Shame On You: The Apple iPod

CBS 2 New York ^ | Arnold Diaz

[finnman69]

Shame On You: The Apple iPod
Battery Replacement Problems Are Creating Problems

Feb 25, 2005 3:00 pm US/Eastern

NEW YORK (CBS) The Apple iPod is one of the most popular consumer electronic products in history. Thus far, 10 million have been sold to music lovers.

But you may be surprised to learn what happens when the battery on the iPod dies.

Our Shame On You team reports that battery replacement problems are making some people irate over the iPod. See why Arnold Diaz puts Apple in the Hall of Shame.

Video at the link

Here: is the link to the movie referrred to at the video story:
http://www.ipodsdirtysecret.com/

[Babu]

This thread is rather entertaining reading, but think I'll just stick with my Satellite Radio and leave the iPod troubles to you folks.

My XM Sat Radio does the downloading for me from Mr. Rock and Mr. Roll Satellites. I have close-to couple hundred commercial-free music channels plus several right-wing radio channels, comedy channels, sports, Fox News channel, 24 hour constant local traffic and weather reports, etc etc, etc, and no tech/battery problems so far. I move my single receiver (paid $449 for a 5-year subscription) from car to car to house to portable boombox. And I'm not contributing any profits to the Pinkos over at Apple.

To listen to Rush, I subscribe to Rush 24/7, then feed the program into the line-in recorder on my iAudio mp3 player a few hours after it airs, and listen to Rush on the fly, commercial-free. To each his own ...

[Bush2000]

We're obviously in different income brackets.

Yeah, no doubt. But, my comments were directed at the average person -- and I think the average people will agree that amortizing the cost of a battery at $6.00 per month over the lifetime of your iPod is a bit loony.

[freedumb2003]

hahahahahaha

(LOL)

[chudogg]

Since you paid for the CD's you are legally entitled to use a file sharing program such as limewire and download a copy of each song from a CD. It would probably be easier than ripping them from a CD if they had somekind of file protection, plus you would have to convert it over to MP3. Much easier to just download it.

[Bush2000]

And your 18 months figure comes from . . . ???????

See post #1.

Surely you're not assuming that the Neistat brothers' experience is typical and usual?

I have no reason to doubt that it's atypical. I have several friends have experienced identical circumstances with their iPods.

Several posters to this thread have said they've gotten more than 18 months and their iPod is still going strong.

That's nice. If you're depending on luck to prevent calamity, you deserve what you get.

Apple has posted a number of tips that can help the battery keep going longer; I suppose these can be referred to as best practices.

That was good of them. A better alternative would have been to make the battery easily replaceable without surgery. Oddly enough, I can remove the battery from my cell phone by pushing a single button. Jobs built guaranteed obsolescence into the iPod BY DESIGN. You Mac-heads may flip for whatever Jobs shovels at you, but I don't find that an admirable design principle.

Come on, you're not jealous just 'cause Apple is more successful than you, are you? They've been selling a boatload of iPods, that's for sure.

Not at all. I own a mpio MP3 player. It only has 256MB but that's plenty to keep me entertained on my little 50 mile bike rides.

When it's Microsoft that corners the market, you cheer wildly, but when Apple comes on strong, you're on their heels like a jackal. Strange, that

Actually, I'm not in favor of any company cornering any market. Competition is good. You'd think that Jobs and company would welcome RealNetworks and others into the digital music selling business for the iPod. But, no, Apple wants to be the sole DRM-provided music source.

[savedbygrace]

Blah, blah, blah. Without data to back up your claims, you just dismiss anything that doesn't fit in your little world. Have fun there.

[aruanan]

There's a lot of disinformation out there about this (most no doubt generated by Applephobes, many of whom are here at FR). Here's a FAQ that answers some of it.

Q: I heard that the iPod's battery only lasts 18 months, and then you have to buy a new iPod! Is that true?

A1: NO! The vast, vast majority of even the earliest iPods, now over two years old, continue to function just fine. Some iPods, however, have had issues with batteries. Lithium ion batteries are only good for 300 to 500 charge/discharge cycles (more). For this reason, certain customers' usage patterns may cause the batteries to degrade, or fail, sooner than others.

A2: If the battery does fail, and the iPod is no longer under its original one year warranty or $59 AppleCare Protection Plan for iPod, or any of numerous third party service plans, you don't have to buy a new iPod. You may replace the battery yourself for as little as $30, or have Apple perform the replacement for $99.

[Selkie]

From your link:
The movie is accurate. Apple's battery replacement was placed AFTER the movie was distributed throughout.>>>
Thats totally true.

One of my friends got an iPod when they first came out and went thru the frustration of their battery dying with the samecanned reply from apple to just buy a brand new one.

[Bush2000]

Blah, blah, blah. Without data to back up your claims, you just dismiss anything that doesn't fit in your little world. Have fun there.

Yeah, all of the complaints that you've read on FR are just anecdotal. Couldn't be happening in the real world. Nothing to see here, Mac fans. Keep moving... /SARCASM

[SALChamps03]

Really? How many iPod like devices has Microsoft sold?

I am referring to the company as a whole. I am not referring to merely this product. If they pull stunts like this with Ipod, they will have problems with their other products as well. Apple will always be second to Microsoft. I would guess that well over 90% of computers carry the Windows OS. I could be wrong on that specific number, but it is safe to say that Apple isn't going to catch them anytime soon. I don't own any of these devices, so I do not really care, but a battery that cannot be recharged without sending it to the company is a pitiful product. I certainly would never purchase one.

[KneelBeforeZod]

Well I remember that the ipod USED TO come with a battery that you couldn't replace and there WERE problems.

but since the link is about a year and a half old, its old news.

[Casloy]

My battery lasted 2 years and when I crapped out I replaced it myself for 29 dollars. This is much ado about nothing. If it bothers you, but the IPOD from Best Buy and buy an extended warranty.

[Casloy]

My battery lasted 2 years and when I crapped out

Ok, I crap out all the time, but that hat nothing to do with my post. It was the IPOD that crapped out.

[CheneyChick]

Baloney. Your post is full of errors.

[Petronski]

All of his posts are full of errors. It's an M.O.

[rwilson99]

I'll buy a PS2 if I want a game machine.

However, If you're an entrepenuer who opens an office in an old building you can't worry about you're computers blowing up.

The Macintosh is better hardware... period.

[add925]

Apple lovers come in all shapes & sizes (in case AOs get a little too high & mighty): A real BARF of a website

Apple Computer and the Church of Satan

http://www.churchofsatan.com/Pages/Apple.html

snip - "Soon after the birth of this website in January 1999 c.e., we decided to make a tribute to the company that manufactures the computers and the operating system which we love—Apple Computer."

[Petronski]

LOL.

Church of Satan AND Rush Limbaugh?

[John Lenin]

Whatever you say as my machine blows the doors off yours in a performance test. My PC's are setup properly and the only time I have problems is when I overwork them by trying to run 3-4 processes at a time.

[rwilson99]

Well...

I can run Windows, Internet Explorer, the Mac OS, Safari, MS Word, XL, Powerpoint and Yahoo1 Messanger without a hitch.

Did I mention my Mac can run Windows as well. Allowing me to use PC only programs and a limited number of Websites that aren't Mac OS compatible.

By limiting use of Windows... my computer is virtually inpenatrable by computer viruses and the like.

Apples rock!