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"Say it ain't so Joe." I can buy a $400 IPod which is designed to last four years. What a deal!!! Pain in the pod Little patience for my big iProblems July 24, 2006 Apple's 4 commandments July 24, 2006 What locals had to say Swap your broken pod for one that's mod July 24, 2006 The iPod is invaluable in the everyday lives of millions. We name our iPods, coddle them, buy cases for them, insure them and sing their praises?until they break down. Then we curse them, throw them, mock them and spread the bad word?before buying our next one.Cry-pod storiesDo you have an iPod breakdown story? Tell us about it. Please include your full name, age and neighborhood. And the cycle repeats. "When they're working, they're great," said Tim Vargo, an early adopter who is on his fourth iPod. "But I've had the Nano for four or five months, so now I'm really getting to the point where I'm waiting for it to screw up." There's plenty of anecdotal evidence calling out Apple's portable media player as a faulty device on many counts. The company has acknowledged some problems, offering subsidized replacements for faulty batteries of certain-generation iPods and free replacements to the easily cracked and scratched screens of some Nanos. However, based on anecdotal evidence and online forums of iPod users, other problems remain. Exact repair/replacement numbers are unknown; those are controlled by Apple. But Apple maintains that failure rates are low. An Apple spokeswoman, Natalie Kerris, said iPods have a failure rate of less than 5 percent, which she said is "fairly low" compared with other consumer electronics. "The vast majority of our customers are extremely happy with their iPods," she said, adding that an iPod is designed to last four years. A survey done in late 2005 by macintouch.com, a 12-year-old Web site for Apple users, offers a window into the type of problems users most frequently encounter. Of nearly 9,000 iPods owned by more than 4,000 respondents, more than 1,400 of the mp3 players had failed. The survey reported a failure rate of 13.7 percent, roughly half battery-related, while the other half were hard-drive-related. Other data indicated Nanos and Shuffles, which operate without hard drives, were less prone to failure. Gregg Radell, who started a company that refurbishes faulty iPods, said "the single weakest link" is the iPod's hard drive. "When they're being carried around and being tossed up and down, they go through such a variety of environments that I think the hard drive has a tendency to fail," he said. But several analysts said the problems have more to do with the popularity of the iPod and the tendency of users to abuse them than with Apple's manufacturing policies. Bob O'Donnell, a vice president at technology research firm IDC, said, "Any time you have that many of anything," some will not function properly. Fifteen percent of iPods will fail within one year, estimates Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group in San Jose, Calif. He said that's roughly comparable to other small electronic devices, such as cell phones. Nevertheless, he said, cell phones are much easier and cheaper to repair. Hard data on iPod repair and replacement rates may be spotty. But consumers at least appear to think the devices fail at an unreasonable rate. Lately, as the iPod approaches its fifth birthday in October, the accounts of hard-drive failure are commonplace on online tech forums. "Right now mine is a $400 paperweight," wrote one blogger in February after his hard drive died without apparent reason. Apple created a device that is unparalleled in size, functionality, design and capability. But many modern digital products, whether hardware or software, seem to be manufactured with an eye toward frequent replacement and updates?the sort of built-in obsolescence that has frustrated consumers for decades. Companies such as Apple and Microsoft hope at least some customers will update often to get a more advanced product. There appears to be no lack of customers willing to do just that. It took more than three years for Apple to release its first 14 iPod models, but the company has introduced another 12 models in the past 15 months. Dano Shattuck had recurring problems with his old iPod, from a balky headphone jack to a dead battery. But they were easily handled until he dropped the mp3 player on a concrete floor. He accepted fault and bought a new 60-gig video iPod. "None of that changes my opinion that the iPod is the best thing to ever happen to music," Shattuck said. "It's such an incredible product." Replacing a $150 cell phone is one thing. A $400 60-gig video iPod is another story. Yet still, many people mourn the premature loss of their iPod with the purchase of a new iPod. "The first one I bought new, and it wasn't long before I got the little frowny-faced guy, and there was no recovering," said Jason Lucero, an iPod enthusiast now on his second player. "I'm a computer geek and can figure that stuff out, but it was broken, it was done." Enthusiasts know and fear the frowny-faced guy, which means the iPod must be sent to the company for repair or replacement. "When I sent the first one back, they sent me a refurbished one within a week," Lucero said. "But I still have the same problems. It'll just freeze up, pretending it doesn't want to work sometimes. I've gotten so [angry] that I've thrown it across the room. And then it worked. Banging it up a little bit helps sometimes." Regardless of these problems, brand loyalty isn't something Apple has to worry about. Vargo, a longtime Mac user, is content with his Nano and doesn't see himself without an Apple-made MP3 player. "Walkmans were everywhere in the '80s," said Vargo, "and now iPods have that exact same effect on this generation