Meeting the sad iPod icon
I dropped my iPod on the kitchen floor last night. At first, I thought it was okay-- it finished playing the song I had been listening to-- but then it stalled out. Okay, it was coming up to an Alanis Morissette song, but it had never rebelled against Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie before.
I rebooted it (you hold down the menu and play keys for a few seconds-- a combination you're not likely to do by accident), and got the sad iPod screen.
Like the Sad Mac icon of old, it was a little picture of the iPod, with a pair of Xs for the eyes. It actually bore a striking resemblance to the picture of Leto II on the cover of God Emperor of Dune.
I wasn't particularly surprised, as the hard drive was clicking like a Victorian sewing machine. They don't usually do that.
This is a very unhappy development. Even if I take it into the store tomorrow (which I will) I'm not likely to get it back before I leave. And heaven knows how much it will cost to fix-- or even to have a technician look at it.
The only thing less appealing than the idea of spending the money on a new MP3 player is the idea of having to travel without music.
On the bright side, it would mean one less thing and recharger to carry. But that's a very, very dim bright side.
Other iPod posts:
"From iPod to ourPod: Will it become a more social machine?" San Jose Mercury News (7 October 2005)
The Daddy + iPod set on Flickr;
The iPod cake;
A piece on random playlists;
My 3 year-old fractal marketing genius;
Sadness over the iPod store closing;
iTunes visualizer, aka Toddler Mesmerizer;
My idea for hyperlinking in iTunes (actually this is the original post);
The best iPod case ever;
The birthday present;
My iPod earbud covers rant;
Thinking about smart playlists;
The deep meaning of shuffle;
If Proust had iTunes;
iTunes + Rendezvouz;
Spreading iTunes sharing.
Update, 28 December 2005: Josh Highland posts a detailed explanation of how to replace the hard drive in the iPod. If you're not scared of popping open the case and playing around with the wires, it doesn't look that hard. But definitely try dropping it on the floor first.
Update, 11 January 2006: Clearly some people are having luck dropping the iPod, in a specific way, to get it working again. I wish I could take credit for discovering the fix, but I can only have some vicarious pleasure in paying for the blogspace in which people are finding it.
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