Keepin' it real fake, weekend edition: Most blatant nano knockoff. Ever.

Usually knockoff artists change something about their product to slightly distinguish it from the real deal, the first of which is generally the device's name, followed closely by its price. Well meet the $200 "iPod nano 2GB," whose striking differences from Apple's product of the same name are helpfully delineated by its Chicago Craigslist seller, all [sic]: "Note that the wheel for these nano is not operated by touching the wheel, the wheel is actually bottons and must be clicked for selecting files and video or even functions you will be clicking the wheel to navigate within the nano. Also, The earphone connect from the side and not from the bottom of the nano." So besides the headphone jack "upgrade," this i-Bob lookalike also plays back video, and may even come in what seems to be a genuine Apple nano box. Thanks, guys, but even video playback and a resituated jack could never break Steve J.'s incredibly powerful hold over us.

Update: The read link is apparently dead now, which is fine by us. Apple lawyers (or Newmark's army): 1 (yes folks, just like us, they work weekends), Shady resellers: 0.

[Thanks, Michael]

[Eric @ Jan 15th 2006 4:50PM]

Is the technical support done by Apple? cos the documentation looks an awful lot like the Apple iPod's...

[TZK @ Jan 15th 2006 5:05PM]

No one cares at this point. You could start an entirely new blog machine based on knock-off products. OR, products that are good enough, so people dont need to spend a crapload of money to get the real thing.



But like I said, who cares! :)

[Santz @ Jan 15th 2006 5:19PM]

ive just added the guy on messenger :D im gonna tell him i want to buy a hundred or something, make him well happy!

[Patrick F @ Jan 15th 2006 5:31PM]

Does anyone have a mirror of this? Craigslist took it down.

[nanio @ Jan 15th 2006 5:33PM]

If the knockoff didn't done get itself SCRATCHED TO A POINT OF ILLEGIBILITY in, say, the first five minutes, I say bring 'em on.

[mrdelayer @ Jan 15th 2006 5:41PM]

dead link.

[michael sorbara @ Jan 15th 2006 6:06PM]

haha finally one of my finds makes it on engadget, i have the sellers email and may post it later, i might buy one off of him, he told me he can do 175. i laugh.

[satisfied consumer @ Jan 15th 2006 6:08PM]

in for one...thanks engadget.

[jesusfreak @ Jan 15th 2006 9:57PM]

"Steve J.'s incredibly powerful hold over us"



So are you or are you not Apple employees or on Apple's payroll? :) (you had to see that one coming)

(actually i think all the people who think that are stupid.. many engadget readers here obviously want to hear about apple 24/7, and engadget obviously caters to that portion...that doesnt mean they are apple propagandists

[look at me lalalala @ Jan 16th 2006 12:44AM]

I dont like what apple has become. It was all good until they started being a complete prick about their stuff and the most annoying thing is the iLable. I like my RCA lyra player (20gb) which mind you cost half as much and released like 3 years before the ipod. Nano's are butt ugly and Apple lost my trust these days. :-/

[Joshua Olsen @ Jan 16th 2006 2:13AM]

you are so full of crap number 10



ha ha ha



I'm laughing my ass right off at your lack of taste. Sorry. Apple do the best industrial design out there



ha



ha



...

[pixelator @ Jan 16th 2006 3:40AM]

Apple has a long history of using exceedingly inferior, unreliable components wrapped around high quality PLASTICS. Witness the junk batts in older Mac notebooks and iPODs. Witness the scratchy new expensive iPODs.



Now witness all the screaming meemies - aka. macfreak Jobs'-footlickers come rushing in to attack the very notion that APPLE might have ANY issues, whatsoever.



Bring on the clones and ripoffs! My $400 iPOD video scrolls though songs at about one per five seconds - a total slowpoke with junky wheel and a casing that scratches if I look at it funny, requiring TWO different methods to protect its delicate finish. Did we mention the lack of cradle or video cables? Or that you can forget using some or all of your old iPOD stuff with each iteration?



If you ask me, APPLE has been the 'shady reseller' since around 1984.

[Pedro sanchez @ Jan 16th 2006 7:41AM]

yeh im gonna take number 15's view the ipods there coming out with arent just mp3 players there almost art work

[Boynamedsue @ Jan 16th 2006 2:56PM]

apple fanboys will claim ANYTHING is a ripoff.



that doesn't look anything like a nano.

[norman @ Jan 18th 2006 1:49AM]

Sure does seem like a rip-off.
Seems like one of those chinese-import nano-design ripoffs I've seen on "reseller" websites. This guy probably imported a couple of those and rebranded them.

[David Pritchett @ Jan 19th 2006 8:47PM]

Did anyone happen to buy one of these? I wonder how they function. Anyone have any other weblinks that might show more information about them? What are these "reseller" pages that some people keep referring to?

d.

[NakedGord @ Feb 21st 2006 4:00AM]

I did a review of the knock off Nano awhile ago. Believe it or not it's actually pretty decent and cheap as hell if you look arond ($50 CDN total for a 256 MB model)

Review:
http://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=293421

[Peter Mitchell @ Mar 8th 2006 1:57AM]

See my December website [since updated] for a summary of thi sindustry. I have actually sighted th ecomplete knowckoffs, complete with nano packaging, apple barcodes [identical barcodes from box to box] and a cd inside with apple grey colouring and logo [although it contains teh usual Chinese software], and even an apple software agreement! [although there's no apple software in the box or player].

http://aussie149.wordpress.com/2005/12/

[Frank @ Jul 4th 2007 1:04PM]

Hi Everyone,
I bought one of those knockoff the other day. I read the top-line thinking it was nano , but if course it was aknock off. it is working pretty well so far. Do not fall for it.
Later,
Frank
www.sellerkey.com