Just watch the video.

my goodness. did they honestly think no one would notice??

amazing.

The link is already dead.

No it's not. I just looked again.

To be fair, it's not just Apple's harddrive MP3 player with propritary, non-repleacable batteries (see Creative Zen, for example). Apple's just the highest profile manufacturer, and people do expect more from them (and should, for the $ Apple charges).

I realized this ages ago; that's why I still have & am happy with my MuVo. It simply uses one standard AAA, easily changed, no BS.

OMG.........PATHETIC!! Thats a good thing to know, now anyone I hear of planning to buy one..I'll tell them .

Actually there are a couple of sites that offer the batteries for Ipods for about 50 dollars. Still a tad expensive. Also the 250 dollars isn't just for the battery it's for the instalation of the battery.

B.

200 dollars to install it? what do they charge 400 dollars an hour? I can't imagine it taking loger than a half hour even givig them the benifit of the doubt that it was hard wired in.

I'm trying to figure out what subway stop that is. I think its down near nyu somewhere.

But if you get the 400$ version, You get a rechargable stand for the batterie. =D WOW JUST WHAT I WANT!! or ya know, go to best buy, and dish out 50-100 bucks and get the same thing, without the apple logo, that uses 2 double A's and you can put ANY mp3s on... Once again the wounderious apple strikes again.

It seemed this subject was brought up awhile back concerning not being able to replace the batteries on a IPOD. The only thing wasn't mentioned was how much it was going to cost if the batteries do go dead.

Basically the IPOD is a throw away music player. Even the tech support guy on that video said that it would be better just to buy a new IPOD instead of having the batteries replaced. Of course the batteries expire after the warranty has so your stuck between a rock and a hard place.

I was thinking about buying a IPOD but after hearing that video Steve Jobs just lost me as a new customer.

This is a prime example of POOR DESIGN! And people wonder why our economy is slipping? It's because people are tired of buying CRAP!

It's pathetically ridiculous to design these kind of players with batteries like this. The "marketing" idea is obvious; that they will sell more new ones when the old ones die out. FAT CHANCE HERE!

There is a update to this, a light at the end if you will. Could it be that Steve Jobs don't like bad publicity after all?

Apple itself offers a battery-replacement service for about $106 including mailing, with a 90-day guarantee on materials and workmanship. Apple's program was introduced only in the past two weeks.

You can find the article at:

http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-5112066.html?tag=st_lh

why would any battery cost that much dinero? Can you also use this battery as an alternative fuel for your car instead of gasoline or what?

it's the same with cell phones and such. it's just a rechargable battery, when it goes, it goes. the product service plan has always been there, they just "announce" it now because these people didn't listen to the sales person in the first place. they haven't changed nor will they change their policy. buy rechargable batteries, and you save the enviroment. buy duracell one time batteries and destroy the enviroment.
they went with the type of battery that would appeal to their "clientelle". same for any company. but when it comes down to it, they're american, they use american parts, use american labor. big picture, they haven't done anything beyond anyone else to call for a "boycott" of them. when we're being sued by multi-national corporations from foreign lands on our own soil against the XI amendment, maybe we should start asking for help from american companies that actually don't do the sh#t that the multi-nationals do! focus your energy. removing the foreign corp's and RIAA should mission No.1.

Apples have always been overpriced what else is new. Any firm that markets their products to an unknowledgable audience that wants nothing more than a user friendly easy to use system has always charged through the butt for their stuff. I say it serves you right for buying their crap. If I can't tare it apart or use non-propritary parts on it I don't buy it.

No one recognizes that subway stop in the little movie???

I think everyone is making too big a deal about this. There are alot of rechargable devices that you can readily replace the battery, like Palms and Pocket PCs. The battery should last from 2 to 5 years, and by that time you might want to get a new one any way. And there are always cheap third party companies selling parts for things like this.

It's the lesser of two evils. I'm a design engineer and I know guys at the firm that did this design. The expensive battery is what lets the ipod be so small yet still have enough power that lasts longer than 30 mins. It could very well have used a cheaper standard battery, but it would be much larger and uglier. It wasn't a design criteria to have a replacable battery, however since Apple seems to have enough quantity being produced, the price really should come way down at this point. This news will definately have an impact on sales.

The battery costs $45 bucks, not that bad if you ask me.

http://www.ipodbattery.com/
actually 50, but not a big deal.

That site even shows how to replace them.

I dont see how the battery is "non-replaceable", just because it doesnt have a slide off compartment doesnt mean the ipod is a bad device.

Yes this is all being taken out of proportion, its things like this that makes me angry reading sites sometimes. Apple didnt do anything wrong. If they had the battery soldered into the motherboard then I could see cause for people to cry.

ahhhhh, it's still a bunch o crap tho innit ? imagine buying a walkman in the 80s were you had to buy a new one every 18 months or so............er........damnit! (irony alert folks)

The Zen NX has a replaceable battery (it's a proprietary $50 job). This allows you to buy a spare and double the duration between recharges. No other mp3 players have a replaceable battery, except maybe the old Creative Nomad Jukebox 3.

The iRiver iHP 120 uses a 1300mAh Li-Polymer that lasts about 14-16 hrs.

iPod's is 630mAh Li-ion (inferior to the polymers) which lasts about 6-8 hrs. The fact that you can't replace the battery easily is not the crime, it's the crappy battery, the worst quality of all the mp3 players on the market today.

Here's a detailed comparison of the iPod, Zen, Zen NX, Archos, Odyssey, iRiver I did a few months ago:
http://www.tranceaddict.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=122711

And the iRiver iHP120 is the same size as the iPod so don't give me that "inferior batteries is what you pay for to get the compact size" crap.

If the battery goes dead, do you loose all the songs you had stored?

Anything proprietary like this pisses me off. Same with printer cartriges.

Shmoo, of Electric Gypsy
Support Local and Independent Music!

Its only a matter of time before people realize there will be better alternatives for 100.00 or less.....goodbye to apple's 150.00 or whatever markups. On the other hand why not include some rechargable AA's? I've seem some with 2100mah or more, but that would make sence i guess.

Get your Ipod from Best Buy, (if you still want one) and spend $40 bucks on a 4 year replacement plan, when the batteries die, bring it in they will replace it for free, the whole unit, not just the batteries. Trust me I know this for fact.

everyone should listen to ein-tier.

lmao!

Com 'on apple zealots poke this pig with a fork and call it done...

I call them iPod Zealots. iPod has pathetic battery life, with all hard drive base player, iPod has the least battery life and thats what you always read on user comments of iPod on Cnet.

The iPod is a good player, it just needs a new battery. The Li-ion batteries go up to 2400mAh at this point in time; all Apple needs to do is put a decent battery in and it would be king again. With a 32MB memory buffer and, say, a 1500mAh li-polymer the thing would have some real stamina.

I can live without a radio, and a little annoying DRM nonsense, but a poor battery - no way.

who need ipod anyways, 10g of music to carry around.

Are we in such a hurry , take two seconds to copy a set of songs to a normal mp3 player.

ipod sucks