Bush: government research developed iPod

Apple has long boasted of its culture of innovation, and how this led to such products as the original Mac and the iPod. However, it turns out that, at least in the case of the iPod, Apple had a hidden ally: the US government. During a speech at Tuskegee University, President (and iPod user) George W. Bush told his audience, "the government funded research in microdrive storage, electrochemistry and signal compression. They did so for one reason: It turned out that those were the key ingredients for the development of the iPod." While we have to gratefully acknowledge the efforts of government agencies such as DARPA in some of the fields mentioned by the President, we also feel obligated to point out the accomplishments of private companies in the US and abroad, including IBM, Hitachi and Toshiba -- not to mention the Fraunhofer Institute, which developed the original MP3 codec, and codeveloped (with Sony, AT&T and others) the AAC format used by Apple in the iPod. Still, we have to bow down before his Steveness; we knew he was well-connected, but until now we had no idea of his level of influence in the area of government research. Hey, Steve, while you're at it, why not get the government to resolve the display problems plaguing the next-gen video iPod? We're sure they'll get their best minds on it and fix it in no time.

[o rly @ Apr 20th 2006 3:50PM]

@ 38 / minus_273: "#17
Gore did claim that he invented the internet. The full quote from a CNN interview is :"

You might want to read up on http://www.snopes.com/quotes/internet.asp

[VQH @ Apr 20th 2006 4:10PM]

#39 minus_273: It seems the media has brainwashed you a bit. I wouldn't rely on one source for all information, especially CNN.


Try reading up on #48's link

http://www.snopes.com/quotes/internet.asp

[VQH @ Apr 20th 2006 4:13PM]

#39 minus_273: You are incorrect. You should read up #48's link here http://www.snopes.com/quotes/internet.asp

Relying on one source, especially CNN, is VERY foolish. It is especially more foolish to rely on an article that has been published near the election year the individual was running for.

Try reading the Gores full transcript.

[c.Lake @ Apr 20th 2006 4:18PM]

Whatever?!?! Bush can bite my butt.

[Brennan @ Apr 20th 2006 4:29PM]

ROFL at all the liberals.

[kevin @ Apr 20th 2006 4:31PM]

what MICK and Kurt said.

7. You guys need to learn to take a joke. You don't really think he was taking credit for the ipod, do you? He was just trying to get a laugh from his audience.

Posted at 12:45PM on Apr 20th 2006 by MICK


9. Does this strike anyone else as something that is taken out of context? It sounds like a joke to me. Anyone have the audio? I can almost here a little Bush chuckle afterwards...

Posted at 12:47PM on Apr 20th 2006 by Kurt Ramsauer

anyone who believes otherwise is just a tool.

[tim @ Apr 20th 2006 4:34PM]

#46:

>You also miss the point that the entire point of the >invasion was to prevent Saddam from obtaining WMD.

No it was that Sadam could deliver WMDs to US soil in 45 minutes. Talk about blind partisan ignorance. Get off the Rush dittohead.

WTFC who has more internet penetration. Christ don't you tards have anything better to car about. I mean internet penetration? It's not even worth arguing over. Now argueing over who has more HDTV free over OTA broadcasts might be something someone actually cares about.

Further, Bush just doesn't know when to quit. He bungled Iraq and Afghanistan, values loyality over competance, leaked clasified information for political purposes, either lied about WMDs or is completely incompetent, bungled Katrina response, HAs run up huge defeciets with nothing to show for it, and has no real chance of stopping Iran as I don't think you can start a war when your approval poll numbers are in the ~30s.

Was it a joke? Who cares? Bush is like that guy on the team that always seems to be in charge but also alwasy seems to royally screw uo everything he touches.

[Nick Block @ Apr 20th 2006 4:36PM]

C'mon - you are totally publishing this out of context. Had you taken into consideration the non-verbals (including the LAUGHTER that ensued) you would realize that this was, in fact a joke. Yes, a joke - you know - a story with a humorous climax.

[Pep @ Apr 20th 2006 4:40PM]

We get it, everyone hates Bush on Engadget and Digg, go vote if you hate the way things are.

[JCC @ Apr 20th 2006 4:46PM]

Actually, Gore did help to create the internet, along with Bill Bradley of NJ. It was the both of them who championed funding for the development of the web at DARPA. It's safe to assume that without them the project would have died on the vine and there would have been no internet.

Something else that came out of DARPA was the GPS that we commonly use today. Needless to say many things came from the Defense Department with public funding. That's why Bush is an idiot for killing stem cell research. Why doesn't he claim that to everyone? One day, we'll all look back and see how dumb he was and how even dumber that 50% of us voted for him, twice!

[Tom @ Apr 20th 2006 4:58PM]

Bush was using the government funding to get to this point:
"See, the federal government has got a role to play, in my judgment, in basic research. But the private sector spends twice as much money on research and development that the federal government does. So I think it's important for us to put policy in place to continue that kind of research. If you were to ask the President and the folks involved with the scientific and the engineering departments here, you'll find that private companies are providing research and development money to help meet certain objectives. And one of the things we got to do is continue to provide incentive for corporate America to make these investments. They spend about $200 billion a year. If we want the country to be competitive, if we don't want to fear the future and shape it, then there needs to be incentive for corporate America to continue to make these research and development investments. We do that, by the way, through what's called the research and development tax credit. It's fancy words for saying that if you spend the money there's going to be a -- you'll get a credit on your income. That makes sense to me. It makes sense to a lot of other countries, too, by the way. A lot of countries, in trying to be competitive in this global world are doing the same thing to encourage research and development, because they know what we know, that if you come up with new products and are constantly on the leading edge of change and innovation, the standard of living for the people in the country in which these investments are made goes up."

[LC @ Apr 20th 2006 5:19PM]

"Relying on one source, especially CNN, is VERY foolish."

How would it be foolish if it was CNN that interviewed Gore and has the exact transcript? It wasn't CNN reporting on what Gore said, it was Gore saying it directly to CNN's Wolf Blitzer. Would you prefer he refer to second third or fourth had accounts? Did you even read what he posted? His quote from CNN was verbatim to the quote on the snopes link you posted.

I don't know about you, but if someone is interviewed and someone else asks for a quote from said interview, I would prefer getting it from the source.

Now interpretation is something different altogether. The Gore internet thing was just a little jab at those who posted here, but failed to read the full article where Bush is obviously making a joke about the governments role in the creation of the iPod. It seems some people check their reading comprehension and sense of humor at the door in some posts.

[Jake Handsome @ Apr 20th 2006 5:32PM]

So Bush invented the ipod, cool.

[Jon the gimpy @ Apr 20th 2006 5:42PM]

Jesus invented the Internet

[Jeff Minter @ Apr 20th 2006 5:45PM]

The internet was invented for PORN.

[Pedro @ Apr 20th 2006 6:14PM]

Well actually this makes sense.

This is what Bush was thinking:

"These idiots! First I told them Osama was responsivle for 9/11, then I told them Iraq had weapons of mass destruction! They'll believe anything! Hey Barbara, I bet you they'll believe me if I tell them I invented the iPod! Yep, these Americans, they're gullible enough for that. As a matter of fact, I think I'll tell them just that."

[Raider @ Apr 20th 2006 6:32PM]

For Bush to say that government research was used to help make parts of the iPod may very well be correct. However it did not make the marriage of the technologies that make the iPod what it is. So therefor they DID NOT CREATE the iPod.

In any case, it seems more like someone is trying to improve their sagging "approval ratings". Which may very well go to the lowest a President has ever had. But in the first place, how can you even take a word said by Bush seriously. That is like believing the man in Times Square saying the world is going to end on Tuesday. Grain of salt and a yawn.

And for all of you whining about the creation of the internet. It is a known fact that the "internet" was created by the United States Government.

But it is the World Wide Web that lies over the internet, is what we use the internet for. It is the system which is commonly called "the internet", even though the two are different. It just happens to be that the WWW was created by an employee of CERN (a European organization) on a NeXT computer (which was Steve Jobs "other computer company").

So while the US Government created the internet and is used, the protocol for everyone using the internet is through the WWW.

[Bud @ Apr 20th 2006 6:33PM]

No one individual ever invents anything on their own.
No one can take credit for "discovering fire", "landing on the moon", or the present state of global telecommunications.
Nations need to do a "Google Earth" perspective on where we are and where we have come from.
The real question in my mind is how do we use what we have collectively developed to move forward ...
I am reminded of Carl Sagan's "A Pale Blue Dot"
Instead of our differences, what do we have in common? We have a long way to go, collaborate, and use what we have developed to reach one another.

[Jen @ Apr 20th 2006 7:24PM]

Uh, yeah. Because *clearly* the only reason to develop microdrives is to create the Ipod. Yeah.

[Tomas @ Apr 20th 2006 8:49PM]

Okay, #11, the U.S. didn't invent the internet. Pardon me, for a moment, while I call the Department of Commerce and have them turn off the root servers.

[mike @ Apr 20th 2006 10:03PM]

the US government. During a speech at Tuskegee University, President (and iPod user) George W. Bush told his audience, "the government funded research in microdrive storage, electrochemistry and signal compression. They did so for one reason: It turned out that those were the key ingredients for the development of the iPod

----

nah. this is NOT the reason for the 80% marketshare.. it's hardware software integration. All DAP's have this stuff you mentioned

[bruce @ Apr 20th 2006 11:02PM]

The govt DOES spend money on research that gets used by private companies to make new products. Its a type of tech welfare program that all developed countries SHOULD and DO engage in. Its no surprise that many governments play an active role in developing their economies. For all the talk about the free market, its been common knowledge for years now that an active government, putting money into research and into opening new markets helps spur private industry.

What is strange is that Bush is willing to expose a little light behind the curtain.

[tom @ Apr 20th 2006 11:25PM]

Woah Apple is now EVIL company #1!!!

Al Gore.
Runs Pixar.
Governmant Money.

AHhhhhhhhhhhh

[Ross @ Apr 21st 2006 12:11AM]

To post #23:

Without France providing a vast majority of weapons for the colonists there would be no America, period.

Sit down blind patriotist.

[Andy @ Apr 21st 2006 12:25AM]

people freaking out about this is retarded.

It was obviously a sarcastic joke just as Gore's internet comment was taken out of context.

I hate Dubya as much as the next guy but come on people!

[south @ Apr 21st 2006 12:34AM]

Yet no-one ever takes credit for inventing RealPlayer.

[John Carter @ Apr 21st 2006 3:41AM]

Yes, and the leading american fighter, the 'mustang' used British designed engines and was heavily influenced by the spit-fighter.

Thr British & Polish broke the enigma code. Nor was it the US navy who captured a U-Boat, it was the British navy.

The first german defeat was at the hands of the British in north africa.

Jet design was given by the British to the US for 'free' to help the war effort.

60% of all d-day soldiers were "empire" and not American.

In fact D-Day could not have happened if Britain had not continued to fight the good fight for 2 years before the Americans joined.

This isn't a criticism. I just wanted to add the point for every angle, there's another. Neither Britain nor the US could have won the war single-handled.

regards
John.

[Brian McTavish @ Apr 21st 2006 5:14AM]

Is it too hard for petttifogging geeks to accept the truth and move on?
"The internet" is not one invention, but many.
Despite the US's late though significant contribution, the Second World War was also a collective effort, though Hitler was basically defeated by the Russians (and I'm a Yankophile Brit), who held down most of the German military for the majority of the war, and whose citizens laid down w-a-a-a-y more of their lives than the Allies.
Bush's scriptwriters can actually produce a good joke.
OK, maybe the last one's a toughie.

[Brian McTavish @ Apr 21st 2006 5:14AM]

Is it too hard for petttifogging geeks to accept the truth and move on?
"The internet" is not one invention, but many.
Despite the US's late though significant contribution, the Second World War was also a collective effort, though Hitler was basically defeated by the Russians (and I'm a Yankophile Brit), who held down most of the German military for the majority of the war, and whose citizens laid down w-a-a-a-y more of their lives than the Allies.
Bush's scriptwriters can actually produce a good joke.
OK, maybe the last one's a toughie.

[aptmunich @ Apr 21st 2006 5:15AM]

Well if bush said it, it must be true!

[Jay @ Apr 21st 2006 6:48AM]

Am I missing something here? What has any version of an iPod done which another better-made (and sometimes cheaper) product has not already done before? How was the iPod either original or innovative? Another case of style (sic) and marketing over content and value?

[Carl @ Apr 22nd 2006 5:12AM]

You have got to be kidding me...this is what is wrong with the Internet, News, and blogging....things get taken out of context. If this was written correctly you can understand that yes he is talking about how the government funded research (gave grant money to companies and universities) on the projects he mentioned but the joke was that it was all for the iPod...which is the joke - knowing that the technology might have originally been seen to have other applications for government use, thus the funding, yet what comes out of the developement and research of this ended up with DAP and iPods....

[Bolster @ Apr 22nd 2006 7:24AM]

I'm Sorry, I'm Sorry, I'm Sorry, But On This "We Invented The Internet" Bitch-A-Thon, Does Anyone Remember Cern (you know......................EUROPE), the labs that first connected two remote standalone systems together electronically?
Oh, And Before I Forget.....
First Computer, British..... Just because we dont shout and scream about our strategic advantages doesnt mean they're not there :D

[John Public @ Apr 22nd 2006 8:27AM]

This graphic explains what Bush is talking about. Many of the components in the iPod were made possible because of basic research funded by the federal government. Much of this basic research was done at government labs, universities, and within companies with funding from the Pentagon, Department of Energy's Office of Science, National Science Foundation, etc. Hosts of other individuals and companies developed that basic research into components, but the initial funding and reseach was supported by the U.S. government.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/stateoftheunion/2006/images/mp3-technologies.gif

[m @ Apr 22nd 2006 8:49AM]

Watch the actual video of the speech (one of my coworkers readily found it online after I bet him it was a joke), it's quite clearly a joke. A very poorly delivered one, but a joke nonetheless. And yes, Gore's comment wasnt, he actually defended what he said.

[Never Again @ Apr 22nd 2006 8:55AM]

I rarely come to engadget comment sections any more and this is a prime reason. If it wasn't for a digg or a slashdot, I'd certainly never have given this article a look.

Basic research is something the government of the US has always funded. Even if it is on the sex habits of the South American swamp rat, it is still research and paid by US tax dollars. If that money dried up tomorrow, the cost of everything would rise 100% in short order.

China and most of Europe subsidize much more of their private industry than the US does. Look at France's farmers, for goodness sake!

[Geoff @ Apr 22nd 2006 9:14AM]

Bush does know how to use an iPod. He owns one. And the RIAA has attacked him for the "illegal" music he has on his iPod. See, the music on his iPod wasn't purchased digitally. It was all copied from CDs in his collection. So, therefore it's all "illegal". As for the comment he made, jeez... it was definitely a joke.

[Marc @ Apr 22nd 2006 9:25AM]

Flashes back to the commeicals around during the Bush/Gore election...

"I invented pants!"

[Barry @ Apr 22nd 2006 10:02AM]

That colon completely changes the apparent meaning of this statement when put in text form. Watch what happens when I replace the colon with the conjunction "but":

"the government funded research in microdrive storage, electrochemistry and signal compression. They did so for one reason [. But] it turned out that those were the key ingredients for the development of the iPod."

Having the quote listed this way is actually more plausible, and it has the opposite meaning from what the left is trying to put into Bush's mouth. Government did fund tons of research into microdrive storage, electrochemistry, and signal compression, and the "one reason" was either for military purposes or to further science in general. But it turns out that the consumer gets a huge benefit as well from those technologies being adapted for the iPod.

This article is nothing more than a left-wing distortion of the truth to try to catch Bush in a "gotcha" similar to the Gore intarweb thing, which, while funny, is arguably untrue as well. I hope Marc posts a correction to this article acknowledging that fact.

[Dave M. @ Apr 22nd 2006 10:15AM]

OK, I'm no Bush supporter. No not at all. However...

"Here's another interesting example of where basic research can help change quality of life or provide practical applications for people. The government funded research in microdrive storage, electrochemistry and signal compression. They did so for one reason: It turned out that those were the key ingredients for the development of the Ipod."

Where in that statement does he say that either he himself, or the government itself invented the iPod?

It's actually quite true that government research helps improve our lives. Radar and Jet engines are just a couple of examples of government research aiding our lives.

Just because Bush said it or one of his speach writers wrote it doesn't make it any less true.

[Dave M. @ Apr 22nd 2006 10:53AM]

The graphics located used on this page:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/stateoftheunion/2006/aci/index.html

(http://www.whitehouse.gov/stateoftheunion/2006/images/mp3-technologies.gif)

shows pretty clearly what parts of the iPod were developed by government funding. Mind you, some are a little tenuous at best, but a case could indeed be made that if it were not for the research done on those parts, the iPod would not be what we have now.

[Kenboy @ Apr 22nd 2006 11:19AM]

Hahaha. I hate Bush. Hate him a LOT. But this was clearly a joke.

[spitfire @ Apr 22nd 2006 11:29AM]

1 it's 'Spitfire'
2 "Neither Britain nor the US could have won the war single-handled." You forgot the Soviets. They took the brunt of it. So in order of descending importance, the contributors to defeating Nazism were (i) Hitler's crap strategy (ii) awesome Soviet resistance (iii) lend lease (iiii) Churchill and enigma
3 "If it wasn't for us Americans, all of Europe would be sprechen Sie Deutsches": no, Russian, and I, for one, am grateful.
4 If it wasn't for us Brits, all of North America would be speaking French i.e. Russian.

Marxist socialism impoverishes the poor too. God bless George Bush and his quite funny ironic iPod joke.

[funnt @ Apr 22nd 2006 12:03PM]

It is unnecessary for DARPA to fund the IPOD directly but please recognize that DARPA funds TONNES of American computer science and electrical/computer engineering which made much of this possible. Without public research and with the public/private partnerships America would not be doing so well. So next time you criticize the industrial-military complex remember that consumer electronics are directly affected by this.

DARPA cut tonnes of CS funding this year so watch out.

[Auto @ Apr 22nd 2006 12:25PM]

Wow.
Godwin's Law in only 1 hour and 15 minutes.
On comments for a story about iPod.
On Engadget.
Well, I guess it was also about Bush, so...


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law

[buddhistMonkey @ Apr 22nd 2006 1:07PM]

Boy, there sure are a lot of Bush defenders here, all spinning the same identical story: that it was all a joke. Here again is what our laugh-a-minute joke of a President said:

"George W. Bush told his audience, 'the government funded research in microdrive storage, electrochemistry and signal compression. They did so for one reason: It turned out that those were the key ingredients for the development of the iPod.' "

Electrochemistry, microdrive storage and signal compression? That's some DRY humor, there, folks... in fact, I'm hard-pressed to find a punch line. That is, other than our iPresident.

[bonch @ Apr 22nd 2006 2:37PM]

A couple of others have correctly pointed out that THIS WAS A JOKE.

After he said it, he and the audience laughed. It was even linked up on the Drudge Report.

But hey, what's another media-created falsehood to bash Bush? Put it up there along with those "fake but accurate" CBS documents...

[Steve Bryan @ Apr 22nd 2006 3:17PM]

Just a clarification for #46. Tim Berners-Lee invented http (hyper text transport protocol) in the context of his work at CERN to help physicists share the mountains of data they collect in particle physics experiments. It remained just another impenetrable protocol for the network cognescendi until the creation of Mosaic which put a graphic interface on the protocol. That made it possible for the multitudes to easily do something on the network besides send and receive email.

Of course Mosaic was created at the University of Illinois at Urbana in the USA. The leader of that effort, Mark Andriessen, went on to found Netscape with James Clark in Silicon Valley. That effort spawned Mozilla, Firefox and just about any browser that you are likely to be using if you have a choice.

Of course it shouldn't be a surprise that there was such a dominant role for American companies, institutions and individuals in the creation of the Internet. The USA has been dominant for more than a few decades. But this prominence has to be denied by espresso sipping, Gitanes smoking, beret wearing pundits who declared the end of American relevance long before the Internet. It makes no sense so it must not be true!

n.b. I enjoy espresso, ocassionally Gitanes and have been known to wear a beret and enjoyed my visit to France.

[Bryan @ Apr 22nd 2006 3:23PM]

The comment Bush made about the iPod was not a joke, he was talking about government advances in technology that have benefited corporate innovation. It wasn't meant to be a joke. The sad part is where he made such a direct A to B association from government research to the iPod when there really is no DIRECT link between the two even though I'm sure technologies invented in the past have had influence on the iPod technology.

Whats really sick is that it's apparent he was trying to associate himself with something popular (iPods) in order to cast a better light on himself. I can just see his advisors sitting around a table trying to think of ways to inflate his sagging approval numbers, coming up with the strategy and saying "hey George, just say iPod a lot and people will like you more".

[Bud @ Apr 22nd 2006 4:41PM]

One of the most comprehensive and objective recounts of Al Gore's actual involvement with the Internet is here:

http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue5_10/wiggins/index.html