I recently came accross an article in the New York Times that talked about the direction iPod accessories are going. This article does not discuss all the high tech headphones, cases and speakers that you might expect, but it talks about the most rediculous, almost useless new accessories that have recently been developed. Take for example, the FUNKit robotic D.J. This device, as you may gather from the name of it, is a robot that plays music through an iPod. Not only does it play music, but it dances to the music, scratches on it faux record player, has L.E.D flashing lights and has yells out really sweet catch phrases like, "drop the beat!" Personally, I think this could be the most usefull iPod accessory of all time. And this is not the only sweet new accessory either. For example, there is the iPal, which is a stuffed animal with built in speakers (sadly it does not dance or scratch), and there is the equally cool Movin' and Groovin' line of potted plants with hidden speakers. I could go on listing these new accessories but the list is too long, seriously. I know...its sad.
After laughing at these rediculous devices for nearly a half hour, i'm embarassed to admit that i actually started to kind of like them. Sure, they are a complete waste of money and are mostly useless, but in my opinion, that is why they are kinda cool. What really sealed the deal for me is when i saw a short video clip of the FUNKit robotic D.J. in action. Hopefully you will all find it as entertaining as i found it. In the article attached at the bottom there is a link to see the product dancing and scratching in action and it really is quite funny. check it out.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/22/technology/22ipod.html?pagewanted=2&ref=technology
2 comments:
Interesting, but I think accessories like this are a total waste of time and money. Apple keeps putting out all these crazy new accessories on the market and people keep on buying them. Some people might find the FUNKit robotic DJ to be fun, but I personally wouldn't want it even if someone gave it to me for free. It's the same thing with my cell phone, for example. The way I see it is, all I need my cell phone to do is dial out and receive calls. Anything else is kind of a waste of money. To each his own though and if people like to spend money on things like this they are free to do so, I just don't share the same sentiment.
I agree with the cell phone analogy. When companies tack on pretty much useless/worthless accessories to already functional and effective products, it doesn't cost them very much to do it, and it justifies their charging more and more for practically the same exact product. I think accessories are the biggest waste of time and resources, and the robotic scratching dj would go down if put in a contest against me. *I used to dj for a couple of years... in Japan*.
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