Filed under: iPod Family, Cult of Mac, Odds and ends
The greenest iPod yet: made of real wood
Well, mostly. It's an iPod mini dressed up in wood, and the clickwheel happens to be wood as well -- check out this gallery at the Sydney Morning Herald. Australian modder Josh Darrah whipped up this crazy wooden skin for his mini, and a wood dock to boot after calling the metal and plastic case materials normally coating iPods "crass." The flannel carrying case he made is a nice touch, too.Good news if you'd like one of these for yourself: Josh is considering a DIY kit to mod your own iPod.
Thanks to Leighton Johannesen for the tip!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jash Sayani said 7:40AM on 7-07-2009
Cutting trees to get "wood iPods" !! Seriously ?!!!? And you call that green !
You people should be ashamed, you are exploiting the earth and will cause human extinction in a few years !!
Half of the trees in Brazil have vanished in just 5 years. I don't call this a human activity.
You will regret it....
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Thinktankempire said 9:30AM on 7-07-2009
Ha ha ha!!
You probably believe that global warming is actually happening and socialism works. Get a clue. The truth is out there...being hidden by evil agendas.
You're wrong. Deep down you know it.
SteveH said 9:18AM on 7-07-2009
Yes, the guy went out and cut down an entire tree just to make the skin... You hippies need to lighten up a little and stop drinking so much green kool-aid.
Thanh Nguyen said 10:33AM on 7-07-2009
You know what?
Those trees were already dead when Darrah made his mod. He didn't "kill" any trees, they were already that.
Also, the tissue of the tree that we call "wood" is also dead, while in the tree. So it would be possible to extract the tissue, while leaving the tree uncut as well, have you ever considered that?
jimmy said 2:58PM on 7-07-2009
I am a die-hard environmentalist. You don't have to "believe" in global warming any more than you believe in a tree. Climate change is real and documented. There is a dome of carbon over the earth that is getting worse every year, and will eventually retain enough heat to destroy living things, again.
That being said, the amount of wood in this is miniscule, and was probably done from scraps, so get over it.
And as far as the iPod is concerned, nice work! I'm a sustainable woodworker myself, and this is some serious precision and dedication you have going on here!
Victor Agreda, Jr. said 4:49PM on 7-07-2009
My title was lighthearted, and not intended as a specific design goal of this particular modder.
Unfortunately the joke's not as funny when you have to explain it.
Mark said 8:01AM on 7-07-2009
Wow - thats impressive! It looks really good - i wonder how responsive the click wheel is though?
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Josh said 8:51AM on 7-07-2009
@jash sayani, a little preachy for a simple article about a cool wood iPod mod. The simple fact you have a computer by which to comment on this makes you a hipocrite, but anyways that is an AWSOME mod. So simple too. I also wonder how the click wheel works though.
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M. Sharp said 8:55AM on 7-07-2009
It's log, it's log, it's big, it's heavy, it's wood!
It's log, it's log, it's better than bad, it's good!
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Patrick said 9:11AM on 7-07-2009
I'm with Jash on this one: if you really wanted to make a green iPod, you wouldn't toss already-made plastics and metal, no matter how "crass" you think they are, and replace them with wood just to say it's "green."
Where'd the wood come from? I sure hope the designer just happened to have fresh timber from a tree that had fallen down on its own; if the wood he used came from a tree that was cut down FOR wood, then his creation isn't green at all.
Is Apple using recycled plastics and metal in the manufacture of iPods? If not, THAT'S how to make them more green.
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__smooth__ said 10:24AM on 7-07-2009
geez, all these comments are real bummers...
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Victor said 11:07AM on 7-07-2009
I don't think the point of the wood iPod was to be environmentally friendly in the first place. It's just a cool mod with that is natural but not green.
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John Dingler said 11:37AM on 7-07-2009
All raw materials used by mankind are either
• stolen from
• loaned out
• freely given
by Mother Nature. MN watches as she gives us freely many things. This can be likened to the state of being described as the mythological Garden of Eden.
Mother Nature watches as she waits for a loan to be paid back. This can be likened to the mythological warning of the exit from the Garden of Eden.
She also watches as she sees us steal from her. This can be likened to the mythological Expulsion from the Garden of Eden.
It's very likely that no amt. of praying, evangelizing, or confessing can help us return to the G. of E. until we first pay back the theft, and completely.
I do not have an answer on how this can be done while still maintain society's current standard of living; I admit, I love the iPod and I am a Mac fan. Therefore, I am complicit.
It's likely that this is closer to the meaning of "Original Sin" rather than a baby born with it, unless the authors of Original Sin meant that the baby will grow up to be no different than me or us.
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Adam said 11:40AM on 7-07-2009
I've seen this before, someone did it with an ipod 4 generation. Old news.
boom.
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Bridget said 11:55AM on 7-07-2009
yeah man you guys are debbie downers. the guy is just doing a little something productive with his time, unlike you jiggity-jerks. get a life. it's probably got like $3 worth of wood in it. srsly. i'd show mine off proudly. nice work.
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FantomRedux said 4:55PM on 7-07-2009
To all the people who are getting uppity about the articles title: IT'S PLAY ON WORDS! You do remember the MacBook ads from a couple of months ago right? "The Greenest MacBook ever." Oh, and the guy never said anything about the iPod being "green". Again, just the title.
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josh darrah said 8:09PM on 7-07-2009
Hi all,
First off, thanks SO MUCH for the little article Victor! I really appreciate the write up hey.
Also, there does seem to be a bit of confusion (understandably) about why I made this wood ipod though. Just to clear it up, i simply set out to make this wood ipod purely as a fun challenge project for myself. Just fun and enjoyment of the whole building process. I guess it's sort of the same reasons why you build a big sandcastle on the beach when you're a kid. Simple, straight up fun.
I don't actually think modern ipods are 'crass' at all (that was a misunderstanding in another article that has been happily fixed) and it certainly wasn't ever meant to be called 'green' at all. (and as the article author said, it was meant to be lighthearted). But I guess that's to be expected with projects like this, some readers see the wood and think it's aiming to be 'green', or even on the other spectrum, see the wood and brass and immediately think 'steampunk!'. (which is isn't).
The wood I used was a $6 old turning block that I bought from a local timber supplier here in Australia. And I have no idea where that stock came from. But! I have learned a lot about how to think about projects that involve wood now in the sense of using sustainable stock etc. I actually didn't know much on the subject before making this wood ipod.
And to answer your question MARK about the clickwheel: It actually works really well now, pretty much as perfectly as the original click wheel did. The wooden clickwheel I shaved down from a block of wood ended up being around 2mm thick (the original plastic wheel cover is around 1mm thick), and I was happily surprised when I placed the wood wheel on the sensor and it picked up my finger just fine. The whole capacaitive process works totally fine. I guess it's the same principle as how you can often operate your ipod through a layer of denim while the ipod is in your jeans pocket.
Aside from all that, I'm glad some of you enjoyed and appreciated my little project. I can tell you it was a blast to create.
Thanks again for all the comments,
josh D
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shaun c. said 10:01PM on 7-07-2009
Like every other living thing that we as humans know exists, the earth is "breathing". Expanding and contracting. Stretching and moving. Everything in it and on it is always moving. Every cell. Every mountain. Every person. Every gas.
That being said...I don't believe for one second that the earth's climate is going to change much. And if it does then it won't last for long. The global climate will breath with the earth.
30,000 scientist agree. Global warming is not happening.
Humans simply are not presently capable of putting enough harmful gas into the atmosphere to effect it in any way. The earth is fully capable of inhabiting us for a very very long time.
I believe that of all of the gasses that make up the atmosphere, 3% is carbon dioxide, and of that 3%, .00000003% (roughly) is "man made".
What you should really be worried about is earthquakes, astroids, and nuclear war.
Use some of that passion for a cause that might actually save a human life or billion.
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