In 2005, I was one of the lucky ones who got the very first iPod nano. It was a graduation present from my awesome mother-in-law when I finished with my Masters at UAB. That iPod lasted me until last year, when it finally died. I don’t know what caused it to crash and burn. I never dropped it (like I did my pretty, new pink one). I took good care of it overall, but it just slowly started sputtering, locking up, and failing to play music. Which is, after all, the sole purpose of an iPod. So, I bought another one. (See previous link about the adventures of the new iPod.)
Then, just a few short months after I dropped close to $150 on a new nano, I see that Apple is recalling all first generation nanos. Something about the battery overheating and being potentially hazardous. Great. As if I didn’t have enough to worry about, now my music player can come to life, catch me on fire, and beat me to death.
Okay, maybe it wasn’t that dramatic a recall, but it was a recall. I wasn’t sure if mine was even covered under the recall since it died a while back and I had no indication that the battery was at fault, but I figured, “what the heck.” I’ll send it in and see what happens. It was just sitting in the junk drawer anyway.
So I sent it in and a few short weeks later, a tiny FedEx package arrives on my doorstop. I open it, expecting to find a refurbished 5-7 year old nano, but no. It’s a brand new, multi-touch silver, clip-on-style nano. In short, an exact replica of the one I dropped a few short weeks after purchasing it. Except that the new one is silver and my old one was pink. Oh well. We all have to make sacrifices.
After I dropped it, I almost replaced the screen on my pink one. It would have cost almost $100 to fix it, and that’s why I never did, but I came really close to doing so.
I’m really glad I was a cheap-skate and that Apple admitted to making a defective product. If you too have one of these dinosaurs of an iPod, check out the website to see if yours qualifies for a replacement. Who knows, maybe they’ll run out of the new nanos and send you an iPad. Probably not, but we can all dream.
