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Apple to Recycle your iPod for Free
rdarden writes "After you get your dough from the recent iPod settlement, why not recycle your old iPod at an Apple retail store (US only). Starting today, that worthless hunk of environmental unfriendliness can be turned into a 10% discount on a new iPod (purchased at the same time)."
It's funny how rewording something can make shit sound good.
"We will recycle your iPod for free!" doesn't sound like half as much a ripoff as "I'll buy your iPod for $30"
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>that worthless hunk of environmental unfriendliness
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Actually between the screen and battery (I personally have a dead iPod with a perfect battery) there are still many a useable part on those old pods. Hold buttons, dock connectors, all sorts of parts. Even if gutted outright for internal Apple refurbishing the 10% will surely be recouped if not moreso.
And the rest will be responsible recycled.
---- The real Slashdot is still here. You just have to browse at -1 to read the comments.
If it's broken, or the battery won't charge anymore, trading it in sounds pretty sweet. eBay is too difficult for some people, and it is sometimes a hassle for me as well, even though I've sold over a hundred items there. If you are well-off and just want a new iPod, trading it in may be the way to go.
"The advanced societies of the future will be driven by competing systems of psychopathology." -JG Ballard
No way they are going to make me trade in my iPod for one of those new ones with an intel processor in it!
I bought an iPod Photo 60GB. Within a month the thing crashed. And I dont mean crashed, where you hit two buttons and it reboots. (that happened the day i got it.) I mean crashed as in it wont reboot, the battery didnt charge, and winblows didnt recognize it. For all intents and purposes it was an expensive brick.
I sent it back and they fixed it for free, got it back to me in just a few days.
The thing still crashes occasionaly but now the two button reset always does the job.
Moral of the story: apples good, but not perfect.
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The story makes it seem like this is a great deal but in fact it is a terrible ripoff. Search for "broken ipod" on eBay.. For example "ipod 15 gig 3g 3rd gen broken" with what appears to be a broken hard drive is at $82.01 after 8 bids and with 5 and a half hours left.
The cracks about "why not just sell it on ebay" aside, this is a very good program.
Manufacturing computers and consumer electronics is a messy process, and the rapid speed of upgrades ensures that many tons of computer equipment are entering landfills regularly. Many of the components in computers are quite toxic. On a smaller scale, I'm sure the same is true of the iPod.
Apple's recycling program is probably worded as broadly as it is so as to avoid confusion, but the important part is that they don't exclude iPods that are utterly broken and irreperably from the program. That means that assuming you can get it to them, they'll put it in the recycling program no matter how badly bashed up it is.
Incidentally, Apple, IBM, and probably a few other manufacturers have recycling programs in place for computers. Many of them require you to pay the company to take your old, beat up jonx.
Most of them were actually sold to people who like to have an easy way to listen to music, but good job making up your own stereotype.
Apple making it easier to recycle ipods is not going to save the rainforests, and noone expects it to, but that doesn't make it a bad idea, or a worthless one.
Your cynicism does not make you look smarter than the any ipod owner, sorry.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.