How many times has this happened to you? You’re rocking out to the latest ditty on your iPod, rocking so hard you could be one of those black silhouette people from the Apple commercials, when you feel that pressure in your bowels, and you know you’ve got to go. You’re faced with a terrible dilemma: either endure some quiet moments alone, or risk an international terrorist incident by dropping your iPod into the toilet. Well, your long nightmare is finally over.Atech Flash Technology has come to the rescue with a product so amazingly necessary that I’m stunned that it wasn’t invented decades ago: the iCarta, the world’s only combination iPod speakers and toilet paper dispenser. Not only does it amplify your tunes, but if you happen to have a bathroom without anywhere to hang your paper, then the iCarta comes to the rescue!
Geeks.com was kind enough to send me an iCarta, and I knew from the moment I saw the box that it was the perfect addition to my glamourous lifestyle.
Luxuriating in a soothing bubblebath . . .
A glamourous couple dancing in the living room . . .
And the high-powered executive, multitasking on the bed.
That’s my lifestyle, in a nutshell, and being able to plug my iPod in while I’m on the John is the perfect thing to just make it that much more jet-set.
But seriously, Geeks.com offered to send me the iCarta, and I accepted it for the comedy value. The toilet paper holder arms actually swing out to accept a roll, so if you keep them folded, it looks like a rather conventional iPod speaker. Plug it in, put any iPod into the dock, turn it on, and “crank it up.” It even has a line-in port and a USB input on the top to plug an iPod shuffle into.
It has four small speakers: one on each side, and one on each arm. It has a “wall wart” power adapter (in white, of course) and a nifty blue LED indicator light. Because the arms fold in, it would make a pretty decent iPod speaker, in the bathroom or not. There’s only one problem (other than the obvious silliness factor): the speakers aren’t very good. They’re certainly good enough to listen to while on the toilet, but really, is anyone going to do that?
I have the JBL OnStage iPod speakers, which are compact, stylish, and have very good sound for such a small package. They also cost about the same as the iCarta. But, they don’t hold any kind of hygene products. So, the JBLs are going in the trash, and the toilet paper holder’s got a new place in my heart, inferior sound notwithstanding (just kidding).
And anyway, how many bathrooms even have a power outlet near the toilet?
The Facts:
- 4 Integrated high performance moisture-free speakers deliver exceptional
clarity and high quality sound - Charges your iPod while playing music
- Audio selector allows you to play iPod shuffle or other Audio device
- Integrated Bath tissue holder that can be easily folded as a stereo dock
- Requires AC Power (AC Adapter included)
- Easy to remove from Wall Mount
- Price: $89.99
- Buy from Geeks.com
OSAlert is really going down hill… and I thought Slashdot was irrelevant.
Edit: Let’s not accuse without reason; People come here for news on Operating Systems. I have many RSS feeds that keep me up to date with iPod / other news far faster than OSAlert. Please keep things strictly on topic, and your community will be much healthier.
If you’re having a slow news day, perhaps you should think of hiring volunteer article writers and researchers from the community. We’ve had plenty of good input from the OS News Alternative OS Contest, and OS could really do with a lot more of that kind of content. K, thnx.
Edited 2006-09-08 13:45
I think you have a nice point but you are still being modded down. I modded you up though.
… I thought I was at OSAlert. But my da.. browser obviosly changed my bookmark to one of these funny-pics-sites…
Seriously, dear OSAlert staff: I like funny pics, you know, really. But not so much when I go to OSAlert. At least as little as I like it to go on a fun-site and find news about some serious technical stuff. Please take me right. I very much appreciate the work you put in this site. It’s just that I would not like to see this work being wasted by diversification. I understand that you do it day by day and may have the feeling that such “news” bring a little more color into OSAlert. But this kind of color is not why I (and many others) visit this site several times a day. So keep up the good work and if your day is to gray, please drop me an email and I will send you some funny story or picture. Seriously.
Besides, AFAIK the iPod can’t play Ogg Vorbis files, so right there iPoop = lose.
Once you get Ipod Linux running on it, things can be different. :}
With any half-decent modern cellphone being able to play music, show and record videos, take pictures, record sound, play games, browse internet and send/receive emails and SMS, I see very little reason to by an iPod itself, let alone some bs accessories for it.
Hey, flown on a US airline any time recently? Their airline catalogs are FULL of Hammer Schlemmer iPod nonsense- iPod boomboxes, iPod massage chairs, more stylish iPod boomboxes…
Because cell phones that are mp3 players tend to suck at both? The ipod plays music and does a beautiful job at it compared to any cell phone that I’ve owned (mostly motorola stuff).
But I’m against digital convergence when it means that the end result is something that does all of the tasks terribly…and that’s what is there on the market.
The ipod plays music and does a beautiful job at it compared to any cell phone that I’ve owned (mostly motorola stuff).
Oh yes– when compared to cell phones.
However, the problem with .mp3 players such as the iPod is that audio quality is usually *appaling* when compared to more mature personal audio systems such as MiniDisc or CD. Where CD and MD sound very warm and full, music from .mp3 players sounds canned, cold.
Thom, definitely.
But that’s the payoff of compression. You lose some of the depth of music when compressing it to mp3. You do have options with some mp3 players though (I tend to keep my music uncompressed in my samsung yp-z5).
But you can’t carry around 10 hours of music on a cd player or MiniDisc
I guess that’s another payoff.
But you can’t carry around 10 hours of music on a cd player or MiniDisc
One 1GB HiMD disc can contain up to 30+ hours of music (in low-quality ATRAC3). However, better to use 132kpbs ATRAC3, which will give you about 16 hours of music on one HiMD disc. Not bad.
http://www.minidisc.org/hi-md_faq.html#_q93
Edited 2006-09-08 21:05
Cool, what kind of compatibility is there with ATRAC3 and Macs? I tend to use lossless AAC for encoding digital music nowadays.
I remember when I bought my first MD player…HiMD wasn’t around yet and it was basically nothing more than streaming wavs to a recorder…so it was both annoying and limited in space.
Replying again…
But it’s not just the sound that make cell phones suck. The interfaces are usually terrible, hard to navigate and leave much to be desired. That and the space is limited to what you can get on MiniSD or MicroSD (MicroSD for my phones).
“Where CD and MD sound very warm and full, music from .mp3 players sounds canned, cold.”
Funny, that was the exact argument against CD’s back in the day….
……OS News….
silly me thought OS was operating system not other s*$t
“Our goal is to inform our readers with the latest news on a vast range of operating systems and computing environments, from the well-known mainstream OSes, down to small (but also very interesting technically) hobby or embedded ones. True to our tagline, “Exploring the Future of Computing,” we’re always on the lookout for the next major advance in computing technology, and eager to speculate on how it might change the way people use computing power in their daily lives. With this in mind, it’s important to stress that though our focus is operating systems, there will always be other computing-related news that catches our attention.”
We’re getting kind of tired of this nonsense. OSAlert is about more than just operating systems. Get used to it.
You’d think that there being an OS on that object in the toilet would be enough but there is just no pleasing some people.
Get used to it? I’d think that OSAlert should get used to what we, the viewership, want.
Get used to it? I’d think that OSAlert should get used to what we, the viewership, want.
Because you pay them so well?
Exactly, nobody that visits this site is forced to:
a) Subscribe to the feeds
b) Click on any links
c) Read any articles
I’m starting to wish the readers were a bit more like Slashdot some days. At least at Slashdot they don’t read the articles, here they read them even if they know they don’t want to, then have a royal moan about it as though someone held a gun to their head and forced them.
I ca’n’t speak for OSAlert here, but if you have a problem with what they choose for news, maybe you should e-mail them about it, maybe include a list of suggestions. If they don’t agree with you, oh well.
Better yet, i’ll mention my views here, so that others can also read them, comment, and agree or disagree. How else will i know if my decisions or suggestions are in fact just or acceptable?
Anyway, yes, i do hope they stick more serious news, concentrating particularly on operating systems, open source, or anything that’s worth reading…
My 2 cents,
* Less of that “oh, here’s a nice article, let’s just copy the first paragraph of it onto here, regardless if that paragraph makes sense, says wtf the article is about, or not”. If one is kind enough to put the effort in finding a good article/news to stick here for the rest to read, then please put in the effort in presenting it well too.
And why do i say all this? Not to brag or whine, but because i do CARE about osnews.com… like it or not, you can’t just give the same “oh, you don’t pay us, so your word has no weight” or “oh, this is free, so that’s it then”. You’re putting sweat and blood in all this for us, and you should expect some suggestions, recommendations, criticism, etc..
I left slashdot years ago due to its seriously silly, rude, and pointless attitude, and how many that comment there dont have half a brain in their head, or just want to waste our time searching through a few hundred replies to find one decent one to read.
I don’t want that to happen to osnews too.. It’s my choice of a news site to read, and it’s my obligation to help make it better. Or is this just another blog where the owner(s)/author(s) just want to say some random jargon of what’s in their mind every day?
GL
Because we pay them indrectly through advertising. (They have to have viewers to have revenue bux)
Because we pay them indrectly through advertising. (They have to have viewers to have revenue bux)
We do not get paid. We do everything FOR FREE. It’s a voluntary effort. The minute amount of money we get go to our hosting guy. That’s all.
I thought the article was entertaining. I ignored the headline for a while when looking at my RSS feeds, simply because of the word iPod in it (a product I don’t own or really care about) but I finally decided to follow the link and I don’t think my day is any worse for my trouble.
Relax a little.
I concur. There is always a little place for humor on any site, and its something your demographic would probably find funny (like this thing), why note include it?
Guys, it’s a Friday afternoon. Stargate’s on tonight. Loosen up a bit
“We’re getting kind of tired of this nonsense.”
Your readers are getting tired of your nonsense. Perhaps better recognize this to not loose them. Or are you writing only for your own (don’t you have a blog already?)?
To all of those who had the “then just don’t read it” argument. Your kinda right, but there is no “Shit” .. eh I mean “Fun” sticker on this news, is it?
Pity, has society gotten so stupid you have to label everything?
No, sure not, but sometimes you have to read the crap to identify it as crap, at least the first few sentences.
This article as it stands itself wouldn’t be that disturbing, if not recently more and more bullshit would be posted on this site, from every clueless blogposter out there..
Well considering I heard about this about a month ago, its not really even news anymore. The article dates back to August 15th… I can understand new product releases/recalls and useful information – but this is simply kind of ridiculous IMO..
“OSAlert is about more than just operating systems.”
The name itself could lead one to think otherwise.
The name itself could lead one to think otherwise.
I haven’t seen a lot of articles on slashes and dots lately on Slashdot; neither have I seen any digging at Digg. I didn’t see any articles on making elixers on LXer either, lately. And ArsTechnica is a total rip-off, there’s nothing about asses there.
I lead this team of 28 sysadmins for 3 years and I swear we had to replace on average at least one pager a month due to this. Poor belt clip/holster design still hasn’t improved much, problem seems to have spilled over into other market segments.
It seems to me that everybody jumps onboard a technology or product just before it becomes irrelevant. You see all this silliness just before the end. With the hardware to play MP3s becoming dirt cheap I expect every electronic product will play them. Maybe that will help us get a single flash memory type. Players will be everywhere, all you will need is to bring the music.
I had a smile, when I read that pitch. How could one possibly say NO to such an offer. Heh.
It’s too old of a news, and a bad place to be posting jokes.
We are technies… hard core, and violent, we dont like to joke around
So I guess the speakers sweet spot is experienced while sitting on the toilet and looking toward the speakers after removing the roll of TP? Is there any music that will alleviate constipation (or does that defeat its raison d’etre)? Maybe listen to a recording of Bill Cosby “Himself” (push it out, shove it out, waaaaay out).
Edited 2006-09-08 19:19
“How many times has this happened to you? You’re rocking out to the latest ditty on your iPod, rocking so hard you could be one of those black silhouette people from the Apple commercials”
Zero times.
I don’t own an iPod and if I ever caught myself “rocking out” like those queer people in the iPod commercials, I would do the world a favour and hang myself by my trendy, white ear buds.
Come on now, this is the internet, this is no place for humor.
Anybody thought about how Uunhygienic this device potentially is (for your iPod)?
The first thing I do after taking a dump is heading straight to the basin to wash my hands, and in many houses, this is in a seperate room.
Why the hell would I want to pick up my iPod, fecal batter to boot, and then take it with mw to wash my hands (get it wet)? Stupid Idea.
I wouldn’t want to have to go back into the toilet either, to pick it up, after the nerve gas is still in the air.
Stupid Device, Stupid Article. Maybe it’s time to bookmark /. again.
Hahaha this is funny, come on guys a little bit of humor doesn’t hurt. And this reminds me the toilet email notifier http://www.lacoctelera.com/alemarin/post/2006/05/31/malditos-plug-i… . Combine both and you got “the ultimate toilet paper holder”. But it still lacks one rss feed reader.