Sports Illustrated's dop! SI Swimsuit Soundtrack Series MP3 player

Hold on, now Sports Illustrated is doing a line of MP3 players? We always figured that we'd bust out a gadget before a sports mag would, but it turns out that SI is coming out with three screenless players to accompany the launch of the first music-themed Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. The dop! player (which is sort of supposed to be a mirror image of "ipod") will retail for "under $20" (translation: $19.99) and come in three versions, each one pre-loaded with thirty tracks of music "inspired by the issue's lush and sexy photo spreads." All of the music on each player isn't exactly copy-protected; there's actually no way to get music on or off the player at all. The dop! is meant to be a self-contained package of player + content, sort of like those single title Playaway audiobooks that came out a couple of years ago (it's no coincidence that Findaway is responsible for manufacturing both). The notion of "one album, one player" is a little anachronistic (or maybe quaint) in the age of 80GB iPods, but these things are more like promotional items than replacements for your current player. Or at least not until someone hacks a USB port into one, that is.

[Noa @ Feb 14th 2007 4:43AM]

ahahah dop! awesome i never would of made that connection

[Z @ Feb 14th 2007 9:38AM]

Forget the player... I'll just take the photo of Beyonce.

[PEZ @ Feb 14th 2007 9:47AM]

Brilliant.i

[Seamus D Dog @ Feb 14th 2007 10:05AM]

Is it April Fools Day already??

[Laurie Shulman @ Feb 14th 2007 10:54AM]

This reminds me of something from the 80s, I think they were called "Pocket Rockers." I believe I had one that played New Kids on the Block...

[B-Sabre @ Feb 14th 2007 11:20AM]

Hmmm, you say "dop!" and I think "dope" as in...

1) Blood-doping scandals in professional bicycle racing, steriod abuse in major league sports, etc, etc. Does Sports Illustrated really want to remind us of those shennanigans with this thing?

2) Whose dopy idea was that, anyway?

[R @ Feb 14th 2007 11:56AM]

iPod upside down is pod! not dop!

[s i d @ Feb 14th 2007 11:59AM]

i think its pretty commendable that DAPs could go 6 years without the help of flesh