Samsung taps iPod software designer for YP-Z5 interface

We're always up for a little bit of engineer poaching between device makers, like when Apple nabbed some VAIO guys from Sony for the MacBook Pro. Ah, good times. This time Apple is tasting a bit of their own medicine, since Samsung has scored Paul Mercer to design the YP-Z5. Mr. Mercer, a former Apple employee who helped design System 7 and worked on the Newton project, left Apple in 1994 and designed the original iPod interface as an independent contractor. Samsung tapped him for the YP-Z5, which has transparency effects and other interface niceties to give the nano a run for its money. Now we'll just have to wait and see if Mr. Mercer's work has managed to eclipse his former brilliance -- that screen won't be much help.

[Via Slashdot]

[khamel @ Feb 27th 2006 1:30PM]

the design of the body seems nice and so does the reported 35 (!) hours of battery life but that screen or gui is going to be its end. if apple or google have proven anything its that people want simple and clean designs. no stupid cd in the background.

now on to the 100gig players so i can finally break from the schakles of my 40gb 4g ipod.

[rtheman @ Feb 27th 2006 1:37PM]

So is this a case of "Win Win" situtaion for Paul?

[YumZ @ Feb 27th 2006 1:40PM]

Disgusting looking.

[dave95 @ Feb 27th 2006 1:41PM]

If you can't beat them, buy their former employee.

[Ben Nelson @ Feb 27th 2006 1:43PM]

That screen looks like the screen of my wife's 20 dollar virgin mobile cell phone. It also looks more like a voice recorder than a sleek mp3 player.

[george @ Feb 27th 2006 1:43PM]

If that's the Z5's interface pictured, then its clear that while Mr Mercer contributed to the iPod interface, Mr Jobs was the final gatekeeper of development and thank god. "Welcome to Z" - brilliant. Turning battery icon vertical - awesome. Transparent effects - I wish books had them to help me read. Mr Mercer doesn't get it. Black type on white background = legibility. Only add what's necessary to the interface. Guess Samsung got their money's worth.

[dj @ Feb 27th 2006 2:02PM]

#7 you fv*** moron...while i love s.jobs, it's worshippers like you i hate! apple is a company that is excellent thanks to a collection of thousands of most brilliant minds in the planet. Mercer is a LEGEND you idiot, know your facts! he left apple because he always wanted to do independent research. try to understand, everything that is beautiful does NOT come out of steve jobs's ar*s!

(by the way one thing i like in b.gates over s.jobs is he�s far less in to image building. but hell both those guys are geniuses, unlike our primitive dude here)

[Tyler McPheeters @ Feb 27th 2006 2:11PM]

Can't people just be happy with the iPod? Everyone I know who has a non-Apple MP3 player regrets their purchase...

[Walton @ Feb 27th 2006 2:25PM]

I remember the time I was searching for an MP3 player and didn't want to just follow the crowd and buy an iPod. But then I realsied other MP3 players did the smae thing, tired to follow the iPod. I don't think anyone is trying to come up with anything original but instead taking the ipod and screwing around with it untill they get a totally new product. I dont like this player it looks vile

[arturo @ Feb 27th 2006 2:26PM]

#8: Actually Paul got fired. Obviously it's a fact that he doesn't want known. In 1994 he had gotten a copy of what was called "Chicago", which was to be Windows 95. He was running it at Apple and showing people what Microsoft was working on. While his intentions were good, you can't do that. If Microsoft had found out, and there was any possibility of IP pollution, then Apple would have been screwed. So for legal reasons, he was let go.

[David @ Feb 27th 2006 2:42PM]

I work at a major electronics retailer in canada, and its about time someone came out with somthing that will accually take a little bit of the market. You'd be suprised how many people want the "non-apple" solution for there mp3 player needs. Samsung did a good job with this and i hope the company the best... they did there homework. Who cares who they hired to do some of the job.

[Andrew @ Feb 27th 2006 2:47PM]

another day, another "ipod killer"... To bad are thumbs are ment to turn in circles not boxes...heh. this is a joke

[Andrew @ Feb 27th 2006 2:49PM]

nothing to see here folks...move along

[Jay @ Feb 27th 2006 2:54PM]

Couldn't they at least have chose a nice FONT for their "podkiller"??

[Jessie @ Feb 27th 2006 3:04PM]

Are these on the market yet?

[Se?Pantalones @ Feb 27th 2006 3:07PM]

To poster #8...try decaf.

#7 was hardly brown-nosin' Se?Jobs. The majority of his focus was on usability.

[Bob @ Feb 27th 2006 3:11PM]

That's device is a pale shdow of ipod. They'd better develop their own way ;)

[Louv @ Feb 27th 2006 3:15PM]

Paul's company Pixo didn't actually write the iPod UI. They wrote the underlying code that allowed the UI to be displayed. It's a subtle but important difference.

It's kinda like saying Home Despot built a house because the contractor used lumber and tools purchased from Home Despot.

[daaper @ Feb 27th 2006 3:18PM]

congrats to samsung, that thing looks sweet

[phenostar @ Feb 27th 2006 3:24PM]

#8, STFU.


This player looks really terrible. It's time for the other guys to quit trying to break in on Apple's turf with MP3 players and focus that attention on their other products.

[SubGenius @ Feb 27th 2006 3:38PM]

I think Mercer is a double agent. He must be purposely designing bad stuff for Samsung and telling them its brilliant.

[Heath Stahl @ Feb 27th 2006 3:41PM]

To #9: "Can't people just be happy with the iPod? Everyone I know who has a non-Apple MP3 player regrets their purchase..."

As soon as Apple adopts PlayForSure I'll buy one. Until then forget it. Of course since its a MS tech you can pretty much forget it ever getting put on an iPod. Which is too bad, b/c I admit from a appearance/UI standpoint they are the best. But from a feature standpoint far from it.

[creamedcow @ Feb 27th 2006 4:28PM]

Anybody notice all the competitors in the Winter Olympics warming up to personal music devices were all on iPods? Even Ahn Hyun Soo, the Korean speed skater phenom immediately picked up his iPod when taking a break after a race. Gotta think the Korean companies were irked at that shot. Good thing Singapore didn't compete or else Creative's CEO Sim Wong Hoo would have had a heart attack.

Funny, I just Googled 'creative ceo' and the first link was for Engadget about that time Mr. Sim declared war on the iPod.

[Chris @ Feb 27th 2006 4:42PM]

#9: HAHAHAHA!!! Thats rich.

You must be a commedian, nice joke.

[James @ Feb 27th 2006 4:50PM]

While this is a step in the right direction for Samsung, a well-designed product needs a designer and the right organization to make it happen. A company that's not open-minded enough will just pay for an amazing design and then let the executives and marketing folks screw it up by overruling important things. Look at what mobile carriers to to cell phones.

I don't know much about Samsung's corporate culture but let's hope the geniuses who thought "Yepp" was a good brand name for the West aren't in charge.

[mike @ Feb 27th 2006 4:56PM]

do you think the ipod's name is more memorable than z92873fx-yp?

[gravey @ Feb 27th 2006 5:22PM]

#9- I don't regret buying my Sony NW-HD3. When I flew to Singapore with a friend, my sony kept on going while the IPOD was long dead. Since I am mostly concerned with the ability to listen to music, the sony is much better.

[Cherrymlinh @ Feb 27th 2006 6:47PM]

instead of imitating the ipod nano..why don't these company invent a better one for god's sake..i mean even though ipod does have its charm..but i think there's alot of way to improve it..like a bigger screen...more music format supports. i guess these are the reason why ipod-imitator will never suceed...because well..they're just plain ugly..compare to the real one...it's never better.

[o rly @ Feb 27th 2006 6:52PM]

@23/creamedcow: "Anybody notice all the competitors in the Winter Olympics warming up to personal music devices were all on iPods? Even Ahn Hyun Soo, the Korean speed skater phenom immediately picked up his iPod when taking a break after a race. Gotta think the Korean companies were irked at that shot."


No I didn't. I did see some with other DAP & MP3 players, and even one PMP/PVP, as well as some using their cell phone to listen to music. I'm not sure which Olympics you were watching.

[Betel @ Feb 27th 2006 7:55PM]

Best User interface I have seen: Rio Karma. Very ergonical, unfortunately, the hdd broke easyly, and had no radio. Ipod has a long way to do what karma did, although itunes has somewhat caught up with its music manager.

[No Mercer @ Feb 27th 2006 10:22PM]

Paul Mercer was long gone from PIxo for years before the iPod started. He had nothing to do with it. Much of the UI work was done by contractors from Pixo, but the UI was designed at Apple and they just implemented it (for better or worse). This new device doesn't use Pixo.

Besides, the main advantage of iPod is really iTunes. Read up on the steps to rip your music and get it on a music player from those days. It was a litany of downloads and non-obvious steps. On iTunes, you just inserted the CD waited for it to finish, then plugged in the iPod. Done. That's what sold the iPod back then.

I've used the Samsung device, it's pretty good. I don't know about iPod good, but it's pretty good, the market will tell. BTW, the code name was "Z", which is why it says "Welcome to Z" at the bottom.

[not_a_trendwhore @ Feb 27th 2006 10:33PM]

hi, i'm a troll. spam me please: [e-mail]

[Silver @ Feb 28th 2006 12:38AM]

"too bad so many of the ipod praising morons dont know that the samsung isnt forced to use that as the background since its got wallpapers."

Changeable wallpaper! Holy freakin' innovation! Damn, that's the killer feature my iPod lacks!

No wonder I've felt so....incomplete.

[not_a_trendwhore @ Feb 28th 2006 3:57AM]

hi, i'm a troll. spam me please: [e-mail]

[35 @ Feb 28th 2006 4:14AM]

Samsung YP-T8N 4GB Flash model is way better than this Z5. Check below sites.

http://www.yepp.co.kr/microsite/t8/en/main.html

or

http://www.yepp.co.kr/product/feature.jsp?model=YP-T8N


YP-T8N (1G/2G/4G Model)

- 1.8" TFT LCD
- MPEG4,JPEG,Game,Text-Viewer
- Plays Ogg/MP3/WMA/ASF
- FM Radio (with FM Recording function)
- Voice Recorder
- Auto LDB
- CD & FM encoding
- USB 2.0
- Clock
- Movable HDD Function
- Firmware Upgrade
- Li -ion Battery

[Silver @ Feb 28th 2006 9:22AM]

Well Trendwhore, how about design, quality, and ease-of-use?

Oh, wait, things like that aren't important to Winbots like you. It's changeable wallpapers that get you all warm and toasty. And you call iPod owners fanboys...

[Joe @ Feb 28th 2006 6:26PM]

In case you iPod lovers were not paying attention, as usual, Apple got there GUI from Creative. So Apple is the one who is not creative. Stop being sheep, stop being ignorant, and buy something that is not over priced for nothing. Buy the samsung.

[o rly @ Feb 28th 2006 8:51PM]

Silver "37. Well Trendwhore, how about design, quality, and ease-of-use?

Oh, wait, things like that aren't important to Winbots like you. It's changeable wallpapers that get you all warm and toasty. And you call iPod owners fanboys..."


How is it quality when a product's battery lasts 18 months and gets immediately scratched when you take it out the box? The design hasn't changed much in a few years, maybe that's why it's so feature lacking.

[Jin Kwon @ Mar 26th 2006 3:27AM]

Oh you f**ckin idiots justshut the hell up. Disgusting? THis thing looks great. And Oh, I almost forgot, Samsung is first in the electronic global market, so i wouldnt be talking. and o yea, Samsung tops Apple. You see Apples stock has been going down. From 80 dollars worth stock to 58? That is sad. So you guys just keep your mouth shut, because seeing u guys criticize this thing, ure just embarrasing ureselfs.

[Eva @ Aug 6th 2006 12:19PM]

Home Despot!! Home Despot! Whoever wrote that was either trying to be funny or couldn't spell. Actually I bet it was the latter but it achieved the former.

[Galley @ Aug 13th 2006 11:06PM]

I scored the black 4 gigger for $179.99 with a 10% off coupon at Circuit City. It's a pretty nice player!