iPod Vending Machines Soon To Prompt Mass Killings
Australian vending machine firm Zoom Systems intends to litter the United States with iPod vending machines. Swiping your card through the electronic labia of the boxy machine, $300 dollars will be subtracted from your account and a brand new iPod will gracefully tumble out. Or so they claim.
There's a lot of reasons why this is a dumb idea, but the big one that comes to mind is does anyone really want to live in a world of $300 vending machine transactions? When the distributing coils of a vending machine don't correctly eject my Snickers bar, or my finger slips and I accidentally press D4 instead of C4, at least you're only out seventy five cents. What happens when the coils don't fully revolve on an iPod and while you're trying to find a manager to rectify the situation, the next clod who comes along gets two? Machine gun massacre at the Zoom Systems head office, we imagine.
Vending Machines Sell iPods [Local 6]
This is a test using rich text formatting and html links. It's the generic "company" ad that should appear on all posts with the Company category if they don't have an ad attached to a specific company.
Post a comment
Comments:
Will it take quarters?
They already have these in the USA. I saw them myself in the Atlanta airport a couple weeks ago.
I understand these are very popular in Japan and Southeast Asia, where they vend everything from gum to porn. I saw one article online that showed a huge convenience-store-in-a-kiosk vending machine with milk, bread, cell phones - hundreds of items.
If they'd add hot pizza and hookers, you'd never have to shop anywhere else!
I saw one of these in our hotel in San Jose during GDC. This one had everything from gum and snacks to aspirin and condoms to iPods and universal power adapters. My boss bought one of the power adapter kits.
You use a touchscreen to choose the item you want, so there's little chance of slipping and picking the wrong thing. The pusher mechanism looks a little sturdier than the coils of most vending machines. The items fall into a box that moves not unlike the grabber claw game (albeit automated and in a different plane) which then zooms back under the touchscreen so you can retrieve your purchase.
and nothing is more fun than an empty music-less possibly not even charged ipod.
having a hard time figuring why this is useful. especially in an airport.
They've had this at SFO for over a year...
Don't you realize, the secret is to buy an additional one when the first gets stuck? At least you get a 2 for the price of 1 deal (on the second item) versus zero. You think people bang on the candy machine now, wait til its a $500 transaction. Oh, and someone will die tipping over the machine.