Well, it looks like it's time for me to upgrade my iPod Mini. I have it nearly 2 years now (2 years at xmas) and the battery on the damn thing has just about had it. I only ever use the thing twice a day, once walking to work, and once walking home - half an hour each way. Not too much to ask that it survives the trip on one charge is it? At the mo tho, I'll charge it up overnight, it'll work on my way to work, and then die when I'm half-way home that evening. Not exactly what you want in a "portable" music player!
Read a joke(?) about Apple's sales strategy a while back, about their iTunes lock-in:
Day 1: You buy a deveice that can hold 3,000 songs
Year 1: You buy $1,000 worth of music off iTunes
Year 2: You buy $1,000 worth of music off iTunes
Year 3: Your iPod battery dies and you have to start all over again.
It sucks that Apple expect you to buy a new iPod when your old one dies rather than just replace the battery. Looks like I'll be going on the web, see if I can get a cheap nano (my 4Gb mini is plenty space for my music collection, but I might as well buy a 20Gb or 40Gb so I can back up my hard drive onto it). Failing that, there's lots of 3rd parties that will do Apple's job for them and sell you replacement batteries.
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1 comment:
Not to sound like the rampant Apple fanboy I am but lithium batteries like the one in your mini degrade with time (infact, they're degrading from the moment they're manufactured) rather than load cycles specifically.
Also Apple will replace your battery for $60 (not sure about the euro price) and Maplins sell an ipod battery replacement that includes the tools needed to open the case without damage.
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