Responding deftly to customer complaints, Apple has agreed to replaced broken iPod Nano units, explaining that a vendor issue caused the cracked screen problem widely documented by sites like flawedmusicplayer.com. The Nano has been lavishly praised internet-wide for its form, fashion, and functionality.
Apple to Replace Broken Nano Screens
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Adam Scheinberg
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I hear the hard drive-based iPods are extremely fragile and the batteries flaky too.
Yes, I’ve heard that too. However, mine’s been no problem at all (iPod Mini, 4GB). Although it did once get confused about the Lock status, and refused to do anything until I locked and re-unlocked it! A glitch in ths OS, presumably.
I wish Apple had designed it so that you could easily replace the battery yourself, but I suppose that from their point of view, they want you to “upgrade” once the batteries wear out. Psion did the same thing with the Revoa pda. A pain in the posterior, certainly.
I’d get that lock button issue checked out if I were you, while it’s still under warranty. Mine started out that way, and now the lock button doesn’t work, nor does the center click button. The iPod is now nothing more than a glorified Shuffle with humongous capacity. Apple informed me that they’d be happy to sell me a new one, however.
Read this first:
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/nano.ars/3
Wow must be some overzealous apple loving mods on this website.
Anyway I never heard of the ipod being fragile myself. Regarding your comment on batteries: apple offers a cheap battery replacement program or you can do it yourself. Personally I wouldn’t spend the money the ipod because the battery will die eventually. However you should understand all devices including laptops, PDAs, and cell phones suffer this problem too. Stop complaining and buy a AA powered device or go to university to research the next ground-breaking revolution in battery technology.
When I was searching for an mp3 player, I wanted the Creative Zen, but in the 7 or so stores that I went to, none of them had anything but Zen Micros (didn’t want that). BTW, that’s 2 2 Best Buys, 2 CompUSAs, and a Circuit City.
At the 2nd Best Buy, though, they had a 4th Gen iPod 20gb for $200… decided to go with that instead, especially since there were none to be found, and I wanted (NEEDED) it for a trip I was leaving for the next day.
Only reason I went with an iPod was a damn good price. And then I saw that it connected up to Windows like an external harddrive, and didn’t actually need the extra software that previous iPods needed to do such a thing. I’m quite happy.
Just not looking forward to losing my battery.
You make it sound as if your battery is going to die in a few weeks or something. Why the hell do people still complain about the battery run-down on iPods..?! ALL devices with rechargeable batteries, especially ones used as often as iPods, will lose their charge eventually. Three years down the road just spend $30-40 and replace the damn thing, you have to do it with any other device anyways.
They say the battery dies after about a year.
That’s the difference.
“If customers are concerned about scratching we suggest they use one of the many iPod nano cases to protect their iPod.”
How about designing the thing right to avoid this problem and stop beating around the bush?
yes!!! make the case out of diamonds!!! what is wrong with the,
tell you what, go get a screen protector and apply it to the front of the thing and be done.
Wow, and someone scored your comment as good…
Well, Apple doesn’t have to use diamonds, do you remeber? Apple claimed for many years to sell notebook that were more resistant to scratches than average ones from other vendors (Sony, Toshiba, IBM), and that was definitely true because Apple used better matherials for case and for layering the screen.
The result of usage of better matherials have been, for years and for million of pieces, units less prone to scratch and break at a slightly higher but reasonable cost for case and screen layering.
Why trolling about diamond coating? If Apple has used for ipod the same good matherials that used until some years ago for notebooks we would have an ipod (r) less prone to get scratched. Period.
They can’t do this without ruining the aesthetics. Aesthetics matter, as CmdrTaco’s infamous comment indicates, there have always been technologically superiour alternatives to the iPod. The reason the iPod has succeeded however, is because it looks good, it looks damn good, and people want to be seeing wearing it.
Therefore it would be counter-productive for Apple to change the sort of material they use (shiny materials will always show up scratches and finger-prints). This is why they launched the Nanotube cases, they knew about the problem and this was the best solution they could manage without wrecking the style of the iPod.
What’s different with the Nano is that the black ones show up scratches and finger-prints far worse than the white ones. This is a minor issue though, as the Ars Technica review (linked in the story) illustrated, iPods Nanos are actually quite durable.
This just in: black shows up finger prints, scratches and dirt on automobiles or any surface with a black finish. More to follow. News at eleven.
The reason the iPod has succeeded however, is because it looks good, it looks damn good, and people want to be seeing wearing it.
No, the iPod has done well becuase it works. It is easy to use and that is what the vast majority want.
I bought a Creative Zen Xtra 40 GB to save a hundred bucks. It has turned out to be the most expensive hundred dollars that I have ever saved. The thing is a beast to use. Add a song…run 20 minutes of file system utilities. A major pain in the A**.
I like to kick Apple around as much (if not more) than the next person, but they got the iPod right.
If you had such problems, then something went wrong.
Every mp3 player can just be plugged in, and you drag the stuff onto it just like you would an external harddrive.
it might have hurt them in badly had they not.
That everytime there’s a problem with an electronics device, people launch an online protest campaign, complete with website and registered domain name. 😆
The Nano’s been out what, 3 weeks? Couldn’t this guy give Apple a little time to look into things before starting a website?
I am glad some people have enough spare time to piss away doing websites for problems.
[i]I hear the hard drive-based iPods are extremely fragile and the batteries flaky too.[i]
Not really. I’ve had mine for a year, and there’s been no issues whatsoever.
My wife’s still plays just fine, but it apparently didn’t like being saturated with coffee, so it won’t synch anymore.
<ul>That everytime there’s a problem with an electronics device, people launch an online protest campaign, complete with website and registered domain name. :lol:</ul>exactly, as if now the consumer thinks that this form of complaint/blackmail will make companies change their products; they do what they can, but at the end of the day they’re going to cut corners somewhere to make money. DISCLAIMER: I own a 20G iPod, and will buy a Nano next week for my wife’s bday – but I won’t expect it to survive a nuclear attack!
<ul></ul> ???
WTF?
The online protest campaign was launched after Apple initially refused to accept there was a problem and chose to blame the customer(s) instead. I guess after the volume of complaints Apple has received they could no longer pass the buck and had to acknowledge the problem was their’s.
Now if only they could accept there is also a problem with the battery (outside the USA)…
I hope apple releases a updated model sans scratches, cracks; with the addition of firewire support.
There will be no firewire support and there shouldn’t be any firewire support.
Tell me my friend why “there shouldn’t be any firewire support”?
Because USB is 10x more prevelent in the market and is cheaper to do.
Well ipod is USB 2 and Firewire so why couldn’t nano be too?
More electronics in a much smaller package.
Because *everybody* got USB. Why would you need an extra FW port? Of course you know that… I hope you are not an Apple-FW-fanboy that still thinks FW is superior, *espicially* for a task like pushing a few mp3 onto a player every now and then.
A storm in a teacup if you ask me, any manufacturer would live with 1% of faulty devices.
Reacting after 1 week of complain is pretty good.
I haven’t heard much about Creative admitting to ..SELLING PLAYERS WITH VIRUS INCLUDED?????
Maybe I haven’t looked well enough. Credit needs to be given where it is due. Apple is changing for the better
Ok this guy at flawedipodwhatever.com first got a legal notice from Apple about violating the trademark name. “iPod”
So the guy changes it, but then he’s hosted off of .Mac, which I guess he maxed out his bandwidth (no longer unlimited) and so now he had to move it to yahoo.
Apple made a warranty exception in his case, gave him a new nano, but he continues to bitch, moan and get others relied up.
What’s reveling is he supposedly is a Mac fan, but wrote his web site using MS word something that’s only available on a PC. (did it at work? shame shame)
So any case this guy is a real work of art.
The iPod Nano is the best iPod Apple has ever made, and I speak from a collection going back to the 2nd generation.
It’s just the right size (1000 songs one) to hold a variety of the songs you are currently listening too (I have over 7000 songs), it has photos, which comes in handy showing people, it has podcasts and a color screen and games and other nifty things, plus it can store files.
What’s best about it is it’s slim, it’s not a bulky thing, I wish I had a notebook like this. The battery life is decent because it’s not moving a hard drive.
Sure like any piece of highly polished ***elry or a new car, you have to protect it from the wear and tear of life.
Just because a billionaire pulls one out of his rough jeans pocket, doesn’t mean you should too, unless $200-$250 doesn’t mean a whole lot to you.
Cover the thing, iPod Nano covers are available. Wrap it in a soft cloth and place it securely in your shirt pocket.
Heck watch lenses scratch, eyeglasses scratch, cars get scratched and dented.
It’s the highly polished new look that makes products desirable and sell. People spend money for awhile to keep their products looking like new, but eventually something happens, so deal with it.
Clearly a diamond or sapphire coating is profitably expensive for such a device.
“What’s reveling is he supposedly is a Mac fan, but wrote his web site using MS word something that’s only available on a PC. (did it at work? shame shame)”
Erm, Microsot Word and Office are available on the Macintosh– and have been since they were first released. Word, Excel and Office were geared towards Mac.
LOL: That was classic Thom. Makes one wonder if there really are aliens amongst us.
LOL: That was classic Thom. Makes one wonder if there really are aliens amongst us.
What?
Umm, Office is on Mac, it’s called Office:Mac… and it looks SOOOO much prettier.
//I am glad some people have enough spare time to piss away doing websites for problems.//
And I’m glad people have enough spare time to piss away posting messages to OSNews. And replies to those messages. 🙂
Good logic! Because posting a few lines on OSNews.com takes the same amount of time as posting a website!
But posting on OSNews.com doesn’t help anyone. Creating a web site for all people who received one of the broken iPods did certainly help. There are still some nice people out there 🙂
http://www.nme.com/news/ipod/21101
That site says there was a recall on ipod nanos. I can confirm this anywhere else.
If there was a recall then surely they’ll create an updated version to fix the problems, although I do know they said it only effects a small nano-sized amount of the ipods (no pun intended).
Any cute and modern device in a small form factor will scratch. That goes from P&S cameras to mobile phone exteriors to iPod Nanos. It’s just a fact of life. For those that care about appearance there are cases to be bought. If you buy a device for what it’s for, rather than just what it looks like, then you should get some decent value out of it.
I regularly have people asking me why I don’t replace my very worn cell phone. My answer is that the phone still works, and does what I bought it for. End of story.
Any cute and modern device in a small form factor will scratch. That goes from P&S cameras to mobile phone exteriors to iPod Nanos. It’s just a fact of life.
Certainly, but it’s a matter of degree. My cellphone is just over a year old, and has a few scratches on the case, and some barely visible marks on the screen that doesn’t affect the readability of the screen. My PDA is the same, after three years or so.
In contrast, a substantial number of buyers are finding their Nanos to be so prone to scratching that the screen is unusable – this in the short time that the nano has been released. Nothing to do with damage to the aesthetics of the device – they’re complaining about a flaw that can render the device unusable in the space of weeks.
I thought that even though Apple hardware is made by the Taiwanese/Chinese….the quality control is SOOOOOO much better.
In related news, “screw the Nano”: http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/09/26/motceo/index.php
Way to bash your business partner, Motorola…
After having a Nano for about a week and carrying it in my pockets it is already so badly scratched you can barely read the screen anymore. Overall I am not happy with this player at all, including its limited functionality and various restrictions.
My next player will be an iRiver. Those are much better players in terms of quality and functions.
I’d suggest people read the ars tech review before they comment based on 2nd hand rumor.
He sat on it.
He dropped it while jogging.
Dropped it off a bike going various speeds.
Dropped it out the window of a slowly moving car. (30mph)
Out of a car going 50mph.
Up to this point it suffered only scratches.
Dropped it from 9′.
Ran over it. Several times.
The screen finally broke but it still played music.
He finally had to throw it up in the air as high as he could and let it land on asphalt/ concrete to break it completely.
He may not have a video, but he does have photo documentation. I doubt many other players are engineered this well.
I’ve owned a 3G and a 4G Photo ipod and both are working very well. I am pretty rough and in that time period have wrecked 3 cell phones. My ipods have the usual scratches, but they have never given me a problem.
As far as Cdr Taco’s comments. They may be fashion statements for some, and looking at raw specs other players may outclass them, but I have rarely been happier with a consumer device. The whole combination works well together – connectivity, software, usability, sound, and style. It may not get top points in any individual category, but it definitely puts them together in a winning formfactor. The itunes store is irrelevant in my case since I prefer to own the physical media rather than accept limitations.
A sample size of one is pretty useless. Though I should point out that if you actually read the article at Ars Technica they dropped it out of a car every time except for when jogging.
of only accepting that there are flaws with their products only after a massive online campaign. It happened with the ibooks screens, ibook motherboards… as of last year or so.
i get tired when people blindly bash legitimate complaints just to defend they beloved favored companies.
malarky..
if that were the case, then there never would have been recalls before the internet was popular..
and yet, there have been plenty.. laptop battery recalls come to mind first
//Good logic! Because posting a few lines on OSNews.com takes the same amount of time as posting a website!//
//But posting on OSNews.com doesn’t help anyone. Creating a web site for all people who received one of the broken iPods did certainly help. There are still some nice people out there :-)//
Ummm … it’s called sarcasm, people. Look it up.
Or didn’t you notice the smiley I put in?
Sheesh.
It was on the new today on ch 4 new. IMHO, Most other companies go through this kind of thing with a faulty batch of hardware. But apple should be quicker to fix the problem before it gets blown up like this. The next thing apple needs to think about is it distorted screen output of the mac mini.
http://discussions.info.apple.com/[email protected]@.68a8dc…
Because
1. USB is easier to put on a really small device than firewire will ever be.
2. Many x86 users do not have a firewire port on their computer.
Perhaps they could have made the screen out of glass [not the Vista interface, the material] or quartz. But of course then some douchebag is going to whack it with a sledgehammer to prove that “it’s a piece of crap and it breaks after one hit with a hammer” and he’s going to cut himself on the glass shards which gives him, of course, a legitimate reason to sue Apple and claim 100 billion dollars in damages.
If it’s not a structural problem [and they’d have to be stupid to kill their baby] then it very well might be a supplier problem.
That’s not Apple’s problem [insofar as they made a mistake in selecting the wrong supplier].