Scratch and Win
Frank recently wrote about his purchase of an iPod and now has penned an update. A PC man to the core, it was more than a leap of faith for him to embrace an Apple product. But the Apple Gods, like Santa watch you when you're sleeping and they know when you've been good or bad. Your comments about Macs are recorded in the big book in the sky, and the day of accounting does come. It arrived for Frank earlier than he expected. On a flight to California, disaster struck. Frank stuffed his new iPod in his pocket, sat back and began blissfully listening through his Sony noise canceling head-set to 'The Dead', only to discover upon arrival that the coins in his pocket had scratched the faceplate of his new iPod. Was it punishment for not giving his extra change to that poor man panhandling at the airport before his departure, or perhaps just bad Karma. He visited an Apple store in Palo Alto only to find that repair was not possible. I don't know if Frank has repented. I don't know if the Apple Gods have forgiven him. I don't know if redemption is possible for Frank. I do know that the PC crowd is always ready get their hands dirty, to open up the box, to tinker inside. Well the question is are you ready Frank. His experience raises an important question, how hard would it be to design a product that is repairable, certainly Frank isn't the first to suffer this fate. I'd send a letter to Apple admonishing them to make it so, but then I do have a new Mac and Apple karma is important. So hey Frank you're on your own, but you might want to try something like this.
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Those whores!
Norm, have you noticed it's only the little compatibility annoyances that ruin the Mac user's life? You know: the toolbar on MT's edit panes doesn't show up on Safari (it's blocked in the html). Until yesterday, Google Mail didn't have an alert feature for the Mac (finally, it's here). We wind up taking it for granted that we don't have virus blocking software or spyware killers (we don't need them). And we don't stay up at night thinking about patches and upgrades. In fact, I took a nap while upgrading to tiger.
I am grateful for the break from the serious, however: everything I've written this past week has been overflowing with venom and bitterness. I wonder why...
I got a new cell phone when I scratched the face. Uh-huh. What's a virus? Macs (continue to) rule.
There have been Dashboard widgets for Gmail since Tiger came out.
Bring on the Mac version of Google Earth!
lol a virus is something a MAC user cooked up,to throw a monkey wrench into pcs.
I know just how easily this can turn into a huge clusterfuck of an argument between mac and pc people, but I'm a pretty big apple fan and I'm just gonna come out and say it.
PC fans generally have no taste, no appreciation for design, and use mediocre products out of ignorance and even spite.
Jeff, didn't your mother ever tell you, if you don't have anything nice to say just keep your mouth shut. There is no controversy here. Frank has acknowledged the superior design of the iPod. He takes responsibility for the damage he caused. Certainly you don't think it is good that Apple can't just replace the faceplate of his iPod. I prefer Apple products, but they are certainly not perfect. You're comments are not accurate and not helpful. Listen to you mom.
ok look..I was just making a general statement. I wasn't criticizing your pal. I agree apple should do more when an ipod is damaged. That whole battery debacle just proves apple need to get their act together.
Sorry I went off on PC users. I just hear an endless stream of ignorant comments coming outy of their mouths. I shouldn't have said what I did.
Haha... Jeff, you got a laugh out of me! I hear you, Norm, but I can't help but agree with Jeff's basic statement. It wasn't a personal swipe.
I thought it was hilariously concise and pretty reflective of the folks I've met.
That said, I share the sentiments here about Apple's battery policy.
"PC fans generally have no taste, no appreciation for design, and use mediocre products out of ignorance and even spite."
Strange comment, given that PC fans are usually made out of high-grade plastic, whip around at thousands of revs per minute and are not known for basic sentience, let alone taste, ignorance or spite. Methinks thou dost protest too much
so let me get something straight...
One has the $300 to blow on a toy music box...
but doest pay another measly $20 to buy a case to hold the bauble in- as to guard against easily scratchable surfaces...???
a hard lesson learned.
how about trying this... let your battery run all the way out. then when you plug it back in to your computer to recharge, un plug it when it says NOT to ... keep doing this untill you fry your hard drive. once your hard drive is shot, take it to your local Apple retailer, and if it has been less than a year, you get (ta-da.) a brand new iPod.
Yeah, I can't use computers unless they're made of high grade plastic. Plus if it spins real fast it must mean there's a superior OS inside.
Oh and Apple users are gay and stuff.
Thanks for the tips, Norm. I was talking with Chris Locke about cobbling together some orange crate iPod holders and taking them on tour with the Grateful Dead and selling them outside the concert venues. But then I remembered that Jerry is dead, and I thought, how could this be? He sounds so lifelike playing in the little plastic box. The wooden mod that you pointed too was off course of much higher quality than I would be capable of producing. Mine would have bent finishing nails and joinery that wasn't quite square holding it together. Probably a bead of hardened glue would be on there somewhere too, just a few funky touches y'unnerstand.
Last night I heard Cory Ondrejka talk about gamers as the hope for America. Blogging is over. Massively multiplayer online role playing games are the emerging hope for a united humanity. Or something. I'm hoping each of these gamers will want to carry an orange crate iPod case in his or her cargo shorts.
"was OF course of much higher quality" not "OFF course." Typos... feh
I happen to be a big fan of the ipod. I bought my sister's old one when she got a new one... it's first generation and besides the fact that i bought a crappy card for the firewire so i can use it with my pc, it works really well! makes me want to get a new one!
but i have a pc. i am not familiar with macs besides my sister having one and thinking it's the greatest... but there's much she can't use on it. my other sister likes macs, but had to go buy a pc because of a need for software that she can only use on pc (i think).
pc and mac users are both mostly intelligent people. one shouldn't put the other down because they personally prefer something different. it takes a great commitment to switch, whichever way you go. so perhaps we could all just agree to disagree and leave the name calling for the politicians.
Frank should give it a shot with Brasso...that polishing stuff...it works.