Keepin' it real fake, part XXI: The TRiPod hits Amazon -- you know where this is going

We're accustomed to seeing fake iPods making the rounds overseas, and a dodgy Craigslist deal doesn't seem out of the question, but we're quite impressed with the 3rd party vendor that managed to get this TRiPod ripoff of the iPod nano onto the Amazon.com US site. It seems to be fairly similar to the 2GB nano rip that made it to Craigslist last month, with video playing abilities and similar software, but this one is 1GB and goes for $185 -- at least until Stevie J. gets Jeff Bezos on the horn for a little chit chat.

[Thanks, Dan]

[PEZ @ Feb 20th 2006 4:40PM]

Thats a big ass screen for something that small. What would be great is, if the screen was oriented landscape, and the controls flipped the same way. Now that would be groovy.

Of course, 1GB dosnt get you much porta-pr0n.

[Anonymous @ Feb 20th 2006 4:45PM]

Slaskis: Do you really think that Amazon would be dumb enough to make this thier competitor? Its a blatant ripoff of the nano, and the interface looks like crap. And the title on Amazon is done horribly and keyword stuffed, and the description is plagarized from Apple. Amazon will come up with something a little more original than this.

[Eli @ Feb 20th 2006 4:48PM]

Wow, that looks a hell of a lot cooler than the Nano.

In typical knockoff fashon, they've taken an American designed product and improved on it, for less money.

[adam @ Feb 20th 2006 4:48PM]

me: whats that smell?

bob: thats the smell of a new ipod ripoff for sale.

me: so basically thats the smell of the apple legal team.

bob: yea pretty much.

me: hm, ironically, they smell like fresh baked apple pie.

[Brian @ Feb 20th 2006 4:50PM]

"This page was created by a seller."

Any Pro Merchant volume seller can apparently add a new product. There's a review process to make sure they don't already have that product elsewhere, but I guess that's all they review.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/10683361/002-9672176-3336846

[Archon @ Feb 20th 2006 5:07PM]

Yeah there's nothing in there that even remotely says that Amazon is making that their choice for competition. In fact, they arent even selling it, it's just being sold by a reseller, who could be anyone. Although it is a slipup by amazon, it'll probably be gone before most people can even read this article.

[Derwin @ Feb 20th 2006 5:19PM]

I love how they didn't even bother to write their own description for it, they just took the "Take everything you love about _____. Now shrink it again." product line and completely did a Find/Replace with iPod to "TRiPod". It's so blatant, hahaha.

[MyNameIsGame @ Feb 20th 2006 5:34PM]

Well it's just fun to watch the whole world running around playing catch up with Apple. Like vultures they are circling the launch of a new apple product, ready to kick some chinese back into the factory to start assembling some cheap ass knock off.

Business wise though I think it's a smart thing to do if you are a small company. Leeching of the marketing millions Apple is pumping into the world. How many grand ma's you think will go to a store and think, well it's not the apple thingy my little John wanted but it's just as shiny as my new teeth so I'll get this one. It's even cheaper tee-hee.

I know I have seen that mistake being made. And that cash goes up in smoke. Because you just throw it right away.

I just sit back and wait till the next Apple show where they take a new leap. I reckon a one-screen-sided touch screen enabled all-player. Like a psp without gaming. Only smaller, with more gb's of room and just as click. But more Apply.

[Brian Whitney @ Feb 20th 2006 5:41PM]

I think this line in the descripion says it all...

"The TRiPod is the same thickness as a #2..."

No where does it say anything about a "Pencil" so they must be talking about Crap...

[Fredrik Olsen @ Feb 20th 2006 6:12PM]

hehe, everybody. There is also an TRiPodin the movie "Scary Movie 4"

see for yourself in the trailer:
http://www.scarymovie.com

screengrab:
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/1390/tripodscarymovie49bx.jpg

which means it's probably only an elaborate advertising for the movie? or just a sign that fake ipods goes intergalactic soon....

fred

[Bart B @ Feb 20th 2006 6:13PM]

From the amazon page
Other products by SummiTech

Yeah, SoSummiTech. How ironic :)

[Benny Nelson @ Feb 20th 2006 6:28PM]

But this thing can play many hours of video on it's 1GB storage. This thing is lightyears ahead of the nano. They must use some G14 classified encoding technology.

[bob @ Feb 20th 2006 6:48PM]

YA IT LOOKS PREATTY SICK!

[iBill @ Feb 20th 2006 7:00PM]

I smell a lawsuit

[Shen DeShayne @ Feb 20th 2006 7:50PM]

Bigger screen, more expensive? I don't even like the wheel design!

[Eric Chen @ Feb 20th 2006 8:01PM]

Nothing's going to happen to this guy. Theres nothing that patented the nano's size and the screen and click wheel are in a different size and position. I see nothing wrong with this product and apple has no basis to post a law suit. If apple sued this company then Honda can sue Hyundai for copying the Accord.

[Jason @ Feb 20th 2006 8:54PM]

So, why do so many people feel inclined to fight a corporation's battles for it? Why do people enjoy seeing a company who does consumers a service get sued? Look out for yourselves, not the fascists at Apple.

[Anders @ Feb 20th 2006 9:18PM]

"9. Well it's just fun to watch the whole world running around playing catch up with Apple. Like vultures they are circling the launch of a new apple product, ready to kick some chinese back into the factory to start assembling some cheap ass knock off.

Business wise though I think it's a smart thing to do if you are a small company. Leeching of the marketing millions Apple is pumping into the world. How many grand ma's you think will go to a store and think, well it's not the apple thingy my little John wanted but it's just as shiny as my new teeth so I'll get this one. It's even cheaper tee-hee.

I know I have seen that mistake being made. And that cash goes up in smoke. Because you just throw it right away.

I just sit back and wait till the next Apple show where they take a new leap. I reckon a one-screen-sided touch screen enabled all-player. Like a psp without gaming. Only smaller, with more gb's of room and just as click. But more Apply."

Even though almost all of us claim that we crave creativity, any single time a new interface or look comes up, we end up comparing it to the iPods... so why not go with what sells? something that looks familliar.

This issue will never satisfy everyone. They're either copycats or people who try to "steal apple's" design...

[Page is no longer there....hehe! @ Feb 20th 2006 9:40PM]

Well that didn't take long :-)

[saboola @ Feb 20th 2006 9:43PM]

Looks like amazon removed it.

[vincent li @ Feb 20th 2006 9:52PM]

I looks better than the nano. I would probably fall for it unless I had a real one to reference from.

[MyNameIsGame @ Feb 20th 2006 10:01PM]

@ 19

It makes sense as well because people are followers at best. If there would be thousands of different designs, people would lose te ability to compare "their" gadget to the one their neighbour has. So people would get confused

"Duh... Am I cooler or is he??"

It is generally established that Apple = Cool so by having a Apple-(choose) you are automatically cool. Thus you are done worrying about it and are able to move on.

I like the fact that such HUGE powers are so easy to spot but so hard to resist :)

And about the copying, it's probably just evolution. Windows Vista is coming and there is this video on video.google.com called windows revisited where they overlay a windows spokesperson' speech over a video of OSX showcasing that all new functions in Vista already exist in their OS.

You have to respect Nintendo and Apple because their business model is to stay in front. There is no other option. Scary. But oh so satisfying.

[k4ffy @ Feb 20th 2006 10:11PM]

its already gone...

[dixon @ Feb 20th 2006 10:14PM]

I saw something similar last week when I was in HK. The sound quality was ok, but video quality was really bad colors were all washed out and low res. The aspect ratio is completely wrong, i.e., it cannot even play regular 4:3 tv properly. The merchant says you can get 3 hours of video on the 512MB (probably because it has such low quality display, that compression is the least of the problem). Didn't check the battery life.

[Tsunami Steve @ Feb 20th 2006 10:37PM]

TRiPod was my username at various sites for like 3 years. Funny.

[bomiedo @ Feb 20th 2006 11:04PM]

"You have to respect Nintendo and Apple because their business model is to stay in front. There is no other option. Scary. But oh so satisfying."

Hmm? What do you mean stay in front? Apple hasn't really done anything new in quite some time. They weren't the first to sell music online, they weren't the first with portible media players, they didn't invent the mouse or the gui...what they did imo was improve on a lot of existing technologies. I don't think any of it was staying in front, I just think it was taking logical progressions in technology and then over marketing them.

[MyNameIsGame @ Feb 21st 2006 12:16AM]

You are right technical wise of course. Not much products that are being sold are really cutting edge. We all trot along the nicely controlled road of inovation.

They are of course all about marketing. But they are also about delivering a very smooth experience to their buyers. Somehow they manage to let complete computer nitwits install software and then upload music to their shiny toys. And thats their greatest feat.

That's what I mean with staying in front. They say they are about unique experiences and they deliver as well. Unique as in everyone should be able to...

I must say of course Apple isn't god or anything of course. Read how Jobs has tried hard to loose pixar for years and years. Him now cashing in it with Disney is almost a travesty.

http://lowendmac.com/orchard/06/0123.html

But you got to hand it to Apple. They got an opening and they took it with both hands. Right now they are milking it like any company would. Only they are doing it in such way it stays interesting.

[Terere @ Feb 21st 2006 10:04AM]

Who want a fake NANO?...

[Ron @ Feb 21st 2006 1:05PM]

I personally do not see what the big deal is.

They plainly stated it is not and apple product.

It has a different interface

larger screen

different buttons instead of click wheel.

Does apple have a patent on the size?

If they have grounds for a lawsuit then what about pop-tarts vs. Sam's Choice toaster pasteries?

ford vs chevy vs toyota vs nissan vs whoever else on pickup trucks?

come on get serious...

everyone in the world today rips off everyone else's idea...

if that is grounds for an injunction or lawsuit or being removed from the market place I guess we will only have the Toyota hybrid car as they were first to market!

I say we started this global market mess....we now live with it!

The chinese are faster at reacting and getting similar products to market plain and simple.

[YupYup @ Feb 21st 2006 2:41PM]

#28 actually we would have Toyota and Ford hybrid vehicles since Ford bought the rights to use more than half their technology while finishing work on their own :)

[D'Aaron Damous @ Feb 21st 2006 8:36PM]

I dont know how many people noticed but that picture was photo shopped from the black nano. It has the same gleem in it. It peobably isn't that sleek and smooth in real like. Also the only reason amazon took it down was because of this article. I saw it on there about 2 weeks ago then i submitted it here. Too bad paul got my name wrong :(

[NakedGord @ Feb 22nd 2006 2:53AM]

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

[Trace The Hedgehog @ Jun 24th 2007 7:38PM]

I've seen this thing in real life. I gotta say, it does more than the actual nano does.