I just heard that after about a year of normal use an ipod’s battery is pretty much dead and the only solution is to buy a new ipod.
Anybody have any knowledge about this - either firsthand or have you read anything more about it?
While we’re at it, is there any reasonable alternative to an ipod yet?
Pretty much not true. Many people’s batteries last much longer. Even if the battery fails, it can be replaced, either by yourself or via a dealer. Here’s everything you need to know: http://www.ipodbatteryfaq.com/
Finagle pretty much summed it up. I’ll just add that most battery problems were with earlier models of the iPod, and that Apple does have a replacement program for iPods with totally dead batteries.
All that should be covered at the link he gave though.
Also note the newest iPods (introduced last month) use a newer, more energy-frugal processor; supposedly you can now get 18-20 hours of use out of one charge. That’s gotta help extend the battery’s lifetime some.
Depends on what you define as reasonable. If all you want is a music player, iPod is a good bet. If you want more functionality, then there are mp3 players that also include AM/FM receiver, voice recording, some that support many of the various codecs, some that even let you identify clips of music you hear on the radio by recording it and using their database. So what do you want from your player?
Link to Apple’s iPod Battery Replacement Program: http://www.apple.com/support/ipod/service/battery.html
There are alternatives, but I don’t know enought about them to comment beyond that.
As for the battery, yes it has been a ongoing problem w/ Ipods. Someone made a personal campain to warn the public that the non-replaceable IPOD battery only lasts 16? months. When he called for repair, Apple basically told him to take a long walk on a short pier.
One of the newest IPOD’s that don’t have a display seems to have been designed that there will be no way for the consumer to replace the battery. (cnet.com did a recent artical on this).
I personally feel Apple is doing this on purpose to ensure prompt upgrades, stratteling the line between consumer outrage and acceptance.
In general Li-ion batts have a limited life that is basically determined right after they are manufactured. Bascially they eat themselves up and their ain’t nothing you can do about it. This creates a variation of battery life, your’s might last 4 yrs, or 1 year. Though it is very unlikely for such a battery to go totally dead (and qualify for free replacement).
Too… much… misinformation… head explodes
[ul]
[li]The battery problems were fixed a loooooooong time ago.[/li][li]Li-ion batteries depend on charge/discharge cycles for lifespan. There is no random variation.[/li][li]The only iPod that does not have a screen is the shuffle. And ALL iPods are not very consumer friendly in the way of changing the battery. It still can be done, however. Also see point 4[/li][li]Not gonna do it[/li][li]Batteries that can store less than 50% max charge qualify for he replacement program. Within a year, this is free, as it is still covered by the warranty.[/li][/ul]
And not to be a spelling nazi, but strattling? :eek:
Tabby_Cat I’m sorry to burst your battery bubble, but the fight against ignorance must march on w/ or w/o Cecil
Then why did it re-occur with the IPOD shuffle:
From http://news.com.com/A+voyage+inside+the+iPod+Shuffle/2100-1041_3-5590430.html
It is pretty darn obvious that Apple designed the IPOD to only last a short time.
.
I counter with :
From http://www.buchmann.ca/Chap10-page6.asp
Anything can be done (except for the speed of light thing) but it has been totally obvious that Apple has made it intentionally hard to do, and apparently w/ the Ipod Shuffle impossiable.
Sort of a safe bet, since most will fall below this right after it (like 16 months) but when Li-ion batts go they go big time, since the electrode is eaten away.
My spelling is intentionl as a protest against a pay site not providing a spell checker.
Of course, it didn’t help that the guy was listening to his iPod for 16 hours a day, which really taxed the battery beyond what most folks do.
It’s a design decision – user-replacable batteries would make the iPods bigger than their current design, and might (depending on the type of battery) require changing more often.
Every company makes these kinds of tradeoff decisions; my Palm Tungsten PDA doesn’t have a replaceable battery either, but that doesn’t prompt me to start off a campaign against them.
rjung The part you are missing is that Apple’s IPOD is known to have battery life problems, palm does not have that reputation. I have a palm Vx, in which the battery doesn’t last as long as it did, but it is still very usable. I thin my Palm Vx could go a month w/o recharging, now perhaps a week, still very acceptable, unlike IPOD. Another aspect is Apples attitude to early battery failure*, basically they say F— you, go buy another one.
I don’t have the link to the artical, but I don’t beleive this to be the case. anyway if you google ‘ipods nonreplaceable batteries’ and ‘ipods non-replaceable batteries’ you will find several links as to this problem.
another nail in the ipod’s casket:
http://www.appleturns.com/scene/?id=4409
It seems like their tech support is intentionally not letting users know of a firmware update which could restore battery life (in this case regaining about 5-6 hours from 20 minutes)
Unfortuantely, that’s not necessarily so. LiIon batteries suffer most from a three-odd-year lifetime, largely reguardless of useage. see: Dan's Data letters #79
From the New York Times:
And apparently, the whole “iPod batteries suck” campaign got started because one of the guys involved tried to replace the battery himself and broke his iPod in the process:
So this just states that acording to the manufacturer for the IPOD to fail in this time he must have run it in a certain way. Again you are quoting from Apple. Remember it is Apple who is trying to deflect the change that their product may have a flaw, what do you expect them to say. I read a page on Apples web site that really does nothing but to downplay the battery issue.
Plan B I think the ipod is a great device, and most people how have it really like it. But it is pretty darn obviouse that there are battery issues. You may get one and not have a problem, then again you might. Li-ion batteries do have a defined life (I provided a cite above), and are also effected by cycling.
The typical Li-ion decline is that it will work ‘great’ meaning you won’t notice it declining in capacity till it happens. For what ever reason (+ electrode eaten away), (almost) overnight the capacity will drop by a lot. This it very typical of Li-ion cell phone batteries.
These failures typically will start over 1 year (ever wonder why cell phone are only garentted for 1 year, and many time this does not include the battery - I had to return mine after 3 months and they replaced the phone with a new one, but made me keep my 3 month old battery) Most will be apparent starting as the 1.5 year point, some may go much longer, it’s a crap shoot.
I suspect more are failing then gets reported as people will tend to buy a new and improved model then deal with fixing their old one.
What really disturbs me it Apples responce to the issue. At first the told the guy to go blow. Now they deflect the problem, saying it’s a design compromise BUT (they say) the IPOD is not a disposable device, but a high quality device that should give many years of service.
They offer a battery replacement program for $99. If you read on a bit you will find that they will not replace the battery in your unit, but send you a new or refurb one - this pretty much means it’s a disposable device. Also you must wait a week (or 2-3 if you have it engraved by apple), and no they won’t transfer your music. In contrast when my palm needed service, they sent me a refurb one overnight and a prepaid box to send my old one back at no charge to me.
Just want to clarify. What I ment by this is MOST will make it to the 1.5 yr point w/o battery failure. After this point the crap shoot begins and it could fail at any time. Failing does not mean total, just a great loss of capacity.
Regardless of the battery issues on Apple’s end, there are plenty of DIY kits or even places that’ll do it for you for much cheaper than the $99.
I can understand Apple not wanting to transfer the files over to the new one if you pay to have them fix the battery. It’d be a big pain the ass and probably increase the turnaround time by quite a bit. Fortunately, like I said, you don’t have to have Apple do it. As far as I’m concerned, Apple did it’s part in giving us the device. The market took care of the rest of the problems. I don’t think the battery issue is really enough of an issue to count as a minus against the iPod.
This is, as they say, life. There is no one holding a gun to your head (wallet) to buy one. If it upsets you, I’m afraid there’s just not a whole lot us Dopers can do to make you feel better.
Me, I’m just glad I don’t have to keep a 12 pack of AA’s and AAA’s in the car to listen to my music anymore. And I’m mechanically inclined enough that I’ll swap in a new $40 battery when the time comes.
Honestly, between the two cellphones, PDA, two ipods, Camera (x2 batteries), Camcorder (times 2 batteries), Gameboy, bluetooth GPS there are a MOT of LiIon batteries in my life that’ll eventually fail. Doesn’t mean I’m gonna stop using them.
Yes but the OP is asking about battery problems, which there are, so I though I would answer the OP. I don’t know why you brough up the gun to head issue, we are talking about someone who wished to be an informed consumer before they make a choice.
If you read my posts you will find that I did say:
That does not elimiate the short commings.
And this is a realistic view, Apple seems to indicate that this is a non-issue, which is a lie, and a pretty well known lie.
The big difference is that all excpet the IPOD and PDA have used replaceable batteries. The PDA uses very little power and should work fine for most people with even 75% capacity of the battery gone, the IPOD is used for much longer time and uses far more power then a PDA (due to an internal HD), which means it will demand MUCH more from the batteries. To make them in a way that at best discourages user replacement is a obvious design flaw for a device ment to last years (or a way to make it disposable).
The end result is still the same though. The issue of the battery has been resolved by either third party service or DIY kits. So to the OP, if the battery is the main reason you’re hesitating, I’d say don’t worry about it. Whatever Apple’s motivation for making the battery not easily replaceable, the point has become moot.