iDon’tGetIt
The product page for Giffin’s new iBeam poses the
question: “Ever use iPod’s backlight to find your keys?”
iAnswer: iDon’t
I wrote yesterday about the booming iPod economy. I think it’s swell that Apple has made it so easy for all these
companies to get a piece of the pie, but there has to be a limit.
I’m a geek. I love geeky stuff. I love gadgets and widgets. Most of the gadgets and widgets I have are pretty useless
and serve no practical purpose in the real world. My not-husband makes fun of this all the time. He accuses me of
accumulating stuff that serves no purpose other than to aid in my accumulation of more stuff. I hate to admit it, but
he’s mostly right.
So why can’t I stop laughing at Griffin’s new $20 mini light show? Griffin says: “The Griffin iBeam represents a new
category of iPod accessories that are fun, functional and easy on the ‘iPod gear’ line of your budget.” I say
“The Griffin iBeam represents a new category of iPod accessories that is aimed at suckers who won’t think twice
about spending twenty bucks on something that does what it does just to prove that it can.”
I am sure most of you disagree with me. I’m used to that. I trust you will leave some very convincing arguments about
why I am wrong in the comments section.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Rums said 4:15PM on 6-16-2005
Exactly. They're doing it for the sake of doing it. Things like this should be left to people who do it as a fun hack to show off to their geeky friends and left at that. You can get a keychain led flashlight free from almost any vendor display, and laser pointers can be picked up at the local dollar-store. Swing and a miss for the normally competent Griffen. To top it off, should companies be creating devices that suck even *more* of our iPod's precious battery juice?
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auricom said 4:15PM on 6-16-2005
with you. they should focus on making their existing products work better then creating new ones like these.
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omit said 11:40PM on 12-11-2005
I think it would be cooler if they had a device that projected the current track name and running time onto a wall, or had some visualizations/effects.
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Casey Kelley said 4:15PM on 6-16-2005
When I had my iPod (3G 10GB) I occasionally turned on the backlight during the early morning hours to get some light while looking for things on my desk if I needed to, or if I knocked off something on my table I could turn on the backlight to see what fell. Since I sold my iPod, my T616 has replaced that job.
Plus I think the laser pointer's kinda cool. It's nice to see something other than a FM transmitter every once in a while.
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roman pixell said 5:47PM on 12-08-2005
the reeeeeaaaaaly funny part of this is that the ibeam web states that the product will help you to find your keys with the torch light
later down in the text it says that the torch is delivered with a ... well i think you guessed it - a KEYCHAIN ring! so go figure how easy it is to find yourkeys now, once you found the torch :)
the motivation for providing a keychain ring is that the torch should always be "close at hand". seems increadibly useful. i mean to have the keys at hand. or whatever.
priceless...
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Dave said 4:15PM on 6-16-2005
So is there an ambient power source on the headphone jack, or do you have to play a sine wave mp3 to power the lights?
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Shawn B said 4:15PM on 6-16-2005
Actually I Use my ipod backlightlight all the time to find my keys at night. Also, during the NYC blackout last year, many people used their ipods to find their way down the stairs of office buildings. The thing is pretty bright and I think its a great idea for 20 dollars.
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~bc said 4:15PM on 6-16-2005
I think it's a waste of their manufacturing time, but hey, a co who's a lot of winners has to have a few losers occasionally. BTW, I have often used my iPod's backlight for a flashlight. Works great.
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Alderete said 4:15PM on 6-16-2005
While I'm quite certain most people wouldn't use this sort of thing on a daily basis, it might be nice to have in your backpack for occasional use.
Two years ago the Bay Area had a bunch of power outages, and my cubicle at work was in a dark corner of our building. When the power went out on me one day, it was *pitch black*, and impossible to see even enough to grab my stuff and leave the building.
What came to my rescue? The backlight on my mobile phone. Ridiculous as it sounds, it was good enough to collect my things, find my way to the stairwell, and leave.
If I'd had one of these, it would have been a lot easier, because the backlight shut off automatically after 10 seconds, which was a pain in the ass...
Anyway, I wouldn't mind getting one of these and throwing it in my backpack for emergencies...
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Kevin Smokler said 4:15PM on 6-16-2005
They'd devote some of the time they spend on product development to synching up marketing and product cycles. Their website has products listed for months at a time before they are available to the public.
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jbelkin said 4:15PM on 6-16-2005
Yep, it's stoopid and stupid but that's why I'm buying one - if nothing else, just to show people with non ipods what they're missing out on - I got the USB Christmas (it even works in my cable box USB) so I'm hoping this xmas, Griffin will come out with the ixmas tree and for our jewish friends, maybe a tiny menorah with a scroll wheel to light up each day).
ipod rules! for every useful FM transmitter or voice recorder, we need at least one $700 crystal upgrade or this thing. ipod rules all!
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barb dybwad said 4:41PM on 10-07-2005
given that i have happily Macgyvered my way through the dark by the light of my cell phone several times, but i would say the logical light device to throw in your backpack 'in case of emergency' is not the iBeam - it's a *flashlight*!!
right?!
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Marian Petrides said 4:15PM on 6-16-2005
Ummm... now that the iPod Photo is out, this product makes a lot more sense.
You can take a PowerPoint presentation, export it as JPEGs, then put it onto your iPod Photo and display it on a TV or even an LCD projector with composite or S-video inputs. If you can also use your iPod Photo as a laser pointer, then the iPod and a cable are all you need.
One question, however: Does anyone know how one toggles the laser beam on and off? A laser pointer that doesn't go off is of little use in lecturing.
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