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YouTuber Admits Aspects of Viral HomePod Glitter Bomb Video Were Faked (appleinsider.com)
New submitter ArchieBunker writes: A viral video featuring a booby-trapped HomePod box that pranked package thieves with a glitter bomb has been criticized for faking some of the reactions of the would-be "thieves," who were in fact acquaintances of friends of the video's creator. The video, "Package Thief vs. Glitter Bomb Trap" by former NASA engineer Mark Rober, featured the creation of a device constructed inside a HomePod box that spread out glitter once the HomePod box was opened, with four smartphones used to film the event and subsequent reactions from all angles. Clips were shown of people claimed to be package thieves, opening the box and being covered with glitter, before throwing the contraption away.
One thief's vehicle was found to have a number of similar features to one parked near to the house of a friend of Rober, used to film some of the illicit acquisitions, suggesting it was acquired by someone who lived nearby. Another person used Google Street View and Zillow to analyze the third thief's video from inside her home, and determined the side yard and outdoor area bore a striking resemblance to the home next door to the friend's house. Posted to Imgur, the thread of evidence led to others questioning Rober on some of his later edits to the published video, including deletion of small sections and blurring out details. According to Rober, he offered to provide the box to people who were willing to place it on their doorstep, with the offer of financial compensation for successful recoveries of the package, and one "friend of a friend" volunteered to help. Rober has since confirmed that two of the five reactions used in the video were suspicious, and were subsequently removed, but insists the reactions for times when the box was stolen from his doorstep were genuine. "I'm especially gutted because so much thought, time, money, and effort went into building the device and I hope this doesn't just taint the entire effort as 'fake,'" writes Rober in text placed underneath the video. "It genuinely works (like all the other things I've built on my channel) and we've made all the code and build info public."
One thief's vehicle was found to have a number of similar features to one parked near to the house of a friend of Rober, used to film some of the illicit acquisitions, suggesting it was acquired by someone who lived nearby. Another person used Google Street View and Zillow to analyze the third thief's video from inside her home, and determined the side yard and outdoor area bore a striking resemblance to the home next door to the friend's house. Posted to Imgur, the thread of evidence led to others questioning Rober on some of his later edits to the published video, including deletion of small sections and blurring out details. According to Rober, he offered to provide the box to people who were willing to place it on their doorstep, with the offer of financial compensation for successful recoveries of the package, and one "friend of a friend" volunteered to help. Rober has since confirmed that two of the five reactions used in the video were suspicious, and were subsequently removed, but insists the reactions for times when the box was stolen from his doorstep were genuine. "I'm especially gutted because so much thought, time, money, and effort went into building the device and I hope this doesn't just taint the entire effort as 'fake,'" writes Rober in text placed underneath the video. "It genuinely works (like all the other things I've built on my channel) and we've made all the code and build info public."
not about the 'reality TV' aspect of it.
Don't really care if the reactions were fake or real.
Once a cheater, always a cheater. Sure, you feel gutted. You got caught.
The thing that struck me the most was the number of 'thieves'. While 'porch pirates' are a real thing, they aren't so common that one guy or even a couple of them could in short order have so many packages lost to them.
The force that blew the Big Bang continues to accelerate.
What a stupid thing to do. Pad a reaction video with some fake reactions. Damn, that cost him all his credibility. In today's fake news world there is no room for phonying up any video, news item, or posts. Stay pure and stay believed. Cheaters are losers.
Most likely the entire thing was faked, including the device itself.
You knew it was fake when the first "thief" didn't stomp the glitter-bot into the ground in frustration and anger.
=^..^= all your rodent are belong to us
"I'm especially gutted because so much thought, time, money, and effort went into building the device and I hope this doesn't just taint the entire effort as 'fake,'"
But...it was fake. You faked all of your test data and presented it as real results, therefore your entire research project is, at best, suspect. You deliberately mislead your viewers and now you're shocked at the result.
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
He's the real deal. Real qualifications, his channel has a fair bit of science on it (and 5.4 million subscribers) and he does appear to be engineering quite a bit of stuff.
And like most big YouTube channels he has set up a production company to do professional editing and scripting and yes like everything on TV some of it is faked. Hopefully you didn't think everything you saw on TV/YouTube was real...
So basically people are upset that big YouTube channels are exactly like TV shows.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Don't have mod points today, but mod parent up.
What we seem to have lost in this age is the ability of differentiated, graded responses. Everyone is either "omg, my hero!" or "that fraud, he's so evil!". There is no inbetween. Not in politics, not in economics and not in YouTubers.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
There are a lot of rage filled comments here about him being a liar, when it seems to me his main crime was gullibility?
I've occasionally watched his videos for years, and he seems to be a fairly decent, very smart guy. He did formerly work for NASA as an actual engineer - his interactions with current NASA personnel are proof of that.
His story is that obviously he couldn't get that many thief interactions on his own doorstep, so he loaned the build out to friends, and friends of friends with a cash reward for interactions with recoveries...I think that was his mistake. Once you bring money or fame into it, people are assholes; with both involved it's almost guaranteed. So some of them staged the reactions, ostensibly for the cash, but imo more for the internet fame...and now that's screwed him over.
His "crime" if anything isn't lying, it's being gullible and trusting.
-Styopa
Outrage is all the rage right now. If it wasn't clear in this video, this is just a guy doing some youtube videos on the side, trying to coordinate things with friends and volunteers. If you watched several of his videos, this is entirely obvious, and he does not try to hide it. He is not an investigative journalist or detective, so you have to take that into account, as he may not be as rigorous in some of his methods. I was obviously skeptical when he lent the device to other people, as anyone should be. Based on the evidence, you could possibly blame him for being naive or gullible, but that is about it. If you have a problem with it going forward, just don't watch his videos, and simply question the credibility of any information where he is the source. Although, I suspect people will take it further though (harassment, etc), and I hope he doesn't suffer undue consequences.