I’m sure there is not a digital music listener that hasn’t heard about the alleged “static problems” that Apple has had with the iPods (check out the story on ipodlounge.com for more details). I’ve had my iPod Mini for just over a month and have not noticed any distortions that could have been caused by the iPod. In the past I’ve owned headphones that caused a static sound when you touched the cord near the connector. I wonder if anyone has considered the headphones themselves as a possible source of the problem. Maybe, even songs that were improperly ripped and then shared could be causing the problems. When I have a song that has a distortion I first check the song out before I think there is a problem with the iPod. So far 100% of the time the problem has been a dirty or scratched CD that has caused the distortion.
Don’t get me wrong I think it is possible that there could be a problem with the hardware, especially since they are more than three weeks backlogged on Mini orders with complaints pouring out of their ears. When I recently bought my wife a Mini it took four and half weeks to reach our front door. When I complained after it hadn’t shipped on the day that they originally promised they offered me a $15 discount or a free sleeve worth $25. We took the sleeve. Of course, the first line dude couldn’t authorize himself to go to the bathroom so he sure couldn’t offer me anything and I had to speak with his “Manager” to get any sort of real help.
It wouldn’t be any great surprise to me to learn that there was an assembly problem given that they are trying to whip these things out of the factory with increasing speed but decreasing cost. How much can the parts for an iPod cost? The mark-up on these has to be through the roof. But they sure are cool. My wife and I do not really consider ourselves audiophiles but we both have our own Mini and spend about three hours a week ripping songs or buying songs through iTunes. Isn’t that crazy? Before we had the Minis we probably spent three hours a year messing with digital music and now neither of us will leave home without the damn thing. I even went as far as buying the iTrip tuner for the car stereo but have only had limited luck using it, plus all of the iTrip station programming tones get shuffled right in with the rest of the songs – how stupid? We are both worried about how we are going to make it through our flight to Hawaii in July since the flight will last longer than our battery life. I guess we are going to have to break down and pickup the Belkin Battery pack. I know you think that the Belkin Battery pack isn’t compatible with the Mini, but you’re wrong. The only problem with using the pack with the Mini is that it won’t suction to the back of the Mini like it does with the full-size iPod.
Well I guess it is official, for my family the iPod is here to stay. Just based on Apple’s backlog alone I think you can adequately gauge the popularity of the iPod. I hope they overcome the hardware problems and I hope they continue to work on the stability of the firmware. My Mini locks up causing me to have to reset it on a weekly basis, what a pain. I can’t wait for the first firmware update for the Mini.
Don’t get me wrong I think it is possible that there could be a problem with the hardware, especially since they are more than three weeks backlogged on Mini orders with complaints pouring out of their ears. When I recently bought my wife a Mini it took four and half weeks to reach our front door. When I complained after it hadn’t shipped on the day that they originally promised they offered me a $15 discount or a free sleeve worth $25. We took the sleeve. Of course, the first line dude couldn’t authorize himself to go to the bathroom so he sure couldn’t offer me anything and I had to speak with his “Manager” to get any sort of real help.
It wouldn’t be any great surprise to me to learn that there was an assembly problem given that they are trying to whip these things out of the factory with increasing speed but decreasing cost. How much can the parts for an iPod cost? The mark-up on these has to be through the roof. But they sure are cool. My wife and I do not really consider ourselves audiophiles but we both have our own Mini and spend about three hours a week ripping songs or buying songs through iTunes. Isn’t that crazy? Before we had the Minis we probably spent three hours a year messing with digital music and now neither of us will leave home without the damn thing. I even went as far as buying the iTrip tuner for the car stereo but have only had limited luck using it, plus all of the iTrip station programming tones get shuffled right in with the rest of the songs – how stupid? We are both worried about how we are going to make it through our flight to Hawaii in July since the flight will last longer than our battery life. I guess we are going to have to break down and pickup the Belkin Battery pack. I know you think that the Belkin Battery pack isn’t compatible with the Mini, but you’re wrong. The only problem with using the pack with the Mini is that it won’t suction to the back of the Mini like it does with the full-size iPod.
Well I guess it is official, for my family the iPod is here to stay. Just based on Apple’s backlog alone I think you can adequately gauge the popularity of the iPod. I hope they overcome the hardware problems and I hope they continue to work on the stability of the firmware. My Mini locks up causing me to have to reset it on a weekly basis, what a pain. I can’t wait for the first firmware update for the Mini.
