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turtle777 · Mar 10, 2005, 12:18 PM

I can't believe how shameless they are. Gosh...

http://www.luxpro-corp.com/e_575d.htm

-t

BasketofPuppies · Mar 10, 2005, 12:20 PM

I feel a lawsuit coming.

brapper · Mar 10, 2005, 12:29 PM

interesting indeed...

FulcrumPilot · Mar 10, 2005, 12:29 PM

The real ipod shuffle killaaar is actually a dupe deee doo fake one that actually has more features than the original!! Who woulda thunk it?

deomacius · Mar 10, 2005, 12:32 PM

Seems like vaporware or a spoof. How would you know what station you've chosen without a display, anyway?

jasonsRX7 · Mar 10, 2005, 01:01 PM

Originally posted by deomacius:
How would you know what station you've chosen without a display, anyway?

What's it matter? Life is random

willed · Mar 10, 2005, 01:02 PM

Originally posted by deomacius:
Seems like vaporware or a spoof. How would you know what station you've chosen without a display, anyway?

err... by listening to it?

Xeo · Mar 10, 2005, 01:20 PM

Can't find any info about price. That's definitely a lawsuit waiting to happen. The extra features make it neat but only if the cost is the same or less. The voice recorder would be pretty nice on something that small. But I'm betting the quality of the actual device is horrible. The case is probably made out of thin plastic that will crack or something. It'd be interesting to see how they got, if they really got, that extra stuff into only an additional 1mm in depth.

Is it a joke?

t_hah · Mar 10, 2005, 01:38 PM

Damn! These people really have the balls. They could have just left the Apple logo on it as well.

t

mitchell_pgh · Mar 10, 2005, 02:33 PM

It's either a joke or a major lawsuit waiting to happen.

wdlove · Mar 10, 2005, 02:47 PM

Interesting

goMac · Mar 10, 2005, 02:52 PM

Something is very wrong with this picture. Those are iPod earphones. That IS a picture of the iPod Shuffle.

MrSundberg · Mar 10, 2005, 02:56 PM

Originally posted by Xeo:
Can't find any info about price. That's definitely a lawsuit waiting to happen. The extra features make it neat but only if the cost is the same or less. The voice recorder would be pretty nice on something that small. But I'm betting the quality of the actual device is horrible. The case is probably made out of thin plastic that will crack or something. It'd be interesting to see how they got, if they really got, that extra stuff into only an additional 1mm in depth.

Is it a joke?

Who knows. However the chip in the Mac Shuffle does support the extra features of this rip off. So it could very well be fitted inside such a small casing and be prized similarely.

Captain Obvious · Mar 10, 2005, 03:00 PM

Originally posted by goMac:
Something is very wrong with this picture. Those are iPod earphones. That IS a picture of the iPod Shuffle.

The chip Apple used to make the iPS can do recording and support an FM tuner. Apple just crippled those functions. Now while I think someone could make this there would also have be extra hardware to make the options work. So I think that an iPS could be modded to be this it would end up being a little bigger than what is shown there once it was done.

Thus I think this is a fake.

Superchicken · Mar 10, 2005, 03:13 PM

I wonder how much money Apple makes by sueing iPod knock offs.

TETENAL · Mar 10, 2005, 04:02 PM

Originally posted by Xeo:
Is it a joke?

macnews.de made photos of the thing at the Cebit.

http://www.macnews.de/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=21

Captain Obvious · Mar 10, 2005, 04:11 PM

http://www.macnews.de/gallery/displa...m=21&pos=4

Wow someone really wants to be sued

deomacius · Mar 10, 2005, 04:36 PM

Originally posted by jasonsRX7:
What's it matter? Life is random

Indeed.

turtle777 · Mar 10, 2005, 04:37 PM

I'm still speechless.
How dumb are they that they think they will get away with that ?

-t

deomacius · Mar 10, 2005, 04:38 PM

Originally posted by willed:
err... by listening to it?

Uhhhh... that didn't come out right. Tuning would be more of a hassle without a display. Set it and forget I suppose.

alphasubzero949 · Mar 10, 2005, 04:42 PM

Read their mission statement on their corporate website.

If you can imagine it, LUXPRO CORPORATION can make it.

Kinda like Make-a-Wish?

Xeo · Mar 10, 2005, 04:46 PM

After seeing those pictures, all I can say is wow. Although you can tell that it is much more cheaply made.

I don't care about the FM tuner, but voice recording would be cool.

effgee · Mar 10, 2005, 04:49 PM

Hmmm ... voice recorder. Oh wait - where's the microphone? Don't tell me it's "BYOM".

Bunch of turds.

analogika · Mar 10, 2005, 05:42 PM

Originally posted by effgee:
Hmmm ... voice recorder. Oh wait - where's the microphone? Don't tell me it's "BYOM".

Bunch of turds.

Use the earbuds.

effgee · Mar 10, 2005, 05:46 PM

Originally posted by analogika:
Use the earbuds.

As a microphone?

the_glassman · Mar 10, 2005, 05:47 PM

Originally posted by effgee:
As a microphone?

Same difference.

andreas_g4 · Mar 10, 2005, 05:51 PM

Originally posted by turtle777:
I'm still speechless.
How dumb are they that they think they will get away with that ?

-t

Exactly what I thought! Maybe they think they can sell enough of them to pay the penalty adn have some cash over? Dunno whether this is even possible or not, just guessing�

analogika · Mar 10, 2005, 05:58 PM

Originally posted by effgee:
As a microphone?

of course.

effgee · Mar 10, 2005, 06:11 PM

Originally posted by analogika:
of course.

earbuds = microphone

I most certainly did not know that. So you're telling me that (theoretically) I could take a mic, plug into my Powerbook's audio out port, stick the thing in my ear and I'd be listening to music?

(guess that makes me the turd, then )

analogika · Mar 10, 2005, 06:18 PM

Originally posted by effgee:
earbuds = microphone

I most certainly did not know that. So you're telling me that (theoretically) I could take a mic, plug into my Powerbook's audio out port, stick the thing in my ear and I'd be listening to music?

Of course.

a dynamic microphone is exactly the same thing as a speaker: a membrane with a wire coil mounted over a stationary magnet. An alternating current applied to the coil will cause the membrane to move, and conversely, moving the membrane will create an analogous signal in the wire running from the coil to an amp.

Mics and headphones are merely optimized for their different uses; conceptually, they are exactly the same, except backwards. This only applies to dynamic mics, of course - condensor, ribbon, etc. mics are a different matter.

take care when hooking up a mono microphone to a stereo headphone out, though: since you're shorting one output, you may cause one channel to blow (had that happen to me on a hi-fi power amp once).

-s*

Captain Obvious · Mar 10, 2005, 06:22 PM

Originally posted by effgee:
earbuds = microphone

I thought everyone knew this.
Its not tough to discover. I remember plugging headphones into the Mic port an old boombox when I was little only to discover it worked. Since then almost everyone I have mentioned this to was already aware of the mechanical similarities.

effgee · Mar 10, 2005, 06:27 PM

Originally posted by Captain Obvious:
I thought everyone knew this.
Its not tough to discover. I remember plugging headphones into the Mic port an old boombox when I was little only to discover it worked. Since then almost everyone I have mentioned this to was already aware of the mechanical similarities.

Imagine how boring the world would be if there weren't any dumb people.

CMYKid · Mar 10, 2005, 06:31 PM

DJs do this all the time, sadly its usually done instead of buying a decent vocal mic since it DOES tend to sound like ****.

Works great in a pinch tho.

FulcrumPilot · Mar 10, 2005, 07:04 PM

Dare I say, I think it looks better and better every time I see it!
Just a curious thought. What if these guys flooded the east asian market with millions of these el cheapo versions of the shuffle?

zizban · Mar 10, 2005, 07:29 PM

In Before Lawsuit�

Superchicken · Mar 10, 2005, 08:06 PM

If this is doable... why doesn't Apple just make some reverse whatever Mics so we can all do voice recording with the flick of a remote on our iPods or something? It'd be awesome... and it'd be super elegant. Does making good ones cost a crap load of cash or something?

Dimethyltrypt · Mar 10, 2005, 08:17 PM

The money they're going to get is from buyers who think it was made by Apple.

Branding in the year two thousand has reached a new level. The logo now means more than the product. Company will continue spending more dinero on branding and marketing than RD and will sell more.

Apple means cool, these days. For how long? We don't know.
The fact that it's made by Apple adds a new value to the product which HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH PRODUCT QUALITY.

Wiskedjak · Mar 10, 2005, 08:37 PM

There is simply no possible way that this is real. It takes MUCH longer to get a product manufactured than there has been since the Shuffle was released and now. It is not possible to copy and release a product in a matter of weeks ... more like months

effgee · Mar 10, 2005, 08:44 PM

Originally posted by Wiskedjak:
There is simply no possible way that this is real. It takes MUCH longer to get a product manufactured than there has been since the Shuffle was released and now. It is not possible to copy and release a product in a matter of weeks ... more like months

Did you click the link in TETENAL's post further upthread? If that's a fake, it certainly is a prefessional one.

Wiskedjak · Mar 10, 2005, 08:50 PM

Originally posted by effgee:
Did you click the link in TETENAL's post further upthread? If that's a fake, it certainly is a prefessional one.

Yes. My guess is that these are rebranded Shuffles.

Xeo · Mar 10, 2005, 09:09 PM

Originally posted by Wiskedjak:
Yes. My guess is that these are rebranded Shuffles.

Not the outside. The switch is two separate ones, and the casing isn't right either. the iPod Shuffle has a solid piece of plastic for the whole outside whereas that thing has a seam where the top half and bottom half meet.

So really, they did just make a knock off.

Wiskedjak · Mar 10, 2005, 09:15 PM

Originally posted by Xeo:
Not the outside. The switch is two separate ones, and the casing isn't right either. the iPod Shuffle has a solid piece of plastic for the whole outside whereas that thing has a seam where the top half and bottom half meet.

So really, they did just make a knock off.

Well, then I'm impressed. That's pretty damn quick for a knock-off ... especially to have it ready for presentation at CeBit.

Link · Mar 10, 2005, 09:21 PM

I declare this a real ipod killer. Designed in the US, ripped off in china.

the_glassman · Mar 10, 2005, 09:24 PM

Where do I buy one?

spacefreak · Mar 10, 2005, 10:43 PM

Originally posted by the_glassman:
Where do I buy one?

I like your thinking.

I'll say one thing... I am growing weary of Apple's continued crippling of embedded features. Not only on the shuffle, but on other products as well, like the video spanning feature on the iBook.

AppleOptionFour · Mar 10, 2005, 11:51 PM

Originally posted by Link:
I declare this a real ipod killer. Designed in the US, ripped off in china.

They dont even have iTMS China yet much less Limewire. How are they going to put stuff on there in china.

HAHAH

I LOVE CAPITALISM and DEMOCRACY.

Please no political retorts.

TheJoshu · Mar 11, 2005, 12:48 AM

It worked, and now - just like that - it's giving me all sorts of 404s.

Edit: strange... seems to be loading on-and-off.

analogika · Mar 11, 2005, 02:51 AM

Originally posted by Superchicken:
If this is doable... why doesn't Apple just make some reverse whatever Mics so we can all do voice recording with the flick of a remote on our iPods or something? It'd be awesome... and it'd be super elegant. Does making good ones cost a crap load of cash or something?

1.) making a good *ANYTHING* usually costs a crapload of cash.

2.) who is to say there won't be an iTalk for the shuffle?

3.) Apple needs to be very, very careful with what they offer in terms of recording features. I'm quite certain their iTMS distribution deals hinge upon this fact.

TETENAL · Mar 12, 2005, 07:00 PM

Heise has some funny news from Cebit:

http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/57450

Apparently a "visibly infuriated" Apple product manager demanded that the shuffle clones are removed from Luxpro's booth this Saturday evening, but they are refusing. They removed the players on Friday after urging from Apple's lawyers, but put them back on Saturday.