With the passing of my dear, beloved 30GB iPod last night I had a chance to tear her open and have a look at her guts. Unplugging the battery and hard drive and re-connecting them was a last-ditch effort to resuscitate the old girl, as that apparently sometime works. Didn't for me and she officially shuffled the mortal coil just before midnight last night.
It was interesting to get a look inside though, quite a marvel of engineering! If I had more money than brains I'd like to buy an iPod Nano just to take it apart and have a look in one of those too. It did feel a little wrong poking around inside though, kinda like I was violating the corpse of an old friend (plus I swear I could hear it screaming "No disassemble! Number Five alive!")
So, now I'm back to using my old 5GB iPod. This is one of the originals, iPod 1.0. It's funny, it was such a marvel for it's small size and weight back then, but now it feels like a ten pound brick compared to the newer ones. It doesn't sound as good either, but that may just be my ears playing tricks on me. Doesn't sound nearly as full, kinda thin in comparison to the newer models. The old analog controls feel really clunky, the lack of remote is annoying in the car, and I'm totally not used to the different arrangement of controls, but at least it's something to carry my music around with! It's a tough old fucker too, still works like the day I bought it. Well worn and scuffed up, but functional.