Here’s something everyone should know about in case it’s true.

New critical flaw in the 5G iPod — destroys earbuds!

When my right earbud started making an annoying crackling sound I thought it was just the earbuds fault. But recently on iLounge it appears that a bunch of other iPod users have also had the problem, and with third party headphones as well! So, if you’re using an expensive pair of earbuds with your 5G — watch out!

via digg

If you follow the forums, there’s a considerable amount of people with similar problems, but again, not all are experiencing this.

I’m glad that this was posted nonetheless, I wouldn’t want to wreck a 300 dollar pair of headphones because Apple made sloppy work of the terminals. I hope that it’s just in the iPod though (like the terminals themselves get damaged, and not the earphones connected to them). In any case, here’s a heads-up for anyone.

Speaking of iPod, the Nano’s been a blessing on the battery life department. I’ve been listening to it days on end (it’s easy when you have a lot of podcast catching up to do)

I’ve relegated my iPod Photo to my GF – since I don’t think I’ll be using it anytime soon. Though I do miss having all my songs at my immediate disposal. The real problem with small memory is that though granted no one could possibly listen to all songs at any given day – if you’re like me, then you tend to be not focused on a single genre. This means you can’t just dump your “favorite” songs for the month and keep on listening them until you redo your playlist.

I usually am really moody when it comes to music. One day I’m listening to heavy metal, then 3 hours after I feel the need for some Ennio Morricone, or sometimes some obscure chillout music. So the whole “planning your playlist” doesn’t work well for me.

Thankfully, I listen to Podcasts more than I listen to music because that’s sure to be “new content” all the time. Hence more than half of the 4GB is already dedicated to Podcasting. And which is why I have no problems using the Nano as my everyday “panlaspag” player.

The portability is divine. I can put it in the pocket, clip it, whatever and it doesn’t bulge at all, the weight too makes it easy to clip it onto shorts with no pockets.

I particularly like the positioning of the headphone jack too (at the bottom) of course this is just a matter of taste, but the way I see it is like this:

I like clipping¹ /pocketing my Nano upside-down because because of the following (which will ultimately support why I like the positioning of the headphone jack)

• The natural orientation when you pull it out from your pocket right after grabbing it is already correct: You grab it from your pocket it while it’s upside-down – when you pull out your arm and face the iPod to you, then it’s already right side up.
• When in a “clipped” scenario, one benefit is that you can control your Nano while it’s still clipped: You look down on an upside-down Nano and you notice that it’s in the correct orientation (no need to spin it around)
• Given that an upside-down position is ideal, then the headphones being at the bottom will now be on top – which means it doesn’t get pulled down/disconnected by accident.

When I study the whole ergonomics/feature-set of the Nano, the only fault² I really see is the hard disk size, otherwise it was a really well though-out contraption.