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That said, since a 600mAh Lithium polymer cell phone battery costs $34.95, the 850mAh or 1200mAh iPod batteries aren't a bad deal at $49.00, and Apple will even do the labor and return shipping for $50 more.

That said, since a 600mAh Lithium polymer cell phone battery costs $34.95, the 850mAh or 1200mAh iPod batteries aren't a bad deal at $49.00, and Apple will even do the labor and return shipping for $50 more.

We know the batteries are replacable, just like car engines are replacable. Any part can be replaced, but sometimes you might as well just replace the whole thing if the cost is so high.

Please see www.ipodbattery.com. What a scam; these batteries start out at 10 times the cost of typical replacement batteries.

Anyway, as someone else said, the only winners in these suits are lawyers. The plaintiffs will get $5 coupns and the lawyers a pile of cash.

http://www.ipodbattery.com/

$99 to have Apple replace the battery is not that extreme considering how much labor is involved in doing so. This isn't a case of somebody popping open a door and dropping in a new battery, you have to take the entire thing apart. If you don't want to pay the $99, fine, go buy the battery for $50, do it yourself and risk damaging the iPod. At least if an Apple tech fucks up they'll replace the unit, probably with a better one then you sent them.

Christ.. bitch bitch bitcb.

At least you recognize that it's a failure to understand on your part.

Devices like PDAs, MP3 players, and cell phones often push the boundaries of how much can be squeezed into the smallest amount of volume. Engineers have to make sacrifices because a desirable feature (such as a user-servicable battery compartment) may be mere millimeteres from fitting. Sad, but true.

User-servicable batteries come in several different form factors, but they tend to be blocky or cyllindrical. If you provide an opening for battery replacement, this adds size from the thickness of the compartment walls and the kind of connectors used. The compartment door must be durable...better to not have one at all than to have one that is flimsy.

The iPod battery is a thin, flat rectangle that is about a third as big as the face of the iPod itself. Choosing this unique battery configuration apparently allowed them to squeeze in other components, with the tradeoff being that they apparently felt that they couldn't make it user-servicable without sacrificing the durability of the iPod as a whole, and/or without sacrificing something else.

You might be able to better visualize the engineering constraints by looking at the innards of an iPod

If they could have provided the capacity and features of the iPod without making such a sacrifice, we would probably see more competing products with the same features and capacity.

From my perspective, the competitors aren't even close. It wouldn't surprise me if their refusal to make a similar tradeoff were part of the reason.

Apple is presumably making a good deal of money on their $99 replacements

at least $50, including the service fees. that's how much the battery (sans installation) costs here.

Or you could just head over to ipodbattery and get a replacement battery for half of what apple charges.

Sure you have to install it yourself, but it's not hard at all.

The refurbs will have their batteries tested before they are reassembled for shipment, so if the battery is not in good shape it will be replaced. Worst case you can replace it for $50 yourself down the road if need be.

I bought a 20GB iPod (old style, firewire on top) for $270. You pretty much have to camp that page daily to have a chance at getting one. They only list products on that page that they have in-stock at that moment, so the contents often change many times during one day. Luckily I have a coworker who is on a Mac mailing list and someone mentioned that some iPods were available.

You must be one of those Mac freaks by your response. I had an Ipod and I didn't like it for the reasons listed. My post was my opinion not the absolut truth according to humans.

Mmmm, vodka...

I want something truely portable. Ever try playing sports, physical sports, with an external hd strapped to your arm? IT SUCKS! Maybe if you were an actual athlete who worked out a lot you would have understood my post but your being so defensive protecting your precious mac product you can't even understand that it's my opinion. I'm just going to copy your type of response now that I think about it...

Eh.... ok. I go running with my iPod. I mean, I wouldn't recommend any contact sports for bringing the iPod along but biking, running and stuff are fine. The hard drive is very well protected and it doesn't get damaged if it's spinning up whilst the player is bouncing. If you drop it or something, maybe, but that goes without saying, even for solid state players.

Got Duct Tape?

Yes but I'd prefer to use something like this if I wanted to look like a dork with an MP3 player on my arm.

It's an issue if you're active in physical sports and not doing the nuckle shuffle on your piss pump while glancing at pron divx's with repulsive cheeto stains around your mouth.

I'd say that the iPod is appropriate for both sports and secret eating and masturbation to depraved sex acts. The solid state buttons and seamless case make it quite easy to clear of any accidental spurting man-juices. The ample rubber padding around the HD makes it great for time at the gym and "time at the gym."

Good for fucking you...that's not what I need hence my opinion as stated all through out my posts.

So you're dumping on the iPod why then? Because you don't need/want one? That makes no sense.

Once again refer to my being active in sports and not "net" sports. I'm sure playing any really active sport is condusive to strapping an external laptop to my arm with ducktape. Yea I wanna look like tech boy getting active...that's the look I'm shooting for plus I want to get hit hard enough to break my $300+ investment.

Wait, so you ARE playing contact sports with an MP3 player! We've been over this! Or are you projecting again?

What the fuck is apple paying you for this bullshit? I think you are Apple's equivalent of Iraq's ex-minister of information...or better yet...mis-information.

I guess I must be getting kickback from Apple too because I'd like to point out this site where you can get a do-it-yourself iPod battery replacement for $49 and this site where Apple offers to do it for you for $99

I'm sure you've met with every Ipod user in various town meetings, bbs discussions, and neighborhood teleconferences on a daily basis to compile your information right? Fucking idiot.

He has far more information than you have. Alert to any children currently reading Slashdot: Basic literacy counts. Stay in school.

Good for fucking you! It's amazing how people like you are all on Apple's dick. You pay them for a product, they don't pay you and you would take it in the ass from them if you could. I bet you can't even hold shit down anymore right? The Ipod is a product not a life altering event so get a fucking clue, a life, a preferably some sex from a non-animal species and wake the fuck up "Apple Bitch Boy":D

While the prospect of taking it up the butt from "Apple" as a collective, apparently, sounds quite appealing, I'll have to pass on the offer. The iPod is a good, solid product. From the sounds of it, the person you're speaking with owns an iPod himself. He's not sucking Apple's dick, he's calling you an idiot for decrying something you know nothing about. I

What an idiot...

$50 ipod DIY batteries

The same link that appears several times below...

It's got replaceable batteries, and unlike the iPod, you don't have to remortgage your house to buy a replacement battery.

If you have to get a loan for $49, you probably shouldn't buy an iPod.

Or any MP3 player for that matter.

- Tony

You can strap it to your arm with the included holder

I'm sure someone makes an armband-style case for iPod owners who want one.

No movable parts so no skipping unlike the ipod

The iPod has 32MB of cache. The average song encoded at a 128K bit rate is 4MB. So about 6 to 10 songs should fit into the iPod cache. I suppose skipping could become an issue for the iPod if you strap it to a running paint shaker and listen to it for a while.

The Ipod is overkill in terms of storage (The Iriver can hold 5-50 cds depending on the sampled bitrate but normally I'd say around 6-10)

Says you. I have a 30GB iPod, and I like being able to carry around my entire CD collection in my shirt pocket. No matter where I am, I can listen to any song I want, any time I want.

The Ipod is too big & heavy

The size of a deck of cards and the weight of 2 CDs is too big and heavy? Do you have severely atrophied muscles because you've been in a coma for the last 10 years, or something?

The Ipod battery fails after about 18 months and costs over $100 to replace

Lies, all lies. Some people have had battery problems, not everyone. The majority of people with original 5GB iPods who posted when this was brought up a week or two ago are having ZERO problems. And if $100 is too rich for your blood, you can replace the iPod battery yourself for $50.

The Ipod is just a notebook/laptop hard drive in a clean looking case but just as fragile as any other hard drive

I haven't read of anyone who has had issues because of drive fragility. People who are really concerned about it can buy a case. I prefer to just take good care of my stuff.

I've read nothing but excellent reviews for the Iriver mp3 player and own one and it's the best I've ever had.

I've read nothing but excellent reviews for the iPod, and own one, and it's the best I've ever had. Neener neener neener!

I don't agree with the argument that you get more storage for the same price from an Ipod. What's the use if it's overkill? If it was an external hard drive or something along those lines I'd agree but it's not.

Ummmm, the iPod is an external hard drive. You can store anything on it, you can even install an OS on it and boot from it. For someone who claims to have had an iPod, you sure don't seem to know much about them.

~Philly

It used to cost $255 to get Apple to replace the battery, but after this guy got the word out, Apple mysteriously dropped the price to $99. Or you could go for a third party battery for $45.

Ok, I stand corrected. Even though Apple will charge you out the wazoo if you send it to them you can
replace it yourself by buying a battery from ipodbattery.com .

Just remember that you can't replace the battery if it dies.

Uh huh. I guess I'm just imagining this do-it-yourself site, and Apple's official battery replacement program.

~Philly

And if anyone is interested in the truth...you may be interested to know that I offered to mirror their video after their original webhost apparently pulled out, with ONE condition: that they link to, or otherwise inform users about, Apple's official $99 iPod battery replacement, since the video, as it stands, is incorrect: the iPod's battery is replaceable, and, on top of it, there's an official Apple program for $99 (not to mention third party options).

They agreed to provide this information, and said they had no problem telling users how to solve the problem. I, in turn, provided webspace and bandwidth for them. The bottom line: after two days of lies and false starts, and milking my institution's generosity by providing almost 100,000 downloads and 0.7 terabytes of data transfer, they NEVER posted any information about how to solve the problem that they promised to post. Their agenda seems clear, and that's sensationalism, melodrama, and attention. The full email exchange is here:

http://das.doit.wisc.edu/neistatsdirtysecret.txt

Turns out these guys are not even remotely interested in solving the problem. They're in it for the publicity.

The inciminating email exchanges that prove it.

Also...

http://depot.info.apple.com/ipod/
(Official Apple iPod battery replacement for $99)
http://www.ipodbattery.com/ ($49)
http://pdasmart.com/ipodpartscenter.htm ($69)

Now, my Powerbook is a different story: $149

149.99

So, I use the PowerCord now.

You can get a replaceable battery for the iPod from here (it costs $50 and you have to install it yourself), or directly from Apple (it costs $99 but you aren't guaranteed that you'll get your own iPod back).

As far as I've seen you cant buy replacement batteries for any of the large (10gig+) portable players like the iPod or even the Dell clone.

Like anyone thought that Apple could summons the power of the Almighty and create a Lithium-ion battery that lasts forever...

Please. apple zealot alarm going off in full force.

the apple rep said on the frigging phone he would be better off buying a new one than trying to get a replacement battery. you didnt see the video, nor do you have any concept what customer service should be . you own a mac.

thats a joke.

here is a place where you can get them:
http://www.ipodbattery.com/

but of course, this will void your "warranty"

I've upgraded a G3 for a friend to Mac OS X )(and a G4 CPU and 1GB of memory a while back), and had a problem with OS being misconfigured. I called software tech support and he asked for my system serial number. I said I have a problem with the software, not the machine. He said that if the machine is too old, even the free support that comes with OS X cannot be rendered. I told him the serial, he told me to frigg off.

Thats A-1 #1 customer support isnt it?

A reinstall of OS X later and he is doing fine.

I'm just glad i didnt install panther and have it ruin the hard drive like it did to so many people and call support and have them say, FO&D because i dont have new hardware.

AAPL = job piggy bank. keep putting the pennies in and his foul, unethical Xerox IP-stealing ass getss richer and richer.

The site was created in the last week.

Days after Apple announced the $99 battery replacement policy.

Months after www.ipodbattery.com offered $50 battery replacements.

"After all, they are charging 99.00 USD for a battery. And that is what they are doing, their is no other way to get a new battery"

For $50 and you can install it yourself.

just look here

actually, I didn't even know about this till I saw it in someone's earlier post in this story.

The articles mentions that the iPod battery is not replaceable, but that's not true. Check out http://www.ipodbattery.com/ I haven't used their service, but presumably it works. $49 sounds like a reasonable price to me, especially when you take into account the cost of the iPod itself.

-hero.

Clickety click! for the cut'n'paste impared!

I have a series one iPod and I get around 10 hours battery life if I leave it on repeat album and random play. This mode loads an album at a time into cache (if it will fit) so that HDD access is minimized. Not only that but for the adventurous geek there is an aftermarket battery pack with an ~15% higher rating than the stock unit available here, it appears they have even added one for the series 3 ipod's.

http://www.ipodbattery.com/

thinksecret, which is usually pretty reliable, has an article about upcoming ipods due at the end of the month. I would wait until then if I was currently in the market for an mp3 player.

Also, for those with ipods now, here's a link for buying a replacement battery for $49. Useful if your battery is starting to show some wear.

The iPod has yet to be beaten in my opinion, when comparing features the iPod's firewire interface (slower in theory, but not real world tests than USB 2.0), Amazingly simple integration and hard drive DATA capability are excluded. Plus they have great quality and have an INSANE number of support products and now battery & hard drive replacement services on the cheap.

I would hold off on any MP# purchase to see if the newest iPods will be compatible with a new Apple Music service possibly later this month.

I fully expect the new iPods to surpass anything on the market with a twist (as the the current ones do) for another year upon introduction.