J&R offers custom painted iPod Minis

I think it'd be an extra level of cool, and a conversation piece, if you had a custom iPod. The thing is, you'd have to get past the initial barrier of not being recognized with an iPod. Someone might just shrug and go "not an iPod, something else. it's not white." I personally would give you a +1 for the custom iPod, if I was able to recognize it as a custom iPod!

Andrew: I agree, it is cool to own. . . and be seen with. . . an iPod. So does a custom 'Pod rate higher than a typical one, or does it seem like you're trying too hard? I think I'd be intrigued by someone with a screaming yellow Mini.

I love the concept of custom iPods. But I bet there are a lot of people out there (including me, a little bit, deep down inside) that see the iPod as kind of a status symbol, like, I have an iPod, I am cool -- and thus by painting it wouldn't be instantly recognizable from afar as an iPod. Of course, once someone gets an up-close look, they'd realize you were a double-stud, but until then, they might just look away and scoff at your non-iPod. I started out saying this in jest, but then I realized that really, a lot of the reason the iPod has stayed on top over competitors is that it's just cool to have an iPod.

Colorware will paint iPod Minis and also sells painted ones. In fact they paint every apple computer/iPod except the eMac, Powermac, and the shuffle.

Saw this on the back page of AM:New York about 2 weeks ago, at the time I thought they were just giving free skins with the ipods or something. I wonder how they do this... Also, IMHO, they are damn ugly.