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Shake Your Umbrella for a Random Song 112

Posted by timothy from the so-that's-what-a-'groove-thing'-actually-is dept.
thhamm writes "If you happen to see people wildly shaking and dancing with their white umbrellas in the street, don't call them crazy just yet. They might just be controlling their iPod with an iBrella: "The iBrella is a special umbrella that acts as an iPod interface. One can control the iPod just by his physical interactions with the iBrella." Theres a video of it in action, too. The ideal gadget to use while driving your motorized couch maybe?"
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Shake Your Umbrella for a Random Song More

Shake Your Umbrella for a Random Song

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  • This is old (Score:5, Funny)

    by lecithin ( 745575 ) on Thursday August 03, 2006 @12:31PM (#15840497)
    This is old. This was invented by Mary Poppins years ago.

    http://clubdi.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/mar ypcover.jpg [typepad.com]

    From the pic, you can tell that it was powered by linux.

  • pledge (Score:1, Insightful)

    by MrSquirrel ( 976630 )
    I pledge allegiance to the united "gahhhh, stop hurting my brain by being so stupid" foundation, that if I ever see someone with one of these I will take it from them, insert it into their... dirty orifice, and open the umbrella.
    It's one thing to invent a neat tech gadget or even a bizarre tech gadget with no real purpose... but an iPod-brella is niether neat nor bizarre... they've come out with so many stupid iPod accessories that this is just another piece of crap. Worse than Segway-polo!

    • Re:pledge (Score:5, Informative)

      by lurker4hire ( 449306 ) on Thursday August 03, 2006 @01:22PM (#15840923) Homepage
      I'll reply to you because you're near the top, but holy fuck people!

      IT'S NOT AN ACCESSORY FOR SALE, IT'S AN ART PROJECT

      Am I the only person who understood this right away? Please cut the end off the url and visit the main page for more info, here I'll make it easy:

      proto-typen.org is a small group of students from the University Karlsruhe and from the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Karlsruhe.

      Having been introduced to the creative and hands-on way of using mikrocontrollers and elektronics in the Seminar Showoff devices" led by Hannes Nehls and Matt Karau, many students wished to continue experimenting and designing artwork in the future.

      Several objects from the seminar have been or are being displayed at the HfG, many other expositions are planned FOR THE FUTURE.

      sheesh!

      • Re:pledge (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Stanza ( 35421 )
        I want to rant too.

        So what if someone thinks it's cool to shake thier umbrella to control an ipod? If they aren't bothering you, let them! There are wars, there are assholes, there are a million things out there that bother me, why does the concept of someone shaking an umbrella bother you all? You don't have to buy one! It's not for sale if you wanted to! Let the crazies play with thier umbrellas and bad mouth something that's actually bad!

        Sheesh. It's like when an article is posted about running lin
    • The iBrella is a pretty dumb idea, yes.
    • I play segway polo, you insensitive clod!

      -gam

  • Still crazy (Score:5, Funny)

    by QuantumFTL ( 197300 ) * on Thursday August 03, 2006 @12:34PM (#15840527)
    If you happen to see people wildly shaking and dancing with their white umbrellas in the street, don't call them crazy just yet. They might just be controlling their iPod with an iBrella.

    Whether or not one is controlling their iPod while doing this, I still believe they can be safely categorized as "fucking nuts."
    • Whether or not one is controlling their iPod while doing this, I still believe they can be safely categorized as "fucking nuts."

      This moniker will still apply regardless of whether or not they're wearing a bluetooth earpiece, shouting to nobody in particular.
    • If you happen to see people wildly shaking and dancing with their white umbrellas in the street, don't call them crazy just yet. In Philly they're called Mummers. And they're only allowed to do it once a year.
    • Whether or not one is controlling their iPod while doing this, I still believe they can be safely categorized as "fucking nuts."

      Or they may be just slightly silly, but only in one leg.

  • great... (Score:4, Funny)

    by steveo777 ( 183629 ) on Thursday August 03, 2006 @12:35PM (#15840535) Homepage Journal
    So now it's bad luck to listen to your iPod indoors, is it?

  • One caveat (Score:3, Funny)

    by QuantumFTL ( 197300 ) * on Thursday August 03, 2006 @12:37PM (#15840549)
    I hear this product works very well, but unfortunately it currently only plays "Singing in the Rain."

  • Nothing to see here... move along. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Mikachu ( 972457 ) <burke@jeremiahj.gmail@com> on Thursday August 03, 2006 @12:38PM (#15840562) Homepage
    It's just another silly ipod accessory. As much as I love my ipod nano, I wouldn't be caught dead with an umbrella with which to control it. Can we just quit the stupid accessories already and put that energy into improving battery life or something? Jeez.
  • because I don't think anyone is going to have enough rain to actually use this thing. At least here in the states.
  • and the next game is Dance Dance Umbrella Revolution.
  • I'm sure on a technical level, this is a great idea, but how many days of the month does anyone use their umbrella? I doubt this will succeed commercially.
    • You've obviously never lived in Wales or Scotland ;)
    • Perhaps it will result in the return of the parasol. I've carried an umbrella to stay out of the sun before, but I don't do it too often b/c you get funny looks. This could be a huge new trend!

      Honestly, though, I think the bigger impediment to success will be the fact that the volume goes up and down every time you turn a corner. Or worse, in the wrong mode it can make you change tracks.

  • You have to turn around to adjust volume. How in the heck is that useful? "Oops, sorry hun, my music is too loud, looks like I'm going to have to turn around and go back to work."
    • Doh, scratch that. Looks like you can just rotate the umbrella itself. Still, I wonder how many people are going to forget that important fact while using it :)
    • Perhaps this one should have gotten the big foot icon... or the 'because you can'. It's wonderfully useless technology, and if you can't handle the idea of experimenting with odd or different interfaces and technology and marvel at others doing so, then why are you reading slashdot?

      Seems kind of like the Wii controller with an umbrella attached, and maybe mated with mouse gestures from Opera...

      Is it really useful? Probably not, but people have spent more money on less useful things before.

    • "You have to turn around to adjust volume"

      I think the portable music player business has more than matured if they come out with a device where you control it by doing the Hokey Pokey.
  • Forget Heath Ledger as the Joker. It's going be the Penguin blasting William Hung songs out of his umbrella all the way.
  • This has less validity than a Darl McBride's claims about Linux. What moron thought this was news?
  • This looks impractical. It might be useful to buy the umbrella and cut the handle away from the rest of it. The idea of an interface device like that is cool, but the attached umbrella is obtrusive. Maybe if they made an iPod glove that not only controlled the scroll wheel but could also control the pod with hand gestures...

  • At last! Someone fixed the iPod's interface! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Quiet_Desperation ( 858215 ) on Thursday August 03, 2006 @12:54PM (#15840672)

    Thank you, baby Jesus!

    Yeah, yeah... I like to drive my car from the back seat using rope, duct tape and a broomstick.

  • I'd totally buy it if they just put in regular control buttons in the umbrella handle.
  • I can see a lot of the accessoires for the iPod being useful. Belt clips, other ear plugs, uh... did we have Belt clips already?

    But an umbrella? Let's be serious here, there's only so much you can milk out of an iPod enthusiast, no matter how much he loves Apple and their style. It would have been sufficient to actually print the logo on the umbrella so he can show his corporate identity perfectly matched to his iPod, but controling it with the umbrella is just plain silly.

    There is only so much you can slap
    • note that Apple isn't making this product (why would they?). Makes me wonder if a company could sue or otherwise take legal action on another company for making shitty third party devices that make their own device look bad.
  • When will the iPod accessory madness end?

    It astounds me that there are so many accessories. What next? iPod remote control in your shoes? I see how explaining why you are tapdancing down the street may be amusing, though.

    As if the little white headphones were not obvious enough to thieves. Now I have a giant umbrella saying "I have an iPod, steal me".

    I can't imagine anyone wanting to but this. It's not good for walking indoors with, and even in the UK it doesn't rain enough to justify it's use. The
  • I think I'll hang on to my preferred umbrella. Purchased in Montreal a couple of years ago, it is of a bright rainslicker yellow and proclaims in large block letters, MERDE, IL PLEUT. I can retire beneath it to listen to my iPod or do whatever else I feel like doing. Much better.
  • So it wasn't a signal to shoot [wikipedia.org] after all.

  • one.... his... (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by Oo.et.oO ( 6530 )
    i LOVE the writing on teh intarweb!

  • Wheels! (Score:2, Funny)

    by psxman ( 925240 )
    Next comes the steering wheel iPod interface! The next time you see someone swerving over the road, they're not drunk, they're just changing songs!
  • Obviously, the people have not run out of novel ideas, including myself. Therefore, I propose a new iPod interface:

    The iPod Shopping bag.

    Never again will the choice of paper or plastic be boring with the new iPod shopping bag. It comes in two style, paper and plastic, and a built in speaker to allow the other customers to know you are cool.

    Speaker and Power Specs:
    Paper:
    -- 8" Paper sub cone to really drive the deep bass, down firing, makets your food groove too!
    -- 1" Paper directional tweete
  • Best for listening to iDRM data would be a "retractable baton", as suggested for the MPAA/RIAA by some.

  • So if you shake it more than three times, does it scold you for "playing with it"?
  • Some enterprising geek showed some impressive technical skills and ingenuity and put together a fun little hack that's cool, but not really useful. What's with all these posts talking about how this is overbranding on steroids, how stupid the idea is, and how no one is going to want to use it. I don't think the guy who made this is trying to become a millionaire off his idea, I think he just had a funny idea and decided to see if he could pull it off. People should be: A.) Laughing a bit. B.) Congratulat
  • iBrator [flamingmailbox.com]!

    Unfortunately it doesn't really exist and it's not an iPod interface, but I could see someone hacking such a device into existance. And it selling well.
  • For the person who loves to sing in the shower, attach your iPod to the new iShower shower head. By switching from stream to massage you can control your iPod and listen to music through the mono 6 inch waterproof speaker embedded in the shower head. Includes ziploc bag for iPod storage during showering. Don't wait, order today!
  • News for nerds, or stuff that matters? I really don't think that an IPod umbrella is what us nerds need, as we're normally indoors anyways. I also highly doubt this is mission critical in a world sense. It must be a slow news day or /.'s datacenter increased their prices again...
  • Silly? Of course.
    Unnecessary? Definitely.
    Madness? Possibly, but unlikely...
    Impractical? No kidding.

    Why does it matter?

    Here's a group of guys who decided to geek out and make a ridiculous little interface to a ubiquitous gadget for the hell of it. Does the fact that it's for the iPod make it any worse than, say, any of the toys we see on ThinkGeek?

    If it takes being silly to come up with an idea (which, if you think about it, isn't really a bad I/F -- just a silly implementation of it), then I say g
  • As Monkey said: Silly? Of course. Unnecessary? Definitely. Madness? Possibly, but unlikely... Impractical? No kidding. Anyways, it plays "Singing in the Rain" as the first song when you power/open your umbrella.
  • Maybe they'll get struck by lightning... and then they'll dance just like Bono and wear horrible sunglasses. Or die. Pick your poison.
  • Seriously how many more of these things do we need? we have them for jackets, car stereos, pants, chairs, hats and cellphones.

    Next thing we'll see, is Ipod shoes, Ipod ipods (yes for that double ipod audio) and Ipod codpiece, for when your getting it on with your lady and need to hear "Oh Yeah", and ipod nose puppy.

    Seriously people, the Ipod is cool and sleak, your products are not!
  • ahh finally a device a trully freethinking-treehuggin-starbucksdrinkin-ipodsheep can have that will set fianlly set him self apart from all lthe umbrellatoting-freethinking-treehuggin-starbucksdr inkin-ipodsheep oh wait a minute...... people forget that your nolonger an individual if you look like the next yuppie. but at least we can spot them easier. just remember i had an mp3 player before you know what an ipod was
  • This is a perfect example of the old saying "Just becuase you could doesn't mean you should!!!!!!!!!!!) This alsmost as bad as the Toaster/Radio I say At JCPenny the other day.
    • toaster/radio seem like a great way to get a radio into your kitchen without taking up any extra space. Unless the tuner is the up/down arm of the toaster.
  • Come on. The iPod is a great product, but for people who don't want to deal with Apples DRM, the Creative Zen Vision M is the "killer app". You can get everything from your toaster to your dog outfitted with an iPod zip connector, but I can't get crap for my Zen Vision. That's just not fair! At least release the specs for the Zen Vision connector so I can try to make or convert something to use with it! Before you make another "dog shaped speaker with blinky lights" for the iPod, how about making something
  • http://www.ibuzz.co.uk/ [ibuzz.co.uk]

    No need for a full PlayStation 2 and Rez Trance Vibrator to have that "buzzy" feeling anymore ...
  • I checked the calendar, it is not April 1st but this still looks fake to me. Unless someone shows me one in a store I am not going to believe this to be anything more than a joke. Take a look at that "award" on the front page...."Winner of the Award 2005". Winner of what award?

    It's fake.
  • Gaah!! The stupidity is leaping off the screen and burrowing into my brain!!!!
  • Apple interfaces just got stranger.
  • If I tap my shoes hard enough against eachother; my player might fall out of my pocket and it'll press STOP or FORWARD automatically; beat that ;)

    The difference in this interface and the umbrella is ..
    I always have shoes on me when outside; but never an umbrella !

    Would be bad anyways to learn/have a seperate interface when the sun shines, when its raining, when skating, when driving, .....

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