Bizarre June 18, 2008 posted by Nigel

Intempo Rebel – the world’s first ‘lawsuit just waiting to happen’ gadget

intemporebel small Intempo Rebel the worlds first lawsuit just waiting to happen gadget

The Intempo Rebel is a music recorder with two major features. First, it will record the most-played tracks from any FM radio station, and save the tracks as MP3 files onto an SD card minus the adverts and DJ prattle. Secondly, it is probably the first ever consumer electronics product which aims to use a music industry lawsuit as part of the marketing strategy. Why else call it ‘Rebel’, eh? Our advice, grab one of these fast, before those big black boots stomp down on their tiny little heads. £69.99.

intemporebel2 small Intempo Rebel the worlds first lawsuit just waiting to happen gadget

The Intempo Rebel is a breakthrough product that allows consumers to explore new music recorded from the radio, free of charge. The first of its type in the world, Rebel is a music sampling system which records the most-played tracks from any FM station then saves these tracks as MP3 files, cutting out hyperactive DJs and adverts as it goes. You can then effortlessly download these songs onto your iPod, MP3 or mobile phone, liberating your favourite tracks to your pocket without paying a penny.

Tags: intempo+rebel, gadget, radio+recorder

About the Author:

Nigel is the managing editor of the Red Ferret, as well as a freelance columnist for the Sunday Times newspaper in London. Loves tech and fancies himself as a bit of a futurist, but then don't we all?

Nigel – who has written 5163 posts on The Red Ferret Journal.

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http://symbiancorner.blogspot.com Symbian

I think RIAA not interested in radio quality of music in this device.
Hayden

And this is different than recording to a cassette? The idea is the same, only the technology has changed. There are other ways of recording from a radio, the Rebel just simplifies that. I think that any lawsuit would not hold up, especially when the RIAA has more promising lawsuits to file, and the mess with Sony BMG using pirated software to clean up.
http://www.redferret.net Nigel

I have a feeling the biggest problem is not the quality of the sound, but the fact that most DJs talk over tracks, which is going to make a mess of the DJ chatter removing feature really, isn’t it? :-)
mermaldad

Hard to tell from the write-up, but I wonder if this device uses multiple samples of the same song to detect and eliminate DJ voiceovers.
http://mojito.over-blog.net Inti

hey, why only the most played tracks? you already hear enough of the same crap over and over, why on earth would one want to hear it even more?
Njm

I wonder how much the quality can be improved by repeat sampling of the same song.
Richard

Hey,

After testing Intempo’s Rebel product for a day a can tell you it STARTS with recording the most played songs, THEN it records the less played songs and seems to fix the short cutted versions with new versions, full length songs.

Hey, me like a lot now. Much more love from me after I have tested the Rebel a bit now
john

Oh my god, talking over the music PISSES ME OFF! That ginger ballsack Chris Evans does it all the damn time. I don’t mind the ads so much, they’re there to fund the station, but why do we need to listen to moronic Delta-minuses prattling at each other the rest of the time? And why oh why can they not at least shut up when the music people are actually tuning in for starts playing?
Richard

replying to John above:
This Intempo Rebel I have bought seems to save new version of a song if the previous version was cut short due to silly DJ’s talking over the intro.

I really would like to know how this is possible. Anybody that can explain this in more technical details?
http://www.rockxx.com Sean

Another Napster crash coming soon. Stay tuned!
Richard

I love it!

I now already got a product, so I do not care if Intempo get sued or not. I hope they will be sued by RIAA since then they wil lsell motre products and this a cool product. This is how technology gets better and better.

However, RIAA have no chance in winning a court case. It has always been allowed to record for private use from radio. And why should this be different. If somebody makes a product better then before, it does not mean that this product is illegal just because it competes with the competitors. The world is moving forward, and it would be sad if the progress was stopped.

Remeber that all companies want the consumers time and money. The consumers have a choice of what they should do with their time. Go jogging, listen to music, play golf, anything. To defend a business case like commercial radio that tells the users how to spend his time by sending not liked content is not viable. In the future people will be able to chose more by different content and this product is a great stride towards this.