Friday, October 13, 2006

Morte d'iPod

My iPod has been having issues. It hasn't been downloading podcasts from the iTunes on my computer, and then it froze up last week on the way to work when I was trying to blot out annoying chatter on the train. It unfroze after I plugged it in and left it alone for a while.

The same thing happened this morning, except that it didn't unfreeze when I tried to reboot it. Instead, I got this unsettling icon:



NOT a good sign. The support website isn't very encouraging and states that this indicates a hardware issue unless I am able to "force the iPod into disk mode." I was not able to do so.

In other words, my iPod is dead. I could send it in, but repairs would cost $249 plus $6.95 shipping and handling, which is the same price as a new model iPod with even more storage minus $6.95 shipping and handling. Whatever the extended warranty I was offered at the time of purchase a year and a half ago seemed like too much, and I still feel that extended warranties are rip-offs. If a product doesn't last for more than a year, it isn't well-made and large-scale boycotts and sit-ins should be organized.

I'm pissed, although I also saw this coming since I heard complaints of dying/dead iPods from others. They are the superior digital music players, but I'm not about to spend another $300 on a new one. I'm thinking about a different MP3 player, maybe one like this that also gets FM stations so I can listen to NPR.

This is cooler, but I wonder if that would make me a sucker.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hate to say I told you so, but had it been manufactured by delicate, young, Asian hands in a sweatshop, it'd probably still be functioning.

I'm writing from a Starbucks, by the way.

blogazon said...

Wow. You are REALLY pro-sweat shop. I bet you are the kind of person who barks orders at starving African children and makes them run errands for you.

Anonymous said...

Take it to the Apple store. My iPod did that same thing, and I took it to the Apple store at the Galleria (in Houston) and they replaced it for free since it was still in some supposed warranty period.

It's worth a shot. :)