as well with a fraction of the effort! Step 5 is natural given step 4; if they don't protect their designs, then everybody will make money off of the popular ones. And step 6 is natural because, hey, lawyers are involved.

    That leaves step 2: people saying that Apple's designs are bad. It farts liberally in the face of step 3, so it must have something to do with step 1: the fact that Apple made it.

    And now I'm scratching my head and wondering why.

    What does Apple do that makes them so evil that people will decry their products without even a second glance? Why do certain journalists feel the need to predict its imminent downfall for verging on 30 years? How do so many become so thoroughly programmed to be so hostile?

    And no, I don't have the answer. That's why I'm asking.

    --
    You cannot truly appreciate Dilbert until you read it in the original Klingon.
    1. Re:The Peoples' Hate Affair with Apple by oneofthemany · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Good question, I suspect that apple get no more criticism for its new products than any other company, it just tends to be that apple's launches are higher profile and so, as a consequence, is the criticism.

      Perhaps another answer is that apple takes more risks with its products and produces genuinely 'different' things, and new 'different' things are (almost) always challenged before they are accepted.

  4. it's hardly a copy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    the pPod was hardly a copy, at least not functionaly. all it had going for was the "look" of iPod. it's basically an mp3 player with a skin that looked like an iPod - not an emulated iPod, as it seems to be implied.

    didn't play AAC. doesn't work with iTMS. etc. etc.

    i'm surprised it got as much coverage as it did.