Cameron's Brain

the latest iPod frakup

So my iPod went belly up again a couple of days ago. I have an interview on there that I didn't get a chance to synch to my PC before the hard drive decided to go AWOL, so I'm reluctant to take the device back to my local Apple support center for the FOURTH HARD DRIVE REPLACEMENT IN TEN MONTHS.

I tried all of the usual things - a reset (just get the folder icon or the sad iPod icon), updating the software (the update software can't "mount" the iPod) and even just tried to run a HDD scan on it (press back and select together for 6 or so seconds). Did a HDD Scan and it falls over with the message REG1FAIL. Pulled out my Googlefu but nada nothing zip. At one stage last night I did get the device to actually boot, and all of my files are there, but when I try to play the interview, is fails. Then, when I tried to synch with iTunes, I got a message that the interview file was corrupted and I should run chkdsk, although how you do that on an iPod, I have no idea.

Apple support have lots of iPods in for repair

It's been over five days now since I dropped my brand new iPod into Apple because the hard drive failed on the damn thing... and I've heard nothing from them. I rang them towards the end of last week and they hadn't looked at it yet. When I pointed out to the guy on the phone that this was the 2nd iPod I'd had in there in two weeks, and that this device was the replacement they gave me for the last faulty machine, it got me nowhere.
He said "We get so many iPods in here, it takes us some time to get through them."

NOT want you want to hear.

my brand new iPod is dead

That brand new iPod that Apple gave me a week ago to replace the one I bought 12 months ago - is dead. This time it will boot okay, but the hard drive clicks, the tracks jump, and my PC won't read it. Can't update it, format it, etc. Bugger!

Apple support does good!

Apple’s support centre in Melbourne called me today to tell me I could pick up my BRAND NEW replacement iPod! w00t! Well done Apple and I’m glad I stuck to my guns the other day in demanding they look it over.

Now the only problem is – iTunes doesn’t seem to recognize it. It’s docked and showing up in DEVICES (this is on a PC), but iTunes doesn’t see it. I asked Jonathan Wrigley from The Mac User Show and he suggested running the latest ipod Update, but that doesn’t find it either.

Any ideas??

UPDATE: New iPod is now working. Don’t ask me how. I re-installed iTunes… re-formatted the iPod… re-booted the PC… stood on one foot and hopped in a counter-clockwise circle… some combination of these events worked.

Apple's customer service hilarious

A couple of days ago, my 40Gb 4th Gen iPod started playing up. It would play ten seconds of a track then skip to the next track. I just figured it had a bad synch or something so, when I got home, I docked it for the evening and forgot about it.

The next morning it wouldn’t boot at all. When I tried the reset combo, I’d just get the sad ipod icon or the folder with the exclamation mark.

So, after getting this for a couple of days, I dug out my original receipt and found out that it was still under warranty – for three more days!

I took it into the store in Melbourne I bought it from this morning. Of course, as soon as I jumped out of the car and pulled the iPod from my bag, it started working again! But I’m thinking “Hmmmm, only three days left on the warranty, I don’t want to take my chances!” So I walked into the store and up to the counter.

Here’s the conversation I had next:

ME: Hi I bought this iPod from you 362 days ago and for the last couple of days it wouldn’t boot. Now, all of a sudden, it’s working again. But the warranty runs out in three days. What should I do?

APPLE GUY: You should buy our $99 Warranty extension.

ME: Ummm, riiiight. How about you just replace this one?

APPLE GUY: But it’s working ok.

ME: Yeah but it WASN’T working for the last couple of days? What happens if I take it home and it dies again in four days?

APPLE GUY: You should buy our $99 Warranty extension.

Finally I managed to convince him to point me in the direction of the service people and I went through the same conversation with them for ten minutes until I convinced them to either REPLACE IT or give me a clean bill of health on it.

Classic.

Just call me "iPod technical support"

In November last year my relatively new 4G iPod froze on me. I blogged about it. Then I stumbled upon the reset sequence and everything was fine. Since then 56 people have commented on the site, who were freaking out when they couldn’t reset their iPod, thanking me for posting the reset sequence. I must have a pretty high googlerank for “iPod 4G reset” or something.

Do you think Apple will send me a payment sometime soon for acting as their first line of iPod technical support?

Bookmarking mp3s on iPod

I installed the new iPod update today and had fun playing around with bookmarking mp3s! I'm glad to see Apple have enabled this feature - it's something our listeners have been asking for for ages. Well done Apple!

Apple goes bezerk

From Apple's earnings announcement today:

Apple Computer Inc. said Wednesday that its second-quarter profit jumped more than sixfold as its iPod music players continued to dominate the market. The results soundly beat Wall Street estimates.

For the three months ended March 26, Apple's profit jumped to $290 million, or 34 cents per share, from $46 million, or 6 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding certain unusual items, the computer maker said it would have earned $299 million, or 35 cents per share.

Holy crap! That's a good quarter.

Revenue surged 70 percent to $3.24 billion from $1.91 billion. The company shipped 1,070,000 Macintosh computers and 5,311,000 iPods during the quarter, a 43 percent increase for computers and a nearly sevenfold increase for iPods from the same period last year. Profit margins also grew - increasing to 29.8 percent from 27.8 percent a year ago.

Microsoft should retire WMA

Leander Kahney talks on his blog about the flak he's been copping from his recent WIRED article on Microsoft employees using iPods. (via Scoble). I know Microsofties in Australia (and a couple in Redmond) using iPods. I don't see what the big deal is. I bought mine just after I left MSFT, but I wouldn't have had much problem buying one while I was there. Let's face it - the MP3 vs WMA deathmatch is over. Microsoft just hasn't been able to get the industry to accept WMA widely enough for it to be a true standard. MP3 is the only portable format. I had to convert 10,000 tracks from WMA to MP3 when I bought my iPod and I don't want to have to go through that again. Microsoft needs to fight battles that make sense. God knows its fighting enough of them. WMA doesn't make sense.  Microsoft should retire it.

iPod .tmp files

Okay, so here's a tip for you iPodders out there - if you find a mysterious iTunes folder on your hdd and it's got nothing but .tmp files in it, ahem, DON'T DELETE IT.

I keep my music in a special folder on my hard drive, NOT under "My Documents/ My Music" which is where iTunes likes to try to stuff it. So yesterday when I went to PUT something into My Music, I discovered an iTunes folder in there. Hmmm, I thought to myself. What's THAT doing there? Must be junk DNA, I thought, from when I installed iTunes. I checked inside it, about 7000 .tmp files, taking up space, so, I thought, fuck it, I'll just delete it.

Next thing I know? My iPod is EMPTY dude. All gone. So, I re-import everything from my REAL iTunes folder, no big deal. BUT... all my meta-data is gone. Genres I changed are all back. NO SMART PLAYLISTS. NO RATINGS. 6 months of engineering my iPod to be the way I want it, all up in smoke. Time to start again.

Waaaaaa.