iPod Gets The Royal Nod

frostilicus2 writes "Her Royal Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of England seems to have taken quite an interest in technology recently. She's now getting hip and funky with an Apple iPod." From the article: "If the thought of the Queen trolling through Apple's online jukebox, iTunes looking for 'hits' is a little too much for the frontal lobes, the Sun assures its readers that, like most things, she probably has a footman to do it for her."

ok?

[Osmosis_Garett]

How is this news? Where's the page 3 girl?

Re:ok?

[njcoder]

" How is this news?

Dude, didn't you see it said Apple in the story? Geez.

Re:ok?

[Anonymous Coward]

Lizzy does if for me!

Luv
John Howard (PM)
xxx

here

[Anonymous Coward]

http://page3.co.uk/ [page3.co.uk]
More interesting anyway.

Re:ok?

[Anonymous Coward]

I guess you're sorry you bought that Nomad, huh?

Oh God we are one step away from

[nihilistcanada]

I dub thee Sir Jobs. The Royal Reality Distortion Field will be something to truly fear.

Re:Oh God we are one step away from

[Darvin]

It would never be Sir Jobs.

Rather Sir Steven, or Sir Steven Jobs. But since he's not a member of the commonwealth, it would only ever be Steven Jobs KBE.

Re:Oh God we are one step away from

[Ohreally_factor]

Or Steven Jobs KTHNXBYE

Re:Oh God we are one step away from

[Koiu Lpoi]

You know, like making fun of Daikatana, making fun of the Reality Distortion Field is something everyone here at Slashdot does but doesn't really understand.

It's like that damn Milkshake song. I've been talking to people, and I can not get a straight answer for what the 'milkshake' is - because nobody really knows for sure.

Re:Oh God we are one step away from

[RichardX]

We laugh at Daikatana because it took approximately 400 years to develop, and was hyped the entire time as "It's gonna be the best game ever! So good it'll redefine the whole concept of what a 'game' is!"
And then, of course, it just turned out to be an utter load of pants.

The Reality Distorition Field thing, I have slightly less of a firm grasp on, but it seems to be related to the fact that any time Jobs is involved in.. well.. anything, really.. all logic, reason, and common sense shoot straight out of t

I've always said...

[WFFS]

That there should be more Queen on iPods.

"I'm just a poor boy... nobody loves me..."

Re:I've always said...

[Tim Browse]

There's a joke in there somewhere about us having grown tired of all this vision, but I can't be bothered to find it :-)

Executive iPod

[uberjoe]

That kind of reminds me of this http://www.whitehouse.org/kids/ipod.asp/ [whitehouse.org]

Re:Executive iPod

[rekenner]

404

Re:Executive iPod - Working Link

[NitsujTPU]

Here's a working link [whitehouse.org]

Re:Executive iPod - Working Link

[Nasarius]

Amazon has song previews too, ya know.

Re:Bush's charicteristic shown through his music..

[Al Dimond]

Although the site linked to above was a joke, I read somewhere that (for serious) George Bush has "My Sharona" on his iPod.

Supposedly some religious right folks weren't too happy about hearing that, because the song contains some kind of sexual references. If I were the religious right I'd be more worried that my bestest friend in government is losing brain cells listening to that stupid shit.

Sex Pistols

[ari_j]

Can any of you guys hack the iTunes Music Store so every listed song is actually God Save the Queen by the Sex Pistols, just for a day or two?

Re:Sex Pistols

[DarkHelmet]

Anarchy in the UK would work just as well, I think.

Re:Sex Pistols

[biglig2]

Well, thing is, it's 2005 now and while she is still the Queen, he's appearing on I'm a Celebrity get me out of here....

special edition?

[moz25]

I wonder if she got a special edition like a gold-plated one?

Re:special edition?

[wootest]

She got a silver 6GB iPod mini.

Re:special edition?

[Insipid Trunculance]

I wonder if she got a special edition like a gold-plated one?

No ,but the flunkey did have the Cheek to ask for a Royal Discount.Dunno , if Apple gave it or not but somehow the idea of a Royal Warrant sounds incongruous.Imagine, having your iPod stamped with the Royal coat of Arms.

I wonder...

[Zimok]

I wonder what the queen listens to?

Re:I wonder...

[slarshdot]

smack my bitch up?

Re:I wonder...

[slashdot.org]

I wonder what the queen listens to?

Yeah, there aren't many things that I wonder about less...

onepod?

[job0]

shouldn't that be a onepod or maybe a wepod

pfft...

[pswayze]

It only costs me ten bucks and a bit of self-respect to get the royal nod in a back alley. And it's certainly pleasing to all of my lobes.

Awkward

[NilObject]

This would make for the most awkward iPod commercial, ever.

I mean, I'm listening to The White Stripe' "Seven Nation Army", and now I have this image of the Queen rocking out in some sort of a shuffle-type fashion in my head.

"Back and forth, through my mind!"

Re:Awkward

[NilObject]

The White Stripe

Which is kinda like The White Stripes without Meg.

I've got to start proofreading my posts...

Re:Awkward

[WhatAmIDoingHere]

It would be an improvement, though.

Re:Awkward

[mj_1903]

and now I have this image of the Queen rocking out in some sort of a shuffle-type fashion in my head

Don't imagine it, live it [thesun.co.uk].

Re:Awkward

[killjoe]

Lots of people are making jokes but to me it's kind of profound. People speak of music as being universal and stories like this drive it home for me. Ok she is probably not listening to White Stripe but she is most certainly listening to Bach and maybe even some modern music from her youth. I even imagine she might listen to steely dan or joni mitchell.

Anyway the point is that she might very well be listening the same music as you are and that says something about the power of music to reach people of all ages, cultures, or strata in the society.

For our Police Force also....

[Boss, Pointy Haired]

They're going to do a special model combined with the police radio - the iPlod.

Re:For our Police Force also....

[imroy]

And the iNob [abc.net.au] - The last word in electronic accessories for tossers. You won't be able to take get your hand off it!

From Today today [abc.net.au] on Triple J :)

By Royal Appointment

[rollerbob]

Maybe Apple can now put the Royal Coat of Arms on their UK iPods, just like HP Sauce and Branston Pickle.

Re: The Queens iPod

[Eh-Wire]

I understand the Queen has let it be known that she intends to purchase a matching air-guitar for her newly acquired iPod.

Royal iPod

[ndansmith]

First we have the U2 iPod. Now Apple can launch the HRH Queen Elizabeth II iPod. It will be royal blue. To cater to British sensibilities, the HRH QE2 iPod featuers and extra long queue.

The Queen on iTunes?

[91degrees]

She pirates. She's a regular on warez sites and IRC.

HRH ER2:Y0 d00dz, 0n3 r00lz. n0 really. 1 roolz over all of 9R3ET 8R17ain

Re:The Queen on iTunes?

[91degrees]

Ah, but the Queen is technically above the law. If they try to sue, then she can just declare herself immune from the law.

Normally such irresponsible behaviour would cause a constitutional crisis, and probably require imediate abdication or abolision of the monarchy, but if it was against the record industry, I think a lot of people would see her point.

Re:The Queen on iTunes?

[ThePromenader]

Ah. So if the Queen taps into bitTorrent, I suppose that downloading from her library wouldn't be illegal either.

The only problem there lies in the fact that the The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards' "Farewell to the Greys" is not on most of our mp3 hit-lists...

Proper address

[reformhead]

It's Her Majesty. Not Her Royal Majesty. She is the Sovereign and does not need the Royal tag added because she IS Royal. Yanks have some difficulty with this, no doubt, but that's the way it is.

I hate it when people get her forms of address wrong. Kinda like calling Mr. Bush The Honorable President.

Re:Proper address

[debugdave]

yeah I totally hate it when they call the president the "honorable" president. Absolutely ridiculous.

Wrong

[Martin Spamer]

The official title is Her Royal Highness in the third person or Your Royal Highness in the second person.

However being a republican I would address her as 'Yo Beth' just to see the reaction on the faces of all the sycophants.

Re:Wrong

[hachete]

Your royal biatch is acceptable in some circles I believe as in: "Yo, royal biatch, get down NOW!"

Wrong again

[ccmay]

The official title is Her Royal Highness in the third person or Your Royal Highness in the second person.

Come now, I am a barbarous Yank and I know that is wrong. It's "Her Majesty"/"You Majesty". "Royal Highness" is for the other members of the royal family.

I have also seen "Her Britannic Majesty" but I don't know how that would be used. Maybe when she is chumming with the other useless royal sponges, like "His Hispanic Majesty" and "Her Belgic Majesty".

-ccm

Re:Proper address

[FidelCatsro]

One thing that is far better about a republic system , you get to chose the moron.

Re:Proper address

[FidelCatsro]

Yes but that way there is only one moron at a time , in America you get to decide between two difrent kinds of morons.

Re:Proper address

[Anonymous Coward]

"... U.S. dignitary"

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have found the winner of "Oxymoron of the Year 2005". Congratulations.

Re:Proper address

[mollymoo]

Her name is Elizabeth, surnames are for commoners.

Amusing reply

[Conch]

I were thinking of posting an amusing reply but I will have my footman do it for me instead.

Re:Amusing reply

[gstoddart]

I were thinking of posting an amusing reply but I will have my footman do it for me instead.

No no no no.

It's "we were thinking of posting an amusing reply but we will have our footman do it for us instead."

When one is singularly Royal, one refers to onesself in the plural third person.

Knave. :-P

Comic Book Guy

[Frodo Crockett]

Worst. Story. Ever.

TorrentSpy.com

[PeteDotNu]

TorrentSpy.com, by Royal Appointment to HRH The Majesty Elizabeth II of England.

Apples new ad compaign

[evil_marty]

just wait for the ads!

England != Britain

[snap2grid]

It's the British Monarchy, not the English one, although I guess there are quite a few here who would be happy with a republic. Although having said that, Elizabeth I was Queen of England and not Scotland, so Elizabeth II of Britain is technically Elizabeth I of Scotland, so... that would just mean that the headline is actually cleverly localised for someone like me living in Scotland.

Makes sense!

Re:England != Britain

[mollymoo]

Being Queen of one place doesn't exclude being Queen of somewhere else at the same time, so neither of you are wrong. HM The Queen is officially styled as: "Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Defender of the Faith, Head of the Commonwealth."

interesting.

[St. Arbirix]

I wonder if she pays royalties.

The Sun

[t_allardyce]

I think its probably about time to point out that The Sun is a brand of toilet paper with funny pictures and words printed on it to entertain while you take a dump. To quote it in with any seriousness outside the bathroom just isn't done.

Re:The Sun

[Tim Browse]

"You're Sun Readers, aren't you?"
"How did you know that?"
"You've sawn the wrong ends off your shotguns."

Re:The Sun

[adamjaskie]

Eh? Don't you saw off BOTH ends? I.e. the end of the barrel, AND the end of the stock, so as to make it more easily concealable?

Top quality journalism here...

[Stormwatch]

The news say it is a 6 GB model (is the queen stingy?). But it also says: "The pocket-sized digital music players can hold up to 10,000 downloaded songs." No. Apple says the 20 GB iPod stores 5000 songs; a 6 GB iPod mini, 1500 songs. Something is wrong here - unless Her Majesty rips her CDs with lower quality settings!

Re:Top quality journalism here...

[Tim Browse]

The only thing wrong is expecting any kind of journalism from The Sun, let alone 'top quality' journalism.

This is the sort of paper that uses bold and italics in its editorials, just to make sure you get the point.

Enough said, I think.

Re:Top quality journalism here...

[Tibe]

Oh My! really?

Re:Top quality journalism here...

[dorward]

The only thing wrong is expecting any kind of journalism from The Sun, let alone 'top quality' journalism.

s/The Sun/Slashdot/

*cough*

Re:Top quality journalism here...

[soliptic]

Better the Sun than the Mail.

The Sun is knowingly, amusingly and mostly-harmlessly lowbrow. Sure, it prints a load of rubbish, but it knows that just as well as we do, and nobody takes it too seriously. The Mail is poisonous, self-important and comes damn near to inciting hate crime imho.

Incredible to imagine it, because of her age?

[haggar]

I guess the reason it's so hard to imagine Queen Elisabeth II browsing iTunes is her age. Because our civilization has this prejudice that old folks don't do youthy stuff.
I had a relative, 15 or 20 years ago (he is now deceased) who was an octagenarian (80+ years) and was enthusiastically programming on his ZX Spectrum [old-computers.com]
He developed a rather sophisticated geodesy program (he was a retired geodesist), which he even sold to a handful of companies. All this didn't look strange to me, as I was still a kid, void of preconceptions. It is only now, that I am grown up, that I see how extraordinary this was. It's the mentality of today's world that makes it sound so incredible. It's also the reason why many of us will have problems finding a job at 50+, in software or hardware development.

New iPod Silhouette Commercial?

[TimTheFoolMan]

There has got to be some way to dress up a teenager in a heavy coat, appropriate hat, and teach them to do the "Queen Wave" while doing any number of acrobatic dance moves while a remix of "God Save the Queen" plays.

The mind boggles...

Tim

HRH etched into the back?

[data1]

I wonder if she'll get the free engraving of HRH on the back of the iPod.... mmm Henrietta H Hippo.
Sorry my friends from across the pond but Homer simpson ruined her royal majesty's initials.

Crazy

[gilesjuk]

She should have chosen a player with a radio, I'm sure she likes listening to the wireless.

About the Author, Nick Farrell

[Lord Byron II]

Nick Farrell is the one who wrote this piece of trash [theinquirer.net]. Not that there's anything wrote with not liking SuSE, but:

"And don't bother trying to look at the installation read-me notes either. They are just advertisements for the idiots who designed the software"

"For a home user this list is crucial, because, as I found out later installing other programs is a complete and utter arse."

His speech is vitriolic and his analysis is shallow. I'd be more than happy to never see another one of his pieces on /. ag

I got this image of the Queen ...

[crovira]

on a pair of roller skates, listening to the Black Eyed Peas, doing the robot, snapping her waist and her fingers.

Man now THAT would be a killer ad.

Well, I'm a Canadian. We're allowed to get these, uh, ideas. If I was Australian, it'd practically be expected of me. :-)

More AYB

[SharpFang]

More AllYourBase movies.
(warning, some not really suitable for "wide audience")

http://fchan.hentaiplanet.net/flash/res/1298.html [hentaiplanet.net]
Especially the Rhapsody is worth checking :)`

When the Crown does it, it's not piracy. :)

[argent]

We assume she is not searching the royalty free or pirated stuff.

The Queen does not need to engage in Piracy, She could simply issue Letters of Marque authorizing a Privateer to undertake the mission on Her behalf.

thoughts...

[acroyear]

i wonder if her arm's going to get tired with that thing in that little tiny purse of hers. it probably weighs twice as much as it did before...

A royal insider...

[johansalk]

... told me she listens to Iron Mainden.

10000 Quatloos

[Greyfox]

10000 Quatloos for her play list!

When I visited her...

[epeus]

...she had the band of the Coldstream Guards playing a medley of show tunes and oldies.
There was something very surreal about sitting in Buckingham Palace in the presence of Her Majesty while a gaggle of beefy soldiers in red and gold uniforms play 'Let me take you by the hand and show you the streets of London' on brass instruments.

Re:Does She Need It?

[Minced]

"Mom, I want an i-Pod" "WHAT?!" "Come on mom...all the world leaders got one!" "Oh really now...*scornful*" "G.W and the Queen got one!" "I suppose if the USA and England went to war you would follow?" "Well o'course, if all the cool countries were doing it."

Re:Does She Need It?

[lachlan76]

Let me guess...you're Australian?

(Not flamebait...I'm from Australia too)

Re:Who is John Howard?

[KiwiSurfer]

John Howard is the Prime Minister of Australia. He was one of the first leaders to express support for George Bush's plan to invade Afganstian.

Re:Who is John Howard?

[benna]

and Iraq, which I think is really what the grand parent was refering to.

Re:Who is John Howard?

[ccmay]

John Howard is the Prime Minister of Australia. He was one of the first leaders to express support for George Bush's plan to invade Afganstian.

And rightfully so. Reasonable people can disagree about the wisdom and propriety of the Iraq adventure, but practically nobody with an ounce of sense objected to the Afghanistan operation. The Taliban, through their support of Al-Qaeda, made war upon us and richly deserved their fate.

-ccm

Re:Who is John Howard?

[Bertie]

And what a success it's been. Whole army divisions guided by surveillance equipment which could read the time off your watch from outer space has failed to find Immanuel Goldstein, I mean Osama bin Laden, and nobody actually seems interested in finding him either, presumably bebause if they do, they won't have a bogeyman any more. Meanwhile, farmers are producing bumper opium crops, and Kabul's full of Western "consultants" getting rich off money that's meant to be rebuilding the place. Outside their gat

Re:Who is John Howard?

[Bertie]

I can't imagine why anybody would want to bomb people as magnanimous, tolerant, learned and humble as yourself. I really can't.

Re:Who is John Howard?

[RichardX]

and we have not been attacked on our soil in four years.

Yeah, because it was an almost daily occurance before the war...
Sounds like you'd be interested in my fantastic new Tiger Repelling Rock. It uses the latest in anti-tiger technology to keep you completely safe at all times*

*may not work in countries where there are tigers.

Re:Does She Need It?

[ozmanjusri]

Did Johnnie Howard's nagging pay off in the end?

Yeah, I bought a nice new iPod and left it at Cheviot Bay for him.

Re:Does She Need It?

[dangitman]

When I'm queen I want the footman to carry the whole stereo around for me.

She's probably too embarassed to have everyone hear Her Robbie Williams and Duran Duran collection out loud. Say, when is Her Highness' silhouette-dancing ad going to be released? Maybe she'll sell out to Sir Gates and appear at a conference screaming "Commoners, Commoners, Commoners!"

Re:Does She Need It?

[Erik K. Veland]

Well, being locked up in the castle all the time you can't blame her for acting a bit weird lately [video-c.co.uk].

Re:Does She Need It?

[Cougem]

Not only that, but I've been told on several occasions that the Queen is actually tone deaf and doesn't enjoy music. Anyone know if this is actually true? Several people told me during the jubilee, which must have been hell for her if this is the case.

Re:When is she not around a stereo system?

[mishmash]

She spends a lot of time in old cars and carriages that probably don't have built in radios.

Re:When is she not around a stereo system?

[Bertie]

Not really - these days she gets around in a one-off custom-built Bentley knocked together for her a few years back. It's pretty plush, I'd be amazed if it doesn't have a radio.

Re:The Inquirer?

[benna]

Not THAT Inquirer, though admittedly I thought the same thing a while back.

Re:Wow..

[ooze]

Well, mainstream media has an army of professional headhunters wtaching the queen every second. But they don't have an army of Zealots watching every move of Steve's lips and anus.

So that's why we have less Royal rumors and non-stries here, but much much more Apple rumors and non-stories.

That being said, I have a Power Mac and an XServe. But that is the only and last Apple Hardware I will have. They announced last week, that they won't make good hardware anymore.

Re:Wow..

[dduck]

But that is the only and last Apple Hardware I will have. They announced last week, that they won't make good hardware anymore.

Isn't that a teeny bit hysterical? I mean: I know that the elder of us geeks were raised on the idea that the CPU was somehow the mystic soul of the computer (despite the fact that very differently souled computers were based on the same CPUs), but it's been a while since that was true, if it ever was.

As for the glory of the PPC: My Centrino-based, 512MB, 2 years old notebook

Re:She's got it...

[BiggyP]

I honestly can't for the life of me think what the woman could possibly need an iPod for, does she need 20+GB worth of oldies that she can listen to on the move?

the other thing i can't work out is, how does something this ridiculous, apparantly reported by the sun, count as /. worthy news, it's nearly as bad as that "Linux is for Losers" crap!

Re:She's got it...

[wootest]

I would suspect her sons to pre-load a little Prince for her as well.

Yeah! I can just see the queen shaking

[crovira]

her ass to "sexy mother fucker" (Horns pleaze...)

Re:paradox

[ZeroExistenZ]

I wonder if the Queen listens to Queen on her iPod?

I doubt she'll like to have Queen standing on her ipod while listening to the bandmembers talk.

Re:paradox

[Pop69]

If I remember rightly, the last time she wanted to listen to Queen she invited them round and got the guitarist guy to stand on the roof of Buckingham Palace and play God save the Queen.

Stylish or what ?