Union St: Brooklyn, NY | Main | East 11th Street
August 25, 2003
Poopy Pod
I have a love/hate relationship with Apple. I am, after all, an original Apple baby. I was the geeky second grader who would chastise you for not removing your 5" floppy before shutting down the computer. I have a classic Macintosh (that works) sitting beside me in my office.
But, alas, post Apple IIe my life pretty much revolved around the PC. I keep PC at home and at the office. My brief professional relationship with an iMac ended with me coming close to putting my foot through the screen. Yes, the "hate" piece of my bittersweet Apple love stems from Steve Jobs' inability to release a piece of machinery that doesn't contain a major dysfunction. Even more annoying is Apple's over simplifying (or, as I like to put it, dumbing down) of their goods, making them so simple that you can't fix them easily on your own. And when you need them to fix something, they charge you through the nose (Sony and Palm are also major culprits of this, as well).
Current Example: PeaPod, my original release iPod, suffers from what PeachPit Press calls "confusion." This basically means that every so often I will try to turn her on and the poor pod will be dead. Most of the time the problem can be resolved by plugging PeaPod into her charger and then performing a "reboot" (holding down the "menu" and "play" buttons for 10 seconds). This, however, only works about 90% of the time. The other 10% results in you having to let the damn thing sit for a day, or two, or FIVE and periodically try the reboot until the iPod decides to get unconfused.
Now let's get something straight. For $350, nothing that I purchase should be "confused." It shouldn't even be irked or quizzical. And sadly, this problem doesn't seem to be resolved in the newer versions.
Don't get me wrong-- I love PeaPod the iPod. She's my entire stereo system and accompanies me to work every day. Other than this one rather annoying problem, she's my favorite piece of non-essential technology that I own.
But come on, Apple. Your design is beautiful...why can't the insides be just as nice as the outsides?
Posted by callalillie at August 25, 2003 9:06 AM | Rabid Rants
from a purely selfish point of view, has this issue been resolved in future releases?
Posted by: skutchie at August 25, 2003 12:24 PM
Not from what I've read. It seems to be the same with those that have a docking cradle...
Posted by: callalillie at August 25, 2003 12:26 PM
Well I do agree that apple products, especially 1.0 versions, tend to crap out shortly after the warranty does, I find Apple's customer service a little bit better.
My own iPod went a little wonky last week when the firewire connection started dropping out after about a minute of connection. I checked online and saw the price for out-of-warranty repairs, $260 give or take, and I almost cried cause for $40 more I could just buy a new one and keep the wonky one.
I went to the apple store anyway and showed it to the Mac Genius on duty, Dave. I didn't mention being out of warranty for 2 months nor that I knew it was a by no means a software problem. He gave me a bottle of Evian.
He fussed a bit and tried to reinstall the software but that didn't work. He looked up the serial number and caught me on the out of warranty, but he was a decent guy and since he couldn't fix it figured it was reasonable to just give me a new one. I had to pay $32.53 for the whole visit, but thats pretty good for a replacement iPod.
Basically, although Apple can be a real ass about repairs and replacements most of the people working down at the store are just enthusiasts. The hiring process is apparently quite intense. And these people don't want to see you screwed over. They actually have a great sense of what it takes to boost brand loyalty.
My only advice is to go just after lunch on a weekday cause it gets incredibly hectic in the evenings/on the weekends. Worse, possibly, than a Saturday afternoon at the Strand.
Also, make sure if you are going in to do a full backup because one of the first things they will do to fix it is wipe it and reinstall the software.
Posted by: Brian at August 25, 2003 3:28 PM
That's interesting...you can wipe and reinstall the software on your own, without stupid Apple's help. Hmmph.
Posted by: callalillie at August 26, 2003 8:58 AM
