IPOD FANDOM
Wired.com's Leander Kahney, a great chronicler of the subcultures of Mac devotees, reports on fans' concepts for new-and-improved iPods:
Take for example, the iSpec video iPod, designed by Joe Kosinsky, director of New York design firm Kdlab.
Kosinsky's iSpec is a futuristic iPod shaped like a pair of Brad Pitt's sunglasses.
Controlled by a finger-mounted splint, video is projected onto the interior of the glass lenses. Earbuds are built-in. The iSpec features an immersive, 3-D interface reminiscent of Apple's experimental HotSauce Web interface developed in the mid-'90s.
To illustrate his ideas, Kosinsky created an impressive video of the iSpec experience as a spec project (hence the name) for his portfolio.
The video, created in Discreet's 3ds Max software, has proven a popular download -- 75,000 hits in April -- and has sparked passionate debate on the Web, to Kosinky's surprise and delight.
"A lot of people think it's real," he said. "They write to me and ask when it's going to come out.... (Others) get very angry. They think it's going in the wrong direction. They say it's a stupid idea: How can you walk and watch video at the same time? I think its great there's such emotions and passion about a fantasy product."
The reaction to Kosinky's speculative design is not limited to the iSpec; many of the concept designs elicit long strings of comments debating their pros and cons.
For links, click through to Kahney's original.