New iPod

Yesterday I moaned in Japanese on the new iPod (not mini) that Apple offerd. Today I do it in English, since I was so upset to know that Apple had released such a major upgrade in less than half a year. Please shut up, I bought it half a year ago.

* It got cheaper. 33,000 yen for 20GB? I remember I paid 50,000 totally for the same hard drive model.
* The battery lasts longer. 12 hours? Yes, it will become 6 hours at field, but still 4 hours more than what I have now. My iPod lasts about a couple of hours, so I became very careful at choosing the right song to hear. It is plugged in the power cradle every night, just like the mobile phone.
* Rechargable through USB? I never brought my iPod when I travel because of the bulky AC/DC converter I have to carry. Now all it needs is a USB cable which downloads the songs and recharge at the same time. Unfair.

But some things never change. Look at this sentence at the bottom of the page written in a smaller, smaller font.
2. Rechargeable batteries have a limited number of charge cycles and may eventually need to be replaced.
Since I have a job title which says I am an engineer, let’s rewrite this sentence in an engineering language.
2. Rechargeable batteries become useless after several months. Throw away your iPod and buy a new one, or pay a huge amount of money and replace the battery.

When I bought my iPod the sales associates at Apple Ginza enticed me into a ridiculous campaign about this battery problem. According to them the battery only lasts about 500 times of recharging (outside the Republic of Apple, it’s called defective design) and I can replace it by only paying 7,000 yen more. I turned it down very politely. Dear Mr.Steve Jobs, I heard you do not like Japanese but could you at least stop mocking us?

After all, I bought iPod and I will keep using iPod and when it becomes mulfunctional, I will buy a new iPod.