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TMO Reports - Luxpro's Super Tangent: Different Name, Same shuffle Look

by , 7:00 AM EST, March 30th, 2005

They're back!

Taiwanese MP3 maker Luxpro, who proved earlier this month that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, has re-introduced its Apple iPod shuffle look-alike with a new look and a new name.

The Super Tangent still has the same look, feel and size as the shuffle, but has re-designed its control pad with a translucent plastic effect, has two back side sliders instead of one, and three colors -- red, black and white (see photo below).

Luxpro made a buzz at the CeBit trade show in Germany earlier this month when they showed off an MP3 player called the Super Shuffle. Within 48 hours of its announcement, the product disappeared from its booth, leading many to believe the company was either forced to remove the product after pressure from Apple Computer, or was simply trying to create headlines before it introduced the re-engineered version.

The Super Tangent is slightly thicker larger than the iPod shuffle, but features a control interface on the front that mimics Apple's control interface. The handheld unit has an FM tuner and voice recording capabilities, comes in 512 megabyte and 1 gigabyte capacities and features a USB 2.0 interface. The Tangent supports MP3 (8~320Kbps), MP3-VBR, WMA, WMA-DRM (5~192Kbps), WAV (ADPCM) music formats, and works with both Mac OS X and several flavors of Windows. The device also features 12 hours of battery life, the same as the iPod shuffle.

The company has not announced pricing or availability and did not immediately return requests for information.

Since, the first introduction of the product earlier this month, Apple has refused to comment to The Mac Observer about Luxpro's shuffle clone and whether it violates its copyright. Apple has a long history of protecting its design work, having successfully sued eMachines, FuturePower, and other PC manufacturers who attempted to imitate the original Bondi Blue iMac.

Observer Comments

Show: Subjects Only | Full Comments
Close Name:BlueDjinn -   TMO Staff Posts: 708 Joined: 24 Jun 2001
Subject: What about their back?

Sorry, couldn't resist...but seriously, it's "They're back", not "Their back"

Close Name:Guest
Subject:

Your right. lol.

On your right is their back. You're right it's they're back.

Close Name:Guest
Subject: and Voila…if you look at it upside down, its completely di

Still "looks and feels" like an iPod. I would say that Apple still has a case against them.

Close Name:Mikuro Posts: 457 Joined: 15 Jun 2002
Subject: Another hoax?

So...is it another hoax? Cuz those images sure look fake to me. Maybe it's just the poor compression.

Close Name:Guest
Subject: A closer look reveals the hoax.

A closer look at diagram of controls on Luxpro's web site reveals a few clues that this is another hoax. While there is a slider position for voice recorder, there still isn't a microphone! Also, on the back, the words "Super Shiner" are printed. Super Shiner?

You've got to hand it to Luxpro, they're getting a lot of attention.

Close Name:swtzrs Posts: 21 Joined: 22 Mar 2005
Subject: Concept product

Wasn't the Super Shuffle just a publicity stunt, and they weren't actually manufacturing them? I though it was meant to show that the company could easily design and produce mp3 players that looked as good as the models produced by Apple.

Regardless, the major reason I purchased a Shuffle had to do with the software integration with iTunes and music purchased through iTunes.

If I plug this mp3 player (or one that actually exists) into my system, it just shows up as a flash drive that iTunes doesn't recognize, doesn't autofill, and can't display the contents within. Plus it won't play my AAC files (protected, and most likely unprotected as well).

Sorry, LuxPro, the extra features are fine, but the trade off isn't enough to make me give up using my Shuffle for music.

As for the violation of Apple's design? - it doesn't seem fair to me that a company should even be able to use this sort of design photocopying as a publicity stunt. Even if they have no plans to distribute this knock-off, I kinda feel like they're still using the design of Apple's product to sell their services.

Of course, by that logic, any company that claims their product is an iPod-killer is doing the same thing. So maybe I should get a law degree before making these assumptions.

Close Name:Guest
Subject: This is silly

Not that I care about FM radio, but how do you change frequencies on the FM radio? And how do you know what frequency you're on? Or is it limited to scan and seek (up or down) from whatever frequency you're at?

And what's the price? It's no use copying the iPod shuffle, adding not-very-much-wanted features, and charging more for it.

Close Name:Guest
Subject:

Mikuro's right, that isn't even a real picture. Both the red and white Tangents have the same bit of grey pixels at the upper left-hand side corner, and it's very obvious on the white one that the line where the USB-cover connects is drawn in. And on the black one, you can see pixelated edges on the click-wheel because Luxpro used very bad anti-aliasing when they pasted it on.

Just what the hell are they trying to do?

Close Name:Guest
Subject: No it was not just a publicity stunt

They have been advertizing there rip off product on the web since it was first found. They have never stopped advertizing and I have not heard Luxpro give a statement saying it was a publicity stunt as of yet. I'm sure Apple's legal team is hard at work putting a case together against them. No matter what they call it. It is a rip off of the iPod Shuffle and I know Apple will have there day in court.

Close Name:B-sabre Posts: 70 Joined: 18 Jan 2005
Subject:

For everyone saying this is a hoax, why don't you go to the Luxpro site and look - there is the Super Tangent in all its glory.

Stop playing "NSA photo intelligence ANAL-yst" and trying to be cute by counting pixels.....

Close Name:Guest
Subject: you're right

quit bumming B-sabre. if i can see it on a website, it must be true. i mean, there are pictures and words and stuff. i hear they're going to retail for eleven cents. someone told me and i want to believe.

Close Name:gslusher Posts: 2088 Joined: 13 Nov 2002
Subject:

Quote
Guest wrote:
A closer look at diagram of controls on Luxpro's web site reveals a few clues that this is another hoax. While there is a slider position for voice recorder, there still isn't a microphone! Also, on the back, the words "Super Shiner" are printed. Super Shiner?


The microphone may be built into the top. There is no picture of the top, where the earphone jack is.

As for the Super Shiner name, that might have been an earlier name. I've noted that Asian companies often give names to their products that don't seem to make sense (or be appealing) when translated into English. That rather goes with their instruction manuals. For the life of me, I can't figure out why Sony, Panasonic, Toyota, etc., don't hire native English speakers to edit their manuals. Often, the grammar is tortured in ways that even a 5th-grader wouldn't do. There must be enterprising Americans with degrees in English who could fix the manuals.

I saw one recently that said, "Insert headphone to jack in side of player."

Close Name:Guest
Subject:

"Stop playing "NSA photo intelligence ANAL-yst" and trying to be cute by counting pixels....."

It's a fake picture whether or not you think it is. And getting offended because I can easily tell it's fake doesn't change that, either.

Close Name:Small White Car Posts: 1960 Joined: 02 Jul 2004
Subject:

Quote
Anonymous wrote:
"Stop playing "NSA photo intelligence ANAL-yst" and trying to be cute by counting pixels....."

It's a fake picture whether or not you think it is. And getting offended because I can easily tell it's fake doesn't change that, either.


What do you mean by "fake picture?" You've proven that they took the same photo and re-colored it different ways, but what does that prove?

I don't know if this thing is real or not, but I don't understand how you can tell that from the picture alone.

I mean, as far as I can tell, all of the photos of the iPod mini on the Apple page are the same photo from the exact same angle with exactly the same glare. To me that indicates that they've changed the color of one photo to all the different colors. It doesn't mean the iPod is fake.

Close Name:Guest
Subject: LuxPro Can Suck It...

Who cares about these people? They're just leeches, trying to get a publicity boost from ripping off the iPod Shuffle's design.

If a company is that desperate/lame, its probably a safe bet that their products are too. I'll pass. I'm sure most everyone else will too.

Close Name:Guest
Subject: relax small white car

we all believe you want to believe.
i'm a marketing professional. i reuse photography in campaigns, etc. that's a moot point.
one thing i can say for sure, it doesn't exist until it SHIPS. that does NOT include pre-ordering. it's not real until it's on the shelf.

by the way, i heard it's going to include a toothpick AND tweezers.

Close Name:Small White Car Posts: 1960 Joined: 02 Jul 2004
Subject: Re: relax small white car

Quote
Anonymous wrote:

one thing i can say for sure, it doesn't exist until it SHIPS. that does NOT include pre-ordering. it's not real until it's on the shelf.


I agree, but that didn't answer my question. I don't see that having sloppy images on their web page indicates that a product is real or not.

I doubt anyone will ever see one of these in the real world, either, but that opinion is based on past experience, not poor artowrk.

Close Name:Guest
Subject:

"What do you mean by "fake picture?" You've proven that they took the same photo and re-colored
it different ways, but what does that prove? "

By "fake picture", I mean that nothing in it is real. The three Super Tangents aren't a picture of one iPod Shuffle cloned three times and re-coloured. They're solid filled rectangles drawn in a paint program, with an image of a click-wheel pasted on, and then very poorly anti-aliased.

Close Name:Guest
Subject: LuxPro - I can't wait.

Well I have been following this from the beginning. When it was reported on at CeBIT show. Well, really to me, it is a great product. I can't wait to buy one. Many say it is just a Hoax. But the picture from the CeBIT show were real, and so were the original picture on Luxpro's Site. Second, last week the name had changed to the "Super Shiner." Even until monday, the name was still "Super Shiner", only Luxpro knows why. Now the name is "Super Tangent", still makes no sense, but so what. What is an "iPod" any way, just a name Apple came up with. I have been using Apple products since they were called "Apple" like the "Apple IIe" and so on. Apple it's self has pirated many products from other companies. Beginning with the icon system, originally developed by Xerox. To the latest "Widgets" for Tiger's Dashboard, that it blatantly stole and did not even have the decency to rename from Komfabulator. Komfabulator has been around since OSX 10.1. So I am waiting patiently for my opportunity to buy 3-4 "Super Tangents" or what ever they are called, as long as they look like the Shuffle. I will use them and display them along with my 60-gig Color iPod. Way to Go, Luxpro give Apple and Steve a "Super Shiner"

Close Name:Guest
Subject: Forgot one thing.

The original pictures from Cebit. Had a top view of the "Super Shuffle" and next to the audio jack was a small hole. Where the article said it was the "mic" for the audio recorder. The new picutes could be faux but the originals were not. The "Super Shuffle" even had two small screws on the bottom to seal it because it was not preasure sealed like the Apple Shuffle. Here is the link, http://www.macnews.de/gallery/displayimage.php?album=21&pos=24

Close Name:Guest
Subject: Super Tangent

The Super Tangent has been released in Singapore at the PC show

Close Name:Guest
Subject: Its not a publicity stunt

I saw one, test one in CA. One can buy for around $

Dec 2005

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