iPod surgery

A little over a year ago I finally broke down and bought an iPod. I was holding out for lower prices, more storage, a sign that enhancements leveling off, and more assurance that music I bought online would be playable in the next decade.

I bought just before the video iPods came out and never looked back. I love my iPod. I love NPR podcasts (and others). I love being able to shuffle and not know which of the 6000 songs loaded so far will pop up. I love creating auto-playlists by genre or artist.

And then, I turned it on one day and got the frowny Mac. Charged it up... nope. Reset it... nope. Ugh. And it seems that out of warranty, Apple basically charges you the cost of a refurbished iPod (about $250) to repair anything beyond a battery. I am sure this is great for business, because many who can afford to do so must simply toss the old one in the landfill and upgrade. I hate supporting the wasteful model that is Apple's continuous upgrade business strategy. I started looking for alternatives.

I did lots of research trying to find anything comparable, and came up empty. The iTunes interface is still lacking obvious features (very little of my music can be described by a single genre; why in the world can't I create subfolders for organzation?), but it's still better than anything else I've seen. (Zune may fill the void, but that remains to be seen.)

So, having come to grips with my dependence on this device, I persevered... researched, decided it could be the battery, took a chance, and bought an repair kit here. Saw these instructions and got nervous, but proceeded.

The toolkit itself was useless. Susan ended up opening the damn thing with a butter knife. :-) Then things got interesting... pull the audio cable, move the hard drive and motherboard, take out 6 teeny tiny screws, untape stuff... aha! the battery! Replace, reassemble, think good thoughts, turn it on... YES! Success.

If you've made it this far, your reward is this: if you are going to own an iPod, extend your warranty. Do it. If it's too late, seriously consider mailing your device in to PDASmart or others for cheaper repairs than Apple. Or if you just want to upgrade, people will buy your old one on eBay and repair it, keeping it out of the landfill. But don't try to replace a battery yourself unless you are extremely comfortable working with electronics and in tiny spaces!

Do you have an iPod story to share? Is there another music player or other software or online music stores that you like? Share in the comments!