If there was an iPod God, he must’ve heard my complain, because mysteriously my iPod Nano is fixed. So for the longest time, whenever I pull my earphones out, my iPod would continue playing, but whenever I plugged it back in, it would stop playing. I thought that was the most bizarre thing and quite counter-intuitive. I was just complaining to Decathanerd the other day on how Apple should’ve reversed that behavior and he tells me that’s how his iPod Nano behaves. When he unplugs his earphones, the iPod stops playing and not when he plugs it in. However, when he plugs it in, it doesn’t start playing which I’m okay with.
So I verified that wasn’t the case for me. Decathanerd said it took awhile for it to stop playing, so I waited 30 secs after unplugging for it to stop playing, but it continued playing and the moment my earphones touched the input hole, it immediately stopped playing.
I went to Apple’s support site trying to find a way to ask for help, but apparently they don’t have online email support, only through phone or I can visit one of their stores (which there are a couple in the Seattle area). However, I did find this article: iPod (Click Wheel) pauses when headphone connector is unplugged:
Getting a surprise pause when you unplug something?
iPod (Click Wheel) pauses playback when anything connected to the headphone jack (such as headphones or the remote) is removed. Pressing the Play button will resume playback.
So it appears my iPod was defective and Decathanerd and I were plotting on how to get Apple to replace my iPod because I’ve also got it scratched a lot.
But today, when I unplugged my earphones, my iPod Nano magically stopped playing, as if it was never broken to begin with. I did this couple times with different start states (playing, not playing, etc) to verify it wasn’t just a fluke. Maybe there was a way I was unplugging my earphones before that made my iPod Nano wacky. Welp, I’m happy now and I don’t have to stop by the Bellevue Apple store this weekend.
Another thing I got for my iPod Nano was this new skin: iPod Nano Crystal Shield – Enhanced. When I first got my iPod, they only carried the iPod Nano Crystal Shield – Rugged (which wasn’t even distinguished between Enhanced and Rugged before). This rugged skin wasn’t as clear as I hoped for and it came as 2 big sheets of sticky plastic which made controlling the wheel and pushing the center button a bit hard. I was also seeing random colors on the screen due to distortion of the sticky stuff they’re using.
However the new Enhanced version is so much better. As they state: If you’d prefer a clearer display and don’t need the thickness of the “Rugged” item, we’d suggest looking at our “Enhanced” series of crystal shields for the Nano. The “Enhanced” series covers almost the same area but is made of a special multi-layer composite material.
From the description of the Enhanced version: The “Enhanced” series of body protectors are a three piece 99% transparent, special multi-layer composite piece designed to fit the face of the iPod (including the screen), the outer portion of the clickwheel and the chrome back of the device.
I can’t describe how much happier I’m with this new skin. It even came with its own microfiber soft cloth to clean your iPod before applying the skin and a small piece of firm cardboard (could’ve been firmer, but I’m not complaining) which you can use to push out air bubbles. The real reason why I decided to get a new skin was there was a air bubble in the old skin I was using and it was annoying me. so I peeled of one corner to get it out, and from that point on, that corner was ruined and started to slowly peel by itself.
Another difference was my original skin was just 2 pieces of plastic while the new versions (both the Enhanced and Rugged) now has a big hole cut out for th wheel and a seperate donut plastic for the wheel. The skin is so thin, it’s like it’s not even there. I see people carrying theirs in thick silicone skins and that just really defeats the purpose of purchasing something so tiny.
You can read their Skinning Demystified to see how exactly their skins work. Of course take it with a grain of salt, since they are sales people, but as advertised, my iPod Nano hasn’t been scratched since I started using their skins and there is pratically no noticable difference now that the transparency issue has been fixed.