Death came suddenly for my 4th gen 60GB iPod, who died today, aged just under 2 years old. It could be said that it died young, but given the early mortality rates of these MP3 players, it had a comparatively long life of giving musical pleasure. This rather portly but capacious character was born in China, before emigrating to the Apple Store on London’s glitzy Regent Street. Soon after having arrived in the West End, it went down in the world by moving to Leytonstone with me.
Having come to East London, my iPod was forced into an arranged marriage with a now sadly obsolete 12” PowerBook. This marriage was a happy one – as the couple were highly compatible – and lasted up until my iPod’s demise. They had a love of music and photography in common, hooking up frequently to share the latest tunes and pictures.
My iPod was widely travelled, having toured the Far East, North Africa and many parts of Europe. Its favourite journey was between E11 and EC1, a commute we enjoyed together many a time.
There were few intimations of my iPod’s mortality until the last week or so, when frequent resets became the norm. This morning it passed on in the streets of Leytonstone, with one last simple poignant message for the world: a hardware failure icon.
It leaves behind one rather pissed off and bitter former Apple loyalist and aforementioned PowerBook.
iPod 60gb, MP3 player; born early 2005; died 22 November 2006
17 comments:
Thinking of you at this tragic time. My thoughts are with you. (My 20gb Xclef cheaper-less-stylish alernative still going strong...)
Sorry for your loss. I feel for you. My 4th gen suffered the same fate. Luckily I purchased her from a store w/ an awesome return policy and brought my spanky new my 5th gen home that same day.
No AppleCare? 59 USD can seem a bit much when you're forking over money at the time of purchase, but in a moment of sadness like this it seems like money well spent. In the US, Apple Stores will give you 10% off a new iPod if you turn in a defunct one. Hope that helps.
Sorry for your loss.
Is there some kind of secret deadline inside the firmware? My 2 years i-Pod leave me with a HW failure icon few days ago, after a strange agony made of unpredictables behaviors.
I feel bad for ya all. My 2nd Gen 15GB i pod is stilling going strong.
How terribly sad, indeed. Guess I shouldn't mention that my 1st Gen. 5 Gig player is still showing no signs of giving up the ghost after nearly five years!
Can't replace Harddrive? Motherboard? battery? Probably ends up costing more than buying a new one huh?
If its the hard drive (which die in most computers that I have been exposed too, no matter what manufacturer), you may wish to contemplate installing a new one from here www.span.com (Toshiba 1.8 inch 60 GB - MK6006GAH, Span code IMtc60a). Details of the process are on the web (takes about 15 - 30 minutes) and perhaps install a new battery at the same time, given your ipod seems to have been given a fair workout. Then contemplate whether to pass it on and get yourself a new video model.
My deepest condolences on your loss. Losing an iPod is like losing a part of your family. That rare part of your family that can sing on-key and only sings songs you like. OK, so it's not like a family member at all. But it's still important.
In my three-person family we have three iPods. My son has a hand-me-down original 5 gig iPod that's on its second battery but going strong. We also have two first gen 1gig nanos (one black, one white) and a 40 gig iPod photo.
More iPods than people. They say the same is true of rats in the world. Interesting. Rats that can sing.
Sympathies, of course. My 3G made many a trip from Southwark to St. Albans. And with the reliability of the London Bridge Station signals, I'd not have survived without it. But when it met it's demise (it suffered from a dicey hard drive), I remembered that I had used my credit card (AMEX in this case) to purchase it. That gave me an extra year's warranty. So I now have a lovely 4G to soothe my grief. I expect you may have does the same. Even if you used a debit, check with your bank, it may be covered!
I bought my iPod at BestBuy, and the extended warranty cost $35. Four years later, and it's still running like a champ...after going in three times for repairs that would have cost me more than the iPod if I hadn't bought that plan.
So, send it to any of the dozen or more iPod repair services. What's the problem?
I had my 3rd gen 20GB die on me a couple of years ago. Sadly the disk in the apple music machines aren't all too good. My first one was sent to support and repaired twice but then the screen went and the warranty was out.
I've only had to repair the disk on my 4th gen once but as the warranty for that one now have come to an end I hardly dare to use it.
:(
I'd like to thank everyone for their condolences - you're all very kind. Oh, and happy thanksgiving to US visitors. Extended warranties have always seemed a bit of a con to me, but maybe that would have been a good idea in retrospect. As for repairing the iPod - time and expense. I'm too techincally crap, lazy and impatient to bother!
Nice post.
My early gen-4 40 Gb is still going strong (I admit, I changed the battery after 2.5 years) and I can't help but wonder whether you guys (I include the few commenters who said they too have a dead HD) handle this HARD-DISK BASED mp3 player with the respect it deserves.
Even though apple has been very clever with the read-ahead buffer and the quick shutting down of the HD it still remains a fragile precision component, and jarring/shaking it too much will quickly turn it into a pile of unusable poo.
Don't mean to sermonise but I do wonder sometimes.
I'm sorry for your loss . . . but my 60GB ipod photo was at death's door last week and I managed a resurrection. I got so frustrated with it I shook the crap out of it and then reset. It's working a week later. I may just have postponed the inevitable, but it's working for now.
Would this be called an "iBituary"???
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