And now, from the Department of Ironic Advertising
posted by Kaimipono D. Wenger
This weekend, Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing ran a story about DRM problems with Apple’s new iPhone; this follows up on prior Boing Boing posts criticizing Apple’s DRM, such as Apple’s iTunes/iPod tying.
And who is sponsoring these posts? Take a look at the page: One of the sponsors is Nike+.
Now, Nike+ is a pretty really cool idea (as Cory himself pointed out earlier). You put a chip in your running shoes, and a little doohickey on your iPod, and your iPod suddenly tells you your pace, distance, and so on. That’s really cool. (It’s actually one major reason I’m considering buying an iPod nano; I may actually get one if I can finesse a way to buy it with Amex rewards points). But Nike+ is also, frustratingly, tied to a single type of MP3 player — the iPod nano. Which kinda-sorta makes it a really strange sponsor for a series of posts blasting Apple’s business model for “lock-in” and calling the iPod line “a roach-motel: customers check in, but they can’t check out.”
January 16, 2007 at 6:02 pm
Posted in: DRM, Technology, Weird
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Responses (4)
Paul Gowder - January 17, 2007 at 3:16 am
What was it Willie Brown once said after he took big campaign cash from the tobacco companies then rammed through anti-smoking legislation? Something like “If you can’t take somebody’s money and then screw ‘em, you have no business being in politics.” The same surely goes for journalism.
Adam - January 17, 2007 at 9:17 am
“customers check in, but they can’t check out”
Except they can check out. When you want to switch, you burn the songs you want to move to CDs, and then re-rip.
Is it tremendously convenient? Of course not. But it’s hardly the death sentence that “Boing Boing” makes it out to be. Particularly when the upshot is cheap, convenient music purchases from a thick catalog of songs.
Vasu - January 17, 2007 at 10:20 am
If you are going to buy that pair Nike + iPod, please keep this in mind
Devices That Tell On You: The Nike+iPod Sport Kit
http://www.cs.washington.edu/research/systems/privacy.html
Janice - February 3, 2007 at 5:23 pm
I have a great picture of my mother, age 95, holding my son’s iPod with ear phones and fingers held up like a rap stars. If you are interested it would make a great advertising campaign for iPod – Even 95-year old grandmas groove to iPod. If you are interested let me know. It really is a “winner.”
Janice Keller
jkeller4@nycap.rr.com
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