Knocking the rocks-off rock box

Apple says iGasm ad is an unoriginal sin

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Apple turned itself into a business powerhouse by making the MP3 player sexy, but apparently it doesn't want the iPod to get too sexy. The company is threatening to sue British sex-toy store Ann Summers for using Apple-inspired graphics in ads for the iGasm, a vibrator that plugs into an iPod and throbs to the beat. The story came out yesterday in the geek press, and today a surf to the Ann Summers site finds the clever image in question removed, with this explanation:

But shocked iPod bosses are iRate—demanding stores take down all posters for the gadget or risk a fight in the iCourt. The neon-pink ads feature a curvaceous girl with wires coming OUT of her MP3 player and INTO her knickers. And it's definitely turned on. Apple lawyers claim the poster is a blatant rip-off of their own famous silhouette images used to flog iPods. Their haughty legal letter to the shop chain adds: "We hope this request to remove it immediately will prevent us having to consider further action."

Heavy-handed though Apple's being, this high-profile tiff can't be hurting iGasm sales. Even without nice ads and a blogosphere full of buzz, the catalog copy for the device makes it sound like a must-have for any music lover:

Load up your iPod with killa choons and take your appreciation of music to a whole new level. This genius little device hooks up to your iPod, MP3 player, laptop or CD player and vibrates in sync with the beat. Go at it hard and fast with a pounding drum and bass track or chill with the ambient classic. Just turn up the volume to increase the strength of the vibrations and believe us when we say that full whack is PHENOMENAL. And here's a tip, you'll make him the happiest man on the planet if you let him be DJ for the night.

As if you need another reason to want one, yesterday it cost 30 pounds, but today it's just 25. Check it out at the online shop here. And be careful making any "Is than an iPod in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?" jokes. Apple's legal team could be listening.