# Anyone see this ipod vid?



## motoyen (Aug 15, 2001)

http://www.ipodsdirtysecret.com/video/ipods_dirty_secret.mov


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## imactheknife (Aug 7, 2003)

Hi there, I don't own an ipod YET..but this does bother me now that I know this...and it does irritate me that it costs almost the same price as a new ipod! so it apple making throw away ipods? like printers when they run out of ink? cheaper to buy a new printer...this is one bad area for apple...and I hope they change before I spend the cash...Mark


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## Digital_Gary (Sep 18, 2003)

Ya I thought that was kinda funny. I don't think the majority are like that and Apple has changed the policy so replacement batteries are much cheaper. Also they have Applecare now. 

I did have a couple customers feel the same way this guy did when their batteries died


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## jonmon (Feb 15, 2002)

LOL

When that time comes, i"ll be trying the third party 'do it yourself' battery replacement


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## Chealion (Jan 16, 2001)

motoyen - Yes and no. It depends on how much you used the battery, how hard you pushed it, and general luck. As with any product some last longer then expected, and some last a little shorter. So some people who drove their iPod batteries hard since they first got them when they were released 2 years ago, the batteries have since died. Although 3rd party batteries have become more and more available, and Apple has an official battery replacement program now.


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## PosterBoy (Jan 22, 2002)

*and it does irritate me that it costs almost the same price as a new ipod!* 

I am not sure if they recorded their call to Apple Support or made up their own, but either way having the battery replaced costs $99 USD.

Not exactly cheap, but not $250 either.

Either way, maybe just asking "how long will the battery last" would have prevented this? 18 months is fairly typical of a Lion battery. There are usage habits that can lengthen that time, but it will die eventually.

--PB


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## Ohenri (Nov 7, 2002)

did anyone d/l the movie?? the link in down.

H!


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## Digital_Gary (Sep 18, 2003)

this still works for me..

http://www.ipodsdirtysecret.com/


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## Lawrence (Mar 11, 2003)

Gee...
I wonder how much it'll cost to replace the hard drive when it fails.

Dave


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## motoyen (Aug 15, 2001)

So it's true then that the battery only lasts 18 months?


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## Lawrence (Mar 11, 2003)

Hey...wow!
The video on this site just got a crack in the mov icon.
http://www.ipodsdirtysecret.com/ 
Glad I downloaded it.

I just looked again...
Now there is no cracked icon...Just a big Quicktime icon.

Guess it got shut down.

Dave


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## Aaross (Nov 17, 2003)

Couldn't get the movie, broken icon, although I can guess what it was about. I got a first generation iPod as a gift. It lasted 16 months and then functioned no longer. It wasn't a battery problem, but was told by Apple that it would cost about $400 to fix. The Apple tech guy admitted to me that I would be better off buying a new one than sending that one off to get repaired. Outraged, I sent off a letter to Apple, never got a reply.

I hate to say this but I have since bought a new one, I love the product and I'm keeping my fingers crossed once the warranty expires.

Call me foolish...


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## used to be jwoodget (Aug 22, 2002)

Don't worry aaross, check out this site.

Or, for people who don't appreciate the iPod, buy the Dell DJ (  hilarious Fortune review).


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## Pamela (Feb 20, 2003)

Aaross...don't worry. Just buy the applecare for it


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## Roland (Aug 15, 2002)

I just picked up a used RCA Lyra HD. It's got 20 gigs of storage plus a user replaceable lion battery. Not bad for $200.

The more I try other products the more I realize it's not that bad buying non-apple products. Especially when it leaves me with money in my pocket.

One caveat though... I was forced to "fix" all my mp3s to successfully use the Lyra. It seems that it only supports v2 id3 tags.

At least I was able to let it run overnight. Now it's running like a top.


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## Aaross (Nov 17, 2003)

I bought my second iPod about 4 months ago, at the time there was no Applecare for iPods. You have to buy Applecare at the time of purchase, do you not?


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## jonmon (Feb 15, 2002)

Don't you have up until the original year is up?


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## elmer (Dec 19, 2002)

It was after I bought an iPod that I learned that the batteries were not officially replaceable (at the time) and that they would last less than 3 years. I figured it was a bad investment then and sold it to get money to buy a digital camera. I have a Palm m505 - same issue; so the iPod was just one too many expensive things whose batteries would eventually die and need surgery to replace. The other thing was that the Belkin Tunecast was pretty useless in the Toronto area because of all the radio stations. If it wasn't for those things I would have held on to the iPod, because it is an awesome product to use - truly revolutionary.


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## RobTheGob (Feb 10, 2003)

I can't imagine buying an extended warranty for close to a $100. Chances are very slim that the battery will die within two years in any case, but I simply bought my iPod on a Platinum CC and the warranty doubles for free. If you buy the replacement battery from a third party, it is closer to $50 US.

I can't think of too many products where buying extended warranties pay off... The companies love them, they are pure profit margin.


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## K_OS (Dec 13, 2002)

Yeah I saw the vid and tought it was disgracefull how Apple could have a replacement part worth almost as much as a new unit, although now there are cheaper replacement alternatives it still doesn't excuse Apple from what happened.

I bought my Fiance a 64mb RCA Kazoo with a 256mb expansion card for her birthday last year and so far no probs it's smaller than an iPod it takes normal AA battery's and she listens to music all day, mission acomplished. Showed my Finace an iPod the other day at Best Buy she liked the look but tought it was too big. The only bonus I like about the the iPod is actually having an extra hard drive when I need it.


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## used to be jwoodget (Aug 22, 2002)

My wife has an original 5 gb iPod and I've a 15 gb G3 iPod. Batteries are no problem. The 5 gigger will be two years old this Christmas.

The reason that Apple has been so successful with the iPods is a combination of their design, efficiency of use (supersonic auto-syncing), capacity, overall utility and integration with the iTMS in the US. The batteries are replacable but it takes more work than popping in a pair of AAs. There again, you probably only have to do this once every 3 years or so.

Flash RAM players are a different segment entirely and are used in a very different way (requiring much more preparation unless you are happy to listen to the same couple of CDs forever). They don't have moving parts, can be really small but on a memory/$ level, don't compare well with HD based players.

Sterophile magazine has just made the iPod the editors choice for 2003 (due in part to its ability to play uncompressed AIFF files).

The iPod is in a league of its own but Apple shouldn't get complacent. I'm glad that Apple finally has a battery replacement program and it's likely in response to user complaints. However, its the squeaky wheel gets the attention and the product leader always attracts the most flak (like David Miller as Toronto mayoral candidate). But, sometimes the good guys do win!


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## Evan Holt (Mar 8, 2002)

Just to clarify things...
- you don't have to buy Applecare for any of Apple's products at the time of the original purchase. But PLEASE make sure that you buy it before the one year elapses. This is one area that Apple provides NO slack for. I am an Apple authorized repair tech, and there is no way to get warranty once the year elapses, no exceptions. (you did have 365 days anyway to make up your mind)


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## VertiGoGo (Aug 21, 2001)

Our original 5GB iPod is now dead. The battery will only hold a charge for about 3 minutes before giving up the ghost these days. 

This is pretty alarming when you consider a 1st gen iPod was retailing for about $600. 

Apple had better address this issue in future gen iPods or they will find themselves getting creamed by the up-and-coming iPod challengers. The best way would be to make battery replacement much easier than it is now...and make it cheaper. 

In my case, I now have a $600 5GB FireWire hard drive. This hardly seems like good value at the moment.


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## Timothy J (Jun 4, 2003)

Call me crazy but, are we expecting too much from the iPod? If a hard drive fails in my computer after 18 months or longer I don't get a replacement unless it's a Western Digital Caviar. What I mean is that the tiny hard drive is getting a heck of a lot of wear and tear and like all moving mechanical gear it will eventually break.
So if the battery fails after 18 months I'm assuming the reason for this is that the user of the product was playing music every day. Even my AA rechargable batteries hold less and less charge with extended use till they are eventually garbage.
I know that the iPod is expensive $500-$800 CDN new but, it's a new product and if you want to be on the _bleeding edge_ of gear technology there is going to be a learning curve of what that product has to offer over time. And we are now seeing the results from the real world of _beta testing_ for lack of a better term. Apple is using the general public as guinea pigs just like they do when a new version of OS X is released. There are always unforseen problems that may or may not be addressed properly by Apple.

Still, I found the video that the brothers posted very funny and well done. They are either going to be sued by Apple, or hired by some new edgy company to do a TV commercial. BRAVO!


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## MannyP Design (Jun 8, 2000)

I'd like to know the life-expectancy of the competition's batteries before getting freaked out. Anyone have any solid info?


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## motoyen (Aug 15, 2001)

http://das.doit.wisc.edu/neistatsdirtysecret.txt


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