Happy New Year from Apple

You may have heard about Apple's concerns over the batteries in the first generation iPod Nano's, that's the nano that Steve Jobs famously pulled from the little pocket in his jeans helping to explain the mystery of what the little pocket in jeans is actually for.  The result was a recall programme and I dutifully sent off my two first gen nanos for repair or replacement.

Well there was some discussion on Apple's forums about exactly what would be sent back by Apple given that the first generation is now over 5 years old.  The first people to get their returns reported that Apple had indeed found enough spare units to ship identical replacements - but they seemed to quickly run out and I was notified that both of mine were stuck in the repair programme waiting for replacement units.

I have to admit, I did like the design of my first generation nano.  I used mine consistently up to the point of the recall and, even though the battery was indeed failing to hold enough charge to be useful when on the move, it is hard to throw something like that away.  Perhaps Apple misjudged this level of attachment, lesser electronic items would surely have been discarded years ago and they may have had enough spare parts to go around.  (I predict good prices for 'new' first generation nanos on eBay.)

Anyway, Apple have dragged me from the noughties into the new decade: this morning I got a knock on the door from the UPS man and took delivery of two fancy new 6th generation units as replacements.  I'm sorry to see the click wheel go as I preferred the tactile feedback it gave and I fear that if I put the new nano in the 'little pocket' of my jeans I'll need tweezers to get it out again.  But I'm not averse to shiny new things and I was beginning to look pretty stupid using an iPad as a portable MP3 player so...

Thanks Apple and Happy New Year!