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Bobby · Jul 19, 2004, 09:04 PM

I got a 10GB iPod with a 2 year replacement plan at CompUSA...

This basically means if it "breaks", I can get it replaced with one of equal value....

This should mean I can get the 4G, but there's one main thing that seems a step backwards to me...

The main thing I like about the 3G iPods are the absence of moving parts! I had a 1G iPod which started having problems due to the moving parts. However, it looks like 4G go back to moving parts!!! This worries me, because I'm afraid the moving parts would cause the same problems that the 1G iPod had...

Does anybody have any input on this? Anybody experienced this kind of problem with the iPod Mini???

Sorry for the new thread, but it gets impossible to traverse the over sized threads on all topics related to the iPod...

phantomo · Jul 19, 2004, 09:17 PM

What "moving parts" problems are you referring to? The scroll wheel? The only user "movable parts" on the mini are the Hold switch and the click wheel, no problem so far. Since it is only 0.5 years old, I don't experience any problem due to age yet.

Bobby · Jul 19, 2004, 09:20 PM

Originally posted by phantomo:
What "moving parts" problems are you referring to? The scroll wheel? The only user "movable parts" on the mini are the Hold switch and the click wheel, no problem so far. Since it is only 0.5 years old, I don't experience any problem due to age yet.

The click wheel, press down for play and what not...

I'm wondering if that is something that can break appart, get jammed, stop responding, etc...

I'm wondering if anybody who has an iPod Mini has experienced any problems yet... Maybe due to dropping or just a not so well assembled model...

phantomo · Jul 19, 2004, 09:24 PM

IC, eventually all switches will worn out. Even for the 3G iPod, I have 2 friends whose Hold switch failed.

I am happy to report that my mini doesn't have any problem on the "moving parts" yet. Keeping finger crossed.

Happy iPodding.

applelover · Jul 19, 2004, 09:29 PM

my mini is in great shape. travel with it, use it in the gym, even drop it every once in a while...

Too Artificial · Jul 19, 2004, 10:26 PM

I have a 1G iPod that's moving parts are holding up very well under heavy usage. My gf's 1G iPod is holding up just as well, though she doesn't use hers as much.

I ordered a 4G 20GB version today, not concerned about the parts at all.

velodev · Jul 19, 2004, 11:33 PM

Only thieves "break" their iPod within two years to get one of equal value.

Get a job, buy it if your heart is set on it. Don't rip off the hand that's protecting you. It's unethical.

Bobby · Jul 20, 2004, 12:30 AM

Originally posted by velodev:
Only thieves "break" their iPod within two years to get one of equal value.

Get a job, buy it if your heart is set on it. Don't rip off the hand that's protecting you. It's unethical.

I never said I was going to break it...

And even if I wanted to buy a new one I couldn't afford it... I'm struggling right now to pay off $10,000 in medical bills, and my credit is quickly going down the drain, so I don't exatly have the money to spend on anything else... Trust me, it's not fun to decide weather to pay your bills on time, or having to owe a late fee in exchange for getting perscriptions filled...

If you've ever heard them talk in the store though, they barely fall short of telling you to break it... They also have absolutely no rules as to how it broke... As it stands mine is pretty beat up, it's just withstanding better than my 1G did...

If I were to take it back in, I would simply walk in with it as is... It was given to me as a gift, and when it was purchased the person at the store said I could simply walk in with it to get it exchanged... That was the main selling point for the plan anyway, the guy said he had a case where someone bought a 20GB and was able to exchange it for the newly (at the time) released 30GB...

Being he stressed it as a selling point, if I'm not supposed to be able to do this then someone purposely mislead us to make an extra commission... So who would be the theif here???

RayX · Jul 20, 2004, 03:05 AM

Moving parts? Erm, the hard drive?

Peter · Jul 20, 2004, 03:55 AM

the hard drive moves...

siliconwarrior · Jul 20, 2004, 05:20 AM

Ah, the No Moving Parts Myth.

Trust me, there's plenty of moving parts in any generation iPod, and I think the Click Wheel is the least of your worries.

drive-thru · Jul 20, 2004, 07:05 AM

Originally posted by Bobby:
...the guy said he had a case where someone bought a 20GB and was able to exchange it for the newly (at the time) released 30GB...

I'm not trying to judge whether you are going to/should try to exchange it, but I would make sure that the store doesn't have any 3G iPods lying around before you try to exchange it for a 4G. I don't know how the returns policy works there but you might go in expecting to walk out with a brand new 4G and end up with a left-over 3G

velodev · Jul 20, 2004, 07:50 AM

Originally posted by Bobby:
I never said I was going to break it...

snip...

So who would be the theif here???

Right, it would be his fault that he "instructed" you to do so and he has no respect for his employer or their bottom line. I would think, in entirety, both of you would be unethical. Funny part is then he wonders why he is still getting paid less than $8/hr.

Since you never said you were going to do it, I'll say I am glad you're not.

GORDYmac · Jul 20, 2004, 08:57 AM

Originally posted by siliconwarrior:
[...]Trust me, there's plenty of moving parts in any generation iPod, and I think the Click Wheel is the least of your worries.

Truer words have never been spoken.

Bobby · Jul 20, 2004, 10:50 AM

Originally posted by drive-thru:
I'm not trying to judge whether you are going to/should try to exchange it, but I would make sure that the store doesn't have any 3G iPods lying around before you try to exchange it for a 4G. I don't know how the returns policy works there but you might go in expecting to walk out with a brand new 4G and end up with a left-over 3G

I actually really have no intention of doing much of anything at this point... I considered this posibility when apple released the 15GB 3G in January, after I got my 10GB for Christmas... I was thinking of doing it then, but in the end I decided 5GB wasn't really worth the bother, considering my music collection was around 6GB total at the time...

My thoughts now are just theoretical at this point... But if I actually decide to do it, or if mine does in fact break, I want to make sure I don't end up trading for an iPod that will stop working in another year... In a way I'm also thinking that I may be better off doing it now to get the current 15GB 3G iPod now rather than risk getting a 4G iPod (if my current one were to actually break) that will stop working a year afterwards becasue thoes click buttons stop working as the buttons on my 1G iPod did...

Bobby · Jul 20, 2004, 11:11 AM

Originally posted by velodev:
Right, it would be his fault that he "instructed" you to do so and he has no respect for his employer or their bottom line. I would think, in entirety, both of you would be unethical. Funny part is then he wonders why he is still getting paid less than $8/hr.

Since you never said you were going to do it, I'll say I am glad you're not.

I wouldn't break a perfectly fucntioning piece of equipment. I'm pretty sure if I do give it to them, they would probably stick it on their auction site.

But I do know they do get a commission for selling their replacement plan, as I asked for a 2 year replacement plan when I bought a replacement for my AirPort Base Station (as my prevous one died 12 months, 22 days after I got it, and Apple said they wouldn't repair/replace it). When I got to the register the guy who handed me the disk walked up to and told the checker to "make sure he gets credit for this one"...

But also keep in mind that the store does encourcage the salesmen to sell their replacement plan. Being this tactic is something I've overhead them do countless times at CompUSA, I can't believe that all these employees are using this enticement in a manner that they're told not to... Regardless, the store is responsible for what their employees say, even if it's something against their polocy... In this case the salesman specifically said that we could use the replacement plan to upgrade to a better unit later down the line...

Besides that fact there is one problem my iPod has, and while it isn't a serious problem it is quite annoying. For whatever reason the contrast on my iPod seems to reset itself, which I then have to manually go back in & turn up because it's almost impossible to read anything on the screen after it does this... I never worried about the problem before, however in the past few weeks it's happend 3 times, where before it happened once every month or two... My battery also doesn't last nearly as long as it used to... So it does have some problems, all be it not serious ones...

But as I said in a post a little earlier, I'm mainly wondering if I would be better off getting it replaced now with another 3G iPod, rather than having it really break 6 months from now and end up with a 4G that ends up dead in another year due to the click wheel...

HotSoup · Jul 20, 2004, 02:50 PM

I have a 2G with the click buttons and I've had it for almost 2 years now. No problems, everything is holding up just fine. I even dropped mine twice leaving dents and the case to warp slightly so it doesn't quite fit.

Lancer409 · Jul 20, 2004, 05:59 PM

Click the following link for lots of pix of the new 4g ipod compared to the older ipods and even a mini .. the new ipod is almost as thin as the ipod mini!
http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow/0,23...a=131820,00.asp

can someone tell me if that's a 40 or a 15? (the 3 g compared to the 4g ipod. if that's not a 40 but a 15 ... wow .. it's major shrinkage...)

Hoosier_1701 · Jul 20, 2004, 06:08 PM

That has to be a 40gig 3G. My 20 doesn't look anywhere near that thick when I compare amount of steel above and below the dock connector.

TailsToo · Jul 20, 2004, 07:11 PM

Originally posted by Hoosier_1701:
That has to be a 40gig 3G. My 20 doesn't look anywhere near that thick when I compare amount of steel above and below the dock connector.

the weight of the old and new 40GB are the same, so I wouldn't imagine that they could be that much slimmer.

webb3201 · Jul 21, 2004, 10:40 AM

Originally posted by Bobby:
I never said I was going to break it...

And even if I wanted to buy a new one I couldn't afford it... I'm struggling right now to pay off $10,000 in medical bills, and my credit is quickly going down the drain, so I don't exatly have the money to spend on anything else... Trust me, it's not fun to decide weather to pay your bills on time, or having to owe a late fee in exchange for getting perscriptions filled...

If you've ever heard them talk in the store though, they barely fall short of telling you to break it... They also have absolutely no rules as to how it broke... As it stands mine is pretty beat up, it's just withstanding better than my 1G did...

If I were to take it back in, I would simply walk in with it as is... It was given to me as a gift, and when it was purchased the person at the store said I could simply walk in with it to get it exchanged... That was the main selling point for the plan anyway, the guy said he had a case where someone bought a 20GB and was able to exchange it for the newly (at the time) released 30GB...

Being he stressed it as a selling point, if I'm not supposed to be able to do this then someone purposely mislead us to make an extra commission... So who would be the theif here???

Yep, it drives me crazy when places like Compusa and Best Buy complain about fraud on replacement plans. I have had them try to sell me a plan numerous times by explaining that I can simply break the machine or have a problem and received a new one in store.

Note on your medical bill situation....I had a friend in very similar situation (about 65,000 in medical bills). He struggled for a few years to pay it off and finally consulted a bankruptcy attorney. he filed Chapter 7 and escaped from the debt cycle which was really causing his health problems to escalate. Make sure and consult one in your state. not an advertisement and I am not a lawyer, but I saw it work to help him out.

k

Hoosier_1701 · Jul 21, 2004, 11:03 AM

Originally posted by TailsToo:
the weight of the old and new 40GB are the same, so I wouldn't imagine that they could be that much slimmer.

Yeah, Apple says the 20 gig 4G iPod is .57 inches thick. I can't find specs for the 3G iPods on their site anymore, but I searched the web and found something saying the 3G iPod is .62 inches thick. That is a very small difference.

So, I'm guessing that PC Mag picture is comparing a 4G 20 gig with a 3G 40 gig. Pretty deceptive, actually.

b00tang · Jul 21, 2004, 01:32 PM

I'm the less than proud owner of a 2G ipod.
Its been in heavy use ever since the 2Gs were released and now its dead dead DEAD.
Its hard to say if its the harddrive or the board, but it certainly is not any of the moving parts...
in fact i liked the moving parts, its nice to be able to hit forward or backward through my pants pocket... something 3G doesn't seem to allow.
hopefully i'll find one of those people who wants to buy dead Ipods so i can get some money towards a 4G

Lancer409 · Jul 21, 2004, 07:51 PM

=) thanks .. now to find out of the wheel is lit or not .. lol

http://www.spymac.com/gallery/show_p...00466&size=big

is this photoshopped? ... all the other pix show screen lit, but buttons arent. is it a feature that can be turned off? (backlit scree, backlit wheel turned off?) i would seriously hope that it lights up .. looks so much nicer .. and yes .. styling does matter to me, i'm pretty sure it matters to a lot of ipod users. i cant understand why they went with a grey wheel. hopefully it'll atleast light up.

mdc · Jul 21, 2004, 08:02 PM

nope, does not light up. oh well, i still love it.
imo, it lighting up would just be for bragging rights.

there is not a need for it to light up on the click wheel. you have 4 cardinal points, and 4 buttons. menu top, previous left, next right, play bottom. not that difficult to remember, and even harder to click the wrong one... i have tried with my eyes closed.