Member
Join Date: Jun 2004
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Being the bored person I am, I was playing around with the WaybackMachine, and I remembered how www.ipod.com redirects to the iPod website.
Well, here's your iPod website-from November 4, 1999 Dunno, thought it was interesting. The site stays the same until November 2001, when the iPod was introduced. Any ideas when the first development of the iPod started? |
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rams it
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Seattle
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That page doesn't seem very... Appleish. Kinda odd, especially the asterisk in between the i and Pod.
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reticulating your mom
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Apple probably brought the domain from somebody shortly before the iPod's release.
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Member
Join Date: Jun 2004
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Member
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
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I'm guessing that's not an Apple page, but another unrelated company called iPod, inc, where the domain name subsequently was sold to Apple.
On the wilder side, there's another wilder theory. Apple may have registered a dummy company named iPod, inc, with no apparent connections to Apple, in order to register the domain name, but still elude being associated with it. A historical trademark search for the iPod trademark (according to the 1999 ipod.com, iPod is a registered trademark) for the year 1999 might turn up some more leads. This is if you're a curious Internet archeologist, that is. I can't be bothered to make any further investigations myself, but if you find anything interesting, you can always post your findings in this thread. |
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rams it
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Seattle
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Last edited by rasmits : 2005-06-19 at 16:37. |
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Member
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
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Apparently I underestimated how bored I was.
I did a US trademark search, and came up with two interesting dead trademarks for the relevant time period: Quote:
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Note also that the capitalisation, "iPod" is used in the copyright notice on the bottom of the page. The true indication of boredom, speculation on web pages from over 6 years ago. |
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Yarp
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Road Warrior
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Lowest of the low. |
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Member
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
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More information on VTG (Voice Technologies Group) follows. (One of the possible people behind the 1999 iPod.com homepage)
According to their web page www.vtg.com, in 1999, http://web.archive.org/web/199902080...//www.vtg.com/, they are some kind of PBX / Telephone equipment company. The graphical design on the web page is in typical "small business" bad taste. It doesn't seem to be at all similar to the "i*Pod" design at all, which leads me to think this is not the relevant company. The company was acquired by Intel in the year 2000, http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archi...s/cn022400.htm, http://web.archive.org/web/200104020...ttp://vtg.com/. In 2002, the www.vtg.com web page was changed to redirect to www.intel.com, http://web.archive.org/web/200211201...ttp://vtg.com/. In 2003, vtg.com was let to lapse, and was snapped up by a domain squatter, http://web.archive.org/web/200312142...ttp://vtg.com/. Present day, somewhere in late 2004 or in 2005, http://vtg.com/ redirects to http://www.vtg-rail.com/, some kind of European railroad company. Unfortunately, I don't seem to be able to find more information about their connection to 1999 ipod.com, but to judge by their generally incompetent web design, I'd think the "i*Pod" logo could be their work. :-) I should see if I can find any information about that other company, InPub. Developing... |
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Member
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
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Ooh. Missed this goodie at http://web.archive.org/web/200104020...ttp://vtg.com/ last time round:
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It seems they're not consistent in how they capitalize iPOD or iPod. The file name says iPod, but the paragraph above says iPOD. No mention of their spelling of "i*Pod" anywhere. And since www.ipod.com was still "coming soon" at that time when they had already announced that product, I think we can assume that www.ipod.com has nothing to do with VTG. Developing more... Edit: I seem to have hit a wall. I can't find any more information on this subject. If anyone has anything to contribute, step right up. Last edited by pv2b : 2005-06-19 at 16:30. |
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Join Date: Jun 2004
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Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Promise Land of Trustafarians
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The one in Santa Cruz appears to be registered to a residential address, judging by the satellite image.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=111+Es...7553&t=k&hl=en The address is unlisted, so I can't get a name or number. A Google search on the address doesn't turn anything up, either. |
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