Revisiting SmashMyiPod

Mr Simpson: Why blow seven terabytes? Did you ever consider using Bittorrent? I wish the file was distributed in the Quicktime format. It's definately unwatchable on my Mac mini. (D oes MIcrosoft intentionally release faulty software?)

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?

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.

Give Edward a star. No, give him two.

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.

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.

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!

if you dontated money to have an ipod smashed, you deserved to be scammed.

Hio, I just want to say thanks to tuaw for clearing this up on behalf of the SmashMyiPod crew. We appreciate it.

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