Some new iPod nanos afflicted with tilted screens
By Conrad Quilty-Harper 
posted Sep 16th 2007 8:17PM
posted Sep 16th 2007 8:17PM
The new iPod nanos are exhibiting screen problems for a small subset of owners, whereby the screen doesn't appear to be completely level within the casing. More than a dozen people have reported the issue on Apple's Support forums, with most reports saying video appears tilted slightly to the left. Apple is replacing units that exhibit the problem, although judging by some anecdotal reports, entire batches at certain stores have the problem, making replacement a far from adequate solution. Fortunately, it appears as if it's possible to notice the issue with the nano inside the box. At least now we'll know what the problem is if we run into any gadget fans with crooked necks.
Anyone know how to put coverflow by albums instead of the default sorting by artist?
They should have kept the form factor the same as the 2nd gen.. and put the widescreen in portrait orientation... flip it on its side to watch a movie.
This looks like a pos.
portrait widescreen you say; that sounds a lot like a certain other mp3 player on the market...are you saying the Zune might have some good ideas in it? preposterous!
Widescreen portraits look funny, it is as though the device suited wasn't designed with video watching as a primary objective.
Anyway, I am sure that many Nanoes have their screen tilted, it is just that picky people like me notice it whilst others don't!
I wonder if the Apple logo on their website is tilted?
Yeah, that's what I said as soon as I saw this. Should have kept it rectangular and had people use it horizontally.
"Widescreen portraits look funny, it is as though the device suited wasn't designed with video watching as a primary objective."
It's got 8GB (or less) and a 2 inch screen, it wasn't designed to play videos.
Also I'd rather have a long list of artists/albums/songs than a fat list and a pretty picture.
It wasn't designed to play videos? Oh, then that new Apple ad's got me fooled.
Are you kidding me?
So Apple is fixing a tiny problem with the iPod Nano, and yet they have made absolutely no move to fix the major Black levels / contrast problem with the iPod touch??
Jeeze!
What do you expect them to do? Replace your touch with another touch that exhibits the same problem? At least the problem is fixable with this.
Not at all!
But acknowledging that there is a serious issue with the iPod touch, would be a good start.
At the moment, I feel betrayed by Apple's lack of response to the matter!
You feel betrayed because Apple hasn't issued a fix for a product which isn't officially in stores until September 28th?
Wow....you really have some issues don't you? Have you even bought an iPod Touch yet or are you just another wanker who has nothing better to do than whine about something which doesn't affect them?
dude it just came out...relax alittle.
They will handle it with firmware
If yours has such a problem, just return it. I'm sure it's within the normal return period as they just came out last week. And, by the way, get a life. Jeeeeez!!!!
Khris @ Sep 16th 2007 9:53PM
"Wow....you really have some issues don't you? Have you even bought an iPod Touch yet or are you just another wanker who has nothing better to do than whine about something which doesn't affect them?"
Sorry, but you, sir, are a moron.
Why not put yourself in the other person's shoes and feel their pain? We spend good, hard-earned money to get these new toys. The least we can expect is to have good customer service and feedback.
Sadly, I doubt you will ever know that. Maybe when your mommy or daddy gives sets your allowance back on will you finally get a chance at owning one of the new iPods. All you can do is wish, wish, wish and rain on other people's parades. Shame on you!
Good video showing that the iPod Touch screen is awful from ALL angles.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=nYxlrsReUEU
@ LiQuiD_FuSioN
You must be really l33t to spell your uSeRNaMe LiKe THiS!
Here's some advice little boy, make sure you have all the facts before opening your mouth to chastise someone.
"We spend good, hard-earned money to get these new toys."
What is it that I'm sending on the iPod Touch that I've already ordered? Perhaps your money is more "hard-earned" than mine? When I get my iPod Touch, if the screen is defective (out of lack for a better term to describe it), I will be promptly sending it back to Apple. I will not however feel BETRAYED by them.
Now piss off and go join the rest of the wankers, they've saved a seat for you.
Why does it seem that Apple really rushed the product line this time around? When the 5.5G came out, I don't recall this many problems across the board. Hopefully, when they release the upgrade to this line, there won't be so many problems.
Well maybe because all 5.5G was an updated screen and bigger hard drive.
Yeah but even with the original 5G I still don't recall this many problems
Yeah, but when you actually see one in real life they look really nice.
Apple wanted to show us more love by making the Nano even bigger.
It's true...I don't really consider this new nano to live up to its name. Looks like the nano got car size creep -- where a car starts out slim and cool, and ends up a few model revisions down the road bloated and slow.
Companies just can't let a good thing lie; they feel like they constantly have to add features to make it fresh. Unfortunately, lesser designers are usually tasked with these updates and the product veers more and more away from the original design vision.
You douchebags, look at the dimensions before opening your traps, it's 7.9mm smaller total than its predecessor.
Overall size is irrelevant, the form factor makes it seem bloated; ergo, they would've been better off not changing it.
There was demand for video playback, and video playback is mostly done on widescreens these days, it's the only reason why it's wider.
The thing is, he said it was bigger than the 2G one, when in fact, it isn't.
They changed the form factor so that it is, in comparison, bloated. You can put a short, fat guy next to a tall, skinny guy, and no one cares that the fat guy might way less than the tall guy - he looks fat!
how could any laptop come made with less than perfection. it's like they are dell or microsoft....
Laptops?? You wana play doom on the nano or something?
ever try playing doom with a tilted screen? impossible!
haha! I thought I noticed a tilt on the one I was playing with in the Apple store yesterday.
My 3G iPod was tilted like that, including a really uneven backlight on the left side. I took it back to the store and the Apple guys said it was meant to look that way. Douchebags.
Seems strange to me, any problems I've had Apple has been more than helpful. If your screen is tilted you'll get it replace, my guess is you either got a stupid employee or you weren't persistent enough.
Or more likely, he is making it up. LOL.
...and LEAD PAINT.
Speaking of paint, I might as well take a jab at the POS Inspiron 1520 I bought a bit less than 30 days ago (I think the 30-day return crap expires Monday and they haven't answered the email I sent them Tuesday yet) and the paint actually started FLAKING OFF the lid, not to mention that it refuses to boot correctly in Vista now... Or the light leak on the LCD, or the shitty battery life (it's a 9 cell FFS), or the annoying noises it makes when the hard drive is working (why is it seeking while it's in sleep mode in the first fucking place?), or the overall tackiness, or that memory cover that keeps popping out everytime the machine gets a little hot, or all my dead skin sticking to the plastic, or the 10 minutes it takes to connect to my local draft N network, or simply how bulky and heavy it is for what it is...
God, what a fucking piece of shitty shit, I hope they fucking take it back, because I'm not paying 60 bucks a month for a piece of shit like this one that was delivered late.
Do you need a friend, Alex? You seem lonely.
Lonely I am not, I'm just pissed at my Dell (our old 8600 was fine (of course, until we dropped it once, cracked the shell open a bit, but the machine still ran flawlessly... Well, it needs a format but it's good), I feel ripped off in every single way with it. I mean, why is it that everything else I got this month is fine but not this? Whether it's my 360, my LCD TV, my iMac, they all work perfectly, except this piece of trash. The thing that really ticked me off was the FLACKING paint, there was like a 30-day delay for THAT?
I second that El_Pachuco. Go to the apple store humpty and see one for real and then make a judgement.
I just went to the apple store today and those things are tiny! It can fit in the middle of the palm of your hand without even getting close to your fingers and it's amazingly thin. It wasn't hard to navigate it either, the clickwheel felt just the right size. It was better for watching videos then the classic since the quality of the picture is so high, I was watching Conan O'brian from 3 feet away and was fine. The tv ads for the nano are not that good, since they don't give you a sense for how truly small the nano's are, even Steve holding it up at the keynote doesn't do it justice.
can you imagine if all these screen problems came up during the holiday season?!
ohhh man.
I wonder what the marketing strategy was that pushed all these hyPod babies out the door so fast. Is it because Microsoft or some other company was about to launch a new range of products before Christmas?
(BTW, is anyone going for the new Nano or Classic rather than the Touch? As a first-time buyer, I'm still undecided. Aside from other concerns, I can't imagine having 160gb to fill up with songs or movies for the little screen, it sounds stressful. Off the top of my head I can't think of 40,000 songs I actually like...)
Yeah, I got the Nano 4GB because I've been in the market for a Nano for a while now so that I can use Nike+ on it. When all the reports came out that a 3G Nano was coming out I waited and I think it was worth the wait. The size is amazingly small; perfect for a running session.
I also got the Touch since like a lot of people I've been waiting for a full screen iPod (not iPhone) for about two years since ThinkSecret started rumoring it. So far I like it a lot too. I haven't noticed the complaints others have made regarding the screen not displaying blacks properly. I'm ripping some DVD's now and I'll see for myself soon.
Have you or anyone else been having problems synching photos on iTunes 7.4.1? It's been blue screening my Vista Ultimate. Called Apple and they hinted like they knew the problem exists but wouldn't out right tell me that. They said they would email me with a solution. I was supposed to get that email yesterday... There is a small group of people complaining about it here
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5348107&tstart=0
Oops, I have Home Premium like virtually everyone else on Vista, if I get blue screened or white screened or "iTunes is closing..." over and over I'll be really annoyed.
Good luck with the shades of darkness.
I'd suggest something like the Creative Zen V Plus which doesn't require you to install something bloated like iTunes as your Windows will automatically install the drivers for it then you can either sync using WMP/Winamp etc or just drag files across like on a usb stick.
when and if my 60gb ipod dies i will likely go with the largest "classic" available... id like to have my whole music library with me, just for the ease of not having to decide what's on there. if you have the whole library on there, you know you have what you want and never have to waste time managing whats on your player or whats not... i find myself doing that now, choosing what songs or genres i need to prune out to fit other stuff i want. i'd rather not have to bother with that. but its not worth upgrading until my current unit goes kaput.
I'm getting a 80 gig classic to replace my 5g 30 gig.
I'm ordering a touch with my macbook for school next year. I'm hoping the 12" ultra-thin black aluminum macbook pros come out by then :) we can still hope, can't we?
Looks like Apple's trying to expand their market too quickly..
Man, seems like the Quality Control people really dropped the ball on the latest batch of products. Apple shouldn't have rushed these out just so they would get the holiday season.
Or you just hear about it because the media doesn't give a sh*t about Sony, Dell, or HP
I dunno, it seems that they get it out now so by the time the holidays come around (it's what? September still?) All these bugs have been fixed.
Excatly..
First the iMac display problem, iPod Touch colour problem.. now the Nano.
What next?
Maybe I can get 100 bucks to use towards an Ibrace for my neck.
WOW! Who is crazy enough to buy a Nano 4gb for 150usd when you could buy a Creative Zen 4gb for 130usd?!?! And plus the Zen has SD expansion... You apple kids must be crazy.
one easy reason might be because the creative zen isn't out yet?
Go troll somewhere else.
$130? the 4GB is $150 at amazon and buy.com (and its not in stock at either place).
Check out the Creative shop.. the 4gb is 129usd and it's in stock.
Because the iPod is better
ah, thanks for the update. there are a few things the nano has going for it like size (its half the size), lossless, gapless, video out, 640x480 video (this was up in the air before, has that been figured out?), and UMS storage. the zen has the expansion slot, fm radio, and a bigger screen but not everyone is looking for the same things. buying one or the other certainly doesn't qualify a person as crazy.
Like I said before, it looks like Apple spent too much time thinking about the iPhone and not enough time working on the iPod. I've heard more complaints about this batch than I have compliments.
:(
I feel a good deal with refurbs coming!!
Sucks for 3rd Gen Nano buyers. Still have my 1st Gen 4GB nano and I love it.
Same here, had to jump on ebay and buy a replacement lcd for it..it got dropped and cracked the lcd....took about 20 minutes, and it's good as new. Still works like a champ.
Yep mine has this same very problem, it's pretty minor, but I'll probably take it back ever since Apple gave me all that money back for my iPhone. It pays to be a vocal customer doesn't it, Mr Jobs :)
my ipod has a crooked screen...lame, i'm getting a new one though...
What's going on with the quality of apple? shouldn't they be making awesome stuff without any faults by now?
Their too worried about your dollars to think about the quality of their product. It's really simple: anything with ipod slapped on it will generate its own buzz and huge sells.
I returned my 8GB Nano yesterday because of this issue. When I did, I noticed that nearly every Nano ON DISPLAY in the Apple store clearly had the same problem!
Seems like you need to wait 60-90 days before buying new Apple products due to manufacturing issues.
My main concern is how hard it is to work with Apple customer service these days. It's hard to get a straight answer from them on any issue, maybe they are overworked.
They now seem like any other PC company. So much for "it just works"
it still 'just works'. Just at a slightly different angle from predictions in solidstate.
I can't believe all you apple haters making up stories about problems with apple hardware!
Shame on you all. All hail Steve Jobs, Praise be to Steve Jobs!
wow i didnt even notice this until this post. my nano is a little tilted. this sucks!!
I went to best buy today and messed with some of the new Nano's there.. just to see if they're actually worth buying... They feel kinda cheap, and scrolling is slow.
I noticed that worse when I was fiddling around with the iPod Classic. If they're going to go from the responsiveness and ease of use that was my good old 4G to what they are now, I may be either moving away from Apple or waiting for the Touch to improve.
At the Apple store I visitited, the entire Nano stock they had was tilted, it seems. All of the display ones were, at least.
apple rushed out this new series of iPods to coencide with the iPhone price drop. They obviously didn't do enough qa testing. Given their track record more recently with said iPhone price drop I would expect these nano and touch problems to be fixed soon enough. My question is are the same ppl saying not to buy 1st gen hardware with iphone getting burned themselves with these new formfactors?
um, how do you QA a crooked screen? Per spec, per batch, - it's not a qa problem, but a problem with materials and design.
you test it over and over
To be honest I think alot of the quality problems we have been seeing is due to the amount of coverage. Every little thing that someone see's gets posted on 300 websites - some of this stuff the average user probably couldn't give a crap about or even notice for that matter.
for the price you pay for this crap, it shouldn't be made in china. they're gonna execute the factory owner now, just you watch.
my ipod nano is crooked! just open and adjust!
mine is slightly tilted. :(
I've seen iPod Nano 3G's at several stores, and nearly of the models have slightly or significantly tilted screens. I finally found one that was VERY slightly tilted... it will do.
Cube on 5th Ave in NYC has the crooked screen nanos
cube on 5th avenune has crooked windows!
cube on 5th avenue has crooked windows!
Big deal, just tilt your head the other way. :P
*same way
Apple has always had terrible QC! Fakesteveballmer
*sigh* why don't we go over ever defect in every other product produced in human history when that product was initially released... let's start with the wheel...not round enough...on an odd angle...?
slam me with your lowest rating but deep down in your soul, if you still have one, do you honestly think this is tech news? and don't give me that *use the non apple feed* you should use the go f*** yourself feed, it's beyond the point I'm sure some can agree here
This is a fairly major problem, because it means that there's extra black space, and clipping, and it can't be fixed with a firmware update like the problem with the Touch's contrast.
Dear Engadget,
Isn't it time to start trolling some other computer or gadget maker's discussion boards for problems?
Apple=overhyped
Its not true. These people are anti-Apple. Anyone with half a brain would use a wrench to bludgen their eye socket to level their own eyes so that they can understand the true beauty of the fat nano.
Tilted screens are hip now !
Ok first the pet food, then lead toys...Now iPods????
China, you're fired....
And the next thing you know, Apple starts making everything in USA, and prices double or triple.
when i was looking at them at the apple store, i noticed there were a few screens that were lopsided.
I bought mine last Friday at the Apple store in SoHo and it has that problem. Not that I noticed it until this post-- at least on the black ones, it is rather subtle.
The following thread at apple has people discussing the tilt. I was going to buy one yesterday but held off since the store seemed to just have tilted ones:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1123662&tstart=0
New Apple releases always have a ton of bugs.
Steve Jobs is a great snake oil salesman. Every time I think I'm about to buy my first Apple product, all the bug reports come flooding in...
Why can't people admit that MS and Apple both suck in their own ways.
i totally agree
Im in canada, hence no iphone, so when the ipod touch comes out, totally delighted. However, the minor annoyances and stuff apple did to the ipod touch (no external volume switch, no calender input, and other stupid stuff) makes me not like the touch so much anymore
And i have to agree with the fact that both MS and Apple have their problems and its not like either is better
And i have to say that Apple is VERY good at hiding their "bad" points letting you figure it out yourself