Something Inc. has issued a press release entitled, “Humanitarian Effort Sidelined for the Holidays and Beyond by Challenge from Apple Inc.”
The press release verbatim:
An humanitarian effort to fight world hunger, protect endangered species and counter global warming has been sidelined for the holidays – and beyond – because of a legal challenge filed by Apple Inc.
The online game Glupod had been scheduled to debut November 29 – in time for the Christmas season. Instead, Glupod has been put on hold indefinitely because of Apple’s claim that the use of ‘pod’ in the game’s name violates a number of Apple trademark registrations.
In development for more than two years, Glupod is the first online video game that would allow players to turn in-game winnings into food for starving people in developing countries, help for endangered species and to help global warming.
“We’re extremely disappointed Apple has chosen to take such a hard-line attitude against an effort that has the potential to do so much good,” said Ioannis Tsiokos, managing director of Something Inc., the company that developed Glupod. “No one’s going to confuse Glupod with an iPod.”
Tsiokos and a small band of colleagues at Something, Inc. who work online from Greece, India, the United States and the United Kingdom have collaborated to get Glupod ready for launch. The game would fight poverty and help environmental causes in the real world by turning game prizes into real-life help for social and environmental causes.
Source: Something Inc.
And they would have saved the world if it hadn’t been for that pesky Steve Jobs.
<cue evil laugh>
I think I agree. The “pod” can have different connotations.
Oh yeah, btw, MDN- you suck.
God, LAME. LAME LAME
Additional: If you want to do good via the internet, check out kiva.org.
There are also many distributed computing projects that let you devote spare cycles on your computers to various research projects.
TWO YEARS is development and they didn’t know that they would get sued for using the pod name? Change the name.
shame on apple
So, call it Glupodd or rename it. If Apple falters on 1 then they falter on all.
Hum, Apple (a company) puts money before helping people. Who would ever think of such a thing? Oh, yeah. Every other company on the planet!
If this game has been in development for 2 years, why weren’t the developers aware of Apple’s protection of anything sounding like the iPod? Also, instead of trying to bash Apple, why don’t they simply change the damn name of the stupid game to something else. “Glupod” doesn’t exactly ring clear as to what the game is, in any case. And finally, how pretentious of them to think they can save the world with game points! Talk about “Green marketing”. I call bullshit on the developers!
So instead of simply changing the name of the game and continuing on with their noble efforts, Something Inc. is going to stamp its little feet and suspend their game indefinately.
I think it’s obvious that there is more going on here than just big, bad Apple mistreating a poor, innocent company who only wants to help people. Yeah, right. If they really wanted to help people and the environment, they could just change the name of their game. What are they really up to?
What Apple is doing is stupid, but how hard is it to change the name? It’s a stupid name anyway.
The game sounds lame anyway.
I’d prefer to play a game that drops me 1st person into a 3rd world country so I can frag the bad guys.
Maybe they could donate a nickel for ever incident of collateral damage. That would kick up the hit accuracy score fast.
Eh, I still wouldn’t play it.
S
A game to save the world? Doesn’t the electricity needed to juice the device upon which you play the game, come from carbon sources? Right, hypocrisy.
And, what percentage of sales is going to prizes to feed the hungry? And, what percentage of sales is going to the developers? Right, hypocrisy.
Is this just an attempt to garner attention, for their game? How difficult is it to change the name of Glupod? Glurod? Gluprod? Gluped? Groped?
Recompile the software and market it as GluZune and allow the third-world starve to death!
It’s amazing how punching a hungry manatee in the snout can turn a good day into a GREAT day.
I checked out the brochure for non-profit organizations available at Something Inc’s website. It’s a little vague on specifics, but there are some interesting talking points.
“Glupod.com will never ask your nonprofit for any payment of any kind, related to this service.”
Good. Simple, direct, clear. However…
“[UserSymbol] –> [MoneySymbol] –> [GlupodSymbol] –> [MoneySymbol] –> [YourNonprofitSymbol]”
Without hard numbers, which aren’t found anywhere in the brochure or on the site, we can’t tell how much of the money users put in the game gets into the hands of non-profits. Glupod.com must be taking something for salaries, development, support, and hosting. Also, I may of missed it, but I can’t find anywhere in the brochure or on the site where it explicitly states that Something Inc. itself or Glupod.com as a subsidiary of Something Inc. is a non-profit. Fine if it’s not, but the whole site is full of fine sounding, self-congratulatory, high-minded ideals. A little plain English on a couple of fundamental points would be nice too.
“User buys his unique glupod pet.”
“User selects a cause for her pet to sponsor.”
“User plays online against other glupod pets to earn glucs.”
“User recycles the glucs to offer real support to the cause.”
Okay, I really want to know how this works. The game cannot generate more money than is put into it. So what happens? I support orphans in Bangladesh. You support orphans in Timor. We play against each other. I win. Your money goes to my orphans? That can’t be right. It’s robbing Peter to pay Paul, but, given that the game cannot generate money, how else could it work?
My standard before-I-ever-heard-of-Glupod charity spiel. Research your various charity options thoroughly. Keep an eye on overhead percentages and conditions to providing aid. Cut out as many middlemen as possible and give as directly as possible.
HMCIV,
I find it’s far more enjoyable to first run over those hungry manatees with my giant gas-guzzling, carbon dioxide-spewing cigarette boat before punching him in the snout.
Something, Inc. marketing meeting circa September 2008:
Mktg Mgr: Hmmm, we have a budget of $0 for promoting our new game GlueGlob. How will we ever get the word out and save the universe?
Mktg Flunky: I dunno. Too bad we’re not Apple! They are masters at getting FREE PROMOTION!
Mktg Mgr: Wait! That’s it! We’ll change the name to GluePod, let Apple sue us and then get lots of free media coverage!
This probably happened.
Sorry. I missed one that caught my eye while reading the brochure.
Under “Benefits”:
“Ride on glupod’s publicity wave and receive free worldwide exposure.”
“Publicity wave,” hmmm…
First I heard of glupod or Something Inc. was this press release claiming Apple is preventing them from saving the world.
This is so dumb. Anyone paying attention since the iPod has been out knows they can’t use ‘pod’ in their name. Apple has had many fights with developers, websites, and anyone else using ‘pod’ in their name. This is nothing new and has been this way for years. So why in the world would you come out with a new app and name it Glupod? That’s stupid and asking for trouble. Then instead of simply changing the name, you waist everyone’s time by complaining about it. Is the free PR you’re getting really worth all of this? I applaud your efforts in doing humanitarian work, and for the most part, I think Apple does also. They too tend to be pro humanitarian work. So stop moaning and simply change the name. There are hungry people waiting!
Change the name for gawd’s sake!
Well, if the name Glupod wasn’t a shameless attempt at free publicity, this press release certainly is. While I admire their goals, whining isn’t a way to advance them. Time for Steve to unleash the Sith death lightning.
Call it Gluepot, the starving people won’t care.
Something Inc.’s complaint against Apple is a big, whole-grain, vitamin-fortified bowl of
” rel=”nofollow”>whine.
Apple has no choice, but to defend any and all uses of its trademarks, or it risks losing them entirely.
The law is pretty clear on this. Even nice guys get burnt in this world if they don’t do their homework.