Mon, 02 Oct 2006 11:45:00
What not to do with your iPod
I didn’t want to post about this until after I got the replacement, which arrived today, so now you get to laugh at how stupid the alleged tech geek is. :)
A few weeks ago, we spent some money we don’t have. I was lusting after the 5.5G iPods, and Donna and I discussed buying iPods for each other as Christmas gifts...we have a huge digital music collection and her 40GB 3G ipod is full, as is my 30GB 3G. We get new music all the time from...umm...potentially legal Russian websites and the occasional CD that gets ripped, but we can’t add any more to our iPods.
When I heard Apple had bumped them up to 80GB, I was tempted. I went to Apple.com and it was well beyond my ability to pay for two of them. Unless...Apple gave me credit.
Wow. I got approved? I guess paying my bills faithfully for the last few years is finally paying off. I feel so...adult. :) Wait, did I just buy two iPods?
So I get the iPods, and Donna doesn’t want hers until Christmas. I’m to fill it with gigs and gigs of her favorite stuff and present it as a gift. Excellent. Away in the closet it goes. Me? Yeah, I’m a’rip mine open and get started. What a beautiful screen. Sexy little thing in black, I tell you what, and 80GB of storage! I had already been collecting videos and converting them to iPod format, so I had a nice start, episodes of Robot Chicken, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, Family Guy, The Simpsons...all perfect for iPod viewing. I loaded 36GB of music, a gig of photos and 10GB of videos plus video podcasts and was absolutely thrilled.
Remember how I mentioned that Donna bought me a money clip thing? Well, the money clip part stays closed around the cash with supermagnets.
I think you see where this is going.
Last Wednesday, I was out picking up Gwynnie from the vet (she had surgery to remove bladder stones, poor cat!) and I came home. Threw my money clip on the desk. Tossed my keys there too. Put my cell down, then reached in to my pocket for my iPod. I connected it to the cable for syncing and placed it gently on the desk.
ON TOP OF THE MONEY CLIP. WHICH IS MADE OF MAGNETS. Magnets do not play well with tiny hard drive heads floating micrometers above a disk spinning at 5400RPM. I heard a grinding noise and the screen of my iPod froze. I picked up up and the money clip was attached to the metal back. I instantly felt like the world’s biggest idiot.
Resetting the iPod only invited a return of the grinding noise and a sad-face icon. The infamous “Sad iPod” error message! It was dead, like Ned Lamont’s political dreams. Not 5 minutes later I had a support claim in to Apple via the support website, the next day a box showed up, I put the iPod in it, stripped off the outer label to reveal a pre-paid, pre-addressed return label, and DHL came by that day to pick it up. Today I got a brand-new iPod back in the same box. Not bad, Apple. Not bad at all. No questions asked, just a quick warranty replacement.
So seriously, don’t put your iPod near a supermagnet, O.K.? Let me be the big idiot on your behalf. ;)
Posted by JimK at 11:45 AM on October 02, 2006
Permalink | Trackbacks (0) | Email to a friend |
Categories: Technobabble (Technology)
Tags:
Technorati: ipod Apple warranty service
Comments:
#2 Posted by JimK 
on 10/02 at 09:46 PM -
You should totally buy an H2O Audio case. That is, if you have an older Nano, not the new aluminum one.
#3 Posted by Repubidan on 10/03 at 12:24 AM -
Sweet Jesus that’s awesome! I’m really thinking about wasting my paycheck on that so I can take my ipod kayaking with me now. Plus, I’m sure that’ll come in handy when I ship off to the Army.
#4 Posted by JimK on 10/03 at 12:24 PM -
I have one for my iPod Mini, and I take it straight into the pool with me. Never leaks...it’s awesome, but expensive as hell.
#5 Posted by Repubidan on 10/04 at 04:01 AM -
Muy expensive. Cheaper than me having to buy yet another ipod though.
RSS (Subscribe)
Tip jars (Donate today!)
#1 Posted by Repubidan
on 10/02 at 05:45 PM -
I work at a public lake as essentially a handyman/janitor type person. So I get to fish there for free and do so quite a bit. Just walk out in the water up to my waste and start casting. It’s great. Well I normally work in army surplus cammo pants, you know, the ones with the sweet pockets on the side of the legs.
I also have a ipod nano. Love the thing. Never am without it. Actually, it gets me through the day at work. I just slip it in the side pocket of my cammo pants and put it on shuffle and go along my merry way.
I also am a complete fucking idiot who forget things are in his pockets before submerging them.