Brando's 2GB SOAP MP4 Player reeks of iPod

There's iPod knockoffs, and then there's the SOAP MP4 Player. This little gem unsurprisingly comes in black and glossy white flavors, boasts an unmistakable scroll wheel and stark white earbuds, and throws a few curves around the edges in a futile attempt to disclose its true inspiration. Furthermore, this device even rips a chunk of its name from another knockoff, providing two times the unoriginal fun, but sadly, we can't find a direct link to Samuel L. Jackson. Nevertheless, this 2GB PMP plays nice with MP3, MP4, WMA, WMV, ASF, and WAV, and features a built-in FM tuner / voice recorder, seven pre-set equalizer modes, USB 2.0 connectivity, 1.8-inch OLED display, rechargeable Li-ion battery, and support for a plethora of languages. So if you're looking to impress your clueless friends, or you just want a curvaceous 1G nano with a fancy screen a few extra niceties, you can pick this unit up now for $99.

[Matt @ Jan 24th 2007 7:19AM]

So... every mp3 player with a scroll wheel that comes in white and black is a ripoff of the ipod? Give me a break...

And even so... they say that imitation is the greatest form of flattery....

[LegendZ28 @ Jan 24th 2007 1:10PM]

The same people that say every white mp3 player looks like an iPod are also the same people that say the iPhone looks nothing like the LG touchscreen phone. You've got to understand that the world is full of hypocrites and move on.

[treetrunk @ Jan 24th 2007 7:31AM]

Apart from being white and having its (though different) controls arranged in a circle this really doesn't have much in common with any model of iPod. If anything it has far more "out of common" with them. Also hundreds of generic players have "MP4" in their name, it's hardly a "rip".

[wWw @ Jan 24th 2007 7:46AM]

Brando has been studying everyone's concept for the iPhone...

http://www.apple-style.com/laboratory/img/pict05_iphone_r03a.jpg

[Bruce Tjaden @ Jan 24th 2007 8:22AM]

don't they mean disguise, not disclose? and there's an "and" missing from the last sentence. didn't someone re-read that at least once before they posted it?

[Michael @ Jan 24th 2007 8:30AM]

I'm pretty sure the author of this blog used the word "disclose" incorrectly. It was intended to suggest that the rounded edges of the player "concealed" it's true inspiration - but the word disclose means to uncover or reveal. The blog says the rounded corners reveal its true inspiration.

[CLE @ Jan 24th 2007 8:31AM]

I'm getting a little tired of everyone attributing the scroll wheel to Apple's iPod, when it was clearly being used by mini-disk players years before the first iPod came out, in 2001. Apple chose the scroll wheel design because it offered (in their eyes) the best design in a simplistic UI control. They only later added the 4-way directional controls (play/pause, FF/rewind, etc.) in a later generation iPod, when that feature was already in use years before. By no means did Apple invent the scroll wheel design for the iPod, they borrowed it from others (see, I didn't say "ripped off").

The white colour is the only thing that reminds me of the iPod.....the design of the SOAP reminds me more of the Trekstor Vibez than of a iPod....

[chris @ Jan 24th 2007 8:43AM]

Ack... will the fanboys PLEASE stop acting like Apple are the only players in teh game and that they've done anything innovative. I find it ridiculous that they actually came up with every visual aspect of their iPod without "stealing" ideas from someone. Get over yourselves. If you are happy with your iPod, then STFU about it and keep listening. There are millions of people who have no interest in Apple products and are more than happy to see other options.

Frankly I find nothing appealing to Apple's love for "white(C)(TM)(R)", especially since so many fanboys out there automatically think that because another player comes out in a white version, they are tryin to fake the iPod look.

With Apple's marketing $$$ power, they'd just be plain stupid if they couldn't succeed. Put that same kind of marketing power in any of these "clones" (you're a tool) and they too could have developed into a market smashing success, though I believe with let insulting behavior toward the customers (you had to wait how long for Video, when you know quite well they could have had it in there early on).

Get over it.

[James @ Jan 24th 2007 9:07AM]

Hate to tell you all, but brando arent by any reach of the imagination the first people to compe up with this design. i live in singapore and i have one of these things, and $99 US for one of these is outrageous. there is no scroll wheel, the only way to navigate is to use one of 5 buttons. this thing has nothing on a Nano, mostly cause of the crappy screen but it has the ability to play videos, albeit at the crappy resolution you get of something like 128X128. theres also a mini-jack headphone port which just makes things a pain in the ass. overall keep away.

[Nick Ellis @ Jan 24th 2007 9:59AM]

T3 has a photo of the SOAP player without this hateful watermark by Brando.

[Scott @ Jan 24th 2007 4:25PM]

Ummm It looks like much more like a rio carbon to me albeit with a bigger screen http://www.digitalnetworksna.com/shop/_templates/item_main_Rio.asp?model=267

There is a player to rip off.

Really though, it doesn't even look all that close to a carbon, but one million times closer then this is to an ipod.

[buzzzbuzz312 @ Jan 24th 2007 4:28PM]

I have this and it is ok. The MP3 is ok but the video is awful. The quality is so bad.