Apple may be known for its advertising prowess, but this little marketing coup is going to go down as one of the most hilarious ad placements in recent history. doubleTwist, the company co-founded by renowned software reverse engineer DVD Jon, has managed to place a banner for its product directly next to the main entrance to Apple’s flagship San Francisco store.
The ad invites passersby to try “The Cure for iPhone Envy”, which they can use to access their “iTunes Library on any device. In Seconds”. It’s clearly a message that Apple doesn’t want anything to do with. We’re hearing that Apple employees are currently scratching their heads as to how this appeared.
Apparently the window technically belongs to BART, the Bay Area’s commuter transit system. doubleTwist got in touch with an ad agency that BART deals with and leased the window, giving them the chance to plaster their ad just below the Apple logo in its full glory.
While DVD Jon has a long history of reverse engineering digital media security, doubleTwist is a perfectly legitimate software application that makes it easy to manage media files for a variety of hardware devices. It’s sort of like iTunes, except it works for nearly any device — not just your iPod and iPhone (you can find an extensive overview here, and the app now supports both Windows and Mac). Given that one of the iPod’s biggest advantages over competitors is the seamless experience it offers to users, Apple probably isn’t a big fan.
*Snicker* See a larger photo of the ad here.
Ok, that’s awesome.
Oh, great… *yawn*
Uh, I think iTunes and iPod sucks! I mean how difficult is it to organinze your media with folders and direct file transfers?! I don’t want or need a database to help me find my music, I carry 24 Gb and I doubt I’ll ever need one. I had a 30 Gb ipod – the ribbon cable to the screen cooked itself 2 months after the warranty expired. Now I carry around a chinese import I got from ebay, it cost me 1/4 what the iPod did, and since it’s solid state it’ll probrably last longer. At least I was able to extract that tiny 30 Gb HDD, my next robot project’s gonna love it.
I look at it and I think,
“the cure, is to go get an iPhone.”
It’s may more than just music…
hint: 1 Billion apps…
make that,
WAY more than just music.
Just plain rude.
#4 – pedro
I’ve never owned a Mac, Mr. Chickenhawk.
OK. Let’s stop for a while and think (not different, but think…). Isn’t it fine and dandy that there are people with wits and stamina to steal the show right under your very noses? Isn’t it great that there’s someone that fights the evil empire?
Sure is!
Isn’t it what Apple did to IBM, and then Microsoft did to IBM and Apple? Isn’t it what Google did to Yahoo?
Thank you DVD john!
Or would you rather live in a world with a market for six, maybe seven computers? Or a world where a color personal computer would cost as much as a motorcycle? Or DVD’s couldn’t be copied, and songs can’t be used on different players?
Think! and remember history…
I admire this add placement and software I wish them luck.
Still the iPhone is what it is because of all the apps that are written for it not what is in your iTunes Library. I bet apple will be locking them out in the same way they mess with jail broken phones.
I go by there almost every day and I suspect the average passerby
(like 99 out of 100) doesn’t even notice that it’s a dig at Apple.
But I’m sure it scores high with the counter-snob geeks.
Supposedly this software is a good way to give that nasty Zune an enema.
I just had a hard drive bite it, and this software saved me a lot of trouble moving my legally purchased media files off my ipod and back into my PC. TY, Mccollough
#12How’s that brain wash working for ya?
I haven’t even swallowed the iKool Aid from the phone yet but I have sipped from my wife’s. Apple’s restrictions on turn-by-turn/voice navigation have kept me from giving them the 3 Franklins. There mistake now I’ll be looking over the Pre with this doubleTwist and thinking about those apps. If Apple had let me buy a turn-by-turn app with a gen 1 or gen 2 iPnone I’d hooked and just upgrade every few years.
I’ll only pay the extra for the Apple stuff when they give me what I want before that I’ll just make do with what I have. In this case a RAZR a Garmin and iPod all getting old fast. My 12-inch PowerBook is getting on in age too. If they ever get make the MacBookPro I want they can have another 2 or 3K from me.
I tried that twist software twice. When it first came out and again about a year later. Maybe I’m dim, but I could get it to share or play anything. I found it to be mostly “condensed-ware”, somewhere between vapor-ware and low grade free-ware. There are much better iTunes beaters out there that doubletwist.
Guy Kawasaki must appreciate this.
Do I smell iLawsuit coming from Apple, suing both BART and DVD Jon, over defacing private property? (and Apple suing that the window is technically Apple’s)