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Pez to Dispense Music instead of Sweets
Elteto writes "News.com has a story on Lincoln West Studios entering a licensing agreement with Pez Candy to manufacture MP3 players based on the popular candy dispenser format. As the devices will be compatible with the line of detachable heads, including the latest Star Wars character heads, this new product could be a hit with both the candy an the gadget crowds. I bet the idea also ignites creativity in many who wonder how they could insert the guts of small MP3 players such as the iPod Shuffle into various objects. The designer of the Pez MP3 player says his inspiration was the Altoid tin can."
How long until someone creates a line of Pez-MP3 players using unlicensed characters playing unlicensed music?
Two copyright violations for the price of one!
I'm a big tall mofo.
You'll have to pay more for licensing and brand name recognition for your audio player that probably won't even have the same amount of functionality as a regular one, just so you can put little interchangable heads on it? Can't you just do this now anyway? It's called Elmer's Glue-all.
sup
... but why can't it dispense Pez too? Wait for the Slashdot hacks article on that one, I suppose... expect the Tron Guy to come up with something!
So can I share some Pez with a friend, or is it DRM'd?
Is that these silly little Pez players will have 16 times the storage capacity of Sony PSPs for half the price.
(PSP specs | Pez mp3 specs)
Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate. Ex-O'Reilly/MIT employee, now a full-time Google employee.
Does it have a built-in stopwatch?
Back when Walkmans were all the rage, me and my buddies used them to sneak in our own "candy" to school. As in, Marijuana! I wonder what kids will use them for today... ?
Wait a tick, if they try to patent these things, would that count as prior art?
small MP3 players such as the iPod Shuffle into various objects
Goatse for the modern age?
liqbase
...mmm... Pez... must have the Pez... almost like BRAINS... mmm... Pez... must have Pez! ;)
DBA? Software Engineer? My company is hiring! Click
No Pez. Less space than an iPod. Lame.
Here is an article from the December edition of BSD Journal which IT specialists (in particular, Unix administrators) thinking of moving overseas might find interesting. It compares various countries and the salaries, cost of living, and general IT industry of the country. The countries reviewed were: Australia, the United States, Canada, Spain, South Africa, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The article was rather long, so I won't post the entire thing, only the summaries and conclusions.
UNITED KINGDOM
Infrastructure: The UK has technologically advanced domestic and international systems in terms of basic telecommunications services, and the UK's I.T sector has grown rapidly since the late 1980s, making the UK's I.T infrastructure amoung the world's best. There is active competition amoung various ISPs and other telecommunications service providers and the quality of service is generally excellent. According to our tests, the UK was placed 2nd out of the 7 tested countries in this category, behind only Sweden. Final Score: (4/5)
Salaries: I.T. workers can expect higher salaries in the UK than in any of the other tested countries, and our results indicate that the UK's I.T. job market is expanding rapidly and has a very healthy outlook. Adjusted for taxes and living expenses and local exchange rates, the average I.T worker had a take-home pay of $45,692. Final Score: (5/5)
Cost of Living: The UK has a high cost of living, although this is mitigated by very high salaries for I.T. workers. Final Score: (2/5)
Working Conditions: The UK has relatively bad working conditions compared to the other countries that we tested, and we found that the average UK I.T. worker works 51.6 hours a week, a horrendous 11.6 hours longer than the traditional 40 hour (9-5) working week. Final Score: (2/5)
Conclusion: The UK leads the pack in terms of average salary package size, but the working conditions and cost of living remain valid concerns. Still, the UK has an excellent I.T infrastructure and the overall outlook for I.T. workers is very good. The UK was placed 2nd out of the 7 nations that we tested, with a final score of 62%.
UNITED STATES
Infrastructure: The USA has a large, technologically advanced, multipurpose communications system in terms of basic telecommunications services. The USA has traditionally been touted leader in technological development worldwide, and this is evident in its I.T. infrastructure in and around major centers. However, a lot of the USA's infrastructure, basic as well as I.T, is rapidly aging and much of it is indeed of upgrading, repair or replacement, especially in less populated areas. Recent problems with the USA's telecommunications and electricity grid in particular cannot be overlooked. Final Score: (3/5).
Salaries: The US has been a world leader in I.T. and telecommunications since the 1940s, and experienced a massive I.T. boom in the 1990s and early 2000s. However, our review period was 2000-2004, and during this time frame, the outlook for I.T. workers has slumped and only recently been revived to some extent. The high number of forgein workers, particularly from India and Asia, competing both locally and through outsourcing, has dampened the prospects for I.T workers in the USA. Despite this, the average take-home pay of US I.T workers remains higher than all other tested countries aside from the UK, at $41,500. Final Score: (4/5).
Cost of Living: The USA has an enviable cost of living, although the differences between various areas are immediately noticable and a huge factor in our tests. The USA was placed 3rd, behind only South Africa and Australia. Final Score: (3/5)
Working Conditions: The USA's working conditions have plummeted since the dot-com boom of the early 2000s, with employers taking advantage of the high amounts of immigrants and outsourcing possibilities available to them. The average working week of th
This would be really cool until my SO's toddler latched on to it. She just loves PEZ. Might end up in the outside, maybe the basement. Or maybe, she'd just hammer on it till 'candy' came out.
I think it's cool, but I I'll pass....
http://request-header.info
SWEET!
EvilCON - Made Famous by
They make good, cute little cases, when you insulate them -- they conduct.
Assume I was drunk when I posted this.
... it will be double the fun, legally, targeted against 12yr old children, for half price!
http://www.pezmp3.com/
-- Boycott Shell
I believe it's called: C6H12O6 A little soft on the bass, but the highs are very sweet!
If any player ever had all the goodies, this is it!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
From the blog of the guy who designed it:
# The first version will be 512mb.
# There will be six buttons along one of the skinny sides.
# There will be an LCD screen.
# The head will be removeable and compatible with existing PEZ heads.
# The first production run will be small and made in the USA.
# The first production run will be early summer.
# Supports MP3, WMA, OGG, USB 2.0, mounts as flash drive.
# No voice record, no FM tuner, no Bluetooth, no Janus (Napster to Go.)
# Will be sold direct to consumer from this website (may go into retail channels later.)
PimpMyMazda.com - Crazy mods to a 2002 Mazda Protege DX.
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:lYzQjHN7eo8J: www.pezmp3.com/+&hl=en
-- Boycott Shell
He just doesn't realize that his inspiration was those diabolically annoying 1980s greeting cards with tinny, infinitely-repeating embedded greetings music. Curse you, PezSinger! Now every $25 object will be mewling 50 Cent music at us.
--
make install -not war
+5 Fuckin' Funny
Shame the makers of the minty mp3 player didn't patent it :]
What they should be doing is designing an MP3 player *insert* that's small enough to fit into the candy slot of existing dispensers. That way they could start selling dispensers again like ringtones or faceplates.
"Lawyers are for sucks."
- Doug McKenzie
So how long until some kid gets mugged for his/her Pez candy candy dispenser?
Oh wait... This is Slashdot...
Just proves there is no bounds to human creativity...
Ruby Neural Evolution of Augmenting Topologies
It would be cool if there were candy sized memory modules. You could plug 'em in and stuff to add more memory or swap out the contents.
A Pez dispenser is actually a little on the large size as far as MP3 players go.
Maybe it was the USBPez that really inspired him.
. . .usbPEZ. It seems PEZ is becoming more well known for their hardware, than candy.
Back in my day, we watched T.V. by candlelight.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
One of my college buddies had an encounter with a couple of nice young men on bicycles wearing white shirts and ties. He suggested they could be replaced with a giant pez dispenser with an angel statue atop to dispense certain books. (I'm not sure how good it went over.)
Just think - you could have:
And thus the cycle is complete.
Just be careful when you hear your phone ring....
www.eFax.com are spammers
for an MP3 player the size of a peanut M&M.
Yes, but does it have a stopwatch?
Looks like a certain list writer reads slashdot!
Now how can you be against an MP3 player with a removable head?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I haven't looked into Janus much, but this ZDNet article mentions that Dell, Creative, and Rio will be offering mp3 players supporting Janus. Some players that support it:
Creative Zen Portable Media Center
iRiver PMC-120
Gateway MP3 Photo Jukebox (4GB)
iRiver H10 (5GB)
iRiver H320 (20GB)
PimpMyMazda.com - Crazy mods to a 2002 Mazda Protege DX.
Will you be able to listen to Eazy E on a fallen rapper Pez dispenser?
Curiosity was framed. Ignorance killed the cat.
Riiiiight, so he didn't get it from
http://www.hackaday.com/entry/6336767343487544/
or
http://crap.mousetoy.com/pez.html
"this "hack" is making the rounds, so i wanted to get it up here. with usb drives getting smaller and cheaper, there's pretty much no end to where you could potentially put them. in this example, a pez dispenser. i'm pretty sure companies like pez may even be offering up these of their own soon with content on the drives along with that sweet sweet candy. post up other weird things that can or have been used a usb drive..."
Dug
"I bet the idea also ignites creativity in many who wonder how they could insert the guts of small MP3 players such as the iPod Shuffle into various objects."
I bet that idea will be realised fully in the near future when the only way to transfer mp3's and other files around will be by inserting them into your anus and hoping RIAA customs control doesnt hear when it starts playing Bob Dylan out of your ass..
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
I never liked pez because I am forced to only use their candy. What if they go out of business, then I would be stuck with a dispenser that couldn't use other candy.
In my Physics class we were required to make a robot (simple was okay, it was part of the electroincs portion). We hacked a pez dispenser. No, we didn't put an MP3 player, but we took one of those electronic pez dispensers, and added a faster dispensing mechanism and it became a pez gun that shot the pez all the way across the room and left welts in those it hit. Those pez were prolly traveling at about 150 ft/s.
Just great. Now wait 'till the kids start eating the batteries...
I think it would be really cool if Pez would develop a dispenser for shoving shaved gerbils up your ass. That would be so cool.
Really, how many people were thinking this? I realize people like to do case mods and boot Linux on everything and all.
But are there a bunch of people out there looking for odd places to put their iPod shuffle?
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
hand...3on'7
I don't believe it.
93 comments, and nobody has said
"Pez to Dispense Music, Instead of Swedes."
And took it to the Apple store. After that and checking online for examples of gutting a Shuffle, I've concluded that it can't fit inside a Pez dispenser. The Shuffle is the perfect height once you replace the cap with a Pez head, and it's more than thin enough depth-wise, but it's too darn wide. It wouldn't look right.
-- Boycott Shell
All the whining about this post translates to:
"Gee I wish I'd thought of that, but since I never come out of my basement I never have any original ideas."
Just think of the ideas. Get a Pez dispenser with Janet Jackson's head and get a MP3 malfunction! Lots of funny material here...
This guy is a KNOWN TROLL!
I realize there's a bit of backstory here, but it really seems like an early April Fool's day joke, no? I'm just sayin' ...
I realize there's a bit of a backstory here, but it seems like an elaborate April Fool's Day Joke, no? I'm just sayin' ...