Many of you hopefully recall my post the other day about two of my iPods that bit the dust, both while playing U2 songs. Several dozen of you wrote in offering not just condolences and sympathy (muchly appreciated, btw), but also rather nifty DIY fix-it solutions after I reported that the Apple Store said they could do nothing to bring the latest one back from the dead.
To me, this is one of the greatest examples of the power of the Internet. Because, lo and behold, one solution actually FIXED MY iPOD! In fact, as I type I’m sitting here listening to Glenn Gould playing Bach’s Italian Concerto in F Major. Yes, as a team, we _flossers whipped the tuchases of the sorry folks at the Apple Store (in your face iPod Bar!).
So here’s my way of saying thanks for saving me a couple hundred bucks on a new iPod:
Let’s see how well you read and remember the original post, which I’ve momentarily taken down off the blog. We’ll give away a book from our store to the first reader who can answer the following questions correctly:
1. What was the name of the first U2 song that killed my first iPod?
2. What was the name of the second U2 song that killed my second iPod?
And finally, (yes, this is total luck if you answer correctly):
3. What solution offered in the comments do you think brought my iPod back from the sad-face iPod morgue?
So drop those three answers in the comments and be sure to tell us which book you’d like from our store.
Once we have a winner, I’ll also be singling out the reader who dropped the original DIY fix-it solution in the comments and sending her/him a copy of my novel Behind Everyman as a special, personal thank you.
Comments (22)
Comment
- subscribe /
- give a gift /
- terms of service /
- about /
- contact us /
- write for us /
- ad info /
- subscriber services /
- press /
- privacy policy /
- rss /
© 2012 Mental Floss Inc. All Rights Reserved. Mental Floss is a registered trademark owned by Felix Dennis. mentalfloss.com is a trademark owned by Felix Dennis.
Disclaimer: All submissions made to mental_floss become the property of Mental Floss Inc and may be used without further permission by the submitter and without compensation to the submitter. If you do not agree to these terms, please do not submit anything to mental_floss.
1. Walk On
2. Where the Streets Have No Name
3. Press and hold the Menu and Select buttons until the Apple logo appears, switch to disk mode and then reconnect? I have no clue. :(
If miraculously that’s right, I’d love a copy of In the Beginning.
Either way, I’m glad you had your iPod resurrected.
posted by Julie on 4-17-2008 at 4:32 am
P.S. “Condensed Knowledge” sounds pretty interesting, if I’m so fortunate.
posted by B. Seward on 4-17-2008 at 4:37 am
1) Walk On
2) Sreets have No Name *And just to show I remember the blog and not copying julie you said it ONCE AGAIN froze on this song :-)
Solution to the Sad Face of Death – Open Case and shake the harddrive.
I would like Condensed Knowledge if I am the recipient of total luck
posted by Christopher Mccurry on 4-17-2008 at 6:48 am
On 2 above should have been “Where the streets have no name”. I left off a bit and misspelled it. Thursday is the New Monday ;-)
posted by Christopher Mccurry on 4-17-2008 at 6:50 am
1) Walk On
2) Where The Streets Have No Name
3) Smack the corner of it on a hard surface
Book: In The Beginning
posted by Mike on 4-17-2008 at 7:36 am
“Walk On”
“Where the Streets have no Name”
bought a new one, ha
posted by Sarah Crowe on 4-17-2008 at 7:49 am
Hm, “PS” must stand for prescript (or my first comment never made it to the page).
Once more, dear friends:
1 – Walk On
2 – Where the Streets Have No Name
3 – Using the “Restore” button in iTunes?
posted by B. Seward on 4-17-2008 at 7:53 am
1. Walk On
2. Where the Streets Have No Name
3. Whacking it on a hard surface!
“In the Beginning” sounds interesting!
posted by Allison on 4-17-2008 at 8:12 am
1- Walk On
2- Where the Streets Have No Name
3-Do a hard restore by plugging it into the wall and doing the Menu/Select trick?
Forbidden Knowledge
posted by Dan on 4-17-2008 at 8:33 am
answer to question 3: Changing the hard disk?
(I remembered only the first song ‘Walk On’)
posted by septer on 4-17-2008 at 8:50 am
Walk On
Where the Streets Have No Name
put it in the freezer?
posted by Eric Y. on 4-17-2008 at 8:56 am
1. Walk on
2. Where the Streets Have No Name
3. Did you drop it?
Book: In the Beginning
posted by Amanda on 4-17-2008 at 9:03 am
I don’t know the first two, but did you fix the ipod by switching the hold button back and forth five times, then holding the menu and select button at the same time for twenty seconds? (It actually works a lot of the time!)
posted by bo on 4-17-2008 at 9:03 am
1. Walk On
2. Where the Streets Have No Name
(both times happened at the gym)
3. Open the case, stick a folded piece of paper inside, close the case, and voila! (hey, it worked for me!)
posted by Robyn on 4-17-2008 at 9:31 am
everyone is saying which book they would like to receive. but David already said which book he would be sending the lucky recipient!
posted by mnd on 4-17-2008 at 10:29 am
Hey, I remembered the songs, but you should know that if you read via RSS feed, you can still see the last entry in the cache!
Anyway, I don’t care to get a book (too much on my pile already!), but I’m enjoying your iPod story/dilemma. I also LOVE u2, and though I have never frozen on one of their songs, I have indeed frozen on others. Usually it’s the same song, and so I’ll delete it… well, after whacking the hell out of it to un-freeze it. Seems my U2 iPod loves to be abused every now and then. Kinky!
Generally, I think the iPod can be a bit finicky. Load too many songs at once, or remove it too quickly after “ejecting” it off iTunes, and it acts unhappy. Still love the damn thing, though. Ha!
posted by tona b. on 4-17-2008 at 11:19 am
1. Walk on
2. Where the streets have no name
3. Replaced the hardrive
In the Beginning, please
posted by kenda on 4-17-2008 at 12:41 pm
Walk on
Where the streets have no name
Taking it apart and turning it into a walet had to be the most helpful!
posted by Kristen on 4-17-2008 at 1:41 pm
1. Walk on
2. Where the Streets Have No Name
3. Just kept on pressing all of the buttons frantically to see if ANYTHING would get it to miraculously revive! AKA, Pure Dumb Luck!
Scatterbrained sounds interesting.
posted by Amy on 4-17-2008 at 8:44 pm
1. “Walk On”
2. “Where the Streets Have No Name”
3. Press and hold the Play/Pause and Menu buttons until the Apple/iPod logo appears, about 6 to 10 seconds.
“In the Beginning” book.
posted by Chris on 4-17-2008 at 8:53 pm
Since the previous post isn’t there to comment on and I don’t know if anyone already corrected you: The U2 edition iPod pictured is actually 5th generation (video), I have that iPod. There are 2 U2 iPods the 5th gen 30GB and a 4th gen (monochrome) 20GB.
And for the record I have 0 U2 songs on my U2 iPod, I just liked the colors and it was on clearance.
posted by Reese on 4-17-2008 at 10:28 pm
It’s funny how you mentioned the theory of U2 playing on your ipod more often than other bands (when on shuffle). I always hear Cheeseburger in Paradise whenever I put it on shuffle! HELP!
posted by KP on 6-17-2008 at 8:13 am