Filed under: Humor, iPod Family, Odds and ends
Worst iPod fake ever
Everybody wants to get into the act. And in countries where it can be tough to enforce intellectual property laws, it's not unusual to find iPod fakes of every flavor and variety. So it's not a huge surprise to see a wacky iPod knockoff in Istanbul, Turkey. I found this over on digg, where the usual flurry of iPod hating has flared up. For instance, this fake (as many of them do) has an FM tuner. Am I the only one who really doesn't care about a flippin' FM tuner? I mean, really, I can count on one hand the number of times this has bummed me out. About 80% of the time I'm using the iPod in the car. Guess what? My car has an FM tuner. There's also a comment about how this fake might be "cheaper and better than the actual iPod, with more features and less crashing." Again, I can count on one hand the number of crashes I've had with my iPod... And how cheaper means better I'll never know. What I can tell you is this: get two people to try browsing through 3,000 songs on each machine and see who starts crying first. I will say this, it looks like the fake would be less prone to scratches, what with that protective plastic sleeve it's in.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Robert Knight said 8:33PM on 12-03-2005
I bought a Sony FM Tuner that was portable. You know, the tuner only type things. You'd think it was a tuner only, so it would be good.
It STUNK!!! I got a bout 15 feet on my way to the gym and started hearing fuzz. It was a dreadfully painful experience in cruddy FM sound.
Since then I firmly believe putting a tuner in the iPod would make the iPod an iPod killer.
Does ANYONE have an experience with an MP3 player that has a good FM Tuner? That might make me believe it is possible. Otherwise, keep it out of the iPod.
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fra said 5:24PM on 12-03-2005
there are two parties on digg.
the slashdotters and the digg...dotters?
the slashdotters act like snobs
the diggdotters don't
count how many times you see 'it has apple in the name it gets frontpage'
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Phil Ewing said 6:30PM on 12-03-2005
Thank you, Victor, and no, you're not the only one who doesn't care about an FM tuner. (In fact, in the olden times there was a quiet cadre of us out there in the Internet who didn't even care about video playback on the iPod) I listen to my iPod to *escape* the radio, which is just endless homogeny when you can actually get a song between all the commercials. And, frankly, I was surprised to read that people criticize iPods for crashing... maybe if you're on the Linux vanguard, getting one to run Doom, or something, but mine has never acted up.
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Nik Fletcher said 6:53PM on 12-03-2005
SHUDDERS
Phil & Victor: I couldn't agree more about the FM tuner state. Who really really really wants/needs it?! Surely anyone could just buy a cheap [read $10!] radio receiver and stick to the iPod as well?!
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Eric Jeffers said 7:51PM on 12-03-2005
It's time like these I wish apple had a secret police...
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teece said 10:41PM on 12-03-2005
The things you can pick up on FM generally suck. Badly.
My iPod has crashed exactly once -- because I accidentally unplugged it the middle of an update, and hosed the filesystem.
Digg can be a very annoying place, and it's not just the anti-Apple/anti-Microsoft/anti-Linux/anti-whatever knuckle draggers. It generally has the atmosphere of the freshmen chess club. Some really cool stuff -- some amazingly stupid stuff.
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Jose said 2:54AM on 12-04-2005
Get a Griffin iFM. Works great.
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Hawk said 9:43AM on 12-04-2005
FM tuners are a symbol of two things: "I want my walkman back!" and "Feature Creep".
Feature Creep is where people think something is less cool than the thing before it, if it doesn't have More Features. Even if features added are pointless (FM tuner in something designed to let you listen to what you want, not what ClearChannel wants) or a good idea implemented poorly (Bluetooth, anyone?)
A really good example is VGA displays on PDA devices like Pocket PCs and Palms. The display is used to make the text sharper, not higher resolution. People go, "but I can't see any more data!" after they get their much-wanted VGA device, and then they go hack it so it displays 'real' vga. Then, they immediately go "Waaah, I can't see ANYTHING because the PDA user demographic is middle-aged and has to wear glasses just to see!".
So basically, "iPods don't have an FM tuner, waaaaah" ---> "I want more! more! More! More! More! More! More! any company that doesn't give me what I want even if it's stupid or pointless is dumb!"
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