“StarBrite is selling a pPod, a virtual iPod for Pocket PCs, that — given Apple’s past tolerance for knockoffs — may not be available for very long. On the market just two weeks, the product is a software iPod that runs on Pocket PCs, Microsoft’s Palm-like operating system for handhelds,” Leander Kahney reports for Wired News.
[MacDailyNews Note: a visit to StarBrite’s website shows the application with the name “pBop” and a disclaimer stating, “Please be aware that this Windows powered Pocket PC software application has NO connection with and is not supported by Apple Computer Inc. If you wish to purchase the Apple Computer Inc ‘iPod’ device please visit their website at [url=http://www.apple.com]http://www.apple.com[/url].” You can also see the app at the Handango website here. And more screenshots on the Handango site here.)
“The virtual iPod is, well, virtually identical to a real iPod. The application fills the Pocket PC’s entire screen with a faithful facsimile of the iPod, including the player’s distinctive scroll wheel and four buttons for playing, pausing and so on. Like the iPod, the pPod is controlled by its virtual scroll wheel. Most Pocket PCs have touch-sensitive screens, which allow users to navigate the pPod’s menus with their fingers — just like the iPod,” Kahney reports.
“Naturally, the pPod’s interface is also just like the iPod’s. Songs are arranged by a series of nested menus, which can be browsed by artist, album, genre, etc. ‘It works exactly the same way, except it’s software and it costs $20,” said a spokesman for the company, who wished to remain anonymous. The price is not the only difference between the real and virtual iPod,’ Kahney reports. “The pPod software plays only songs encoded as MP3 files. It does not support WMA, nor songs downloaded from Apple’s popular iTunes Music Store, which are encoded as copy-protected AAC files.”
“Brian Ferguson, an intellectual property lawyer with McDermott, Will & Emery in Washington, D.C., said he wasn’t familiar with Apple’s patent portfolio, but if the iPod is patent-protected — and it likely is — the software may well infringe on the patent,” Kahney reports. “‘I’m just speculating, but I’d be surprised if Apple didn’t patent-protect some of the ideas in the iPod,’ he said. ‘If it does infringe on the patents, end of story.'”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Hello, Apple Legal Department?
I am with MDN on this one.
I get a ‘Service Unavailable’ from the StarBrite website. Hmm…
Hmmm… it appears that Apple’s legal hammer came down upon their head…
All I see when I go to the site is “Service Unavailable.”
I see the website and the link to buy/dl a demo works for me. Apple Legal better get going.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery……..
how many songs can you fit ona pocket PC?
brett,
Unlimited – just swap out memory cards.
the image is of a HP Windows PDA. HP would not like this, seeing as how they are going to be reselling the iPod.
I don’t know who StarBrite is, but they just “gave” their company to Apple, not to mention any future earnings of the perpetrators. Apple Legal can seek damages that will far exceed whatever their net worth is.
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Oh dear… someone trying to re-invent the wheel! Virtually
that’s far from re-inventing. What’s extra lame is that they had the option to make the interface better looking (not 2bit) but decided not to use any brain cells at all and just do a carbon copy of it. DOLT!
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Another great “lack of creativity” example from the PC industry.
Apple shouldn’t sue. It’s free advertising, and it’s funny in a sad way. Go StarBrite!
I sent Apple Legal a notice on this website two weeks ago. It seems like they DO read their email. :p
hopefully the fact that this piece of software is butt ugly is not lost on any of you…
*shudder..you have the border of the screen and then a box inside that … what a butt ugly mickey mouse solution..
with the ipod, the screen takes up a bigger percentage of the surface, ….
this is just ugly..
oh yea.. and illegal..
At least it doesn’t play WMA files
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dittos to gren…
Ok, rip off the idea, but at least do something cool with it.
What about the name of the HP device being shown? The “iPaq”. Didn’t Apple start this whole iFad, and even though HP just crawled into bed with Apple, shouldn’t Apple have a tighter grip on the iLine of products? Couldn’t HP use ePaq or something? jeez louise.
Uh, isn’t this the same as Virtual Game Station which I KNOW we all had and loved…. and remember the outrage at Sony for killing it. It’s just an emulator which is a POOR substitute for the real thing. It’s like a skin for winamp. Doesn’t even play AAC? Just MP3. Do you really think Apple would lose the sale of an iPod to a skin? At least VGS was actually functional you can’t even say that this emulator is truly functional.
The very strange thing is that the spokesperson for the company wished to remain anonymous, according to the article. WHAT?! What kind of spokesperson remains anonymous? That immediately points to something fishy!
Went to StarBrite’s website today and got a “Service Unavailable” error message.
This won’t last very long. I’ll wager this company gets double-teamed like a dirty, amateur porn-whore by Apple and HP’s legal teams and then just winds up going missing like so many sluts that came before it.
I are Bizarro Jeff
From Maccentral :
“Kelly said that Starbrite has “cooperated fully to address Apple’s concerns.” The developer changed the layout of the software so the touch pad is now located between the menu and the buttons. Starbrite changed pPod’s name to pBop, and also put a disclaimer on its Web site stating that the company has no connection to Apple or the iPod. “
It sounds like Apple is basically OK with this.
Why would I want the ugly iPod interface on my Pocket Pc When I can have a full color one, with better features.
Overall, this is a good thing for Apple. There is no way a PDA can compete with the functionality of a real iPod for the same reason no one uses their cell phone to listen to music. Are you going DRAIN THE BATTERY so that you can’t use the device for its primary purpose??!
I mean, come on, what idiot is going to listen to music on their PDA for 3 hours and then, when it comes time to look up that important phone number or contact info, the PDA battery goes kaput? Same thing with the phone. Are you going to use your phone for making calls or listening to music?
What this does is make the iPod’s interface the penultimate standard. Rio, Creative, iRiver STILL won’t be able to copy the iPod (because they’d have to implement it in hardware), but the pBop will cause more and more people to realize how sucky non-iPod interfaces are. So you can get 15 GB more for $100 less with the Dell DJ, but so what when the interface is crappy? The pBop will help people appreciate there’s nothing like a real iPod, but won’t be a threat to the iPod itself. If anything, it will make the iPod even more desirable.
they got slashdotted.
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thats why they’re down