“Several iPod nano owners are reporting inexplicable screen failures within the first few days of owning the music player. The affected screens appear to be cracked, but owners cannot recall any events that would lead to such damage,” iPodNN.com reports.
The website, flawedmusicplayer.com has several emails from iPod nano users which state that no impact marks are visible on the cracked displays. Most users at flawedmusicplayer.com report leaving their Nano in a pocket for an extended period of time, and discovering a destroyed display when they remove the device to use it.
iPodNN reports, “iPod repair company iPodResQ reports a temporary price increase on its iPod nano screen replacement service due to ‘overwhelming demand.'”
Full article here.
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Apple iPod nano takes a beating and keeps on beating – September 12, 2005
You know, a little common sense goes a long LONG way! It’s like putting your laptop in a backpack and then throwing it around like it only has books in it, not the smartest thing to do!
as in i hope they have applecare, cause the repairs could be covered under warrenty, or applecare.
Take it back and get another. It should still be under warranty.
I hope that this gets a fix from Apple soon in an updated model.
Still for a colour screen that size I did wonder at the Nano’s release that being so small could also mean being more fragile.
MW: ‘england’ as is the case in Canada and England they spell colour correctly with the letter ‘u’.
Sounds like the only design flaw is their fat ass!
Hmmm, I wonder what percentage we are talking here. If 10 people have a cracked screen and write in about it, it sounds like a lot. But if they have sold 100,000 players, that is ony .01 percent failure so the 99.99 percent of the time there is no problem.
Until we get more info on failure rates it is still way too early to tell if this is going to be a real issue or not (remember when the mini first came out and there was the scare about the cable inside leading from the headphone jack being too rigid and resulting in distortion? That seems to have turned out to be a non-issue)
In the mean time I think all of these will be covered under warranty.
Flexible screens…arrrgh. That was too close for comfort. I was just on the verge of getting one (like tomorrow) for my wife’s birthday . It was a toss-up between the nano and the last of the minis. I think I’ll err on the conservative side and get a mini while there are still stocks. I’m just not interested in warranty issues for players with flexible screens.
This damage is called “accidental damage” and is NOT covered by AppleCare. The odds of a spontaneous screen cracking to occur is the same as the window in your house suddenly cracking without any external influences. The LCD is sandwiched between 2 layers of glass. When this is cracked/broken, the crystal liquid within it oozes and that is what you see.
Granted, Steve Jobs may have made a marketing error by demoing the device from his pocket. The nano is MUCH thinner than a cell phone and other such devices and it can be twisted or bent much easier, meaning that it requires extraordinary care.
Regardless of its fragility, accidental damage is still not covered.
You can never make anything 100% idiot proof because there will always be a 100% idiot out there to prove you wrong.
>Take it back and get another. It should still be under warranty.>
Warranty shouldn’t cover stupidity.
Heh. The “Early Adopter’s Blues”. I remember the first iPod minis off the line had a problem with severe crackling caused by a bad headphone connection.
I don’t have one, but doesn’t the slogan say, “1000 songs in your pocket.” It is one thing to have it sitting there while your cruisin’ the mall and another thing to be playing soccer while in your pocket.
Get a good case for it, like these rad ones http://www.a1qp.com
I’m happy to report that mine has not had such issues. Granted, I carry mine in the coin pocket of my Levi’s and never sit on it. These things are sturdy but they aren’t indestructible, people!
1.5oz vs. 200lb backside… well, one of those is going to have to give and I assure you it probably won’t be the person’s butt. hehe
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I got my nano about a week ago. The first day I used it the text on the display was all screwed up. It was distorted and did not line up making it impossible to read. I took it to the apple store and they said I would have to just use the updater and reinstall the nano. Easy enough fix but then i have to go back through the hassle of putting pictures, music, and my on the go playlist back on. I still love it but it you think that bug would have been worked out…
I have two of them myself and absolutely no issues at all. Of course I don’t sit on them or jam them into my pocket along with coins and my car keys either…
Why do Apple fans always assume its the customers fault? Apple has had a lot of quality problems the last 3 years. Things that Apple denied for quite a while. It wouldn’t surprise me if this wasn’t any different.
I have not yet bought an iPod. This nano is exciting enough to tempt me to get one. However, I would like to boot from it via FireWire and store even more in it. AND, I will wait for a couple more releases to fix these unexpected problems. It seems that Apple should INCLUDE a case that protects the nano more than the current naked nano can.
Sure, something that small is delicate. But, Apple should take into account that music players are not treated with kid gloves in the real world and build some degree of sturdiness or protection into them.
In any case, this sounds more like a design flaw than accidental damage.
Mike may be right that SJ made a marketing error demoing it from his pocket – unless he knew that its design will allow it to be carried there. Many people will correctly assume/interpret that from SJ’s demo, even if it is not correct that it will survive actually being carried there.
Still, when Apple works out these early “issues” this nano is really nice.
Let’s pretend I am a marketing employee at Microsoft or one of iPod’s competitors. The iPod Nano is frightening competition, and my company plays hard ball. Whatever are we going to do about this competitor that is set to blow away what is left of our profit and marketshare? Hm, I might just buy an iPod Nano (which my company pays for), break it (man that was tough), and run a FUD site with photos of my broken iPod Nano, and a fake interaction with Apple support guaranteed to spread bad feelings (only I get a fix, I’m so special and Apple doesn’t care about the rest of you). I get on a few Mac news sites (and hopefully soon on the general sites), and people are scared off from the iPod Nano. Mission accomplished.
No, I don’t work for any of those companies and I never have (I’m unemployed actually). But Microsoft is known for dirty tricks and FUD spreading. Don’t believe just any old website you see, especially one that is anonymous and isn’t even reproducing their emails with Apple as proof. In this case, MDN already provided a link to a torture test story, and their iPod Nano took a whole lot more abuse before this kind of damage.
The web site in the article could be legitimate, for all I know. I apologize if they are. I would be more comfortable with believing them if the author gave their name, more proof of how the player broke, and more documentation of their interaction with Apple.
I think alot of these people in the “blogosphere”..whatever gay term you want to call it, don’t hold as much pull as they think they do. By and large, most ipod users don’t read blogs, or mac fan sites. Did the battery debacle slow down sales? No, not really. Dirty rumors aren’t gonna hurt apple, only a physical product that’s more appealing than the ipod could do that.
Did anyone see the ARSTechnica review of the iPod Mini? They had to run it over with a car, twice, to break it. I find it hard to believe that the screen “just broke.”
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/nano.ars
Most users at flawedmusicplayer.com report leaving their Nano in a pocket for an extended period of time, and discovering a destroyed display when they remove the device to use it.
WELL DUH!!!
I have a Nano and I’ve dropped it a few times already, placed a drink on it at a bar and some other things.
This little device is TOUGH but if fools are sitting on it, bending over with one in their pockets, rubbing up against change and keys, of fsking course it’s going to break.
ARSTechnica broke the display with a drop from 9 feet, long before they destroyed the unit with the car. Some people also referenced that test on the flawedmusic site, making the same mistake. Or maybe it is just one stupid person.
It is easy to believe that a back pocket is a bad place for this device, and that a couple thin pieces of glass might not be able to stand up to what some might call normal use. It also could be a manufacturing problem on some units, with tolerances be as close as they have to be. Taking time off from apologizing for Jobs might make things clearer, but how would Steve feel without a few thousand noses up his butt?
“I only had the Nano in my shirt pocket…while mountain climbing…up Mt. Everest…in sub-zero tempertures…and it cracked…I’ll think I’ll sue Apple for a replacement.
After all it was only in my shirt pocket, what harm could that do?
I wonder what “overwhelming demand” is. Is it like 10, maybe 15?