“A company introduces an iPod-based portable audio player in January, silently ignores it for several months, and potential customers still can’t find it. Nope, I’m not talking about the iPod Mini, although I might as well be. Instead, I’m referring to HP’s horribly misguided iPod, which HP reannounced in final form today. The HP iPod, or hPod as some people call it, is a simple copy of Apple’s device because, after all, HP isn’t exactly the bastion of consumer cool, if you know what I mean. My take is that HP won’t demonstrably improve iPod sales (which are through the roof, anyway). But the compatibility question remains. HP still hasn’t announced a way of moving music back and forth between the hPod and the company’s other Windows Media-based devices and PCs, making the hPod a lost cause and completely uninteresting. Sorry,” Paul Thurrott writes for WinInfo.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Both HP and Apple announced the HP-branded digital music player based on Apple’s iPod in January and both were quite clear that it would go on sale in summer 2004, which it has today. Last we checked, it’s still summer. Perhaps Paul sees the writing on the wall for his beloved chunky, yet clunky Dell Digital Junk Box and Microsoft-controlled WMA? Remember, this is the same guy who, while endlessly waiting for the beef mirage called ‘Longhorn’ that’ll never arrive as promised by his precious Redmond vapormeisters, stated, “Mac OS X is even with, or behind, Windows XP,” so cut him some slack: the infinite wait has obviously driven him completely, utterly, and totally insane. Moo.
Related MacDailyNews article:
HP to debut ‘Apple iPod from HP’ TV ads during the MTV Video Music Awards – August 27, 2004
Thurrott: Apple’s ‘iPod Mini isn’t a sales phenomenon at all’ – March 25, 2004
Thurrott: Apple iPod mini off to a ‘slow start’ with only 100,000+ preorders – February 20, 2004
Thurott is a loser!
Isn’t it ironic that Paul Thurrott (pronounced THROW ROT) would call something uninteresting.
I love this MacDailyNews – consider yourselves bookmarked and visited daily for as long as this site is online!!!
i’m Paul Thurrot and now i will talk about flowers in the sunset, which is not an uninteresting issue (and i know more about it than computers).
first of all, anyone who uses bastion in a sentence isn’t exactly in a position to judge what’s cool..
furthermore, Thurrott seems to thing that WMA has some real traction beyond Microsofts ‘thank god for windows’ integration tactics…
can someone please help me out here.. how exactly are HP users getting screwed by using iTunes and AAC on a Windows PC?
Am I missing something here, because millions of people are using the iTunes/PC combo without batting an eye.
Oh.. the already standard.. ‘ipod users would switch to the dell but apple won’t let them’ argument? Got it.. have a great day paul.. this is a great day to be Bill Gates’ Cabana Boy..
That’s so funny. OK, read the link below.
Take out the name “Rob Glaser” and insert “Paul Thurrott” instead.
http://www.mac360.com/index.php/mac360/more/apples_jobs_reals_glaser_meet_debate_fight_at_macarthur_park/
It’s still very funny.
“Endlessly waiting for the beef mirage called ‘Longhorn'”
Damn, you made me spit my Diet Coke out through my nose – another quality Apple keyboard wrecked!
Why’s everyone always making fun of me….. I’m cool you see and I was the first guy in the USa to have high speed. I’m always right and never wrong. My buddy (Rob Glasser) and I own shares in Krispy Kreme. I told him to write that harmony software. Actually I wrote it and gave it to Rob after a morning of Krispy Kreme runs. I also told everyone that Longhorn would be pared down and their search feature would be nixed for the first release. Remember guys? I said it. I really did. Did you guys know that the planets revolve around me too? It’s true. Just go to my Windows Super Site and check it out. I swear. Stop making fun of that Dell DJ too. It’s just awesome. It also works with the Microsoft Music Store. Oopps…I mean it will work when they get the site going. It will guys. Micheal Dell and I are best buddies. He doesn’t like Krispy Kreme though..so I eat all his donuts. But if Rob is around that is a hard thing to do. Yep I have 4 iPods. Guess what. I will buy 4 hPods too. I am only interested in unbiased reporting so I will really need to test them thouroughly. Yes it’s true the Dell DJ has a superior UI. Just check my Nexus site and you will its true. Guys why are you laughing at me. Stop it. Waaaaaaaaa Waaaaaaaaa Waaaaaaaaaa
Windows Rules. Stop it. Stop laughing.
Your best buddy,
Paul
“HP isn’t exactly the bastion of consumer cool”
Oh, and like Dell is ? I wouldn’t be caught dead on the subway with that dead, smelly carp known as the Dell DJ
Thurrott is the antithesis of cool anyway. What a blubbering tool.
“HP still hasn’t announced a way of moving music back and forth between the hPod and the company’s other Windows Media-based devices and PCs”
Uh…iTunes?
But he does make a good point–one of the difficulties that HP now has is that they’ve hitched their musical wagon to Apple and will have a hard time selling any other devices they might make.
For example, HP sells the ew5000 wireless digital media receiver. It’s a handy way of sending the music on your computer to a stereo, as well as showing digital images on your TV.
Of course, it won’t work with your music which you are storing in iTunes. So much for HPs credo that all HP products should work together. I guess it’s time for HP to start selling Airport Express, too, and forget about showing images on the TV.
What a relief!! If Thurrott is convinced that it will bomb then its a sure fire win!!!!
Could you please post the entire Thurrott story so we not need to click through to his website?
Well… honestly, to me, the hPod sounds really boring… maybe for other markets but… why would you get an hPod if you can get an iPod?…
I can only imagine someone getting an hPod if it’s free with a PC or something…
This is a terrific move for Apple. With iTunes pre-installed on every HP computer, and HP willing to shell out all this expensive advertising it can only help Apple’s music products sales.
That’s funny stuff. Our other favorite idiot, Rob Enderle says the opposite.
<http://www.macobserver.com/article/2004/08/27.4.shtml>
Who pays these morons for their “expertise”?
Thurrot is wrong..
“HP still hasn’t announced a way of moving music back and forth between the hPod and the company’s other Windows Media-based devices and PCs “
iTunes already import wma files, and HP have announced a special software for their Windows Xp Media Center Pcs so that it can play the music in the iTunes library.. I’ts called HPTunes..
http://www.macminute.com/2004/08/27/hppriner
So, actually, there is 100% compatibility..
>>Isn’t it ironic that Paul Thurrott (pronounced THROW ROT) would call something uninteresting.
Or Paul ThrowAlot, B.S.
— as in “Throw Alot of BS”
I’ve seen the HP ipod in white but it also comes in 3 other color schemes, Flames, Blue abstract and wild flourescent. Will be interesting to see them in real life.
Just realized the different color schemes are Ipod tattoos.
The HP iPod ONLY comes in white (so far). Those 3 other color schemes are part of Printable Tattoos from HP. It’s special “paper” that allows you to print graphics of your choice on to a “wrapper” that you wrap around the iPod. The wrapper is removeable, so you can do something different. It’s like the plastic cell phone covers except you get the graphic of your choice.
Here’s some pix:
http://www.mac360.com/index.php/mac360/more/battle_of_the_ipods_hp_introduces_blue_h_pod_shhhits_an_ipod/
This link says the HP iPod is ONLY compatible with Windows.
Here’s HP’s link (you have look for anything to do with the iPod Printable Tattoos):
http://h10049.www1.hp.com/music/us/en/index_flash.jsp
>>Or Paul ThrowAlot, B.S.
>>– as in “Throw Alot of BS”
Actually, its “Paul ThrowAlot, B.S., P.H.D.
–as in Throw Alot of BS, Piled Higher and Deeper”
Paul Thurrott: a lost cause and completely uninteresting.
Good ol’ Turdrott, you can always count on him for a laugh. You know he just pulls this sh*t for attention right? The dipsh*t just gets his jollies off of it.
“You know he just pulls this sh*t for attention right? The dipsh*t just gets his jollies off of it.”
No he doesn’t; he does it to get hits for his site. I swear to God, if any of you actually click on the Wininfo link, I’ll hunt you down and bitch-slap you. DO NOT feed this troll by giving his site hits. We’ve already discussed in great detail this man’s cynical whoremongering. Thurrott believes in nothing except the bottom line, and will say anything to bait Mac users into visiting his site. This is the same man who flamed the iPod on Wininfo and sang its praises in a review on a different site in the same week. He probably doesn’t even hate Apple or Macs, despite his inflammatory pieces. He is a media whore; don’t rise to his bait.
I wish MDN would stop trotting out their favorite boogey man and raising the newbies’ collective blood pressure.
Yeah, this is the same Thurrot who swore on a stack of Bibles and his grandmother’s grave the HP’s iPod would support Windows Media files natively.
At least he keeps us laughing — the scary part is that someone out there might actually believe some of his stuff. After all, in the Star Wars Universe, there surely was someone who thought being a slave of the Empire wasn’t such a bad deal.