Keepin' it real fake: Part VIII - the "i-Bob" nano

Looking for a flash player that takes all of its styling cues from, and yet none of the style of, the iPod nano? Well look no further than the "i-Bob," a shoddily built device (exposed screws? come on!) that does manage to one-up the nano with its video playback capability. Apple must have snatched up all of the available 2GB and 4GB flash modules, because the $119 i-Bob maxes out at 1GB, with cheaper 256MB and 512MB versions also available. Bonus points to the first commenter who picks up on the super-secret subliminal message on the ebay link.

[Via CHIP Chick]

[Ethan @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

Gee, I wonder...

[mark Gilbert @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

The subliminal Buy diaganally accross the item description made me smile, maybe I should try that next time I sell something on eBay. You never know it might work.
Cheers

[mat @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

ipod_nano_ripoff

[Paulo @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

Oh man the Neuro-Linguist in this seller is really comming out when he embeds BUY in big blue letters....

[brandon @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

wow! 1.5" OLED true battery screen! whatever that means...

[yuppicide @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

I wondered why the blue letters were there, but didn't really care to figure out why. Thanks Engadget.

[Tyler @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

"3 If goods should be defective upon receipt, customer has up to 3days from date of receipt for exchange of new one.
4 Item must be returned in its original and UNUSED condition."

How will you know if its defective. O.o

[rodents @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

for a ripoff, it looks a lot more promising than the nintdo DS and psp ripoffs :-P

[DAN @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

Using subliminal messages in advertising is send me money against the law!

[Joe Strout @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

Maybe we should cut this guy a little slack -- it looks to me like he's a one-man tinkerer (mostly into RC models, judging from his website) who's managed to hand-build something comparable to an iPod. If he can sell this and support his hobby, more power to him. Maybe someday he'll build me my dream machine (http://www.strout.net/info/ideas/dreammachine/), too!

On the other hand, the cheap "BUY" lettering is rather skeezy and deserving of smack.

[Brian @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

subtlety, thy name is australian ebay.

[z @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

Naaa, the subliminal message is related to "windor ME/2000/XP" and wants you to buy the fantastic Windor automatic door that makes you forget about ice: http://www.windor.net/Windoraudvid.html
Yeah.

[Jason @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

Joe Strout: Have you considered a Nokia 770? It may not have the screen size you're dreaming of, but then again you need to balance that and battery power.

[Michael @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

I couldn't help myself - when I visited the eBay link I just had to have the 521MB model!

Wait, there was a subliminal message?

[David Beyers @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

Someone should check this guys spelling :
Mp3, Radio, Recroding, Movie, Photo Album, e-Book
With 1Gb Internal Memory!

What the hell is Recroding? I can just see it now, hey this thing won't record! what you mean, we never said it did...no refund for you big fun boy.

[Damo @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

"You can also take it out and kill the time. Only 7mm think!" So does this thing shoot bullets too? And why not stick with the standard 9mm of most guns?

[The ZeroCorpse @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

Buy? And here I thought it was a subliminal Ewok message saying "YUB!"

Silly me!

[cmonkey @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

Joe, what you're describing exists, though it is a bit expensive. Any VGA Pocket PC with a decent sized CF card will fulfill all of those requirements. The controls for games are a little subpar, but many entirely playable games are out for Windows Mobile, and there are emulators for nearly every game console up to and including PSone. There are bluetooth gamepads that address the control issue, but that adds to the price and size.

[andy @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

hhhmmmm....interesting hat he had to dim the lights to show us screen shots of it running!

[jeff @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

check out the seller's other items! he's just full of cutting edge techno gadgets! must be from the future.

[Dustin @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

That's soo wierd! I fell upon this item early this morning and now it's on Engadget. Freaky!

[Jared @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

Wow... I must be blind, but I don't see the blue "BUY" you guys are noticing. Where the heck is it?

[Finished.Law.School @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

Does it scratch and do DRM like the other nano though??

[Josh @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

Looks like engadget gave it a few page views...6600ish...look at counter at the bottom of the ebay page...

[fierywater @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

I was wondering about that, #24. The dimension are basically identical to the Nano, and the specs are quite good for the price. If it's decently built (and no, external screws don't mean it's "shoddily built") and doesn't scratch easily, it could actually be worth it.

[Perry @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

haha, I saw this yesterday in the market here in China. I have to say, I did a double take on it through the showcase. UI is horrible. I couldn't make any sense of how to control the device at first glence.

[John @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

why can companys come up with a GOOD design that dosen't look anything like a iPod

[CerebralHulsey @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

#23 - Look at the description text underneath the big red writing.

[jkads @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

Why is he selling it in australian currency, but showing pictures with american currency?

[Pavel K. @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

I contacted the seller and he just informed me, that the 1GB version is not ready yet! According the manufacturer, there are some problems with 1GB version!
The only reason why I considered purchasing this device is its small size and integrated FM tuner, which I really miss in the iPod Nano :( Why there is no FM tuner in any iPod yet?..tell me whyyyyy...

[margeaux @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

20

You must be the emo I'm cool because I'm anti-cool kid.

[AMRivlin @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

***We also have 256Mb and 521Mb version for this model. Please feel free to contact us if you are interested. ***

Interesting, is it made of 256 128 64 32 16 8 1 MB Ram modules? or just a 512+9MB

[mike @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

interesting...it's cheaper with better features