iPodRocks.com from Apple

[MacRumors]

Apple has created a site to promote the iPod for the holidays.

The new site is located at iPodRocks.com (http://www.ipodrocks.com) and appears to be aimed at teens. Sections on the new site include:

What's an iPod?
How does it Work?
Convince your Parents
Where to Buy

It's unclear how Apple is marketing this new site, though Apple has been rumored to be working on a new iPod/iTunes ad campaign (http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2003/10/20031010124133.shtml) for the holidays.

[Mudbug]

heh - arn was posting this as I was trying to put it on macbytes :) -

In all fairness - I edited the macbytes submitted title of this from:

ipodrocks.com - a new official (though the quality of its design doesn't suggest so) Apple iPod site.

I have to agree - it seems a little thrown together at the last minute for me. I initially wondered if it was really being put out by Apple, or if it was just a fan site made to look "official" - but looking at the source code of the page, I think it's legit. It just seems kinda "quirky" - for lack of a better way to put it.

I get apple's job postings for graphic positions all the time, and noticed for quite a while there were a lot of web designer positions being posted (mostly around the G5 web snafu). I wonder if the new crop of web designers is not quite up to the level of the last batch...

P.S. - might we assume that since the page opens the a song by BT - that we might soon see a TV commercial featuring that song? Or "complicated" by Avril Lavigne, or Fallen by Sarah McLachlin?

[kaszeta]

The only interesting thing I noticed at the site is that a screensaver like the recent iPod ads is available under the "Convince your parents" section.

[Ambrose Chapel]

ha the convince your parents part is pretty funny. they should've included asking like cartman: "but maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam!"


:D

[arn]

Originally posted by Mudbug
I initially wondered if it was really being put out by Apple, or if it was just a fan site made to look "official"

I checked it out. It's an Apple site. Uses their DNS servers and Apple owns the IP address block it resides on.

arn

[AmigoMac]

Have to see what apple has in 10 years when my son starts to be a teenager...

1 TB iPod for Video, Music and Photos...

;)

[RalphNumbers]

That site is just weird.
Everything is flash wrapped in a quicktime movie, what's the point in that?. Just a bit of NIH syndrome?

It does kinda lack Apple's normal polish, but it's not that bad. (aside from the music playing without any user interaction, I hate it when sites do that)

Anyway, I liked the BT tune, a TV ad based around it could be cool.

[kjottbein]

Wow, that page crashed Safari! My first Safari crash on Panther, woohoo!

[irmongoose]

How did you guys find this site? I don't see a link to it anywhere on the Apple site...

Definitely looks like it was thrown together in a few days... I think the humor appeals to older guys... most teens will just be like... "Wha?".



irmongoose

[coolfactor]

For the longest time, people would say "Apple's a company out to make money", but I never subscribed to that whole-heartedly.. now I'm beginning to wonder. Of course they want to make money, but only recently have I seen profits put before true quality. With the recent problems with Panther, and the new PowerBook screens, quality is really starting to drop. I think Apple is moving way too fast, and the quality of that iPodRocks.com website is more evidence of this.

I hope they slow down and catch their breath. Burn fast, burn out fast.

I'll always be a Mac-head, and I've recently managed to convince some people to switch. I guess I don't want to look bad. :)

[edit -- I have more to say]

Other evidence is the whole iTunes shamble.. iTunes is great, and great for the Windows world, but Apple co-marketing with Pepsi (and possibly McDonalds) really has me concerned. Add into that the sale of iBooks to kindergartners... if Apple's success continues, out next generation is going to be drinking sugar water and eating fattening Big Macs for breakfast, lunch and dinner.. oh wait.. that's happening now, but I fear it will get worse.

[Nicky G]

It's a good thing you don't run any major companies, coolfactor -- your shareholders and employees would be after your head.

Apple is now at the top of its game, with the best yet to come. Anyone who thinks otherwise has not been a Mac user for very long, or has a very short (and/or selective) memory.

[diniscorreia]

Actually, I liked iPodrocks.

Keep in mind it is targeted to teens! It must look "cool and colorful" (I suppose...).

[thejoshu]

The real issue that I have is that the song clips are so small (and they just repeat themselves) that if you attempt to read the entire text on any one page, you'll have to hear Fallen at least three times. What's up with that?

[QCassidy352]

thumbs down... seems pretty tacky, IMO. If I knew someone who wanted an ipod, I would not send them to that site to find out more.

[1macker1]

Why so many flash programs. This site is bad.

[diniscorreia]

Originally posted by QCassidy352
If I knew someone who wanted an ipod, I would not send them to that site to find out more.

It's not for people who want to find out more, it's for kids... :rolleyes:

[Java]

I enjoyed the site.

[srobert]

"Convince your parents"

Is that some sort of Jedi mind trick? "You WILL convince your parents"

If there were a similar TV ad, it would'nt be allowed to be shown on TV here in Canada.

Parents are just gonna love Apple for this one ^_^

Too much flash. It should have been made so you can only see the intro of each tab once. If you broswe around you keep seing the same flash intros. Cookies anyone? Thank god their is a skip button.

[nagromme]

"Convince your parents" is such blatant marketing that it's hilarious... but that IS the point of all advertising. I wonder how the site will fit into Apple's plans.

It looks polished and professional to me--and loaded OK on modem, for having so much media. But if you don't think this web ad is up to quality, that hardly has anything to do with Apple PRODUCT quality. I think people read too much into things.

Besides, different marketing efforts are targeted at different groups BECAUSE the same things don't appeal to everyone. We shouldn't all expect to like the site.

I know I hate it :)

[sethypoo]

Originally posted by Java
I enjoyed the site.

Hear hear! I'll join you Java, in your lone post of positivity for the iPodrocks.com site.

I liked it, it was *cute*. Especially the coupons, that was just a good idea.

[tsunake]

Originally posted by coolfactor
For the longest time, people would say "Apple's a company out to make money", but I never subscribed to that whole-heartedly.. now I'm beginning to wonder. Of course they want to make money, but only recently have I seen profits put before true quality.

You can't have been a mac-head for too long. Do you remember the 4400? Yuck. Or the PowerBooks with exploding batteries? (it wasn't the blackbirds was it? a 5x00 series powerbook, but I don't remember the model number exactly)

Apple is a corporation, /every/ corporation's goal is to make money. Recent quality issues are nothing new. Refusing advertising deals because of some silly idea of corporate morality would be a good way to piss off your shareholders, and the people in charge can lose their jobs for that.

As for the "true quality," Apple is doing all they can to fix the powerbooks, and the issues with Panther are pretty routine. One of the early updaters for OS X would accidentally erase your home directory under some circumstances. It's really not the end of the world, nor is it a sign of Apple's impending doom. Apple is now making the best products it's made since the Apple II. Really now, don't make yourself so upset over nothing.

In the past, people have complained about Apple's inability to market to the mainstream consumer. Now that Apple has a compelling product and an excellent business model, the complaints are that Apple is pandering to the lowest common denominator. You can't have it both ways. Either Apple will remain a niche player, or they'll bring their touch and innovation to a much wider and more profitable market. Apple's been first to market with a lot of revolutionary concepts -- the personal computer, the gui, the digital camera, and the PDA -- but the iPod has had a lot of initial success, and Apple will be the incompetent company that others allege if they don't manage to secure dominance in the portable mp3 player and online music distribution markets.

[MorganX]

Looks like Apple is betting the farm and iTMS on iPod and iPod only. Good luck. I think it's flawed, the iPod simply can't satisfy enough of the potential market and varied tastes, but I do wish them the best.

If nothing else, the site sold a song. I had never heard of this BT, and I immediately purchased the song playing on the site "Simply Being Loved (Somnambulist)". I'll probably purchase more from this artist later.

I thought the site was OK, which means it must be PC centeric ;> with a little style.

edit: Actually I'm going to run to Best Buy and buy this cat's album. Can't do a whole album at 128kbs. The RIAA should love iTMS.

[alms]

When I went to the site the first thing it did was ask me to configure Quicktime. (I'm using a relatively new XP machine at work.)

Seems like a bad way to get new customers: only show them your wares if they already have your other wares installed and set up.

[MorganX]

[i]As for the "true quality," Apple is doing all they can to fix the powerbooks, and the issues with Panther are pretty routine. One of the early updaters for OS X would accidentally erase your home directory under some circumstances.[/B]

Data loss or curruption is not routine. Especially for a major corporation, it's about as bad a @#$55 as you can get.

But I agree, it's not the end of the world and you should backup data before a system upgrade, which is why it's not critical. If it was a patch, that would be critical. Reasonable people may apply a patch without backing up.

[stingerman]

Nice site, I like it. You guys are out of touch, the old generation gap problem, or maybe "nerd" gap (all said in good fun, of course.)

It is a nice example of Quicktime's power. Flash is just another track in Quicktime, as are images, movies and sound. Quicktime can be easily skinned too. Maybe we will see some new Quicktime development tools soon.

[Wonder Boy]

i like it a lot. and i hate flash websites. it is definetly marketed towards a younger crowd.

i like the idea of kids being marketed to. if they start using apple stuff, maybe it will rub off on their parents (you know the ones who usually make the super large purchases)

[wPod]

Data loss or curruption is not routine. Especially for a major corporation. . . [/QUOTE]

heh, maybe you haven't heard of M$ then. . . i think they design a certain percentage of data loss into every OS and patch.

not to mention they do not include QUICKTIME . . . so I am sitting at work trying to get quicktime to work with M$ so I can actually see the site and if it is 'cool' or not.


P.S. if my boss asks. . . i was not here. . . now to clear my history. . .

[encro]

hehe, super cheeky site.

[illumin8]

Originally posted by coolfactor
For the longest time, people would say "Apple's a company out to make money", but I never subscribed to that whole-heartedly.. now I'm beginning to wonder.
<sarcasm>Heaven forbid! A company that actually wants to make money! How dare they, the capitalist swine!</sarcasm>

What's wrong with a company that wants to make money? They are going about it the right way, by producing products that are great and fill a need that there is a high demand for.

I own a 30GB iPod and a brand new 15" G4 1.25 AlBook, and both of them are perfect... The iPod never misses a beat and the Powerbook has none of the screen problems or hinge problems that a vocal few others have been bitching about.

Don't believe all of the ************ that you hear on the hardware forums. A vocal minority will bitch about their "lemon" until the cows come home, but the vast majority of Apple's products are excellent.

[Doctor Q]

It's a cute site.

What I like:

* The phrase "it holds an insane amount of music". Sounds like Steve himself wrote it.

* Toys to play with: grade calculator, screensavers, good behavior coupons, etc.

What I didn't like:

* Having to download QuickTime on a PC, which installed OK but crashed my browser. After a restart, everything worked.

* The animation makes the iPod look too much like a Pop Tart. Of course, maybe that's good.

* No mention of iTunes Music Store gift certificates. This site is for the target audience that should be asking for them.

[illumin8]

Originally posted by MorganX
edit: Actually I'm going to run to Best Buy and buy this cat's album. Can't do a whole album at 128kbs. The RIAA should love iTMS.
BT is a great artist, and definitely one of my favorite musicians. If you're new to BT's music I might suggest you pick up "Movement in Still Life" instead of "Emotional Technology". I own all of his albums and Emotional Technology, even though it is his newest album, is not really as good as Movement in Still Life (IMHO).

They are both good albums, but I think Movement in Still Life shows off a little more variety on his part.

The best album, if you can find it, is the European import version of Movement in Still Life. It has a lot of the same songs on it, but they are mixed together in the studio as if a DJ were mixing them.

BT's a cool guy though, and a total mac head. He's been doing a lot of ads and promos for Apple recently. He must be on the "free crack for advertising program"... err.. I mean "free mac for advertising program..." ;) Same difference really.

[wPod]

finally got quicktime running on my peecee here at work. the site looks good, for teens, who are quite obvious the target market of the site. i think it would have worked well if there were iPods and this site a few years ago when i was a teen.

[FlamDrag]

IMHO the site seems to miss the mark a bit. The flash animated iPod seems more "kid" than it does "teen / young adult". It doesn't seem "cool" enough for the teen market. It's borderline lame.

On the good side, the "coupons" are a good idea, but it seems overly complicated (download, find the PDF - pray they have acrobat -, print) I see no reason that it shouldn't just be printable from the page you're on or open in a new window. Plus, the iCards are good with decent copy.

On the downside, visually, it's not very Apple. I'd be ok with that if it were MORE of a departure in order to target the youth, but this looks like a good fan site instead of Apple quality.

I'd like to see more depth in the "how it works" section. It truly is cool how easy and well it can work, and they seem to glaze over that. No need to be super technical about it, but c'mon it doesn't answer the question "how does it work?"

Finally, the "What is an iPod" area is quite weak. Granted, folks who visit probably already have some idea what it is, but it's possible that many have just seen the ads or heard of an iPod. This section means nothing to anyone who truly doesn't know what it is or what it does.

Overall, I give it a C or C+ as it has it's good points and bad. I'm sure they'll see a fair ROI from this as it cannot have taken much time to develop.

[Mason]

I like the site. I'm also a BT fan and Somnambulist has been on my playlist for last few weeks. I had actually thought a few days ago that the song would make a great iTunes commercial. Now I wish I had posted that in the new commercial thread - I could have demonstrated my psychic abilities. ;)

[latergator116]

I tried the garde calculator and I got a 42.

[humangod]

you people analyze apple too much. i've been a lurker for a looong time, and i always read this site and its comments from you people. i fianlly got sick of people saying that "it's not apple."

shutup!! it is too!!

i like the site and hope it does well for apple.

for all of you who do not like it: there's a reason they did not ask you to design the site. :D

-Mike

[ITR 81]

I like the site and "Convince your parents" is just funny as hell. I believe the site is aimed at teenagers not for college level young adults or older.


Kids like flash atleast ones I've met.

[killmoms]

I thought it was good, creative and funny, and I'm a late teen (college student approaching 20). If I was in high school, I'd think it was good stuff.

Of course, I already have an iPod (and have convinced a couple people to buy one already). ~_^

--Cless

[machinehien]

wow, I hate to be a kid right now. iPods are awesome but $500 was a house payment when I was growing up. At the same time that goes to show how effective Apple is at marketing this thing, they managed to convince me to get two (2nd gen 10GB, 3rd gen 40GB. Even my sister-in-law is jumping on the bandwagon (although she uses windoze). Straight A's is a fair tradeoff I suppose, haha I can't wait to have kids.

[Doctor Q]

Originally posted by humangod
you people analyze apple too much. i've been a lurker for a looong time, and i always read this site and its comments from you people. i fianlly got sick of people saying that "it's not apple."

shutup!! it is too!!Hi, Mike. Welcome. With all the topics we dicuss in the MacRumors forums, I'm surprised this was the first one that made you sick of listening without speaking up.

You'll hear opinions from all sides here, and of course people with a complaint are more likely to speak up that people who are content. Overall, since this "convince your parents" theme is a new [ad]venture for Apple (nice pun, huh?), some constructive criticism might do ipodrocks.com a little good.

[aethier]

I already have a 15 gig iPod, but reading that website made me want to get another one. I am 16, and i guess it is targeting people of my age group, and i must say it is pretty cool. If i didn't alreayd have an ipod, my dad would be receiving lots of icards.;)

aethier

[G4scott]

I'm sending this site to my brother. Ever since I got my iPod, he's wanted one. I like what they've done with the 'convince your parents' section. I thought it was funny...

[ITR 81]

I noticed you can switch music by selecting the colour you like the best with the musical quarter note.

Blue = Sarah MacLachlan : Fallen
Pink = Avril Lavigne : Complicated
Purple = Black Eyed Peas : Hey Mama
Green = Jet : Are You Gonna Be My Girl
Yellow = BT : Somnambulist

Pretty nice selection just need a punk rock in the mix now.

[Koyder]

Since the premiere of the iMac Apple customers got used to it's selling excellent products in beautiful wrappings, hence the common assumption of the latter implying the former. This site's design and its quality are so-so (if not cheap), which may imply its "wrapping" a so-so product.

I sure wouldn't call the site "beautiful", "outstanding", or "classy", contrary to Apple.com. Making a beautiful site that appeals to teenagers sure is quite a challenge, but it's not unachievable.

I'm not criticizing the site's aim--just the contrary--but the lack of style and attention to detail accompanying that endeavor. And that's bad, because attention to detail is Apple's trademark.

<George Costanza style>By the way... it was me who submitted the link...</George Costanza style>

[humangod]

"I sure wouldn't call the site "beautiful", "outstanding", or "classy", contrary to Apple.com."

exactly. it's not any of those things, and it is not suposed to be any of those things.

"Making a beautiful site that appeals to teenagers sure is quite a challenge, but it's not unachievable."

of course it is a challenge, because a teenager doesn't want a "beautiful" site. they want a sick site, a badass site, a tight site, a hella cool site. not some boring, classy site desgined for a 45 year man or woman. you're forgetting who apple is making the site for.

why do you think sports cars aren't made to make you look old and mature? they make you look young and sporty, or make you look like an idiot if you are old and mature trying to look young and sporty.

same with this site. it's there to look young and sporty, for the younger kids. kids don't want mature and beautiful.

apple knows what they are doing.

-Mike

[phantommaul]

i wasnt sure to write a comment about this site but i dont see any apple class here, its soo teen like. ok the target is teenagers but anyway, i think apple shoud made a more classy site with more info and less eyecandy.

and i personally hated the convince the parents section.
what the he*l is that !! :(

[Sabenth]

This site is right up the market no offence guys but i have to agree its spot on for the market there looking for kids.....

I am 23 and a huge kid myself and it worked on me even though ive wanted an iPod for ages its equitment thats buming me out at the moment but i love this brain wash your parents especialy the have i told you how nice you look bit

come on weres your sense of humor so its not got the usual metal dine look and feel big deal its a website to sell iPods to kids of all sizes shapes and ages lol and it works

[MorganX]

Originally posted by illumin8
BT is a great artist, and definitely one of my favorite musicians. If you're new to BT's music I might suggest you pick up "Movement in Still Life" instead of "Emotional Technology"....

Thanks for the great info, I bought them both!

[toughboy]

Originally posted by Sabenth
This site is right up the market no offence guys but i have to agree its spot on for the market there looking for kids.....

I am 23 and a huge kid myself and it worked on me even though ive wanted an iPod for ages its equitment thats buming me out at the moment but i love this brain wash your parents especialy the have i told you how nice you look bit

come on weres your sense of humor so its not got the usual metal dine look and feel big deal its a website to sell iPods to kids of all sizes shapes and ages lol and it works

no way!.. I agree with phantom... even if you look at the site with the eyes of a children, no way!.. this site work has no class, no geniuneness, no creativity..

I'm not talking about the brushed metal look, which we all got used to.. this is more like a rough draft then a final presentation..

I hated the "convincing parents" section!.. damn ideas.. :confused:

[WM.]

I don't think this site is ready for primetime.

That doesn't mean I think it sucks. Rather, I think it's still in development. Considering that we still don't know how Koyder and/or arn stumbled upon it :) (certainly it's not being promoted), I don't think it's really fair to start passing judgment on it. For all we know, it's still got three weeks of development ahead of it and for whatever reason it got put up today.

It seemed pretty slow and with weird glitches over my 56k modem (running Panther here), which IMHO further points to more development and bug-fixing before they start advertising this.

Also, as a high-school student (at an inner-city public high school), I think that Apple's latest iPod campaign has been great. Over the past couple weeks I've been noticing a ton of ads on the side of Metro buses (that's the county bus system). In fact, I can see a bus stop from my desk in one of my classes, during which two buses stop in each direction, and usually one or two of the four have an iPod ad on the side. (If anyone hasn't seen a billboard-style iPod ad I could try describing them.)

Again, I think that this site will be greatly refined over the next, say, three weeks, at which point they'll start heavily advertising it all over the place. So maybe the TV ads will not only have iTunes.com at the end, but iPodRocks.com as well. And I think that will only make a good campaign even better.

JMHO
WM

[JohnGillilan]

The screensaver has some serious problems. The music keeps playing after you leave the screensaver. I had to log out of my account to get it to stop. It's also quite small (with white background taking up most of the screen).

[Makosuke]

I dunno, this site seems to succeed at exactly what it's trying to do: Get idiot kids to get their parents to buy an iPod. It's simple, a bit garish, mildly in-your-face, rather cheesy, and that's exactly what it should be to sell to the audience that it's probably targeted at.

I don't think it's quite targeted at "teenagers", most of which in the high-school to early college years are going to demand something either sexier or more blatantlly rebellious. It's probably aiming for more of the late adolescent through early teen groups--maybe 9-14, give or take. It might work on high-schoolers, but I doubt that's where it's aimed.

And kids in that range have bad taste and are easy to wow with exactly the sort of site this is--loud music, hopping, animated things, and sympathizing with you when you go to talk your parents into something you can't afford. It won't work on everybody, but it's not going to hurt at all, and I'm glad to see Apple taking a shot at things like this more than they have in the past.

Go for it, Apple. It's marketing, and it's good marketing. Heck, I didn't even find it all that annoying (good slogans on the cards), which is what they were aiming for--grab the kids without annoying the parents too much.

[irmongoose]

Okay. I'm a teen. I don't like the site. Perhaps that has to do with the fact that

1. I love Apple's 'simple' design, and this site is definitely taking away from that.

2. I don't like the stupid crap people my age listen to or wear or like.

3. My IQ is higher than most of my classmates.

So I guess that I'm not a good example of a 'teen'. I dunno, maybe other teens will like this site.



irmongoose

[Gabriel]

Believe me, the iPod marketing is DEFINITELY working.

Today I got a call from my Mom. My birthday is in a few days and she asked if I wanted an iPod. Wow. My Mom doesn't have much money, and she's never spent more than $75 for my birthday. She's also not a technophile, she has a 12" PowerBook that hasn't left her desk in months.

Never mind the iPods showing up everywhere on college campuses, never mind that everyone at my school seems to have iBook envy, much of that is Apple being "hip", but when my Mom, who is definitely not "hip", calls me up and says she wants to buy me an iPod you know Apple's marketing is working.

Personally I think the ipodrocks site is corny and very blantant (my god, apple telling kids to convince their parents to buy them stuff through subliminal advertising? whats the world coming too!) Whatever, I have a lot of faith in Apple's ad-wizards.

Buy the way, does anyone remember an Apple commercial from the early 90's where a parent is trying to set up a game on his PC for his ten year old and after 30 seconds of blue-screens and DLL problems the kid gets frustrated and walks out the door. "Where are you going?" the father asks, the kid reply's "to (some friend's) house, they have a Mac" - apparently the purpose of the commercial was to suggest to parents that their kids would leave them if they didn't buy a Mac.

[dracoleb]

Of course if the ipod is for either a high school or college student it would be better to just give them the money and let them get the edu. discount rather than pay full price.

[ssurgeman]

Overall I think the site is so-so. Not bad but could be better. On another note what really peeves me and I think hurts Apple is that they only list themselves as a place to get iPods. No mention of Best Buy, Circut City, or Target. Though I realize they make more money if they sell it directly, however they lose money if their is no Apple retail store close by and parents are afraid of internet buying. For most a 3-party retailer is much closer and more convinitent. And belive it or not, not everybody likes buying online. Not to mention that this is a real shot at non-Apple retailers who have been really getting the shaft lately.

[alamar]

To the topic of the lack of mention of retail outlets....

In the stuff to to say to your parents section it says something to the effect of "We should do more things as a family" then the subtitle is "so lets all go to the mall and get a new ipod."

So... it does in a round about way mention retail outlets.

On another note. Comp USA doesn't run sunday inserts that mention the buying things from www.apple.com. Each should be responsible for their own advertising.

edited for spelling grammar and general readability.

[ssurgeman]

Originally posted by alamar
Each should be responsible for their own advertising.

That would be a fine agrument if it wasn't Apple's purpose to sell as many iPods as possible. Sure its great if they buy them from Apple, I sure would. But if they belive that those are their only 2 options they may go somewhere and get a crappy Creative Nomad instead. If you ever watch a commercial it often mentions where a product is sold unless its somethign that is sold everywhere. For example gamecube commericals do not say where the game can be purchised. However Tommy Jeans often do. Rollex commercials (locally) also do as do car commericals. Why? becouse if you want a BMW you can't just go to any old car dealership. The same is true with iPod. Their would be no point in having a "Where to buy" tab if it only lists Apple. Well duh obviously Apple sells it. Still your right the stores should market it. But if Apple wants to sell them they need to show people how convinient they are to get.

[testnull]

Originally posted by MorganX
Thanks for the great info, I bought them both!

I was not much of a fan of MISH-mash, though I hear the European version was much better. If you don't like what you hear on these CDs, go ahead and check out Ima and ESCM. Both of these are much better IMHO.

[me_94501]

Originally posted by kjottbein
Wow, that page crashed Safari! My first Safari crash on Panther, woohoo!
Give it a minute. Safari will respond eventually. I filed a bug report with apple over this.

I thought the site was OK. Not great, but not bad at all. It seemed just a tad crude by Apple standards, though. Maybe they should hype the Mac in a similar way, though in a more mature style? Just a thought.

[me_94501]

Originally posted by Wonder Boy
i and i hate flash websites.
Homestarrunner.com (http://homestarrunner.com)
Yes it's a flash site, but it'll have you rolling on the floor. :)

[swmooretiger]

Alright, I liked the site, and not because I'm a teen, dumb, or whatever a few of you have said earlier. If you are a teen, and you don't like it, it has nothing to do with you being smarter or that you possess some sort of better taste; you just have a different opinion. I'm not a teen, I'm 22, a senior at Princeton University, and I think the site is hilarious. Will it sell ipods to people who see it (kids, teens, college students)? yes. Will it sell ipods to my parents, no, but so what? there are other ads for them, and the apple stores, they'll figure it out on their own. Lets face the facts, the Christmas holiday season is the kids domain, and apple is right to target them :-)

[Doctor Q]

Maybe Apple should make a companion site for parents: iPodIsASensibleInvestmentForYourKids.com

[Koyder]

Originally posted by WM.
we still don't know how Koyder and/or arn stumbled upon it :)
I discovered it while doing what every guy does on a friday night - typing random Apple-related words in my browser's address bar.

I kid, I kid. I spotted he link at http://www.jabluszko.com/ - a Polish Mac-related site, apparently the first one to have discovered it.

[WM.]

Originally posted by dracoleb
Of course if the ipod is for either a high school or college student it would be better to just give them the money and let them get the edu. discount rather than pay full price.
There are no discounts for K-12 students (AFAIK). I wish there were, though...

WM

[Jerry Spoon]

Something a little light hearted from apple with a quirky animation sort of look. I liked it for what it is.

[hulugu]

you're right, I like the site, the little bits of humor, the coupons, its a neat little site and is good for kids, I think they'll get it and it works as just another advertisement.
Go iPod go!

[polyesterlester]

I like the main design, there's just a couple things that bug me: the super-short loops of music, and the animations of the iPod squishing and shooting off the screen. Those are in bad taste, in my opinion. They could have made it kid-friendly and not have an iPod squishing and stretching across the screen.

[encro]

Originally posted by illumin8

They are both good albums, but I think Movement in Still Life shows off a little more variety on his part.



I agree that Movement In Still Life is Brian Transeau's best album but it's not because BT is a brilliant artist.

It could just as easily have been as mind numbingly boring as _ESCM and Ira if it wasn't for the fact the brilliant sequence programmer Andy Page worked on that album. That's the man you should be idolizing; one of the most impressive sample cutters in the business. Fantastic beat rearranging and reversing etc.

[Wonder Boy]

Originally posted by me_94501
Homestarrunner.com (http://homestarrunner.com)
Yes it's a flash site, but it'll have you rolling on the floor. :)

I saw this site back in april. if i ever see or hear it again, i will poke out my eyes with hot metal pokers, and fill my ears with cement. that thing is the complete opposite of funny.
thanks for trying though, i do appriciate it.

[killmoms]

Holy crap! Homestar Runner is the best website ever! Hilarious! Ignore the last guy. Go there!

--Cless

[AoWolf]

lmao

thats is awesome
wow I could have really used that convince your parents part at my last birthday.


Of couse with my dad it seems all I have to do is get him in the apple store but that is just great.

[BOOMBA]

Originally posted by coolfactor
For the longest time, people would say "Apple's a company out to make money", but I never subscribed to that whole-heartedly.. now I'm beginning to wonder. Of course they want to make money, but only recently have I seen profits put before true quality. With the recent problems with Panther, and the new PowerBook screens, quality is really starting to drop. I think Apple is moving way too fast, and the quality of that iPodRocks.com website is more evidence of this.

I hope they slow down and catch their breath. Burn fast, burn out fast.

I'll always be a Mac-head, and I've recently managed to convince some people to switch. I guess I don't want to look bad. :)

[edit -- I have more to say]

Other evidence is the whole iTunes shamble.. iTunes is great, and great for the Windows world, but Apple co-marketing with Pepsi (and possibly McDonalds) really has me concerned. Add into that the sale of iBooks to kindergartners... if Apple's success continues, out next generation is going to be drinking sugar water and eating fattening Big Macs for breakfast, lunch and dinner.. oh wait.. that's happening now, but I fear it will get worse.

good points, coolfactor!
Right as always!