[glorgau]

The "non-standard" battery is all about form factor. It's tough to fit all the electronics in small packages.

Those guys should be prosecuted for defacing/destroying private property.

[goldstategop]

It sucks that Apple didn't offer a conventional battery and its highly convenient you can get their proprietary battery for the iPod only from them!

[Republicus2001]

reminds me of some high-end loudspeakers I had to service once. The brand was Wham and sold for $50,000 a pair. The fuse happened to be out so I called the factory and was told the fuses were $500 each and they only manufactor them 3 months out of the year. They said call back later ... of course it was Bush's fault

[Vermonter]

ping

[SamAdams76]

Makes me glad I chose an iRiver MP3 player over the iPod. The iRiver takes a standard "AA" battery that lasts close to 20 hours. I can deal with that. Doesn't hold as much music as an iPod but it's easy enough to dump and reload tunes as I need to.

More importantly, the iRiver costed less than half of what they were charging for the iPod.

Don't get me wrong, I loved the iPod. But having to replace a $255 battery (plus $70 installation) after 18 months must really suck!

[avg_freeper]

The important point here isn't that the battery dies after so long. Most other players in the same form factor suffer the same fate. The problem here is that way too many mac users are whiney cry-babies that always want something for nothing.

They threw a fit when they found out that Power Macs weren't expandable forever. They moaned and groaned when they found out that Mac OS X wouldn't run on their Apple ][. And they went apoplectic when Apple actually wanted to make a profit on ".mac".

Most people would just chalk it up to experience and move on to a product they like better. Why some mac users feel the need to hang on to a product they have misgivings about just to share the misery with the rest of us I'll never understand.

[GeneD]

Here's a site to consider when thinking of buying an iPod:

www.minidisc.org

P. S. Most MiniDisc units use standard AAs.

[MD_Willington_1976]

Well I'm cheap so I bought the cheapest no-name cd/cdr/cdrw/mp3 player I could find with anti-skip etc for under $30 including 4 nickel metal hydride AA batteries and a charger, works everywhere I go and I dont worry about dropping it, if it gets busted it goes in the bin.

[Flashman_at_the_charge]

No problem to change it out. What's $50 to well heeled Apple users? :-)
http://www.ipodbattery.com/

[Incorrigible]

I was like, looking for new batteries for my iPod, and like, they said it cost $255.  I'm like, no way.  And they said, way...

[GeronL]

Apple itself offers a battery-replacement service for about $106 including mailing, with a 90-day guarantee on materials and workmanship. Apple's program was introduced only in the past two weeks

They had a good effect, partly.