Idolator

Are you having a birthday soon? Do you have a well-meaning, yet taste-challenged, friend or relative who's a Spencer Gifts fiend? Do you have an iPod? Then
be very, very afraid:

Call it iSilly, a growing number of products in which fun is emphasized over function, and cute or irreverent often trumps wow. All of these items, some costing as little as $10, have been created to plug into an iPod — or, in many cases, any audio source that has a standard 3.5-millimeter headphone jack. ...

The first iPal, released last year, was a shaggy, plush creature resembling a teardrop-shaped extraterrestrial with stereo speakers for eyes positioned on long, flexible stalks. The shaggy iPal plugs into any audio player with a standard headphone jack, avoiding the need for an Apple license.

Mr. Schneider said the original iPal, which cost about $25, was intended for "tween girls who want to have something cool and fun in their room."

Then came the Movin' and Groovin' line of potted plants, also $25, "probably the best introduction in the history of my company," Mr. Schneider said. The plants, some wearing sunglasses and others a pink purse over a leafy limb, gyrate to music played through a speaker hidden in the plant's pot.

The Times article has info on other items that will be clogging up dollar-store shelves and landfills within the next 18 months, including the i-Bratz i-Petz Piggy, which, amazingly, mushes together glammed-up ditz dolls Bratz, iPods, and the notion of pigs flying. Congratulations to whoever came up with that idea: It's only February, but you've already created the piece of junk that pretty much defines everything about 2007.

iPod's Groovy Factor [NYT]