i pod, you pod, we all pod
Thank God there's an Apple store in the Ginza. My 15GB iPod, which is less than a year old (and therefore thankfully covered by Apple's 1-year limited warranty), is having some semi-serious to major disc problems. I suspect it's been having trouble for some time, as I noticed that the battery drain on it was far more than it should have been after not having been used for a while.

I might not have noticed there was a bigger connected problem at all but when turned it on to check my address book when we were in Kyoto, the display came up with vertical scrolling lines (think old film) and a horizontal flickering line in the lower quarter of the screen. It scared the crap out of me instantly, so I restarted it... with the same result. Next it occurred to me to check the battery, which I noticed was at zero. So then, probably only because I'm a tech, I put the box to my ear and indeed it was making funny disc noises... like it was scanning for something. It made the noises whether or not there was a song playing and throughout the whole reset-restart process.

What fun. A fuxxored iDisc.

I recharged it and the noises stopped. That, and the thought that I could reformat and reload the firmware at home pretty much put it out of my mind. I haven't reformatted or anything yet... but the problem apparently wasn't resolved by a simple recharge. The 'pod is still spinning away... EVEN WHEN IT'S OFF... which explains the mysterious battery drain to zero.

I'm going to be pissed if I have to pay the $30 for "shipping and handling" (MY ASS!) of a 6-month old under-warranty 'pod... but I have to admit I'm surprised to see that there's a 1-year warranty at all. I thought I was going to have to write Apple a scalding letter, which is how I usually ensure that I get my way.

My iPod is my life --if only for the running soundtrack it gives me-- and I would never drop or mishandle it. It better damnwell have a long and happy life or someone's gonna get an earful. Especially because I JUST, JUST bought a Belkin audio recorder to go with it, after a 5 month long wait for the product to arrive in Japan (so I could use my Bic Camera point card on it and save $20 off the US price! YATTA!).

iPod needs to live, not just to function as my backup music but now to function as my "Captain's Log." I hope they give me a new one for free. Then there won't have to be any scalding letters and stalkerish behavior.