My iPod ("Chotchke") is terminal

I visited the Apple Store's "Genius Bar" (that name is annoying) about my current iPod ("Chotchke"), which had a sudden conniption on Wednesday. (This was rather unfortunate because it severely hurt my musical selection for my flights on Thursday.) It was given me the sad iPod icon, which is a strong indication of hardware problems. (My attempts at restoration, etc. failed.)

On Tuesday and last week, I had to restore it from crashes. (The initial crash on Wednesday was weird because when I pressed play, it went through a couple seconds of each song and wouldn't let me do anything else. Then the iPod wouldn't mount when I connected it to my Mac and instead gave me the dreaded sad icon. The crash on Tuesday was slightly weird in that the iPod pretended that there were no songs even though they were there. The crash last week --- my iPod's first in several months --- was the canonical freezing that one sees on occasions even in healthy iPods.)

I set up an appointment with the Genius Bar today and brough my backup iPod to work. My backup iPod, called "Hoopak" and one of the original bulky 20 gig pieces that is one of the old models that people apparently collect a bit because it completely defies the now-prevalent sleek theme, works perfectly except for the fact that the battery has experienced the usual extreme decay of that generation's iPods. I hadn't even checked Chotchke since last night, but it loaded just fine by the time I was at the Apple Store. (This always happens.)

I was helped immediately even though I was 30 minutes early because the people ahead of me weren't there. (I like it when that happens.) When I said that the sad iPod icon had appeared, the person behind the counter got a sour look on his face --- essentially signifying that this was a bad sign. He heard lots of clicking from the hard drive and basically deduced that the hard drive is on its last legs and could completely die at any time, so it looks like Hoopak is going to outlast Chotchke by a factor of at least 3. Replacing the hard drive costs $250, which essentially means that one buys a new iPod.

I wasn't sure whether I had bought Applecare for Chotchke, but it turns out that I did. I bought it in March 2005, so it doesn't expire until March 17, 2007. The guy at the Apple Store indicated that if I can bring it in and one of the store workers actually sees the sad icon on the iPod, then I can exchange it for free as long as this happens before Applecare expires. Basically, I feel like there is a life insurance policy on my iPod but that I need to use it within the next two months or else it isn't any good. (I feel like I'm in a murder mystery.) Even if the next sad face icon isn't the permanent death of Chotchke, I will definitely be heading immediately to the Apple Store if that happens while I still have Applecare, because the free exchange is far better than coughing up a few hundred dollars.

So, the motive has been established...

Chotchke already did a normal freezing type of crash tonight after my visit to the Apple Store. I won't be murdering it or anything, but I'm going to be really annoyed if I end up seeing a March 18th sad iPod icon.