Shimura's full metal iPod jacket is born to kill

Practical? No. Still, there's something about this Shimura full metal iPod jacket which makes us want to love it long time. It ships direct from Japan for something like ¥17,900 (about $165). Yeah, that's bit fubar.

[Via Akihabara News]

[Technex @ Nov 27th 2007 4:28AM]

Still a iPod. Shame.

[Carbonize @ Nov 27th 2007 4:45AM]

I agree. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it's a duck. Or in this case cleverly marketed piece of crap.

I'll stick with my Creative Zen V Plus.

[phenom @ Nov 27th 2007 11:17AM]

I'll stick with my Zune 80

[Paris @ Nov 27th 2007 4:43AM]

When the cost of protection is greater than the cost of what you are protecting then something is wrong.

[Twitchy @ Nov 27th 2007 5:00AM]

FUBAR? I dunno, considering how badly most Apple gear and accessory prices screw over the customer, I think it's more a case of BOHICA.

[Ricardo @ Nov 27th 2007 5:01AM]

Great way to make a bulky product even bulkier.

[Tyler @ Nov 27th 2007 9:59AM]

you think the ipod nano is BULKY by itself?!? have you even seen it in person? it's flippin 6.5 mm thick! but i do agree the case make it bluky.

[Rajiv @ Nov 27th 2007 5:21AM]

did anybody check out the site? The eglish is horrible!!

[Rajiv @ Nov 27th 2007 5:21AM]

I meant english!!

[roflercopterer @ Nov 27th 2007 5:55AM]

you mean engrish

[Fred @ Nov 27th 2007 6:46AM]

Apparently in Japan they love to make ipod cases that can withstand small firearms:

(number 8 on the list)
http://www.smidgy.com/smidgy/2007/03/10_ways_to_make.html

[Flashpoint @ Nov 27th 2007 8:13AM]

why would anyone want to shoot an ipod?

[Rynth @ Nov 27th 2007 9:28AM]

I don't know about shooting the Ipod, but theres a certain Guy who owns apple I wouldn't mind shooting.

[Benson @ Nov 27th 2007 9:51AM]

I think "small firearms" are pretty well forbidden in Japan; it's big news when even the Yakuza shoot someone.

But that article says "a .22mm bullet", which seems to be small firearms indeed! Should be a .22 inch or 5.56mm bullet, I'm sure.

[chris reed @ Nov 27th 2007 3:15PM]

Bullet proof would be good thing :) I could use a case like this in Iraq right now. my otterbox case is too bulky. But $165 for the case is nuts, must be made of titanium.

[Scooter @ Nov 27th 2007 7:06AM]

"FULL" metal jacket? Getting a bit carried aware there; it looks a bit stumpy on the back to be called "full". In fact it looks downright compromised with its jacket flap missing.

[ill-tempered @ Nov 27th 2007 7:20AM]

Run iPod, Run... Looks like Forrest Gump version of a beautiful device.

[krull @ Nov 27th 2007 7:31AM]

Hey Joe! 2 Dollah! me love you long time! :D

AAhahahah! That cracked me up... Thanks!

[Frastoglegnia @ Nov 27th 2007 7:57AM]

1. An iPod isn't "crap" unless the other random PMPs you subject to scrutiny are also "crap." If you claim the difference between them is vast, then you're simply choosing to denigrate one mediocre object in order to attribute mystical properties another.

2. Negative reactions to popularity are simply conformity by the back door. Consumer rebels are closet wimps: buy another pair of sunglasses and go home.

3. No recording engineer would resort to spoon-fed hyperbole to describe differences in SQ in consumer devices. Only an amateur would bother to berate one solitary instance of mediocrity in a roomful of insipid toys.

4. Empiricism alone reveals taste. Reactions to ad campaigns and market shares constitute the herd instinct in a leather jacket.

"Rampant technolgy eliminates luxury, but not by declaring privilege a human right; rather, it does so by both raising the general standard of living and cutting off the possibility of fulfilment." -- Theodor Adorno

[Frastoglegnia @ Nov 27th 2007 7:59AM]

Let's remove two typos from the previous comment:

1. An iPod isn't "crap" unless the other random PMPs you subject to scrutiny are also "crap." If you claim the difference between them is vast, then you're simply choosing to denigrate one mediocre object in order to attribute mystical properties to another.

2. Negative reactions to popularity are simply conformity by the back door. Consumer rebels are closet wimps: buy another pair of sunglasses and go home.

3. No recording engineer would resort to spoon-fed hyperbole to describe differences in SQ in consumer devices. Only an amateur would bother to berate one solitary instance of mediocrity in a roomful of insipid toys.

4. Empiricism alone reveals taste. Reactions to ad campaigns and market shares constitute the herd instinct in a leather jacket.

"Rampant technology eliminates luxury, but not by declaring privilege a human right; rather, it does so by both raising the general standard of living and cutting off the possibility of fulfilment." -- Theodor Adorno

[Wolfticket @ Nov 27th 2007 8:00AM]

5. Sweet iPod case, bit expensive though.

[Frastoglegnia @ Nov 28th 2007 1:52AM]

At (look, no shorthand!) sandeep:

Personally, I've always found irony fascinating.

And yes, I've jumped off eleven bridges so far. The hospital bills are enormous, but I'll do anything for my friends. Besides, the bandages match my 4G-white smoking jacket.

[Frastoglegnia @ Nov 28th 2007 2:50AM]

This phrase from your response illustrates the phenomenon I'm talking about perfectly:

"to #2, people who don't buy apple have a reason, (if not, then yes, you're right), but the large majority actually HAVE BRAINS and can clearly see that there are better products."

I'm particularly amused by your use of ALL CAPS to insist upon your false conclusions about the subjective ("HAVE BRAINS," as if that were a given rather than something in need of proving (perhaps more so in your case)) and by your assumption that you're correct ("clearly see," as if your conclusion were foregone and didn't need to be qualified or proven). Sadly for you, clarity comes from careful observation, not insistence.

You haven't understood cultural conditioning well enough to respond to my point. You've deluded yourself into believing that, because one peer group favors iPods and another hates them, selection is reducible to influence, but only when the choice seems "wrong" to you.

Selection is often a matter of sound and efficiency. A person who owns an iPod might find their device satisfactory for listening to music (which many iterations have been in the audiophile sense (see Stereophile, Head-fi, the Institute of Audio Engineering, et al.)). If that person goes on to purchase another PMP based on their antipathy to Apple or Apple users, then that person is a conformist, and everything of which you seem to be accusing random strangers simply *because* they choose an iPod is true of that person due to their *reasons* for choosing it. The deciding question is always *why*, not *which*. Likewise, the person who keeps using their old and unfashionable iPod is actually a non-conformist.

In 1949, Theodor Adorno predicted consumers would grow so blind to the mindless activity of acquisition that any idea of rebelling against consumerism would be built into product lines: people would be so well-conditioned that they expressed rebellion not through independent action but meaningless product choices. Thus you have the Apple Rebel and the Anti-Apple Rebel, both of whom are equally pathetic. I have more respect for a person who chooses a metallic iPod because it's pretty than someone who feels that, by buying a Cowon, they're "taking a stand against conformity."

"Clearly," your ideas about products are socially determined -- so deeply so that you don't even realize it. You might want to read the last chapter of Roland Barthes's _Mythologies_ before it's too late.

[eX @ Nov 27th 2007 9:55AM]

Well, iPods are some of the most annoying devices. And I would love to go on an iPod shooting rampage!!! As for the case above, why would anyone want to get this crap? It looks even uglier than iPod itself, is huge and probably heavy, and at that price point, might as well buy a second iPod (if it comes to buying an iPod and not one of the better offerings out there) as backup. Yeah, yeah, flame on blind iPod fanboys. :)

[Bombaclaat @ Nov 27th 2007 10:19AM]

what does it even do?

[thehumanyawn @ Nov 27th 2007 11:05AM]

That looks like a notebook HDD cage.

[Joe @ Nov 27th 2007 2:01PM]

"But with the blast shield down, I can't see a thing!"

"Your eyes can deceive you. Don't trust them. Stretch out with your feelings."

[matt byrne @ Nov 27th 2007 4:36PM]

I'm sure there are better players than iPods, but the whole experience is far from workmanlike or mundane.