The iPod's New Clothes

Remember the story of the Emperor's New Clothes? The Emperor is parading through the streets buck naked because he's been told he's wearing some finery that only those in the know can see. That's how I feel about my iPod lately, and apparently I'm not alone.

The biggest complaints about iPods fall into three categories:

• Battery life
• iTunes and digital rights
  
• Shoddy construction, leading to early demise

Blogger Ed Sim went for a jog on Thanksgiving a year ago. His iPod battery malfunctioned, and the thread he started then is still going strong. Why?

iPod batteries are lithium batteries, and lithium batteries force you to make a trade-off. The batteries drain even when the iPod is turned off, but if you leave your iPod connected to the docking system and charging when you're not using it, you will overcharge the battery. (Other MP3 players like Sony's use regular AAA batteries, which many feel are a better choice.)

The comments that hit closer to home for me were the ones about iTunes. I just spent the better part of a day reconstructing my iTunes life, and it's not the first time. My nieces and nephews plugged their iPods into my PC over the long holiday weekend to get a song. Somehow my iPod (with its unique serial number) was no longer recognized. iTunes thought I was my nephew (would I ever name my iPod Cooleo?) and refused to recognize any of my hard-earned purchased music.

Apple's answers to my tech support calls were to send me pages of documentation that I'd already read and that didn't answer my question. I resorted to the unpleasant last resort of resetting my iPod and reloading all of my music. This also involved reauthorizing my computer (which uses up one of my five chances granted by Apple to authorize music playing on a computer). My experience has been duplicated over and over again in different variations on the Apple Forum, and last year CNET dedicated a week of coverage to iPod nightmares.

I understand that life is going to have its share of battery problems and that copyright is—at least for now—going to impose an extra burden on all of us. What I resent is the time I spend deciphering how to fix something because Apple seems to have this attitude that all problems stem from user error.

I've watched all sorts of people use their iPods, and I don't see the experience as being all that intuitive or user-friendly. Am I missing something? I'd love to hear from you on whether or not you took to your iPod like a fish takes to water or whether you, too, would like to tell Emperor iPod that he's walking around without any clothes.

Lest it be said I'm just whining, here are some tips on how to prolong your iPod's battery life and copy music more easily.