What's On Our Minds

iPod Drama

Okay, I bought my iPod for the sole purpose of running. After receiving it, I immediately started jogging and was in heaven for a week and a half.

Suddenly, this week, now that my energy has improved and I've started running faster and longer, the iPod is starting to fail me. Monday, mid-way through a great run, the dang thing shuts off. I had to run down a big old hill all the way home with no music. Wednesday, same thing... only now I'm even further from the house.

Yesterday, I was somewhat more prepared. Around the same general area, the iPod shuts off again. This time I'm able to reboot it and I start off running again. Why does it shut off again. I reset again, but now I'm paranoid, so I'm running back down that big old hill with it in my hand. On top of that, one of the stupid earbuds starts to fall out of my ear. I lose the little foam covering and now it won't stay in at all. The workout was miserable and ruined because of my trusty new iPod.

What to do, what to do? Send it back? Well, after two days of online research, I've discovered that this is a KNOWN problem and MANY runners have the same difficulty. Sending it back will not help. Apple guarantees 25 minutes of skip-free jogging (that's how long the memory buffer lasts). The only trouble is, there doesn't seem to be a clear or consistent solution. The message boards suggest any or all of the following:

1) Buy an Incase Belt for the iPod
2) Defragment or optimize the iPod's hard-drive (there are mixed reactions to this. Some say it's unnecessary, some say it will actually harm the iPod, other's say it's fine)
3) Run with the iPod in my hand
4) Exchange the 40G iPod for the iPod mini that is smaller and better suited for physical activity
5) Format playlists that are 32MB or less

I don't know if any of these solutions will help, but I must try something. Jogging without music is no fun.

Posted by Robyn at August 27, 2004 12:00 PM