Video iPod fakery exposed on video

Not surprisingly at all (except to us, who said "this does look a bit promising" when we first saw it), the purported video iPod picture that has been circulating for the last few days has turned out to be a complete and total hoax. We say this with such certainty because the individual who 'shopped up the little wonder has thoughtfully released a video documenting how the entire project was pulled off. Aside from being a great mini-Photoshop tutorial, the video makes it clear that this "video iPod" is nothing more than a 5G 'pod photographed twice at 180 degree rotations and touched up a bit for color uniformity. On a similar note, we've gotten word that the creator of the infamous "iPod boombox" mockup will reveal his methods and considerable skills in a three-hour "making of" documentary hosted by Sam Waterston and Ryan Seacrest.

[Via Zatz Not Funny, thanks to everyone who sent this in]

UPDATE: A few commenters have pointed out that there are some interesting discrepancies between the video and the image it is supposedly exposing as a fake. Could the video exposing the fake itself be fake? Is someone out there hoaxing the hoax? This is all getting way too meta...

[Charlie @ Feb 26th 2006 7:42PM]

AHAHAHA!!! I love how much speculation the picture developed when it first came out. Everyone was sure it was legit. There was close to 200 posts on the thing.

[IK47 @ Feb 26th 2006 7:44PM]

hahahaha

I knew there was something odd about having a touchscreen. You would get fingerprints all over it.

[Tarek @ Feb 26th 2006 7:44PM]

cant wait to see the making of the boombox

[Ryan @ Feb 26th 2006 7:44PM]

this person set that up like it was nothing...looks like it took him like 10 minutes and it gets the whole web going crazy over it. Makes me want to learn photoshop.

[Louis Pavlo @ Feb 26th 2006 7:48PM]

Wait a minute...
The original picture has a "7" in handwriting on the bar code at the bottom right hand-side of the iPod. The picture at the end of the video photoshop tutorial does not. interesting. nobody else noticed that? also, it could also just be someone copying and pasting different elements of the original image into their mockup to make it look exactly the same as the original. a bit far fetched, i know... we'll see. 1 day...

[Lee Gibson @ Feb 26th 2006 7:51PM]

No way! REALLY?

When was the last time one of these rumors or leaks was right?

[Ex5 @ Feb 26th 2006 8:00PM]

The new news is going to end up being very stupid

[Eric @ Feb 26th 2006 8:01PM]

Actually Lee, the 5G iPod was leaked the morning of its announcement.

[crunchinjelly @ Feb 26th 2006 8:03PM]

To be be fair to the guy, he done a decent job.

[Snake201 @ Feb 26th 2006 8:05PM]

#5 is right if you see the video the bardcode does not have the handwrittend number "7" as the first "leaked" picture has and I also notice the lighting is not right on the video compare to the first "leaked" picture.

[hacp @ Feb 26th 2006 8:05PM]

As expected. As I have said before, the picture was too unrefined to be an apple. You notice that the edges of the width are slimmer than the edges of the lenght right? Thats what gave it away. Apple would have made all the edges uniform at least.

[a person @ Feb 26th 2006 8:09PM]

http://www.macshrine.com/2006/02/26/total-confusion-is-the-video-fake/

also, if you look real close, at one point it does look like the touch-wheel was shopped in, and the plastic it is sitting on is somewhat suspect. the folds are exactly the same when they reverse the pod for the second picture, which seems unlikely. come to think of it, why is reversing the pod even necessary in this procedure?

whatever, though. we can wait it out for another day.

[Joe Smith @ Feb 26th 2006 8:10PM]

This guy should win the engadget nano wwjd contest.

[Brad Twitty @ Feb 26th 2006 8:12PM]

Open your eyes everyone, some one finally leaked a real apple product well before release and this is apple working magic and covering it up with this in house video. Jobs had this created to debunk the photo.

[Ruegen @ Feb 26th 2006 8:18PM]

He he he. But I guess Apple will have the last laugh in the end anyway :-)

[Peter Rojas @ Feb 26th 2006 8:18PM]

Every year someone pulls of a great (or not so great, as the case may be) pre-Jobsnote hoax. Remember last year's iHome? By this point it's all part of the fun.

[Jason @ Feb 26th 2006 8:19PM]

i am happy to say that I have seen something before engadget has for once.

[matt @ Feb 26th 2006 8:28PM]

#11 good show! only steve would do something like that! now if we could only get a comparison shot of the hand in the video and of Steve Jobs! :-P

[New @ Feb 26th 2006 8:30PM]

Its weird how someone wastes so much to time to hoax people..... Just a thought.

[coolkamio @ Feb 26th 2006 8:33PM]

@Lee Gibson "When was the last time one of these rumors or leaks was right?":

Last October, with the iPod 5G, a rumor and leak with a photo very similar to this one that turned to be real..

[m00n3r @ Feb 26th 2006 8:35PM]

i knew it! THIS is the real 6G

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b371/m00n3r/iPod6G_m00n3r.jpg

[robin @ Feb 26th 2006 8:40PM]

the video is inconsistent. the "black censor" that was drawn in photoshop is different from the one in the photo.

http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/9009/look27ou.gif

[dalton @ Feb 26th 2006 8:40PM]

Well I'll be darned. Actually, there are pictures floating around that show that the video is a fake, and they look pretty convincing too. I guess if I've learned one thing today, it's to never, ever trust anything found on the internet. Ever.



http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/1894/picture47oo.png

http://img528.imageshack.us/my.php?image=difflabel9ct.jpg

http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/5454/picture78ui.png

[chuck @ Feb 26th 2006 8:43PM]

hey, why do you guys care, you got hits from the first time you posted it, now your gonna get hits from this article. its all about hits here, not actual news. bastards.

[YumZ @ Feb 26th 2006 8:51PM]

They faked the video that was suppose to debunk the fake picture. Brilliant.

[SilverWolf @ Feb 26th 2006 8:54PM]

Couldn't he have just been re-doing the steps how he did it ? thus making it not just like the first image? I doubt he recorded himself making the first one.

[StammesOpfer @ Feb 26th 2006 8:55PM]

Maybe he made the video afterwards i doubt he made the video during the creating of the original why would he but then seeing how everyone belived it went back and made a video showing how he did it this time everything wouldnt be exactly the same but very similar so that would explain the slight differences the as for the wrinkles in the background look at the clarity of the click wheel in those same images it is very obvious that the video compression could take out those details

Dont get me wrong i wouldnt mind if it was true but comon this has been debunked give it up

[Chir @ Feb 26th 2006 8:57PM]

Actually those comparison photos are fake. The video does indeed have those wrinkles, the Chinese characters are indeed identical, and the finished markings at the lower right corner are indeed the same as those in the identical photo. Those comparison shots are intended to make the video look fake.

[Jason Stewart @ Feb 26th 2006 9:01PM]

I think the inconsistencies can come from the possibility that the "forger" did another round just to illustrate how it's done. Looking at it now though, it funny that we missed the most obvious clue: The skew/tilt of the device is different from the left and right. The skew difference seems too drastic to be explained by camera effects, etc.

[greekgoat @ Feb 26th 2006 9:02PM]

I IMed Ryan Block, he said
20:50] -: it was done as an example
20:50] -: i don't think they were claiming it was them

[rex @ Feb 26th 2006 9:06PM]

that's unfortunate

[Jacob S. @ Feb 26th 2006 9:08PM]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
Please don't let it be true! Please don't let it be true!
I have a 3G iPod and I really need to update!! When the 5G came out, I told my self "I have a good feeling the next iPod will come out around February/March, just in time for my birthday, so I'll take my chances and wait." So I waited, and then a few weeks ago there was news of a possible 6G iPod! i was soo excited! So this BETTER be a fake! Please let it be a fake!!

[Jason @ Feb 26th 2006 9:17PM]

The guy probably did it, threw away the materials he used, saw that every1 fell for it, then did it again while filming it to show off his skills..and to put the rumor to bed

[Andy @ Feb 26th 2006 9:21PM]

methinks this design is most practical

http://jbfacts.blogspot.com/

[herman @ Feb 26th 2006 9:28PM]

it only makes sense to give the "person who made the video" the prize... if he actually came up with the rumor, then he should win. if he didn't, then he should win b/c he came up with the rumor of saying it's false.

[Jacob S. @ Feb 26th 2006 9:29PM]

I believe that there still is some light at the end of the tunnel for those who want a 6G iPod. Did everyone forget about those photos with the iPod and playing "King Kong" on it? I know whose were computer graphics, but they looked very much Apple-esque. Were those just created by "some guy" as this video/pic seems to be, or were they received from a pretty-legit source?

[Jason @ Feb 26th 2006 9:44PM]

the guys probably from germany-if you look at the vid. all his files/photoshop tools are in german (or some other language which isn't english)

+

http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/5454/picture78ui.png = false

The scribble in the original picture is the same as the 1 in the vid.--the german guy was just in the middle of drawing it when spacehog371 or whoever took the pic

[hackaroxp @ Feb 26th 2006 9:50PM]

If u go to http://www.redr.wordpress.com , and see the last post.. this is my 6G ipod.. in my desk!!

[iLLW!L @ Feb 26th 2006 9:52PM]

#19

Thanks for making iLLW!L relevant to teh intarnets!

Having created images 1 and 3; I feel so special to be brought up to a new level of obscurity!

[Michael Reyes @ Feb 26th 2006 10:05PM]

Well it�s also seems the person that made the video is Dutch. If you pause the video at 00:50 sec, the button labeled "juridische info" translates to "legal info" in Dutch. Also his thumb shows that he may be in his mid 20s, early 30s and is male of course. That�s what I�ve collected so far. Hope I find more info on this person.-Mike R

[moony @ Feb 26th 2006 10:12PM]

this fooled me 2

[Paul @ Feb 26th 2006 10:29PM]

What kind of a knob spends 3 hours on a fake mock up? I'm guessing he's probably a virgin too - get a life.

[PortalRican @ Feb 26th 2006 10:44PM]

Im keeping low expectations. I bet Steve Jobs reads these posts and laughs his ass off.
Anyway, I did a search on "lcd color test" and I didnt find that image.

I also hope its a fake. I want one

[shane fenton @ Feb 26th 2006 10:46PM]

These comments are just as funny as what happened - now we have a hoax of a hoax! This is awesome! What will be next? I'm just going to wait for steve to wip whatever it is out of his arse from now on. But don't stop the rumors - they keep getting better and better.

[Natrino @ Feb 26th 2006 10:46PM]

#32 - The top left of the scribble is different, it doesn't matter if it wasn't finished when the screenshot was taken, it is definitely different.

[llamapalooza87 @ Feb 26th 2006 11:04PM]

"Anyway, I did a search on "lcd color test" and I didnt find that image."

He wasn't using google.com, he was using google.(crazy dutch url ending).

[Hogee @ Feb 26th 2006 11:09PM]

When he types in LCD Color Test in google, he is obviously using the dutch version of google (.nl instead of .com , but when he's at the site where he got the picture from in safari, in the bar at the top it says google.com, not google.nl Strange....

Also, I can't seem to find that picture he used to get the lcd color test on google.

[sdwells @ Feb 26th 2006 11:19PM]

While it is obvious this can be done in photoshop... it is also just as easy to recreate it in photoshop. Who�s to say this isn't someone faking the real thing.
Anyways if you compare the two in all the details you will find there are slight differences. The images showing the differences from the video to the original fake DO show true differences.

however yeah it could have just be redone after... but if that was the case why is SO much attention made to make it identical to the original, i would assume if i was redoing this thing there would be obvious differences rather than the ever so slightest differences. Also why if so much attention was to make the video as identical to the original why was the 7 left out?!!!!!! That�s the most odd thing, why was the 7 left out.

[Rodolfo Lopez @ Feb 26th 2006 11:27PM]

Here's my version of it. Only it's black.



http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/1672/ipodfake3en.png

[Oliver Hulland @ Feb 26th 2006 11:32PM]

can anyone say massive viral marketing ad via Apple? i mean really, its simply a conspiracy theory. Steve has bested us again!