I don’t think Nanos are all that fragile
I wonder if being accustomed to Apple products helps. I don’t think I’ve ever used the manual. I just fooled with it a bit, and in about an hour it was like second nature. I also find iTunes to be like riding a bike. In fact, I can scarcely believe how easy, seamless, and elegant the whole integrated package is.
I’ve been using ipod for years and never had one break on me. What I had was the plug break on me. The original model of ipod came with a nonstandard cable with a different nonstandard plug on each end, one end plugged into a special unique ipod AC-adapter.
This adapter was what broke. My ipod, though fully functional, could not be powered.
Of course, this was after several years of use, and by that time, you could not buy this adapter. Anywhere. The newer ipods had, of course, upgraded to use a USB plug at the end of that cable, rendering the problem of powering the thing essentially moot -I burned with furious envy.
So what did I do? I cracked. I probably wouldn’t have, except the new ipod has 50% more space than my old one, which was nearly full; I could use the space. (It also has video, but who cares?) So I bought a new ipod, spent another large chunk of money on a new USB AC adapter, and another chunk on a docking bay (here be a whole rant on its own), and now have a shiny new ipod. In addition to the duller, old, fully functional, unusable one.
I’m mostly over it. (Can you tell?) But still, jeez, that was one danged expensive AC adapter.
I am not an apple person. The Ipod is the only apple product I have owned. It was pretty obvious to me how to use it. It is not like menus are a new user interface paradigm. I am not sure what is confusing about them.
Same here. Actaully I even hate iTunes (mostly on principle; it’s not like it’s hard to use; I just don’t like it) but the unit itself is fine. Very very simple.
Add me to the list of those that think iPods are pieces of shit. Well, the mini’s are anyway. I bought my daughter one in June 05 for her birthday. In less than 6 months it had broke. Luckily, as bad as iPods are, Apple service is just the opposite. They replaced it, no questions asked. Just before the 1 year point, it broke again. Again Apple replaced it. It’s not under warrenty anymore, and it’s just about due to break again. Guess I’ll be buying a new one soon.
I however, have an Archos Jukebox with a 6 gig hard drive. Bought it second hand over 3 years ago. I think it was 2 years old at the time. Thing just keeps on chugging along.
This kind of reaction always amazes me. The thing is under warranty, and it takes like 5 days to get a new one from Apple.
For whoever asked, the default warranty is one year if I recall correctly. I bought the first couple with Applecare to extend it to two years, which is plenty of time to allow Apple to seduce me with a new model (this last one I bought with an American Expess card, which is supposed to extend the warranty to two years, but I’m not sure how well or poorly that process works).
I’m on my third iPod now, and my experience has been great all around. I use (or used) all three constantly, and never had a problem. Both times I’ve upgraded I’ve been able to sell my old one on eBay for a couple-hundred bucks to offset the cost of the new one. Before I sold my second iPod I was concerned that the battery wasn’t holding like it should, so I had Apple replace it just in case. I called them on a Thursday, received the box the next day, and got the refurbished unit on Wednesday the following week. It was a good deal for the auction - now it had a brand new battery and not a scratch on it.
And just to point it out - I don’t work for Apple, have any affiliation with them, nor have I even owned one of their overpriced (but very nice looking) computers. I just love my iPod. 
I hate to say this, since I’ve been a faithful Mac user since the early 90s, but I think Apple’s quality control has plummeted. I have two Macs, both of which have needed major repair. The iMac G5 needed a new logic board (faulty VRAM), a new power supply (sudden shutdowns) and a new backlight inverter. My MacBook, which I bought in June, needed a new logic board and heatsink (sudden shutdowns). It’s all been covered under my AppleCare extended warranty, but even so, it’s inconvenient. It’s like buying Toyota Camrys and saying, “Yeah, they’ve been great cars. I mean, I had to get the engines replaced after 5,000 miles, but besides that…”
I think Apple has let the aesthetics get in the way of the engineering. The philosophy of “design this really cool-looking box and then fit everything in” makes them hard to service and prone to problems.
The iPod was recently included in the CHOICE 2006 Shonky Awards for the worst consumer products on the market. For fans of Roy and HG there is video of their presentation.
Huh.
I got a video iPod about a year ago, right after they came out. And therein hangs a tale.
A year before that, Dad gave me a Creative Zen Jukebox whatever for my birthday. It was much beloved, much coddled and cuddled, given lovely audiobooks to eat, listened to daily, kept charged. On a trip to Houston, the battery died and would not recharge again.
Since I had a replacement plan on it, I took it to the Best Buy when I got home. “I just want a new battery,” I said. “We’ll give you a whole new player,” they said.
"But – "
“Shiny new player! Here!”
“…okay.”
Just shy of three months later, this equally-coddled player had an errored hard drive.
I went through something like five Jukeboxes, each lasting between one week and three months. I never dropped them. I carried them like particularly thin-shelled eggs. Every single one got hard drive errors, ticked madly, and/or had battery malfunctions.
“Screw this noise,” I said. “I want an iPod.”
I bought the regular shiny white color iPod – rather, I traded in Defective Jukebox #6 – a few weeks before the video 'Pod came out. Huzzah. I returned it for an upgrade with no quibble.
Almost a year has passed. I love my iPod. I love it so much. I once dropped it two storeys. It has two impressive dents in the metal back and the front is somewhat (?!) abraded – the scream is still clear enough that I can watch Serenity on it, though.
I’ve never had to take it in for service. Battery works fine. Playing works fine. No hard drive errors, no bad noises, nothing.
Obviously YMMV.
OK, I let the battery run flat hoping that would somehow unlock the thing. It didn’t.
A 4gig Nano goes for about SR1,000. Given the lack of good radio stations here, I pretty well need one. So yes, I bought one.
They are still junk, however.
Okay, I’ll bite.
How?
It was about two o’clock in the morning and I was heading out from having spent a fun-filled evening (no debauchery, sadly) with a bunch of friends at one of the friends’s third-floor apartment.
I was taking the iPod out of my purse to put the headphones in when it slipped out of my hands, bounced off two concrete steps, and landed back-first on the concrete below. I felt rather ill as I ran down to survey the damage…
Two rather impressive metal dents, one in either end of the metal casing from where it hit the edge of one of the steps. Scratches, but no cracks. No other damage. Plays just fine.
I got mine (nano, 2 gig) without a paper manual too. It came with a CD with the manual in .pdf format along with iTunes and some other gobbledegook- firmware restore, and that kind of stuff.
I got it for free (won it in a contest) and played with it for about an hour before deciding I didn’t want to contribute to the ipodification of America. Swapped it for one of these instead:
…there was a third dent, but thats another story.
(admitedly, I’ve never owned an IPOD, but they always looked like cheap molded white plastic. If they are really that good, maybe I was wrong. )
I don’t understand this at all. If you think they’re junk, and there’s loads of alternatives out there, why did you buy another one? Surely it can’t be brand loyalty. Not to be totally insensitive, but it does seem a little bizarre to give patronage to a company which produces what is, in your estimation, a shoddily made product.
I’ve had my 3rd generation iPod for over three years. It gives me a little grief now and then by freezing when I connect to iTunes, it’s slightly banged up (I’ve lost the case), and the earphones recently broke on me, but the original battery is still going strong.
Bah! My 30Gb Photo lasted 15 months before the drive went south. Contemplating replacing it myself. Seems easy enough.
No kidding! What the hell?
Why the fuck did you buy another one, Mr. “iPods, What Pieces of Junk”?
Oh I’ve dropped mine dozens of times (though I did buy a thick rubber case for it, cause i knew) but it took Apple to REALLY eff up my iPod…
The battery stopped battery-ing, so I sent it in, had the battery replaced. Hallelujah! My pod was a fully functioning member of my world again. Until.
When I was downloading music, and it asked me if I wanted to use the updater software, which I didn’t, but it did it anyway, and ever since, I get 15 minutes of battery life out of my $300.00 paperweight.
Damnable thing.