I've blogged twice before about how fabulous it is to deal with the people at the Apple Retail Stores. I'm going to add another one to the list. Given my current customer service nightmare with Microsoft, it's wonderful to be able to say something nice.

Travis turned 15 late last month and he wanted an iPod. At first he wanted one of those cute little Nanos but then he looked at the quantity of music he wanted to play and decided he needed a Classic. I didn't think there was any way Jennifer and I could afford one, but I went to the Apple Store online the week prior to his birthday and found that we could, just barely, afford the refurb models. So I ordered it on Tuesday the 22nd, and received it on Wednesday the 23rd.

Travis was ecstatic when he opened his present and discovered what it was. I helped him hook it up to his iTunes and we loaded it with music and all was good.

On August 13th, the boys and their mom were heading to the beach for a camping trip. Travis listened to his iPod the whole way to the coast. Left the iPod in the car that night, and the next day when he turned it on he got a big red X on the screen. Jennifer called me, and I walked her through a reset. That didn't help. When he got home we tried to put the iPod in disk mode and that didn't work, so we made an appointment to see the Geniuses at the Genius Bar in the Apple Store at Bridgeport Village.

We arrived and had a short delay before they could help us. We provided the Genius with the paper work from apple.com, he asked a few questions, tried a few trouble-shooting things, checked it for water damage, reached into a drawer behind him and pulled out a replacement iPod and handed it over.

As we were leaving I told him that it is that kind of service, that has made me a customer for life...

...If only Apple made a gaming console.

Two weeks ago I bought my first iPod, a black 60Gb Video version (which will likely never ever see a video). It's very small and very sleek and I like it quite well, and boy did I feel cool with those trademark white earbuds in!

There's one problem. If Apple wants people to be seen with those white earbuds, they need to include ones that suck FAR less.

I ride a motorcycle, and often listen to music while I ride. I need music to be louder than the wind noise inside my helmet, which is fairly loud. At those volumes Apple's standard earbuds pop and crackle and distort like an old AM radio trying to pull in a weak signal. After two rides dealing with distortion so bad I couldn't recognize some of the music, I replaced the white earbuds with a pair of $15 Sony headphones I had been using with my old Creative Nomad. I was stunned at how much better those very inexpensive Sony's were compared to the Apple ones. Not only did they not distort, they were also slightly louder.

Only problem with them is they're black. So no one knows I'm listening to an iPod.