Thursday, January 29, 2009

evil in apple

Once upon a time, there was a happy young girl named Becky. Becky loved to listen to music, she wanted to listen to music all day and all night. Becky's junior year in high school her grandfather bought her expensive music player called an iPod. Becky loved it, because she could have all of the music she'd ever want in one place, and she could carry it around and listen to it. Her iPod looked like this:

She even listens to the Gorillaz, and Feel Good Inc. is her favorite song by them. For four years Becky listened to her iPod, and it never failed her. Sometimes the battery died. Sometimes it inexplicably deleted all her music. And, sure, every few months she needed to replace the broken headphones.



The headphones look like this.
Today, via headphones, Becky's iPod electrocuted her.
This sounds like a lie, doesn't it? It is not.
The first time Becky was shocked, she did not realize what had happened. "Maybe I touched something metal," she thought.
The second time she was shocked, she chuckled. "My headphones are getting a little crackily" she thought. She did not realize it was the beginning of the end.
The third time hurt so dang much that Becky pulled out her earphones, and decided to wait until she had gone inside. "Maybe it was the cold weather," she told herself. "It stiffens up the cord and does funny things to it."
The fourth time Becky was in the bookstore. She yelped in pain, and yanked out the earphones. She turned off Iron and Wine (which was hard because she really wanted to listen), and went to class without music.
After French, Becky pulled out her music out of habit. She had already forgotten. O how quickly we forget!
And how easily we remember!
Those bloody headphones. They're in for it.
They are evil.

Did anyone even know they could electrocute you?
No. It doesn't even seem real.
Five times in two hours. How stupid can I get?

5 comments:

travis pitcher said...

I was at work wondering how this happened to you and tried to think logically about it. I did some research and this is what I found.

Here is a forum of others who have had this happen to them
http://forums.ilounge.com/archive/index.php/t-145850.html

Here is some crazy article that is sad, scary, but kind of funny in a sarcastic way.
http://macosrumors.com/articles/ipod-electrocution/

Here is a forum where people have this happen to them also.
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=440717

And one more that might help
http://pokedandprodded.health.com/2008/02/12/help-headphones/

What happens is that your iPod (which has a metal incasing) and your headphones (which also are metal inside and have metal in the actual earpiece) are conducting static electricity. Just like lightning, when the charge gets to a certain strength, it has to release itself somewhere. That place is your head. It goes there and not to your pants or anything becuase it is probably your pants that is contributing to the static charge.

Solution: Well, there are a few options. You can get new headphones that have rubber ear pieces that won't discharge the electricity as easily as the Apple headphones (though you still run the risk of this happening again because of the metal still inside your headphones and how close they are to some sort of discharge area). Or you can just get a pair of ear muff headphones (headphones vs earbuds). You will get better sound, and they won't shock you.

Anyways, that was a long response. I just wanted to share what I found out.

Polly said...

Travis,

Women are not looking for an answer.

Polly said...

Polly did not say the above comment. I've been electrocuted by my head phones before as well.
Mom

Polly said...

My Ipod did the same thing last year it went through one ear and well kinda out the other. I hurt like heck and i almost cried. true story.

mary

Polly said...

Who was that literary figure that was animated by jolt of electricity? Oh yes, FRANKENSTEIN. (and you)