Dealing with iPods: Part 4: How Many?

These are not my iPods. If I had this many iPods, and didn’t give each away to a friend I think that I’d get into hell on gluttony alone.

Ben Stroud asked about how many iPods I’ve owned in a comment to the first entry I posted in this iPod series. The fact alone that I didn’t know this off hand means I should be in some iPod Obsessives Anonymous program instead of posting these blog entries. But I don’t got the time for that now that I have a new working iPod.

It adds up, that’s all I’m going to say about the price of being addicted to the iPod.

I’ve never bought the same iPod twice, and just to clarify, I’ve spent more money on repairing the car I crashed in Winter 2003 than I’ve spent on iPods.

The first iPod I got was the 2nd Generation (touch wheel), which I got as a present for graduating high school. I paid for the 3rd generation (with 4 light up buttons) and the 4th generation (click wheel, black and white display) out of my own pocket with money earned from summer jobs. And as a birthday present, I split the cost of the 4th generation (color screen, photos) with my parents.

Why did I have to keep getting new iPods? I lost the 4th generation (click wheel, black and white) when I was moving my stuff during the summer before senior year. I sold my 3rd generation to get money, because I needed money. And I believe the first iPod, the 2nd generation iPod, it broke and somehow the break wasn’t under warranty.

But I’ve owned more than 4 specific iPods, because whenever I’ve had a problem with one, when it was covered under warranty, which I believe has happened at least 6 or 7 times, Apple’s sent me, or handed me, a brand new replacement.

So Ben, to answer your question, I’ve owned about a dozen iPods, and paid for 4.

Dealing with a Sad* iPod Part 3: The Re-Up (No Shady)

*and then, inevitably, a New iPod.

I’m watching tonight’s Heroes off of the DVR box, so I’ve decided to christen the new iPod in the name of Masi Oka’s character Hiro.

And tonight, for the next few hours, Hiro’s going to be loading my tunes up. I did the math, and at about 2000 songs every 40 minutes, it should take a little under 4 hours to load my music library onto my iPod, and hopefully, I’ll be asleep by then.

This isn’t the way I’d prefer it to be done, and I thought it wouldn’t take so long, but you work with what you get. Since I’ll be asleep by the time it’s done loading (around 4 am), that means for at least three to four hours, the iPod will still be on, active, working. The damn thing won’t auto-eject once it’s done loading up.

This leads me to the next, and possibly obvious, point: I have too much music. That 11411 up there isn’t just a palindrome, it’s the number of songs that will be transferred to my iPod. I think before I get my next computer I need to sit down with iTunes and go over what I really need. I know the point of having a 60GB iPod is to have a crapload of music on it, but there should be more free space on the thing so it’s longevity will increase. Most hard drives are supposed to have at least 10% of free space in order to function to the best of their abilities.

Tomorrow, I plan on not over exerting Hiro: an album on the way to work, an album on the way home from work, and not much else. Don’t want to put too much early wear on it after dragging 50 some odd gb’s of music onto it.

Here’s the first photo of Hiro now that he has a name:

Dealing with a Sad iPod, Part 2: Being a Repeat Offender

So I got there, and even after making my reservation, I had to wait an additional half hour.

But once my name was called, and after I wrote my name, email, and phone # down, I was given a new iPod to replace the now dead McNulty.

Why did I have to write my info down, I wonder. I didn’t dare ask my genius, Gerald, because he seemed to be a little grumpy – going against exactly what my last post in this series had said – but that might have had more to do with the fact that it was 6pm, and everybody’s grumpy at 6pm. But back to the question, as to why I was grumpy.

As it says above on my reciept, this was a Repeat Repair. Which means, probably, that Apple Inc. is suspicious as hell of me. Am I just some dude who doesn’t take care for his iPod and expects these free replacements? Maybe. This has inspired me to keep track of all, if any, mistakes I make in the taking care of it, to see if it’s me or is it Apple that’s at fault.

And here’s a photo of the new one, looks just like the old one, and has yet to be named or filled with music, as I’m currently charging it up.

How To: Dealing with a Sad iPod, Part 1.

And no, the answer is not trying to fight the iPod’s depressed state by buying it new cases at the Apple store. That’s just unhealthy behavior that will make the iPod’s happiness dependant on you spoiling it.

The story is the same. I’m using my iPod. I’m happy with my iPod. But then, every so often, when I try and do a simple task, it bites me in the ass. 99% of the time, when I choose to change what album or song I’m listening to, nothing bad happens. But, for the last week or so, that simple task of changing what song I’m listening to has been freezing my iPod. So I’ve been going through the following steps each time this has happened, only to, each time, have the iPod fix itself before my Apple Store appointment.

For your own benefit, here are my simple instructions on how to schedule a repair with the Apple Store. Nowadays, scheduling a repair is often a must, because sometimes there are so many people at the Genius Bar, tat if you just go there after work without a reservation, you’re probably going to be told that the genius bar is full of appointments for the day, and to go home, make a reservation tomorrow (you can only make a reservation on the day of the appointment) and come back.

1. Make sure that your iPod still has it’s Apple Care warranty. If you’re living on the edge, without a warranty, and the complimentary 90 day warranty period has passed, then prepare for Apple charging you an arm and a leg for your repair. I had a small debate with Michael about buying warranties last night, and we ultimately decided that if you think you need a warranty, because you have frequent bad luck with technology, you should get the warranty. And when it comes to iPods, I have shitty luck. Does that mean I’m going to switch and get a Zune? Not likely. It means that I’m always going to pay for AppleCare for my iPod.

2. Go to http://www.apple.com/retail/ and find your nearest Apple Store. If there is no nearby Apple Store, then head on over to http://www.apple.com/support/ to file for a repair with them. I choose to try my luck with the Apple retail stores because it’s more pleasant to talk about technology with someone face to face, rather than filling out a form on-line or trying to find the tech support phone number.

3. After going to your local Apple Store’s specific page, click on “Make a reservation.”

From there on in, it’s pretty self explanatory. But something to note is that when you choose your appointment time, pick one slot later than when you expect to get to the store, for you will be told to arrive 5 minutes before your appointment begins

4. Breathe, and relax. It’s going to be all good. The geniuses are good, nice people and they’ll take care of you and your iPod. I’ve heard they get a lot of crap, though, so be nice!

Wish me luck today, I’ve got a 5:45 appointment for the same problem as usual.