Yesterday about half the internet posted links to iPod's Dirty Secret, a quicktime movie made by a guy havin g problems with the battery on his iPod, and Apple's customer service. He complains that the battery dies after 18 months and costs as much to replace (approx. $250) as a new iPod. At least 10 of my friends e-mailed me yesterday saying something like "Whoah, glad I saw this before going and buying one" or "Scratching an iPod off my xmas list." Having owned a 5 Gig iPod since litterally the day it was released I felt the need to drop some science.

1. First of all, this isn't news. There's no 18 months magic number. Places like iPod Lounge and other sites have been talking about the battery issue since they were first released. As kick ass as it would be for a battery to never wear out, I haven't seen one that's been released yet. Just about every electronic device I've ever had that didn't use off the shelf AA batteries has this problem. After using it a few times the charge fades a bit quicker. [If you remember in the early 90's there was a big uproar about camcorder batteries that did the same thing] I'm not saying that makes this OK, what I'm saying is the technology that is on the shelves right now is what it is, and to complain about that like it's some kind of a scam is a little lame. Not to mention, with so many sites talking about this, if you buy one without knowing that, you obviously didn't do you home work.

2. What makes this unique, is that with all those other things you can just go down the street and buy a new battery and start over from scratch. The iPod's battery is built in. So this guy starts freaking out that the battery is unreplaceable and therefor forces people to go through Apple and pay through the nose to get it fixed. Once again, this guy has obviously never heard of a google search, since if he had he would know he had no ground to stand on. The incredibly hard to find, and terribly mislabeled site iPodBattery.com offers a replacement battery and instructions on how to change it for $49, and PDA Smart offers a "mail in your iPod and we'll fix the mofo for you" deal for $69.

And that's only third party options, Apple itself offers a $59 plan that extends the support for 2 years, and will solve any of this for free. Or, if your plan runs out, only charges $99 to replace the battery for you. The $250 price that this guy is bitching about is the cost to fix your stupid iPod if the warranty has run out and the thing is broken some how. They know the battery is the weak link and offer the cheaper price because of it. But again, you'd have to actually read something to know this, which is why that guy doesn't.

3. And finally, it isn't even a real problem. Sure, after tons and tons of use, batteries wear out, it happens. But since about 3 months after the iPods were released Apple has been making statements like this one where they explain that:

"The IPod battery indicator may show less than a full charge after fully charging the IPod for four hours. This does not necessarily mean anything is wrong with your IPod's battery."

I'll admit that after several softwear updates that stilll being an issue is a bit annoying, but at least the thing still works. Which brings me to the personal experience part of this rant. I use my iPod all the time, mostly in my car, but I take it on trips with me as well and while almost 2 years later the battery isn't lasting as long as it once did, it still lasts long enough that I haven't been stranded tuneless anywhere. And the $15 car charger I bought last year took care of the majority of that problem. Maybe a few months down the line it will take a nose dive, at which point I'll either drop $50 on a new battery, or sell it on eBay and upgrade to a 40 gig bad boy.

So there.

Also, here's Dan Gillmor's post about it, with a ton of useful comments.