11-25-2005, 12:47 AM
The New York Times
November 24, 2005
A Novel Repair Concept: Replace Battery, Not iPod
By MICHEL MARRIOTT
Apple's wildly popular iPod has a well-known Achilles' heel: over time, its rechargeable battery tends to lose its capacity to hold a charge. Apple's begrudging solution has been a cumbersome mail-in program that replaces the entire iPod with a reconditioned one for $60.
This fall, Sonnet Technologies released a line of high-capacity 3.2-volt batteries for all iPods except the new ultra-small iPod Shuffle and Nano. Sonnet executives say their products will play up to 78 percent longer than the original iPod batteries.
The Sonnet kits, which cost $30 to $40 depending on the iPod model, include tools to open the iPod's case and remove the original battery. They also come with a step-by-step instructional video on a CD-ROM. The kits are available from the company's Web site, sonnettech.com, and through selected retailers; some of the retailers will install the batteries for a fee.
Robert Farnsworth, Sonnet's chief executive, acknowledged that "opening an iPod isn't something everyone will attempt," but he said the videos laid out an easy-to-follow procedure.
Sonnet does not stress the fact that opening the iPod will void your warranty from Apple. But it notes that battery failure almost always starts after the standard one-year iPod warranty runs out. At that point, you may decide that you don't have much to lose.
November 24, 2005
A Novel Repair Concept: Replace Battery, Not iPod
By MICHEL MARRIOTT
Apple's wildly popular iPod has a well-known Achilles' heel: over time, its rechargeable battery tends to lose its capacity to hold a charge. Apple's begrudging solution has been a cumbersome mail-in program that replaces the entire iPod with a reconditioned one for $60.
This fall, Sonnet Technologies released a line of high-capacity 3.2-volt batteries for all iPods except the new ultra-small iPod Shuffle and Nano. Sonnet executives say their products will play up to 78 percent longer than the original iPod batteries.
The Sonnet kits, which cost $30 to $40 depending on the iPod model, include tools to open the iPod's case and remove the original battery. They also come with a step-by-step instructional video on a CD-ROM. The kits are available from the company's Web site, sonnettech.com, and through selected retailers; some of the retailers will install the batteries for a fee.
Robert Farnsworth, Sonnet's chief executive, acknowledged that "opening an iPod isn't something everyone will attempt," but he said the videos laid out an easy-to-follow procedure.
Sonnet does not stress the fact that opening the iPod will void your warranty from Apple. But it notes that battery failure almost always starts after the standard one-year iPod warranty runs out. At that point, you may decide that you don't have much to lose.
I realise that I have a past to break with--an accumulation of inertia, wrong, foolishness, rot, junk. A great need of clarification, of mindfulness, or rather, of no mind. A need to return to genuine practice, right effort. Need to push on the great doubt. Need for the spirit. Hang on to the clear light.
Thomas Merton