Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iPod Family, Odds and ends
Revisiting SmashMyiPod
Recently, I wrote about the video that was finally posted at SmashMyiPod in a post entitled, "SmashMyiPod nothing but a scam?" In the post, I stated, "...the first nine minutes [of the video] feature the webmaster's purchase of a (brand new, 5G) iPod...Next, he is seen smashing what is clearly a 20GB, 4G iPod in an alley with a hammer."I was half right. He does in fact smash a 4G iPod in the alley, but it's the same 4G (not 5G) iPod he purchased in the store (see still image above). I regret the error.
In my defense, the title of the post is a question, not a statement, and I wasn't the only one unsure of the validity of the website's claims. Still, an error is an error and I own up to it. My apologies to SmashMyiPod.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
itsmeee said 10:53AM on 11-01-2005
damn straight your sorry! Those poor little boys at smashmyipod :p
Reply
Chris said 11:20AM on 11-01-2005
The whole thing is he could have had a busted 4G and wanted a new one. He gets people to send him the money, buys a new iPod, then smashes the old one and no one would be the wiser. I saw the video and there is no proof that the iPod he pulled out of the box in the store is the one he smashed. Anyhow, enough on this as all it is doing is extending his 15 minutes of fame.
Reply
Joseph T. said 11:14AM on 11-01-2005
Who cares...It is a scam. No need to retract your thoughts, as they were just that.
Reply
Microdot said 11:26AM on 11-01-2005
has anyone addressed the issue yet of the cost? when was the last time someone paid $360 for a 20gb ipod? the ipod was bought on october 20th... the release of the 5g ipod was oct 10th. the price point on any remaining 20gb (that hadnt been available for a while at that point) was much much lower... especially from the apple store. so... what happened?
Reply
Sam Katz said 11:26AM on 11-01-2005
He takes the iPod out of the box, and in the next frame, stomps on it. we see him carrying it. He is then escorted out of the apple store with the iPod still somehow intact.
Then he throws it to the pavement and it smashes.
Sounds like he did smash an iPod.
--Sam
Reply
HowdyDoody said 11:50AM on 11-01-2005
Scam in my book. He raised $400 in donations and buys a $299 iPod. Profit.
Reply
editboxes said 12:18PM on 11-01-2005
Who gives a crap...just some little, lonely single boys having some fun.
Reply
Lexx said 12:46PM on 11-01-2005
I'm sorry but isn't he buying a 4G 20GB iPod Photo in the video? Not a new 5G which only comes in 30gb and 60gb flavors?
Reply
Lexx said 12:54PM on 11-01-2005
Okay, nm... Apparently I don't know how to read an entire article. Meh, smashmyipod is stupid anyways.
And I believe they are in Canada so $400 seems about right to cover his costs and a new iPod too I suppose.
Reply
iomatic said 5:21PM on 11-01-2005
Let's take those spoiled sh1ts out and smash them up!
Reply
iData said 2:05PM on 11-04-2005
Watched the video - it shows him asking his friend, where is my recept... and some guy comes up and throws 'An' iPod and smashes it.
No, he is not Canadian - the guy was holding US cash.
Reply
ars_workerbee said 1:34PM on 11-01-2005
at the apple store where i work, we've been out of the old 20s for literally weeks, we had a couple dozen when the video iPods came out, and they only lasted a few days.
i'm skeptical that Yorkdale had any left either, and call shenanigans, that he did this already before.
and the price on the old 20s? $229. gg ripping off your donors mr. smash my iPod
Reply
Tank said 10:06AM on 11-02-2005
Hio, I just want to say thanks to tuaw for clearing this up on behalf of the SmashMyiPod crew. We appreciate it.
Reply
Ben G said 1:58PM on 11-01-2005
if you dontated money to have an ipod smashed, you deserved to be scammed.
Reply
Pedro said 3:01PM on 11-01-2005
The best comment I have heard so far...
11. if you dontated money to have an ipod smashed, you deserved to be scammed.
Give that man a star!
Reply
Edward said 8:53PM on 11-01-2005
SIGH @ All your stupidity.
Everyone is jumping on the scam bandwagon. You should all be shot.
No, I didn't donate any money, but I did have fun watching their pathetic geek video and cringing at them getting bumped from the Apple Store.
Another post by Dave Caolo, who is either very unintelligent and lacks a respectable IQ, or simply did not bother to do his journalistic work for this admittedly lackluster story. The kid, "Simpson", purchases a 20GB fourth-generation iPod from the Apple Store and smashes it to pieces. Unless he knows of some fun clipping techniques to make different film takes look like a continuous shot, the iPod we saw the faceless boy jump on in the shop beside the counter is the same one from the new iPod box. Probably not the case, given that he uses Window Media Video (.wmv) as his selected video codec; clearly a bad option. In fact it should never really be used. Ever.
Even stupider are the people in the last log entry on this that actually believed all of Dave's words without bothering to take the time to confirm it themselves.
Perhaps the greatest element of the write-up in terms of pure lack of respect for human intelligence is the sentence, "Scam.com says, 'Obvious scam.'", as though that website is a collection of trained scam-enthusiasts that work around the clock busting out legitimately uncovered scams around the web. Again, if you had bothered to do just the slightest bit of work here, you would have realized the quote originated from a forum, posted by someone who also had not viewed the video, with a handful of equally unintelligent replies. Nothing particularly worth mentioning in an article that supposedly attempts to bring fact and cold truths to our story of interest.
Now we get to the fifth generation iPod. Nowhere on the website does Simpson ever claim to include this new iPod in the smash video. The new iPod is not featured in the video. In fact at no point was the new iPod remotely related to this event. The fifth generation iPod talk began way back when the first images were posted of the shattered iPod, in log entries and comments at weblogs like Engadget, and continued at Cult of Mac and this site (TUAW) once the video had been made available. That's great isn't it. I hope you feel big reporting statements that have been revealed as completely false. It wouldn't be so horrible - I mean sure, sites make mistakes - if you hadn't been so damn adamant about your truth and chastising in your log entry. Certainly the fact that when asked if he would like the video-enabled, fifth generation iPod when being served, he turned it down, is questionable, especially considering these new iPods inherited the price tag of the older ones. Maybe you should have reported on that instead of following the horrible Cult of Mac story. Also, as has been stated before, the money is in Canadian dollars, which - get out of town - is not directly equivalent to an American dollar. He actually explains the money situation in the FAQ section of his website, so for those of you dramatically uncovering his purchase of a product that should be "$229" or "$299", learn a bit about the dynamics of the website first.
This whole story is inexcusable for TUAW and should be apologized for immediately.
You still leave out why the iPod smashed was not the brand new one. You seem satisfied having mentioned you were not entirely sure of the website's claims. Well, that's not really how you sounded was it? You seemed damn sure and the original log entry was a factual sounding report, not a speculative one. That's for certain.
I am concerned and disappointed enough by this whole event and TUAW's involvement in it that I may find it tough to continue to visit what I unfortunately believe is a rather incoherently run website. Get it together.
Reply
Yegor Simpson said 10:07PM on 11-01-2005
In response to Edward's comment about wmv files.
"Probably not the case, given that he uses Window Media Video (.wmv) as his selected video codec; clearly a bad option. In fact it should never really be used. Ever."
You have no idea what you are talking about.
95% of all sites online, publish videos in wmv format. Why? Good compression, streaming, and can be viewed by any windows based machine.
Reply
Cyberwhore said 12:09AM on 11-02-2005
Give Edward a star. No, give him two.
Reply
Edward said 1:44AM on 11-02-2005
95% of sites are stupid.
The WMV call was mostly a shot at the poor quality video on the site. But it is true that most sites I frequent seem to offer files with very low file size and strikingly low quality when they opt for WMV. There were many alternatives for you. I would have recommended H.263 or 264. WMV is developed by Microsoft. That alone should make any respectable web developer or programmer turn away. Those that don't, just look at the results. Everyone loves small file sizes but is it worth storing such a mediocre video as a result? Of course I am biased towards Apple because three quarters of my computing work takes place there and I plan to spend 100% of my remaining productive life there too. For WMV, anything other than Windows suffers. But there is nothing wrong with forcing people to install a new program such as Quicktime 7 for watching a movie. Not when it is something like Quicktime 7 - an unbelievably decent product.
However I'm not here to talk about video codecs, clearly.
Reply
Yegor Simpson said 4:11AM on 11-02-2005
Yeah, Im gonna force people to install quicktime to see an apple product get destroyed. Good call!
95% of the internet audience can view WMV files, and I don't care about the other 5% of mac and linux users.
Quicktime is good for HD and good quality trailers, not stuff like this. Same video encoded in QT would have been 100 megs.... and I managed to blow 7 terabyes of bandwidth as it is. Using QT would have used 3 times more. You still wanna talk?
Reply