Rants

I dread the sad iPod icon; you know the one, that face that shows up when you have some kind of hardware problem with your iPod? It is every iPod addict’s worst nightmare, usually resulting in sending your iPod back to Apple. In other words, your paying almost the same amount to fix your 4 year old iPod, as it would be to buy a brand new one. Well, I’m too damn broke to do anything like that; I mean, you should see what my headphones look like…

So in my desire to rant, I found myself surfing the net for that loathed sad iPod icon so I could write a post on it. That is when I stumbled across IT…the crowned king of “How to fix an iPod posts”. Tom Coffee at Spilling Coffee is a genius, and a hilarious one at that…check out his very unorthodox instructions here.

Just like Tom I was afraid to drop my iPod on the floor, so instead I gave it a little “tap” on my leg…. no luck. I “tapped” it a couple more times, this time varying the surfaces as well as the amount of force applied. If at first you don’t succeed…. right? The mouse pad didn’t work, nor did the stack of paper or my French book. I’m just glad I didn’t waste my money on that iPad he was selling on his site .

By this time, I was just angry. I had read over 300 comments on his page of satisfied customers who had struck their iPod on some sort of surface, magically resulting in their iPod returning to its former glory. Desperate times call for desperate measures, so… I dropped it on the carpet from about maybe a foot and a half off the ground. Now I wouldn’t be right in the head if told everyone to go around dropping their iPods on the ground, and I think it’s safe to assume that I AM NOT sane for trying it in the first place. HOWEVER…. my iPod now works! Who knows for how long, but I don’t care. All I know is right now, today, I have my tunes, my busted headphones, and an iPod that is likely to crumble at any moment.

Ain’t life grand?

So this afternoon I was about to purchase an album on iTunes when a pop-up of the new Terms and Conditions for the iTunes Store shows up. I normally never read this but it was the first paragraph that caught my eye.

US SALES ONLY

Purchases or rentals (as applicable) from the iTunes Store are available to you only in the United States and are not available in any other location. You agree not to use or attempt to use the iTunes Store from outside of the available territory. Apple may use technologies to verify such compliance.

???!!!
Are they serious? As an American currently living in Switzerland I don’t quite understand their logic with this one. Yes, I highly doubt that they will ever really pursue a case against a person that is trying to legally buy their music. However, it is frustrating to think that by trying to legally purchase music I could potentially (in coordinence with the new Terms & Conditions) have my account shut down. I suppose then, it doesn’t seem to much of a stretch to assume that soon iTunes which be checking IP addresses and actually blocking visitors form outside the US (although they have US accounts) from even connecting to the iTunes Store.

Apple is slowly but surely starting to wear on me…