Watch Smash My iPod smash an iPod
By Ryan Block 
posted Oct 31st 2005 4:30AM
posted Oct 31st 2005 4:30AM
About a week and a half ago we told you about Smash My
iPod, the project where a some kids collected four Benjamins, walked straight into an Apple store with a rolling
camera, and filmed it as they took their little white bundle of joy of of its packaging and promptly did a rather loud
dance upon it to the chagrin of the present Mac faithful. Well, now you can watch the video of the ordeal; especially
humorous was their belabored discussed of battery life and Apple Care extended warranty program packages with the Apple
Store employee during checkout (pictured). Apparently their next project will be something along the lines of Smash My
Network Walkman. Sounds good to us!
[Thanks, Aleandro]
losers
woot woot my first time being mentioned on engadget. Thank you guys, I feel so great now.
i agree, poor people who donated money. I was expecting soo much more in terms of quality of video, coverage of the smashing, age of the kids.
Wow this isn't even remotely funny...
For $30 they could have bought a broken (but still new looking) iPod from ebay and done a quick swap in the store off camera and achieved the same effect and walk away with a new iPod.
wow that just made staying up to 3am worth it. Way to stick it to those $300 chineese made crap that cost them $50 to make. Anybody notice all he got was a 20GB $250 non-video ipod and collected $400 for?
What's the point, really ? Is growing up in this country so boring that one has to spend 400$, buy something and break it immediately to have some FUN ?
Or maybe is it fun because you, kids, live in a wealthy country where 400$ is nothing. In the country I work in (in South-East Asia), it's one or two months of salary for a normal worker. And I doubt anybody would laugh at this crap.
It really makes me sick.
I really have nothing to say about these ppl. it's very childish to do something, what does it prove in the end?? sigh... just doing stuff like that for "fun" which isn't really fun at all...
Wow, now the world knows what spoilt geeky teenage children do for a hobby.
what an anti climax that was in the shop. i was expecting them to break it properly in front of the staff and customers. and what did they do. just step on it a few times. Pretty naff. The build up was good as i was just imagining how nervouse it must have been. But the thing that pisses me off real bad is when the kid says that "thanks for the $400 of your money that i am gonna use to spend on the ipod so i can smash it up" i mean when they did it in the shop i was expecting them to do it with a hammer. And yes alexis, totally agree with you, these kids have no consideration as to how hard it is for some people to make money. Although on a slightly different note, the sales rep was by the sound of things, quite patronising. well anyways to me they did not have the balls to smash it up well and properly in the shop. Had they done that they way they did it outside. then i would have taken my hat off to them. Anyway peace to one and all out-there!
I'm curious how this even gets posted on Engadget? I just wasted 5 minutes of my life. Come on Engadget we all know you are better than this crap.
WOW...you guys are SOOOO COOOOL!!! You're SO anti-establishment, man! I mean, smashing that iPod RIGHT in front of those trendy wannabe posers, hahahaha...
Oh, wait! Didn't you just give $400 to Apple Corp to prove that you're NOT one of the iPod "sheeple", and then smashed the only thing you had to show for the $400?
If your cause was to show how vacant the space between your ears was (to the guys who produced the vid), then I think you achived it. Why the *bleep* did they think this was a good idea. With think tanks like THIS running around, people wonder why all the industry and tech jobs are going overseas? I'm embarassed to be associated with Americans with an act like this. Idiots.
Phil on #5 was right: Get a busted iPod, do a swap, and make your "protest" the SMART way! Then take the unused iPod back to another retailer to get your 400 clams back.
But that would've taken EDUCATION! Again....Idiots.
Am I missing something here, or is there a bunch of overreaction in these posts? Talk about oversensitive...
I thought it was boring up to the point he smashed it. Weird?
HAHA, these comments are priceless. It's a joke, get over yourselves.
this is so lame. haha. poor america..
comment #2 is right,
when i saw that vid, i was like that fugly virgin white kid needs to workout. Looks like a cadaver bought an ipod.
Bulk Up Kid, You'll spend your time with girls instead with broken iPods.
Things i noticed:
1) The stupid anaemic kid with a prepubescent voice and bloody annoying pig-snort laugh.
2) The kid being pwned by the sales staff for trying to be a smartass.
3) Absolutely shithouse video content and quality.
4) Purchase of the cheapest iPod available - at the start they're talking about getting the 40gig and then eventually get the 20gig - pocketing the remaining money.
6) No sponsors in their video - the reason for the delayed release of the video was so they could get sponsors to include in the video - LOL what an abysmal result.
Hey guys did you see the way he asked for the CHEAPEST full sized iPod he could get? The Apple guy insisted on the 5G which is same price as the current 4G iPod is and he insisted on the cheaper discontinued 4G.
Oh and the way he put the handful of cash he SAVED, into his pocket.
Am I the only one who couldnt help but snicker?
It's Bill Gates in the making. He collects $400 in donations, gathers a bunch of Steve "Kill Fucking Google" Balmers. Buys a $299 iPod and releases his sexual anger that he's been holding in all his life onto it. Then walks away with a nice profit. The kid's got a business plan.
So how, exactly, did anyone get suckered into giving these dickheads money in the first place?
How is literally flushing your cash down the toilet any worse than paying to see this idiot nerd hee-hawing over his smartass superiority?
If you check the credits at the end, you'll not that the "presenter", Ben's nickname appears to be "Tank".
The only tank you could use as comparison would be a septic tank. Hope someone recognises him in the street and gives him a good slapping.
This makes me truly ashamed to be part of the same socio-economic group - if so many people were so keen to fund complacent shitheads like this, I'd rather go be a Bhuddist monk or something.
i love how flustered the mac faithful get when they see something like this. i think its great for that reason alone.
Forgot #5
5) Malnourished Bill Gates Jnr had:
(a) no balls to break the iPod himself; or
(b) no strength to break the iPod himself; or
(b) neither the balls nor the strength to break the iPod himself.
Christ man, it's just a video, so what if they gave money to apple? I like the ipod, but it was still quite intresing to watch the video. Get over it man, it's not like they trod on Steve Jobs...jeez...dunno how anyone can get so worked up over something so little!
i read the site..i listen to the podcast.
and this was poor taste.
arent you a little embarassed?
makes me angry that you would support this nonfunny act.
i love how flustered the mac faithful get when they see something like this. i think its great for that reason alone.
Wonder if they ever walked into Best Buy and did this with a windows computer.
It's kinda lacking. Yeah, I get frustrated at my iPod at times, and sometimes want to throw it, but I know better - $400 is a tad much to throw away. Frankly, I'd rather see a bit more creative destruction - pitch it like a baseball and hit with a bat mid air - that'd be fun to see. Frankly, these guys just don't have the persona that can pull this off.
Yes, I'll admit that I miss the days when people had no idea what the iPod was. It was irritating, but fun to have people ask what it was (it was also nice when this was the case with the dual usb iBook, but I digress). Breaking stuff can be fun, but I don't understand younger people anymore. I'm 23, but just can't make any sense of stuff like this. Then again, I also work to support myself, so that may play a factor in this. The video had the possibility of being entertaining, but in the end, I regretted wasting my time watching it. And this is coming from someone who enjoyed Gigli.
That was...boring. Just didn't make the statement it was intending to.
They were gonna get kicked out anyway, so they should have at least shouted "F U C K you Apple, then proceeded to throw it against the wall, stomp it, pull out the little bottle of flamable liquid and set it on fire, while the salesman tries to drag them outside". Gotta do it right.
But that video...would have been more worthwhile if they burnt the cash and video tape that instead.
Christ man, it's just a video, so what if they gave money to apple? I like the ipod, but it was still quite intresing to watch the video. Get over it man, it's not like they trod on Steve Jobs...jeez...dunno how anyone can get so worked up over something so little!
The thing that gets me is this - on the kid's page, and seemingly on this forum - I've seen one common thing. Everyone who has an issue with the video and the kid resorts to derogatory terms for others. There is nothing wrong with being gay, so I've never understood why that's always used in a derogatory manner. Since the name calling has begun, there's gonna be a Hitler/Nazi reference soon. It seems to happen in every comments page or forum.
Mac faithful nothing-- why doesn't the kid donate the money to some sort of charity, instead of indulging his own shortsighted, selfish, symbolism-over-substance, masterbatory prank? I work with people here in the US who could really use a few bucks.
I agree-- why would Engadget bother to post this? This isn't gadget related, it's self-indulgent teenager related. Please, give me more. Bleh...
I hate the statement at the end of the poor video:
"And you wanted to spend the money on charity..."
I don't care if the idea is childish or not, but this is too much.
There is no proof that they smashed the brand new ipod or just an already broken one they brought into the store.
Just another thing. Check out the forum at the website. You'll see that these guys are extremely unfriendly if somebody criticizes the idea or the video itself. They put the email addresses of the critics on the front page. Engadget should not support those kind of guys.
Way to hate the ipod by supporting it and buying one... idiots. I hope they go over their bandwidth limits and pay heftily out of their teenage pockets.
I agree, that comment about charity at the end really got to me. I was anticipating a good video from these guys when I heard the idea, since I'm not too keen on the iPod, and decided to keep my eye out for it. And I agree with most people here, that it was a very poor film. But, post 31, Ian, that was the greatest ending to a comment I have ever read, haha.
i'm in two minds about this; though i agree the video was just plain boring, its their time and people willingly donated so i don't see what the problem is. there are a lot worse things in the world than a few bored teenagers.
Their senseless idiocy is further exacerbated when they added a link on their website to view Japanese women slap each other. They have a bad taste in humour and this shows in their video.
These comments are much better then the video they are commenting about! I love Engadget!
The donors got tooled all over the place on this one:
1. Donors gave American $ to have a 'latest' iPod purchased.
2. Smash guys paid in Canadian dollars.
3. Smash guys got the cheapest weekest older iPod = less money.
One word: SUCKERS!!!
SmashmyiPod scammers: 1
Suckers who donated: 0
Just glad the scammers were Canadian and not American....
What was it Bono said? "The World needs more Canada." I suspect he wasn't talking about the loser scamming aspects of Canada.
-Scott
In the donators list on their website, you can find "jewkiller" .... just insane
Its a cool statement in fact. Ipod is all about style over substance. What better way to expose that by destroying the exterior? All the people complaining here are Apple-following sheeple. They might as well be wearing black turtlenecks. This is right up there with flag-burning. Its a protest for gawds sake. Who cares if he spent $400 to make his statement? Its chump change if it makes the Ipod even a little less cool, if it makes people wonder why they are wasting millions of dollars on overpriced plastic, when there are better featured products without the 'coolness' of Ipod competing for their attention.
Hopefully this will become a counter-culture statement which more people make. Chose substance over style!
"Just glad the scammers were Canadian and not American....
What was it Bono said? "The World needs more Canada." I suspect he wasn't talking about the loser scamming aspects of Canada."
Yeah no scamming going on in the good ole US of A. George W. Bush no scamming going on there.
"I suspect he wasn't talking about the loser scamming aspects of Canada. -Scott"
Wow. Nationality had nothing to do with this stupid prank. And the US is overrun with scams, especially online and on TV.
I find it amusing that people immediately call those who did not like this video/prank "Mac fanboys." My annoyance and disappointment in this video has nothing to do with the fact that I enjoy some Apple products. I do have a problem with teenage scammers getting their kicks by wasting money on such a stupid prank.
I'll admit, I was interested at first - the idea had some interesting social commentary. But that was when I thought these people were educated, well-informed folks with a point. If this was done correctly, it might have been as effective as the Neistat Brothers' piece on the iPod's battery.
What this video turned out to be though, was a ridiculous giggle-fest by a group of immature idiots.
"I suspect he wasn't talking about the loser scamming aspects of Canada. -Scott"
Wow. Nationality had nothing to do with this stupid prank. And the US is overrun with scams, especially online and on TV.
I find it amusing that people immediately call those who did not like this video/prank "Mac fanboys." My annoyance and disappointment in this video has nothing to do with the fact that I enjoy some Apple products. I do have a problem with teenage scammers getting their kicks by wasting money on such a stupid prank.
I'll admit, I was interested at first - the idea had some interesting social commentary. But that was when I thought these people were educated, well-informed folks with a point. If this was done correctly, it might have been as effective as the Neistat Brothers' piece on the iPod's battery.
What this video turned out to be though, was a ridiculous giggle-fest by a group of immature idiots.
What's the point, really ? Is growing up in this country so boring that one has to spend 400$, buy something and break it immediately to have some FUN ?
--
Surprisingly, I've never heard of a Mac user buying a Gateway and taking a baseball bat to it.. we don't even want to touch the damn things..let alone feign interest in purchasing one.. *shudder
I mean, the 'monopoly' backlash, .. whatever these little dorks have.. doesn't seem to exist in the PC world..
"I suspect he wasn't talking about the loser scamming aspects of Canada. -Scott"
Wow. Nationality had nothing to do with this stupid prank. And the US is overrun with scams, especially online and on TV.
I find it amusing that people immediately call those who did not like this video/prank "Mac fanboys." My annoyance and disappointment in this video has nothing to do with the fact that I enjoy some Apple products. I do have a problem with teenage scammers getting their kicks by wasting money on such a stupid prank.
I'll admit, I was interested at first - the idea had some interesting social commentary. But that was when I thought these people were educated, well-informed folks with a point. If this was done correctly, it might have been as effective as the Neistat Brothers' piece on the iPod's battery.
What this video turned out to be though, was a ridiculous giggle-fest by a group of immature idiots.