Gordon Brown claims a Brit invented the iPod

Britains got talent

So Gordon Brown wants to take credit for the last vestiges of technical talent we've been nursing for the last 10 years, and can't even get that right? Gah.

If he likes us to lead in technical matters, it wouldn't hurt to show us some love, amirite?

You really need to get out more

I don't normally comment on this sort of things but only tech site could compare one of the current stars of international industrial design to a house painter. Stop spending your time trying to second guess the Intel road-map and go to a gallery geek.

This sort of sniping is exactly why the UK has a brain drain

This is exactly the kind of sniveling point-scoring journalism that makes the UK's best and brightest head for the exit. The ipod, like countless inventions before it, was the product of quality engineering coupled with splendid industrial design. If Gordo had never heard of Fadell and credited only Ives, that's a faux pas only of interest to nerds like us. I would expect that in Michigan they credit Fadell and not Ives. It really doesn't matter.

Perhaps he reads The Register

From your article on Psion published in June last year:

"Psion were being approached by many startups who realised the brand value Psion could bring to a new area," recalls Hughes. "Before one had even appeared on the market, we were approached by a company that had an MP3 player that was Flash-based. It held only half an hour's worth of music, but we saw how that could evolve into a large market."

Tupman recalls devising a hard-disk based player around this time.

"Ken and I spent a number of months just driving around the country trying to pull together a plan to make hard disk drive MP3 player," he says. "Creative had their big CD-sized player with 2.5in drive, and there were lots of little Rio players; we thought we could make a play in that area because we had the technology. It was very much an investigation."

In October 2001, with Tupman now at Apple, the iPod was launched. In 2003, its sales exploded.

One item that the Brits did invent and should be proud of

Clearly the best thing that ever came from Britain was the Magna Carte, Even tho it was an attempt of one group of royal (birthright!) leaders to gain power from others born to power. For this the world owes Britain. (This is from one of those slimy Yanks.)

By the way, when are you going to get rid of the birthright ones? They are quaint and all but I mean the big eared one seems to be a waste of time and money. On the other hand, the younger one has balls going to Afghanistan and all. Not something many of our 'birthright' ones (ahem Dubbya) seem to feel they need to do. (Cough - chicken hawk!) Or to paraphrase Leona Helmsley - only the little people get shot at in war. Ah well - in less then a year the great US national nighmare will end.

Now where is that d@#$ helicopter - I need to get out of here before THEY catch me.

Product or Parts?

He may have been talking about some of the component chips in the Ipod which were invented and designed by Wolfson, a spin out from Edinburgh University.

That is the British way of doing business, we sell someone a part for 2p and then buy back a finished product for £199.

So what?

It's no different than the Americans claiming every single computing innovation has come from silicon valley, constantly re-writing history and conveniently ignoring the actual facts, not just with technology either.

Misinformed.

It may just be me, but it seems the esteemed Mr. Brown is either running on a vast amount of misinformation; what with his comments on the 'British' ipod, and others made a week or so ago about this new strain of 'lethal skunk' that is allegedly '20x-30x' stronger than that which was smoked in the 70's, or he's simply cracked under the pressure, and his brain is leaking. Either way, someone needs to muzzle him to prevent him spreading such blatent lies. I don't mind the normal lies he has to tell to keep his job, but blatent lying is just too much!

Mine's the one with the 'lethal skunk'!

We did invent it!

Clearly ,Gordon Invented we Invented the Ipod, so what's the problem?

Paris because she clearly did not invent it either.

iPod wasn't invented at all

I don't see how the iPod can be considered an invention at all, considering it was not the first MP3 player nor the first HDD-based MP3 player, and certainly not the first portable music player, digital or otherwise.

It was a refinement, sure, but not an invention.

Re: The real reason

"that Brits spend so much time drinking on public transport"

So what are you supposed to do while waiting several hours as they clear the wrong kind of fluff off the track?

We invent ideas

In the UK we have invented all sorts of modern ideas. The problem is that other people have made better use of them.

You could list jet engines, WWW, or even taxation without representation. The USA gets rich on Boeing, internet porn and representation without taxation.

Come On Now ...

Seriously .. Isnt Ipod a MP3 Player with A HDD and a screen ?

I dont get why everyone's back of it .

As I've said before...

Gordon can be proud of Britain, at least in Europe we are...

No #1 - Childhood Asthma!

No #1 - Childhood Obesity!

No #1 - Binge Drinking!

Re: Herby

There's a much longer list of fallacies. The Earth does not spin on its axis once a day (that would be a sidereal day). There are not 52 states in the USA. And so on ad nauseam.

In any case, there had been MP3 players before the iPod. What distinguished the iPod was slick packaging and even slicker marketing. In that sense the outer casing _was_ the inventive step. In so as far as you can claim to invent something that is merely a rehash of what has been done before, yes, the iPod had a British inventor.

640k is enough?

Really? People still use this poorly attributed didn't-even-happen-quote in 2008? Still?

But lets not forget...

Ah yes, the great British invention. You do know that we actually invented the word: invention. It was back in the summer of 1756 I think.

Gordon and other accountants...

So one one side of his face he bigs up achievements; on his other face he slashes funding for science.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7373940.stm

Didn't we also invent...

or was it just this government who invented the white elephant.

How is Gordon wrong?

I do love the way el reg has subscribed to the latest spell of Gordon bashing like every other sheep in the media. To say the ipod was invented by a Briton (Jonathan Ive) isn't particularly a stretch, given that (from the info i've seen) mp3 players were NOT invented by apple, and the attractively simple design that sets ipods apart from their competitors WAS Ive's design.

Whilst I acknowledge that there is 'a subtle difference between the house painter and the architect', the whole attraction of the ipod was the casing with the intuitive wheel interface and the smooth lines, compared with other mp3 players of the time such as the rio diamond or the mpman (which, granted were created 3 years earlier, but there were little prevalent alternatives until the ipod).

Really?

I could have sworn that Leslie Nielsen was one of ours! :(

Sounds painful

"Companies will come and locate in Briton"

I just hope I'm not the Briton involved.

Go on, publish the comment and leave the typo!!

Don't forget

That Gordon Clown is Scottish, Whilst your on about his lack of credible knowledge, I'd mention that there are very few "Britons" left in the UK as they where replaced by the anglo saxons over a thousand years ago. There are lots of British people, that you could corrupt to "Britains". So don't forget it is Britain, not Briton, the people are British. If you don't know how to use a language I'd suggest you don't.

Other wonderful British inventions and discoveries:-

The Empire

Jet engine

Electromagnetism (Faraday)

Radar (cavity Magnetron)

Smug Septic tanks..LOL

Never underestimate design

The number one reason for the success of the Ipod was certainly design.

To call it an invention is rubbish, of course.

To underestimate design is like saying that the look of a woman is compleatly irrelevant.

Deep down we always assume the "good design" to be good, intelligent and so on.

And a architect is indeed a designer (painter) if he wants to succeed.

As far as I have seen nobody has mentioned the Iphone.

Again all design.

Why am I not surprised that he is unaware that...?

The COMPUTER was invented by a Briton - Alan Turing.

The world's first programmable, electronic, digital computer (Colossus) was built by three Britons: Tom Flowers, Sid Broadhurst and W.W. Chandler.

The world's first stored-program, electronic digital computer was built in Britain (the Manchester University BABY).

The world's first production computer (EDSAC) was built in Britain (by Maurice Wilkes at Cambridge).

The world's first virtual memory system (ATLAS).....

The list goes one.

Paris, because I don't suppose she is aware either...

@ John Gamble

Weren't you aware that Michiganite is the only thing that can harm the Michelin Man? http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1173/774789874_7cee7c85b9_o.jpg

Of course, even I (DaFt as I am) didn't know there was a human MADE of the stuff! Gads! The Nightmare Super-villain of all car drivers!

Political rapier

Jeremy Paxman says "I'm confident my tenure is secure from Fern Britton's recent challenge".

In other news, committed Christian, Gordon Brown, declares reality-based thinking a pernicious influence and vows to push forward with his science-free view of how Yahweh wants us to wear our underpants.

Eejits. The lot of them. Apart from that Brit who invented the iPod.