iPod nano Owners In Screen Scratch Trauma

wellington map writes "TheRegister reports iPod nano users have discovered that it is unbelievably easy to scratch the screen, which quickly makes the colour screen all but useless for viewing album art and photos stored on the machine. Apple's discussion forums are already host to hundreds of threads on this topic."

When will people learn?

Always wait until the second generation to buy from Apple. This has been true for years, and it is apparently continuing. iPod nano 2.0 will cost less, have more space, and probably a better screen.

It hardly ever pays to be an early adopter. Let other people work out the bugs, then enjoy the fruits of their labor :)

(Posted from a Rev. 2 15" Powerbook G4 :)

Re:When will people learn?

I always put my 4G iPod into its own pocket but that thing is so scratched I don't even want to look at it. So if you were to ask me, I would say that iPods are not scratch resistant.

I realized that as soon as I opened the box, though. Something that shiny isn't going to stay shiny unless you put it in a locked glass case and never touch it. It's a music player (with a 1.5yr life thanks to the battery), people, not a Lost Relic Of The Past. As long as mine plays music, I'm happy.

If you want durability, get a mini. Mine still looks new, and I certainly don't go out of my way to not abuse it.

Re:What mini?

I'm looking forward to the Rolex(tm) Edition iPod nano, with 10k gold-plated clickwheel, obsidian faceplate, and quartz lens (the back will probably be polished titanium). It'll weigh about 2-3 times what the nano does now, and cost ten times as much, but it won't scratch.

Seriously, guys. It's a cheap gadget. It's a REALLY cheap gadget. Last time I checked, you couldn't BUY removable flash memory for the same $/GB as the 4GB nano. Unless you're in the Vertu (fancy-schmancy cellphones) crowd, just expect that an uber-cool gadget that you can afford might have a few flaws. It's still a good value on the grounds of functionality. If you want a super-flashy fashion statement, either wait for another vendor to copy what Apple has done, or protect what you have a little better.

--Jasin Natael

Re:When will people learn?

It's a music player (with a 1.5yr life thanks to the battery)

Only if you have no idea how to treat a device with a lithium ion battery. I bought my 3G iPod in June 2004, use it daily and it still gets 9-10 hours, because I manage it properly.

Tips for preserving your battery life can be found at http://www.apple.com/batteries/ [apple.com]

Re:When will people learn?

"Were people not putting there origional iPods in their pockets with keys, etc. or were the screens on the regular iPods made from a better material."

Someone did a test of the Nano a week or two ago and for a few min I thought it looked like it scratched rather easy, then realized I wasn't going to get one anytime soon and forgot about it. It may be that the black model shows scratches better than the mostly all while other models. My guess is that the smaller size is allowing it to fit in less friendly places and people don't understand the forces at work. The larger models took up more space in a hip pocket and restricted the movement of everything in that pocket, keys and ipod. Now reduce the size and everything is free to move around with every step. Think about the possible damage resulting from the hard metal keys rubbing against a plastic ipod with every step. The only thing I'd expect to remain mostly undamaged is something just as strong as the metal keys and whatever else is on peoples keychains is something metal. My Leatherman Micra was on my keychain for 5yrs and doesn't have a noticable scratch, but it's made of hardened tool steel. A few months ago I switched to the Leatherman Squirt P4 and the colored aluminum plating is showing the everyday wear&tear a lot more. There are several scratches and fading and rubbing off of the color. It's still metal, but softer than tool steel but still more durable than the ipod plastic and it is showing significant wear. The nano is smaller and able to go where no ipod has gone before and it seems it's going into less ipod friendly environments and people don't realize what they're subjecting their new toy to and it's turning up scratched. Or in an effort to further reduce weight Apple chose a softer material for the shell, but I don't have or have even handled a nano so I can only guess at what might be causing the damage. I do know that if I put something not metal in the same pocket as my keys it's going to take some damage. I'm not even going to try guessing at what might happen to one if stored in the purse/pocketbook/whatever by the female readers or any guys in Europe(or at least France) with one of those man-purses.

Re:When will people learn?

It appears to be just normal handling. I went to an Apple store about a week after the announcement to see the Nano, and the display models that were just sitting on the counter were already incredibly scuffed and scratched. Made me wonder how often they were going to need to replace them...

Why can't Appleites hold Apple to a high standard?

I have never figured out why owners of Apple products refuse to hold Apple to a high standard across the board.

If Apple does some things right (and they certainly have in the past), good. They should be credited for this. What I don't understand is why people get unbelivably defensive whenever someone points out a flaw in Apple's products. I've skimmed the Apple forums involved, and all I can say is that the end user doesn't really care about the physics involved. All he cares about is that if he buys one of the earlier iPods, his product continues to look nice. If he buys a Nano, however, it looks like shit in short order. I think that it's *perfectly* reasonable for someone that buys such a product to be able to air criticism on those grounds.

You can argue that the scratches aren't so bad, that you don't need the screen, that people should "take better care of their product" (why they didn't need to with earlier products, though, is an interesting question), but it comes down to the fact that some folks are not happy with their experience. End of a story. Customer happiness is all that matters at the end of the day.

So now Apple can take a look at seeing what it can do to fix the problem. I doubt that it's so difficult to fix, given that they managed to do earlier iPods successfully, so I don't think that the iPod Nano can't be successfully fixed by Apple. So sit back and wait for them to churn out a fix.

The Register also referenced the Cube, which was a good point. The Cube had a case that often looked damaged, even straight from the factory. Apple's response was apparently to claim that the cracks were actually some sort of non-serious molding defect, IIRC, and a lot of Apple fans poured out and started accusing anyone that expressed unhappiness with their product. You don't win customers by acting like that. You tend to piss people off. All that the customer cares about is that his new, shiny product, which he bought to look new and shiny, does not, in fact, look new and shiny. Start dancing around the issue, and you start losing repeat customers. You can't keep a company running in the long term by simply attacking anyone that is unhappy with their experience.

Re:Why can't Appleites hold Apple to a high standa

I have never figured out why owners of Apple products refuse to hold Apple to a high standard across the board.

I think it's the other way around. Apple owners complain about the smallest things. I have an 3D iPod, and it has the odd scratch on it, but nothing really noticeable. I put it down to being a white product, so it doesn't show scratches up as badly.

My 2GB black nano however, shows scratches more visibly. But it doesn't worry me because I also have a black shiny clock, a black shiny desk calculator, a black shiny PDA and another brand black shiny mp3 player (name withheld to keep the flaming down).

THEY ALL SCRATCH WORSE THAN WHITE PRODUCTS DO. The nano scratches just as badly as any of them, or no worse than any of them depending how you want to look at it. Black shows scratches far worse. Period. Apple-only users have never had to deal with a glossy all black product, so they're all in a mouth frothing tizz over it acting like all the other shiny black products on the market. It would be nice if it weren't this way, hell it would be nice if Apple were able to do what other manufacturers couldn't do, but they didn't. It's not perfect, but it's not a glaringly deficient design fault like many are making it out to be.

I like Apple's products, but their fanbase can be utter retards sometimes.

Re:Why can't Appleites hold Apple to a high standa

While black shows scratches and dirt way more than white, the issue here is about the screen material beeing way more prone to scratching. This has nothing to do with the black or white body.

Re:Why can't Appleites hold Apple to a high standa

I have never figured out why owners of Apple products refuse to hold Apple to a high standard across the board.

You might think, at first, that it's because Apple users are brainwashed. However, the real problem is that they're incredibly picky. Take, for example, the Powerbook Ti, which had certain areas where the paint chipped off. When this became a known problem, owners went out and found replacement paint, being very careful to match the color exactly. A small market opened up, and people were selling paint specifically as "Powerbook Ti touch-up paint."

Now, has this happened on such a large scale with Sony, Dell, or HP laptops? No. Is it because Sony, Dell, and HP laptops don't ever have discolorations or chipped, faded, or worn away paint on their casings? No. It's because if you've owned a Sony laptop for 3 years, and a little paint gets worn away, you probably don't even notice. You just expect that something being carried around all the time like that will eventually have some wear and tear. Mac users, on the other hand, get incredibly upset that their little pride and joy has a tiny little flake come loose.

I'm sure it's the same issue here, though I haven't seen any pictures, I've just read reports that the nano scratches. Ho hum. My 4G ipod has scratches. Everyone I know who's owned an mp3 player for more than a few days, there's probably a little wear and tear somewhere. It's lost it's "new car smell". I bet the things still work and that you can still navigate the menu system. It's still a hell of a little device.

Which brings us back to why Apple owners are going to be forgiving: it's still a hell of a device. Like I said, Apple users are picky. They're annoyed by the fact that the products they buy have occasional flaws, but that's nothing compared to what they view as the mountain of flaws afflicting the products made by other manufacturers.

Re:When will people learn?

Secondly, it's PLASTIC. If you don't want it to scratch, then cover it. The NANO Tubes will be out very shortly so that you and your ilk can stop your crying.

Will you eat your words if Apple finally fesses up and fixes the problem? I bet they will, just as with the super-noisy Dual G4 power supplies.

People aren't as dumb as you assume. Everybody who owns a nano has owned a cellphone, PDA, or other mp3 player, and knows what sort of durability is realistic.

PS, "it's PLASTIC" doesn't mean anything - there are many types, some softer than others.

Re:When will people learn?

I'm calling bullshit on that one too. arstechnica threw theirs out a car window at 50mph [arstechnica.com] and it's less scratched than the grandparent poster's image.

Something companies have to put up with. A meme gets out that iPod nanos are getting scratched more than white iPods and everyone wants in on a class action suit by rubbing theirs down with sandpaper.

More scratches on an iPod nano sitting in a pocket than on a nano being thrown from a car window at 50mph? I don't think so.

Re:When will people learn?

You're right - I totally can't read the 1:47 on the screen.

OK, seriously, WTF did you do to this? You scratched the hell out of the WHEEL... Which takes some effort.

Was this a diamond based candy wrapper, or what?

I got the nano shortly after it came out... and yeah, it has a few scratches, but you know what? I got it because I wanted a small form factor that had 4GB of non HD based memory. It sits in a pocket a good chunk of the time, and yeah, it gets a small scratch if you sneeze, but it's NO worse than anything else that's shiny. LIke the typical cell phone that ends up in someones pocket.

I'm an apple person, but I don't get you guys at all. This would be like getting a new car and then bitching that you need a new paint job when something incidentally scratches the paint. Take some damed responsibility, know that the "new car feel" is going to wear of very quick, and suck it up. Use it for what it was meant for.

Re:When will people learn?

No way was that scratched that bad by the inside of your pocket, unless you have sandpaper pants.

Re:It's easy to fix those scratches.

i don't think sandpaper is what you want. probably diamond dust. my grandmother, who deals in antique glass, uses this thing that looks like an eraser that has diamond dust embedded in it. You just rub it on a scratched area and it smooths it right out.

Re:When will people learn?

I see that we are now on stage 22 of the apple product lifecycle, to wit:

The obligatory "I'm waiting for Rev. B" discussion appears in the Mac forums. People who've been burned by first-generation Apple products open up their old wounds and bleed their tales of woe. Unsympathetic technophiles fire back with, "if you can't handle the heat, stay out of the kitchen. pussy." Everyone has this stupid argument for the twenty-third time.

http://www.misterbg.org/AppleProductCycle/ [misterbg.org]

Re:When will people learn?

It hardly ever pays to be an early adopter. Let other people work out the bugs, then enjoy the fruits of their labor :)

Of course if everyone did this there wouldn't be a second generation.

I guess we all do owe the early adopters some sympathy.

Re:Blame yourself for wear & tear.

I only remove the iPod from this protection when it is in the dock for syncing/charging. And I remove it slowly.
...my prescioussssss...

Re:When will people learn?

or invest $0.50 yourself and buy some 3M clearbra made to cover the front surfaces of cars. peel, stick, trim.

Re:When will people learn?

iPod nano 2.0 will cost less, have more space, and probably a better screen

Wow! You have profound insight into the industry. Ever thought of becoming a pundit and making TV appearances?

Designer's Response

I remember seeing this recently and saying something along the lines that users should 'wake up' to the fact that they had this device in their pockets with their keys. He also laughed at the fact that the screen wasn't made from some high-grade polymer, which would be cheap enough to cover the square inch or so of the screen.

And let's not forget Apple is making these for a $100 profit, can they really not afford that extra 50c?

CAUTION!

There is Malicious Code in Parents Sig. Conforming to his sig will cause chaos to your web browser and all unsaved work will be lost.*

* Keep out of reach of children.

Re:Designer's Response

Very true. But if the sales are more than 0.5% lower than their potential because of using cheap materials (assuming a $0.50 solution to the problem and $100 profit margin), Apple will take longer to recoup their costs. Advertising and R&D are sunk costs, and Apple needs to consider their total profits (profit margin x units sold) in order to recoup them.

Re:Designer's Response

Don't forget that $100 profit has to cover:
* Packaging
* Shipping
* Retail margin

And hope to recover the costs of:
* Advertising
* R & D

I could be wrong, but isn't profit the money a business gets AFTER costs such as these are considered?

Re:Designer's Response

"I could be wrong, but isn't profit the money a business gets AFTER costs such as these are considered?"

You're correct. When the GP wrote "$100 profit" what he really meant was "$100 bill of materials cost." Here's the article where he got his info [theregister.co.uk].

As counter-intuitive as this will surely sound, a 2:1 ratio of retail price to BOM cost is not great in this industry. I can think of at least five well-known, A-list PC peripheral and CE device companies who have a 3:1 ratio or greater.

Re:Designer's Response

The article about the COGS of an iPod did not include the overhead and packaging costs, nor that apple's wholesale price is substantially less than $200, so the poster before you is correct.

Unfortunate really

You'd think with all Apple's advertising resources, they'd have had "Tim from marketing" put it in his pocket for a day just to test it.
Obviously not. It does seem something of an oversight to launch the product way before the covers and cases are available too. I wonder how long it'll be before we see a 2G nano with modified screen coating...

Testing? QA?

I'm curious, as somebody who comes from a manufacturing background... how did this product get shipped with such a glaringly obvious flaw? Does Apple test their products, or do they simply have a team of yuppie designers who send their designs to China, which in turn drop ships them directly to customers? Apple is going to have to announce a full recall, and I'm assuming, start firing people pretty quickly.

Recall? BWahahaha.

>Apple is going to have to announce a full recall

More like they'll write a support entry of the form "Don't scratch your iPod Nano. HTH. HAND."

Remember, Apple can do no wrong. If this statement feels odd to you, please report to your local Apple Store for re-indoctrination ASAP!

Re:Testing? QA?

This thing is tiny, and is clearly designed to be put in a pocket (only geeks clip gadgets to their belt). If you put it in your pocket, the screen quickly becomes scratched to the point where it's unreadable. How is that acceptable? Should the letters on your keyboard wear off the first time you type with sweaty hands, too?

Re:Testing? QA?

The concept that you don't want to piss your customers off with such an obvious flaw is a very rudimentary one in the business world. Flaws such as that are found with the most basic of testing. Given Apple's problems with class action lawsuits in the past, one would believe that they would be taking care of obvious blunders such as this and put more effort into engineering their iPods thoroughly.

There are other music players out there, ya know.

Right you are, and when it becomes very well known that the iPod Nano scratches this badly, many other people are going to be aware of this as well.

Personally, I don't care if my iPod gets scratched. It's a music player, not a mirror in the Hubble space telescope or something.

The market will very likely not share your apologizing view, which is why so many people find it amazing that Apple could screw something like this up. You should take a look at some of the pictures going around. This isn't a matter the screen not being imune to scratches, it's about displays that are barely readable after a month of carrying around in a pocket.

I'll add that I've been a big Apple fan for a while. However, it's discouraging to see these obvious flaws pop up in Apple's work when I think about how badly I'd like to buy a Yonah Powerbook next year. Something like this isn't excusable from an engineering perspective even if its first generation.

Re:Testing? QA?

Does Apple test their products...
Absolutely, they have a team of hardcore fans who are willing to pay for the privilege of QAing their products for them.

Testing

You wonder how much real life testing these things get away from a lab if the screens scratch within seconds and no-one has noticed. I would at least of hoped they would have got testers out and using them in the real world.

Re:Testing

That's what you'd think. But when I saw the development schedule for the Nano, I understood how something like this could have happened. I think it was months, not years they've been working on this. Less than a year is not enough time to do a lot of development, not to mention field testing. Its an amazing accomplishment to get a high volume product to market that fast, and things like this screen problem are the price you pay for taking that risk.

How's that different from any iPod

My IPod 30gb Color, also scratches very easily screen. Screen, case, you name it. That's why the ipod case business is so large!

Best Quote

Best Quote:

How am I supposed to use something "pocketable" if even my CLOTHES SCRATCH IT?

Wrong

iPod Nano found to be as scratchable as all previous generations! President Bush will be addressing the nation on this crisis within the hour!

Nope, there will definitely be a delayed response, because as some have already pointed out here before, George Bush hates the Mac people.

Re:Hysteria...

> Showm me photo before I believe the screen becomes useless. And it WILL scratch.
> It's a device that you use constantly in not-very-friendly enviroment.

What a load of bollocks. I have a Sony Ericsson cell that I frequently keep in my pocket and neither the screen nor the body itself is scratched or dented. Why shouldn't iPod owners be able to use their expensive player in a similar way without it ending up looking like this [slashdot.org]?

My nano

It scratches... but not from just being put into my pocket. They're making a mountain out of a hill. (not an ant hill... it is a problem) Buy a case. Simple!

Re:My nano

The whole appeal of that nano is that it is so thin. What's the point of having an iPod Nano, if you have to make it thicker with a case. Maybe they should have made teh screen recessed a bit, and have some sort of piece that can be used to cover the screen.

Show us!

Nano users! Post big huge pics so we can all see.

We can't!

We can't post huge pics! The nano is impossibly small!

Apple Fanboys

Read through those comments, some of them are just insane. Like one said they kept it in their pocket with a travel pak of tissues. The reply was "That would mark it no problem.... I think it is just something we will have to live with."

Another one says "I am not certain apple is responsible for that... freedom of choice"

My bet is that steve jobs could kill a baby with an ibook, and they'd defend him.

Re:Apple Fanboys

I only touched my Nano whilst wearing white cotton gloves. Unwrapped the shiney thing from it's packaging and wrapped it in bubble wrap and cotton wool, then put it in a titanium case, and left it locked in my desk drawer for 24 hours. When I came back to it, it was horribly scratched. Who'd have believed it possible?

Re:Apple Fanboys

My bet is that steve jobs could kill a baby with an ibook, and they'd defend him.

Current iBooks [apple.com] are equipped with Apple's Sudden Motion Sensor to instantly stop hard drive motion and protect data upon impact, so at least your data will be safe.

Polycarbonate scratches easily

Despite being incredibly strong, polycarbonate is actually quite soft. You can try this yourself. Take a pair of polycarb safety glasses.. These things can stop a shotgun pellet, but you can easily scratch them by just using the edge of a quarter.

They should have used a more brittle (but harder) acrylic for covering an LCD screen. It's not like it has to be particularly strong.

Seriously! What a mistake.

As a chemist when I read in the register article:

"When the point was put to the head of Apple's iPod division, Jon Rubenstein - who in the past oversaw the development of the Titanium PowerBook - the one that killed off Wi-Fi reception, because metal cages do that - he replied: 'Nah, you don't really think that? It's made of the hardest polycarbonate... You keep it in a pocket with your keys?'"

I thought it had to be a joke. Apparently this is made of polycarbonate which scratches easily and this has been known for a long time. Apple probably just asked the supplier for their hardest material without taking scratching into account (basically they asked the wrong questions of their supplier). Admittedly an excellent supplier would have pointed out that a polycarb cover would scratch easily, but it's Apple's responsibility to do the research. I find it difficult to believe that no one noticed this in their tests of the device.

They'll have to do something to fix this I'd imagine. What a blunder.

Re:Seriously! What a mistake.

"Apparently this is made of polycarbonate"

Should read:

Apparently this is made of uncoated polycarbonate.

There are coatings which can make polycarbonate scratch resistant.

Re:Seriously! What a mistake.

I wonder if the other iPods are coated lexan, or a different grade of lexan etc. If they thought they were using the exact same material, then I can see how they overlooked it.

Apple Could Shit on a Pie Plate - I'd Still Buy It

I will continue to support Steve Jobs in all his endevours. At least it's not a Microsoft product. I'd rather push an Apple than drive a Microsoft.

Spray on fix?

Couldn't some sort of spray-on coating fix the problem? Might require a bit of masking tape around the screen while applying it, but still...

I seem to recall a few months ago that TDK (I think) developed a new ultra-hard coating to protect either Blu Ray or HD-DVD discs (can't remember which). Sounds like a suitable coating, since it obviously has to be optically clear. While it's probably best applied at the factory, I wonder if they could turn it into an after-market spray for iPods?

Re:Spray on fix? - Try tape?

I found this on the forum linked, it looks like it might work for digital camera displays too, although I'd like to test it before recommending it to my family and friends. If it doesn't remove cleanly after many weeks or months, then it's not a great idea.

"Jase Roberts
Joined: Sep, 2005
Posts: 1 I keep my cell phone in my jeans pocket, and used to have major problems with scratching (to the point where it was very hard to read). I found that a piece of clear packing tape cut carefully to the size of the screen worked great and didn't leave any residue when I removed it. If you trim it to the size carefully, it'll stay on well. Maybe try sticking an oversize piece on, trace the screen with a Sharpie marker, then remove it and trim it exactly. Costs nothing and provides good protection that you can replace easily when you need to. "

Toothpaste to the rescue!

A response to this [slashdot.org] comment of mine about how to get rid of the scratches suggested toothpaste. I tried it and it actually works reasonably well with a bit of effort. After having scratched the front on the first day and subsequently used toothpaste to fix that I've been more careful since and have not noticed anything really since then.

Re:Toothpaste to the rescue!

You may also want to try Novus plastic polish. My dad bought some to use on the tables of our pinball machines and it works beautifully. My sister had a car accident that left a scratch all the way down the side of our Saturn - my dad used Novus on it and it's barely noticeable now.

Sounding like an ID10T problem

I've had mine in my pockets alongside keys, my cell phone, and my wallet at different times, and it's still as slick and shiny as the day I've bought it.

What's the secret? Until you get a case (you did order a case, right?) put the display side facing your leg. Hello, that's why one side is metal, for some protection.

If your hairy legs scratch the screen through your pants pocket, then you've got other problems.

This whole thing sounds like people who would carry a TabletPC inside a hard briefcase with their pens, calculators, and change jangling around inside, and then complain that the screen got scratched. Hello, it's an MP3 player, not a Rolex Submariner.

Re:Sounding like an ID10T problem

You have got to stop saying "hello". You sound like an airheaded teenage girl.

Nothing new

I made the mistake of buying the Generation 4 (The one released just before the iPod photo) iPod shortly after it came out. The screen on that one scratched just as easily. Sad thing was, I would have been more than willing to purchase a protective case when I bought the unit but they were not out yet! I believe the nano owners are in the same boat.

no problems here

I have had mine for over a week and carry it in my pocket along with a cell phone in the same pocket. No significant wear and tear so far, but the battery life is disappointingly inferior to what was advertised. I'd estimate it gets about 60% of the advertised battery life at best.

Focus on Industrial Design

Hmm. I have noticed threads in the past discussing similar failure modes with other Apple products: PowerBook paint chips, PowerBook palm stains, PowerBook warping, iBooks getting dirty, iPod battery life, mouse ergonomics. Perhaps with the emphasis on industrial design, Apple has given real-lift usability testing a back seat.

In their software, too, there are similar issues. For the most part, OS X is an ingenious, very user-friendly operating system, arguably the best implementation out there of a desktop Unix. But there are some rough edges. For instance, keyboard navigation is incomplete and inconsistent across applications (e.g. Cocoa vs Carbon). Perhaps Apple would have noticed that issue in usability testing if they had included more keyboard navigation users, and specifically, people who spent much time doing keyboard navigation in Windows.

Really, I would like to see Apple succeed, but to do that, they may need to focus more on the usability and reliability of their products.

Itchy about the Scratchy...

*Sighs with relief after not buying expensive music player*

How rotter, considering the depth of the market out there, Apple should understand that people buy iPods for the looks more than just about any other reason, and they ought to have made the screen out of something damn-near bulletproof-- now a scratch-resistant screen would be a really nice selling feature.

...And has anyone tried getting out their CD repair kit and burnishing in the scratch removal stuff onto the screen by hand? You know, that scratch remover supposed to be good enough not to interfere with CD optics, it must be good enough for your Nano screens.

Proof positive!!

I got an iPod nano last week, and yes, it has been scratching up like mad. And I'm not doing anything remotely bad to it -- just the kinds of things that "respectful" users do.

I've taken pictures of the damage and written up a log of how I've been using my nano. Here's a picture, [arstechnica.com] and here's the full write-up. [arstechnica.com]

When's the recall?

Brasso

Use Brasso, the light abrasive normally used for cleaning brass. A little Brasso will bring a scratched screen up nicely and will also do for the back of the iPod as well. Don't be conned into buying more expensive preparations and products that people are trying to sell.

No excuses

I got a black Nano the day after they were announced. I left the plastic on the front until my Nano cover [theinvisibleshield.com] arrived. No muss, no fuss.

All this bitching is useless. Protect your investment.

Pfffff

What, are you people actually using this product? Apple products are not meant to be used, they're meant to be put on a pedastal for proper worship, perhaps occasionally rubbed with a rabbit-skin mitt.

Obviously, that's how they tested it. :)

Enough bitching. Practical advice... try Brasso.

Alright, so the screen is easily scratchable. Enough with the bitching and finger pointing... what can you do about it?

Try Brasso. It's available in your supermarket and costs $3-$4 for what will amount to a lifetime supply if you're just cleaning your iPod.

I managed to drop my iPod Nano on asphault the day after I got it. The player skidded and bounced on the asphault and had some rather nasty scratches on both sides. Naturally, the player still worked perfectly since it doesn't have any moving parts but it looked like hell. Brasso worked like a charm. Here's what you do...

1. Put a drop or two of Brasso on a soft cloth
2. Use a lot of elbow grease to buff out the scratches. Brasso isn't a magic potion; it's actually a very gentle abrasive. You are effectively resurfacing the iPod so it's going to take a few minutes of work.
3. Ta-da!

Now, since you're effectively resurfacing the iPod, I imagine that there is a finite amount of times you'd want to subject your iPod to this. It will leave your iPod looking great though.

I've tried this on my iPod Nano (front and back) as well as my 3g 20GB iPod. Worked great. I imagine it would work on other models as well with the possible exception of the aluminum iPod Minis since their surface differs from the polycarbonate used on other models. Should work, but I don't know.

Get an iPod Shuffle

I got a Shuffle for my birthday several months ago, and just love it. It's so small, and so simple. There's almost nothing to break on it, there's just the one 4-position button, and I guess you might be able to break the jack mooring or something if you really tried. It's so light and solid that I'm not worried about dropping it. And if it slips out of my shirt pocket while listening, I have headphones for it that hook over my ears, it's so light that the jack doesn't pull out, it just hangs from my head if that happens. When I eventually have to replace it, I'm positive that the reason will be the battery no longer holding charge. I'm cool with that. I don't need to look at pictures while I'm listening to music, I like my player to be tucked away somewhere. It's so light, and my headphones are so comfortable (the hooks over the ears mean the buds don't have to be jammed deep into the canal to keep them in) that it's like I don't even have a music player at all, there's just this music magically appearing in my head.

Simplify, it frees your mind.

Friend just bought an iPod

My friend Nick just bought an iPod. He went ahead and got the mini instead of the nano and I'm glad he did after reading this article. I really like the iPod interface, and if it played oggs I'd probably have one myself.

I think what makes this design flaw so bad is that it really should have been picked up during the testing phase. If you get a group of test subjects to use it for a month, how could they not get feedback when the screens start to scratch and break.

I've read some post talking about nice cases you can get for your iPod such as this one:
http://www.theinvisibleshield.com/ipod_screen_prot ectors.html [theinvisibleshield.com]

It's a nice case, transparent and looked like a good solution, however its something that should have come with the unit itself.

I have a feeling this device was rushed into the market on its coolness factor and not enough time was spent testing and developing it for real world use. It reminds me of those Apple cubes that came out years ago with a touch sensetitive power button that had the tendency to turn of if you waved something warm across them.

I love Apples. I wish I could affoard an iBook, however they do seem to place a lot in style and looks over actual preformance and cost in many cases, which I think has been one of the short falls of many of their designs.

Sumdog

Uncoated polycarbonate? Who made that blunder?

Now that was dumb. Polycarbonates are strong, but not hard. The eyeglass lens industry solved this problem years ago. Even the bus window industry [trb.org] has solved this problem. Optical polycarbonate surfaces are routinely hard-coated [opticalfilters.co.uk], and an anti-glare coating is often added at the same time.

The cool solution, which Apple probably now has to use to get their reputation back, is sapphire [maintechsapphires.com]. That's what scratch-resistant high-end watches [rado.com] use. Put an 0.15mm sapphire layer on top of the polycarbonate, and you can dump the thing in with your keys without worrying. It's not that expensive for a phone or music player sized screen. Some of Nokia's high-end phones [msn.com] have a sapphire screen.

Of course, doing it right might cut into those 40% profit margins at Apple.

Re:Uncoated polycarbonate? Who made that blunder?

It's solid sapphire in mobiles/watches.
If you put a .15mm coating on a screen, then all you end up with is a horrible crazed mess.
The sapphire can't flex at all, and the plastic can't support it well enough to stop it
cracking.
(not to mention that there are technical problems with depositing sapphire on plastic.
Solid sapphire is not actually that expensive.
But.
It takes quite a thickness to make it as resistant to stress as a plastic screen.
The plastic screen can flex a bit, and that absorbs a lot of energy, the sapphire (or glass)
one cannot, and smashes.

Use Clickie Eraser

One of those Clickie white latex erasers will remove the scratches.

Screen protector?

Hey,

I looked at a Nano at Best Buy. I understand the point of producing a quality product from the start, but what what buying a screen protector for it? Get one for a Palm Pilot, cut it to fit, and put it on the screen. I put one on my BlackBerry, even though it's not a touch screen device, just to make sure the screen stays nice.

Just a thought.

-m

Umm... Cube flaws, cell screens, and iPods, oh my?

OK, I agree that it is a frustrating thing that every item, from pet rocks to drag-line shovels have flaws when new and, once purchased, get more flaws as they are handled, but somehow through the process of growing up (which I did way too long ago), I quit stressing over it.

Most of the folks who've chimed in with the ancient history of the Cube hairlines are the same folks who gripe about a hairline scratch nobody else notices on their car. They just have a slightly stronger obsession with perfection, no matter how many times science proves the inability of humans to produce perfection (yes, even Steve).

These folks are the TRUE AppleFanBoys. They think that Apple is so perfect that Apple can create perfect products. Me, I've gotten enough eMacs and iMacs that were DOA that I know better. Thing is, I realize that every computer manufacturer has DOAs to a point and, unless it goes beyond a empirically-measured statistical point, it is not unusual. Many of the folks griping about the screens on the Nano are the same folks who believe that there should be no DOAs.

Problem is, most of these folks are just the type to gripe about their iPod getting scratched and funky-smelling on a spelunking trip whereupon they dropped it down a slope of 15 yards of solid rock and then into a 3 foot accumulation of guano. Then they claim they carried it in a lamb's wool pocket equipped with some sort of alien-developed deflector system and air-ride suspension (and their friends are pretty sure of where the funky smell comes from).

Has anybody stopped to think why 3M and others make money on consumer screen-protection films for PDAs, cell phones, and other everyday-duty plastic screens? Scratched everyday-use screens are not a new occurrence.

And exactly what are these folks with only a gum wrapper in their pocket REALLY doing to scratch the screens? Although some of them are telling what they believe to be the truth (and may have forgotten that stray piece of agate they popped in their pocket), I'd bet most of them are making up their situations. The Nanos at the Apple Store I visit don't seem to get scratched badly and they are handled rather roughly (esp. by children), slid around face-down, and even intentionally gouged, but they don't look as bad as some of these folks iPods. And no, the units aren't being swapped out with new ones often enough to make a difference.

I give up, maybe I just need to quit trying to act my age. Never mind the important things to focus on, like my country's lousy economy as of the past couple of years or even those folks who've just been bulldozed by two hurricanes, I think I'll gripe about my chewing gum losing its flavor on the bedpost overnight.

A fix

Novus plastic polish [noscratch.com]

I use this stuff to shop pinball machines. You can take plastic that's been rubbed on cement and get all of the scratches out with it. Just start with #1 and work your way up to #3. Works great on plastic headlight lens too. Amazing stuff.

This other problems looks worse...

http://homepage.mac.com/matthewdotcom/nano/cracked .html [mac.com]

I wonder how common that is.

Hey! You are all supposed to be geeks!

It doesn't take a genius to go buy a Palm or PocketPC screen protecter, cut to size, and put over your iPod's screen.

This is supposed to be "News for Nerds"... you'd think more "nerds" would have figured this out by now.

I don't even own an iPod, and even I thought of this. (I *do* have a PDA, though.)

Yeah, mine scratched too - pic linked

I got the black one to match my Motorola Razr v3.
I didn't expect it to look like THIS [cachenetworks.com] after a week or two!

It's a joke

scratch deterent solution - packing tape

Sorry if this was mentioned earlier, but I've no iPod or care to discuss!

My Rio Karma's screen is also very susceptible to scratching. The solution we (the Karma fans) found was to use a PDA static-film cut in the shape of the screen. I went even cheaper, and just covered the easily-scratched part with clear packing tape. You only need to smooth the air bubbles out when applying, and removal is easy. Just make sure you cut it to shape BEFORE applying. Either way is inexpensive, easy, and non-obtrusive. Protect your ASAP.

Aside: From pics of the iPod Nano, does anyone even care about album-art? It looked like they were smaller than an index-fingernail, 32x32 or so? looked nearly useless.

Mod me down if redundant, but the above two solutions are cheap and easy for people not wanting to deal with a case for their DAP!

cheaper alternatives are not usually Mac friendly

i think one key element of iPods is that they work with Macs. remember at first there was just 3rd party software to get PC users the ability to load songs on an iPod. Apple never intended the iPod to be such a cross platform hit. i realize a ton of PC users now buy iPods, but before the iPod (and even today) there is nothing for the Mac that comes close to the iPod in terms of software to load songs from your desktop/portable. yes, most people just load songs once and don't care, but with podcasting, to do lists and whatever else, people are more prone to sync their digital music players than they may have been in the beginning. really, if somebody made a good MP3 player that had Mac support, it's quite possible Apple would have never bothered making the iPod in the first place. kind of funny when you look at it that way.

yeah, there are ways to jam songs on some other MP3 players, but it's a pain. why should a Mac user support a company that does not support them? Linux users are used to having to hack a lot of things and make them work, but when there is a Mac friendly solution ready out of the box it makes sense.

all companies make profits. that $90 cost to manufacture was a guess, the real numbers will be in the next quarterly earnings report.

Re:I laugh at you!

Actually, the worst part of my (short) MiniDisc experience was the software that came with it. Brought my computer to it's knees. You could use Realplayer as well, but it lacked some of the features, and still sucked. ATRAC didn't bother me horribly (though yeah, when converting MP3-ATRAC the quality got sketchy), and I'm a huge fan of the Minidisc media format in general because, ironically, it resists scratching.

In fact, if Sony had made a MD player at the time that played MP3 natively as data files, I'd probably still own a MD player. The size wasn't too bad, didn't skip, and I liked the discs as storage. As it is, I took it back after about two weeks.

Oh, and as far as pack-in earbuds go, the white iPod headphones are actually some of the better ones out there.