It is no secret that I love my Mac. It looks good, it works good and it feels good to use. It’s not new, it isn’t particularly fast, and when I’m making real money sometime I’ll upgrade it; but the truth is, I’m now sold out to the product. It’s good. Really good. Even though it costs the earth.
I also have an iPod Mini, I used to call it ‘My Precious’ though some other precious things have supplanted that love but by and large, I still love my Mini. It holds all the files I need and it’s green. What’s not to love?
What’s not to love is the fact that replacing the battery of this perfectly functional unit, were I to do it the ‘proper’ way, would have cost me the best part of $200. Yah.Boo.Sux. So I did what any self respecting slightly technical bod would do and bought a 3rd party battery and installed it myself. Heh.. I am hacker.. hear me roar!!!
It feels good to have saved myself around $180 dollars and feels great to have a fully functional unit again, but the truth is, it also feels good to put one over on Apple whose products I love but whose high-handed business practices I hate. So, take that Apple, I replaced my battery myself, I’ve saved a tiny bit of landfill space and I saved a shedload of cash to boot.
Of course, this is only part of the story… I also managed, by some strange quirk of ‘I’m an idiot’ to slam my iPod earbuds in the door of my car and in doing so, totally munted them (particularly Kiwi expression that… munted… means broke ’em). So I called my usual supplier and asked to order a replacement pair. You know, a pair of std white Apple earbuds like you see on all the iPods from here to kingdom come.
Er… get this… I can’t get the old fashioned kind now, if I want Apple branded ones they come with a wee remote and microphone neither of which will work with my iPod mini. WTF Apple??
Needless to say I wasn’t keen on buying new earbuds which only half work so instead bought a pair of Sennheiser earbuds which, of course, will sound twice as good (and they only cost marginally more).
So, I’m waiting for the new buds to arrive and admiring the still full battery icon on the iPod but I’m ticked off at Apple’s high-handed treatment of the consumer. I hate that I love them but they treat me like an idiot… however, I am conversely satisfied that they got next to no money out of me this week as a result…
