The Pono Kickstarter Campaign Is Open

[wkhanna]

So here are the stats on the 'Signature Series' offer as of 7:00 am est:

 

NY 500

 

Willie Nelson 39

 

Tom Petty 95

 

Patti Smith 52

 

Pearl Jam 277

 

Beck 49

 

CSN 25

 

CSNY 426

 

Dave Matthews 24

 

Foo Fighters 76

 

Herbie Hancock 40

 

Norah Jones 49

 

Lenny Kravitz 17

 

Arcade Fire 45

[manisandher]

Very happy to pledge $400 to help out. I've gone for a Herbie Hancock.

 

I quite like the toblerone design of the PonoPlayer - it'll be easier to place on a surface with the screen still showing than a thin phone-like design. I just hope it's easier to transfer my own downloaded/ripped/recorded music files onto it than it is with an iPhone (I hate being forced to use iTunes to do this). Simple drag 'n' drop would suit me fine.

 

Mani.

[flatmap]

Simple drag 'n' drop would suit me fine.

Mani.

If that how it works out, then no problem. Drag n drop is going to be clean, easy, and reliable.

 

But in the long run, I'd like to have music management, playlists, metadata search, etc.

[wgscott]

Interesting Arse Technica article:

Neil Young-endorsed music player Kickstarts past $1.6 million

[wgscott]

I remember the very early ipods proudly displayed on tray tables.

 

I have the very first generation iPod in a box in the garage with a pile of cables. White. 4 gig. Firewire. Mechanical dial.

 

Is it worth anything?

[Savage]

I have the very first generation iPod in a box in the garage with a pile of cables. White. 4 gig. Firewire. Mechanical dial.

 

Is it worth anything?

 

Did you disrupt the original packaging?

[wgscott]

Yeah, I hacked it open and tossed it in the trash in 2001 or whenever the hell that was.

[Savage]

Yeah, I hacked it open and tossed it in the trash in 2001 or whenever the hell that was.

 

Then the answer is $59.00

 

With original packaging - $200,000.00

Amazing Vintage Collector's Museum Historic Apple iPod Classic 718908458976 | eBay

[flatmap]

Another interesting snippet from yesterday's Stereogum article is that "[Pono will] also be selling Pono-specified headphones and earbuds."

 

Also tantalizing is this picture of Neil Young, John Hamm (CEO) and Gary Friedman checking out a set of Audeze headphones. ;-)

[wkhanna]

'Signature Series' stats as of 8:00 am est, 13 Mar 2014:

 

NY 500

 

Willie Nelson 169

 

James Taylor 83

 

My Morning Jacket 27

 

Tom Petty 369

 

Patti Smith 169

 

Pearl Jam 500

 

Beck 144

 

CSN 213

 

CSNY 500

 

Dave Matthews 91

 

Foo Fighters 282

 

Herbie Hancock 123

 

Norah Jones 144

 

Lenny Kravitz 54

 

Arcade Fire 140

[Jawaburger]

Very happy to pledge $400 to help out. I've gone for a Herbie Hancock.

 

I just hope it's easier to transfer my own downloaded/ripped/recorded music files onto it than it is with an iPhone (I hate being forced to use iTunes to do this). Simple drag 'n' drop would suit me fine.

 

Mani.

 

I asked this question on the Kickstarter page. I will let you know what answer they give.

[VandyMan]

For Linux users, they said that you can copy files directly to the SD-Card since they will have no desktop app. I'm sure you could do the same on Mac or PC. The desktop app will almost certainly provide this too.

[Jud]

Then the answer is $59.00

 

With original packaging - $200,000.00

Amazing Vintage Collector's Museum Historic Apple iPod Classic 718908458976 | eBay

 

Never understood the whole collectible thing. Knew a guy in Miami a long time ago who had an LP collection for which he religiously checked values on Goldmine (I think that was the publication). They had to be unopened or they would lose a good part of their value. So they were all in the original plastic shrinkwrap. Not only had he never listened to them, the Miami heat and humidity had caused the cardboard covers to expand inside the unmoving shrinkwrap so the records were all warped and unplayable. But very valuable, so long as they were never ever used for their intended purpose.

[Superdad]

Then the answer is $59.00

 

With original packaging - $200,000.00

Amazing Vintage Collector's Museum Historic Apple iPod Classic 718908458976 | eBay

 

Darn, I should have kept the original packaging from my wife's first iPod. Could have just put some fishing weights inside and re-shrinkwrapped the whole box. Someone willing to pay a bunch for an unopened box is certainly not going to tear it open…

(Just kidding, I'm not that sort of guy. I remember when there was a rash of people buying at stores--what were they iPods or iPhones?--coming home and finding empty, weighted boxes.)

 

P.S. My 13 year old son is still mad at me for giving away (before he was born) my original 128K Macintosh (which I turned into a 512K in 1985 by desoldering the chips off the motherboard in Bob Hovland's garage). I don't have the heart to tell him I found a litter of roof rat babies nested in the box with it after storage in our garage attic.

[new_media]

I think that if I had kept all of my Star Wars toys in their original packaging I could have retired by now. Who knew? Much more fun to bury them in the back yard or strap M-80s to them and blow them up anyway.

 

I have a first generation iPad, but I didn't hold onto the box. It was much more mass-produced than the first iPod anyway.

[wwaldmanfan]

Never understood the whole collectible thing. Knew a guy in Miami a long time ago who had an LP collection for which he religiously checked values on Goldmine (I think that was the publication). They had to be unopened or they would lose a good part of their value. So they were all in the original plastic shrinkwrap. Not only had he never listened to them, the Miami heat and humidity had caused the cardboard covers to expand inside the unmoving shrinkwrap so the records were all warped and unplayable. But very valuable, so long as they were never ever used for their intended purpose.

 

I love to tell this story. I'm not about material things, but I do have a collection of about two dozen pyschedelic concert posters from the 1960's, which I had framed to decorate my music room. I have nostalgia for the era, and for the musical acts represented. These are original Family Dog Productions and Bill Graham's Fillmore West posters, from concerts held in San Francisco during the Haight/Ashbury LSD era. The posters in my collection range in value from under $100 to about $600 each. Many of them are quite eye-catching. In fact, my Muddy Waters poster is also in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery's collection in Washington, DC.

 

Anyway, I bought a different Bill Graham poster on ebay a few years ago, for about $75. The seller rolled it in another poster, as scrap paper packing. It was The Who, The Band, and Santana at Tanglewood, Massachusetts, a show also promoted by Graham. It is a very obscure poster, not painted by one of Graham's regular stable of psychedelic artists. In fact, it is listed in the reference book, "The Art of Rock", as artist unknown. It was slightly ripped, and creased. Even if it had been in mint condition, I thought it ugly, and I wouldn't display it, despite the marquee bands.

 

To make the story short, I listed it on ebay with a starting bid of $15, strictly as a lark, but when the smoke cleared, some nut had bid almost $1,300 for it, paid me immediately, and was absolutely thrilled to get it. it's just like they say, one man's trash is another man's treasure.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Awesome story.

[wwaldmanfan]

Awesome story.

 

Thanks for the compliment, Chris.

I guess it goes without saying that, because it was an ebay auction, there were numerous other crazies willing to pay almost as much ;>)

 

If anyone's interested in this sort of thing, go here:

Poster Art - Rock Posters, Concert Posters, Vintage Posters, Music Posters

[Jud]

I love to tell this story. I'm not about material things, but I do have a collection of about two dozen pyschedelic concert posters from the 1960's, which I had framed to decorate my music room. I have nostalgia for the era, and for the musical acts represented. These are original Family Dog Productions and Bill Graham's Fillmore West posters, from concerts held in San Francisco during the Haight/Ashbury LSD era. The posters in my collection range in value from under $100 to about $600 each. Many of them are quite eye-catching. In fact, my Muddy Waters poster is also in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery's collection in Washington, DC.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]11285[/ATTACH]

Anyway, I bought a different Bill Graham poster on ebay a few years ago, for about $75. The seller rolled it in another poster, as scrap paper packing. It was The Who, The Band, and Santana at Tanglewood, Massachusetts, a show also promoted by Graham. It is a very obscure poster, not painted by one of Graham's regular stable of psychedelic artists. In fact, it is listed in the reference book, "The Art of Rock", as artist unknown. It was slightly ripped, and creased. Even if it had been in mint condition, I thought it ugly, and I wouldn't display it, despite the marquee bands.

 

To make the story short, I listed it on ebay with a starting bid of $15, strictly as a lark, but when the smoke cleared, some nut had bid almost $1,300 for it, paid me immediately, and was absolutely thrilled to get it. it's just like they say, one man's trash is another man's treasure.

 

Love the artists (visual and audio both) and era as well. Stanley Mouse, Rick Griffin, Alton Kelly.... And a few of the comic artists as well, particularly S. Clay Wilson (you'd swear the guy was a homicidal maniac from his strips, which oddly I find incredibly funny for that exact reason).

 

Edit: This quote from Wikipedia says it nicely: "In contrast to the many countercultural figures who have moderated their more extreme tendencies and successfully assimilated into the mainstream of commercial culture, Wilson's work has remained troubling to mainstream sensibilities and defiantly ill-mannered."

[Superdad]

Wow Jud:

Zap Comix, Clay Wilson, R. Crumb. Your are really digging into some dusty brain cells from my youth! Totally forgot that I had a friend (in 6th grade?)--who's dad was the lawyer for a bunch of metal bands like Black Oak Arkansas and Black Sabath--took us backstage at California Jam in 1974 (friend fell of one of the speaker/PA towers and broke his arm. Anyway, I used to sleep over at his house and he would bring out a stack of Zap Comix (my mom didn't care if I listened to Zappa/Mothers, but she drew the line at those wonderfully disgusting comic books.

[wwaldmanfan]

Love the artists (visual and audio both) and era as well. Stanley Mouse, Rick Griffin, Alton Kelly....

 

I have another, I think, equally interesting story about how I got into collecting the Fillmore posters. The Fillmore East was located on Second Ave. and 6th St. in Manhattan, and was open from 1968-71. My wife attended Stuyvesant H.S. at that time, which was right around the corner. When Bill Graham shut the venue down, he basically abandoned his offices upstairs, and moved on. My wife made friends with the security guard, who said, go upstairs and take whatever you want. She made off with two reams of Graham's personal stationery, matching envelopes, press kits, publicity photos, and, among other thing, a number of the Final Concerts posters, shown here:

 

She had the stuff in storage for a decade until we met, and then another 18 years until ebay got going. I started listing it on ebay, and a guy who ran the "Pschedelic Solution" ephemera shop on 8th St. in Greenwich Village, contacted me. I sold him a box of letterheads for a thousand dollars! When I went to deliver it, he didn't have the cash, so I picked out a bunch of 1st printing posters instead.

I also sold off most of the other stuff, including several of the above, which still go for around $500 each, but kept the cleanest one as the centerpiece of my collection. Actually, the market for this stuff has declined, as the younger generation has little inkling or interest in that era. There's a limited "window" for buying and selling collectibles, and timing is everything.

[ChrisG]

I have a feeling this PonoPlayer will become a ubiquitous status symbol on airplanes just like the Bose noise canceling headphones. Right, wrong, or in between it may just happen.

 

Chris - if everyone has one, it is hardly a status symbol and this thing is priced for the masses. Now my A&K120 on the other hand...;-)

[FacePalmMonkey]

I am a college student and I don't think I will be able to afford the player. I was curious as to when the store was going to open up.

[jriver]

... I do have a collection of about two dozen pyschedelic concert posters from the 1960's, which I had framed to decorate my music room. I have nostalgia for the era, and for the musical acts represented. These are original Family Dog Productions and Bill Graham's Fillmore West posters, from concerts held in San Francisco during the Haight/Ashbury LSD era.

...

Great story. Thanks. I was there. It was just The Fillmore then. There was so much great music around. I most remember a radio DJ named Edward Bear. And the tear gas floating up to Oakland from the conflict at People's Park in Berkeley.

[jriver]

I am a college student and I don't think I will be able to afford the player. I was curious as to when the store was going to open up.

It will probably take a few months.