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iPod Mini Design Flaw?
terradyn writes "Over at iPodlounge they've discovered that the iPod mini's have a major issue with their headphone jacks. It looks like the jacks connection to the main system board is extremely poorly engineered and so normal use will wear it out and cause lots of static after around 35-40 days... If any pressure on your iPod Mini results in crackling and static, you should return your iPod immediately to an Apple store for a free replacement. They're also theorizing over in the forums that the iPod Mini shortage may be a cover for this problem..." Update: 04/12 01:08 GMT by T : billybob writes "Someone in the forum thread originally linked to has posted pictures of the iPod taken apart, demonstrating the problem."
I'm not surprised. Apple must not have done much testing of the mini before they started shipping it.
That sounds like something that will be fixed up in a firmware update, not necessarily a hardware problem..
Massive design flaw found in Apple product, Slashdot prints neutral article. Any bets on the tone if Microsoft made the IPod?
Apple doesn't exactly have the same history of hardware mistakes as Microsoft has in browser/e-mail security issues. If this wasn't the first loosely-connected headphone port on an Apple product, then there'd be cause to be negative.
That, and by the time Slashdot has realized it, Apple is already offering to replace the defective units.
I've seen this problem on so many consumer electronics. I've always called the points cold solder joints, but the same thing.
I don't understand why manufacturers continue to attach jacks to the main boards with just solder. There is no way around it, they will crack. It could be after a year or so, or as these owners have found, just over a month. If they'd just put a bit of epoxy under the jack, so that is what actually holds it to the board, and the solder is there to conduct the electricity, like it was designed to, the problem would be solved.
As a matter of fact, that is how I usually solve the problem on my devices that break. When I'd just touch up the solder joints the problem would always return. But after I took to totally desolding the jack, adding a little epoxy under it, then resolding, they don't break again.
I think you'll find 4GB compact flash (card / slot type) hard disks (ie: not flash memory) are surprisingly expensive, plus there is probably quite a bit of precision engineering involved, at that scale everything had to fit together perfectly. Smaller things often cost more than bigger things.
For scale, the full iPod basically consists of exactly the same things as a mini, except with a notebook ?IDE? hard drive instead of the C.F. one, and everything else scaled up. Plus Apple do wan't to make a profit on them, I don't think the iPod range is a loss leader.
Although the precision engineering in the iPod mini doesn't seem to be up to scratch. Apple really need to get better quality control.
10 PRINT "LOOK AROUND YOU ";
20 GOTO 10
Didn't you see the other story? That 4GB CF drive, costs more than the Mini.
Oh, well, then, HELL! Why don't you just glue a 4 GB CompactFlash card to an LCD screen, toss a scrollwheel on, and beat Apple at the iPod game?
I tell you why. It's because you, sir, are a dumbass. Let me count the ways:
1. It's a 4GB miniature hard drive. Not a CF.
2. It also contains a microprocessor and related hardware which: talk to the hard drive over the ATA bus; parse the filesystem; keep track of the songs in a (relatively) intelligent and rational way; feed data to an MP3 decoder chip; manage to keep said MP3 decoder chip fed properly, i.e. not too much and not too little, but just enough, Goldilocks; interpret your input and figure out what it is that you want it to do; and talk to the aforementioned LCD screen. Not just "making the scroll wheel work", thank you.
3. The actual cost of the silicon I've described - not counting the hard drive - is relatively insignificant, it's true. Especially in the large quantities Apple are purchasing. So? Design, assembly, testing, etc. are not insignificant costs for such a device. I've been there; I know. At NO point have we discussed the software design, the UI design, or the industrial/mechanical design. These are also significant.
I challenge you - you, personally! - to develop a design of similar quality and capabilities for even as little as twice the cost, at twice the size and half the battery life. It's a pretty safe bet that you can't. When you figure in the cost of the hard drive (it's a Toshiba; look it up), there's no way you can come close. The only thing you've said that's even remotely correct is that it's barely worth $250. That's kinda cool, really. If it was worth more, it would cost more. I personally like it when stuff is worth what I paid for it.
Frankly, until you know something about designing a consumer device this complicated, your opinion about how good a job Apple did isn't worth squat. But who knows? Give Apple a call. Tell them you read on some website how bad a job they did, and tell 'em you can do it better. Be sure to have a tape recorder ready to preserve the sound of hysterical laughter.
Sheesh.
Ce n'est pas un vrai mouvement de robot!
the $129 a year extortion fees
Hmm. My G4 is still running 10.2 just fine, and Steve Jobs didn't send Rocko and Moose to my house to "discuss" the matter.
Well, clearly there could be many reasons for a shortage - one being that it's just darn hard to get suppliers up to speed and coordinated when producing a brand-new mass-market product.
In addition, YES, production issues can also slow down manufacturing.
These types of things are par for the course for every manufacturer.
>> The thing was almost three years out of warranty
OK, so I know I'm helping turn this into a Apple-praise session, but here we go...
Several years ago I bought a PowerBook 5300c refurbished. It had some major problems down the road. (The 5300 had lots of known issues.) Easily three or more years after purchasing it, I took it to the local Mac Store (The Computer Store, then.) They sent it off to Apple and about a week later it came back with a new motherboard and part of the plastics replaced, at no cost. I didn't even pay shipping.
How about the shoddy design of the cube that overheated and had power button problems? Or the iBooks with defective logic boards? Or the iPod battery problems? Also, I recall there being quite a few OS updates with disastrous bugs.
Apple needs to spend less money on 'designers' and more on 'engineers'. Disclaimer: I have a Powerbook and an iPod, this is tough love speaking here. Faz
Some revisions of the Airport base station also had a weak capacitor that was only rated for 1000 hours. I found this out when I was trying to figure out why my friend's kept blinkly strangely. After some searching, we found out it was due to the poor quality capacitor. Even though the thing was also way out of warranty, my friend took it back to the Apple store and they swapped it for free, no questions asked.
I teach at a high school with almost 800 computers, and we have this kid who's an electronics genius. He's been repairing TVs since he was 7 years old, and if there's a problem with the electronics on a motherboard or in a monitor, he can fix it (without killing himself, too). We have a lab of IBM towers (P3 600's or something like that) that have been dying left and right. The kid tells us it's because the motherboard manufacturer for IBM (MSI or something like that) uses crappy capacitors that aren't rated to last past the warranty on the machine. So, we bought a big bag of replacement capacitors, and he's already brought 3 of the dead motherboards back to life. Replacement capacitors are a lot cheaper than replacement motherboards.
Anyway, Apple can be sort of difficult about warranty issues sometimes, though. I was working on another friend's iMac which had a failed logic board, and it was just a week out of the standard 1-year warranty. They hasseled me for a while, but eventually they gave in and sent her to an authorized repair center. Unfortunately, that repair center was going under, and they held onto her iMac for something like 2-3 months. Finally, after repeated calls to Apple, she was able to get her iMac back, and they swapped the dead one for a completely new machine. I don't know what happened to her data, though.
While this sort of behavior is definitely nice, it might explain part of the reason why Macs are more expensive than PCs (besides quality).
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. -- Gandhi
My comment was also meant to be tongue-in-cheek. Notice how I suggested you cut back on drinking--after listing nine of the drugs that I've tried (which, contrary to what I implied, I don't do all of in any given month). Try my policy: If someone says something totally and blatantly unreasonable or silly, assume it's a joke. If it is, then you got the joke; if it isn't, the person isn't worth arguing with anyway. Notice that getting the joke doesn't necessarily imply that you laugh; it could be a bad joke, or one you can't relate to. In that case, it's usually best to ignore it and let the mods decide.
I found the meaning of life the other day, but I had write-only access.
ONE.
GUY.
If the math at play here is eluding you, then I suggest returning to kindergarten.
Oh, gee, thanks for that mature response. By the way, did you read the thread in the linked section of iPod Lounge? You know, the one that is full of iPod owners complaining of having the same problem? Give it a try reading the articles first.
We may experience some slight turbulence and then...explode. -Capt. Mal Reynolds