Monday, July 27, 2009

Ipod + Water + Rice

So, I have been using my Ipod Touch for a while now. It has become one of my primary reading sources, as well as a great way to keep track of my calendar (have it syncs with gcal) and my emails, and various other things. Sure, it relies on free wi-fi being available, which isn't always terribly reliable when traveling, but I have to tell you the instantaneousness of buying a book* and having it appear in your hands is pretty cool.
You can imagine my dismay as last week the Ipod went for a little swim. In some not so clean (or clear) liquid. I fished it out quickly and wiped it down with a towel but was still concerned. Some googling led me to this site that suggested leaving it in rice (similar principle to the rice in the salt shaker) and this site which suggested that rice would not do the trick. Being impatient, I figured I'd try rice first. It was the cheapest option. If not I could send it off for possible repair and/or decide this was a sign I should upgrade to second generation. (I bought my Touch in the sales right before they released the second generation version and I was a little sad that I missed out on the external speaker that they added.)
After the first 24 hours of rice, I had nada. Tried charging, nada. I put it back in the rice, this time upright, rather than supine to see if gravity would assist since two of the most vulnerable to water intrusion places are the charging port and the headphone port, which are on the bottom.
(One of the ironies is that I actually own a case that is waterproof. Had I known the Ipod was feeling suicidal, I could have taken steps.)
In the meantime I did do a little pricing research. Just in case. I may have even gone to a store that turned out to be out of the specific storage size I wanted.
So, back to the rice. Whether it was the extra time or the positional shift, I don't know, but I did get the Ipod back on. Which was good, because I was behind on the backing up. However, the wireless didn't work. I had read in my googling that that could be an issue. I had also read the some that appeared to be okay, usually died again later. So, I planned ahead and backed up. Which was good, because later that day it died again.
So, I went for plan upgrade. Partly because I was impatient and didn't want to wait to ship it out (I could not find any local repair places that handle water damage. Battery issues, cracked screens, yes. Water, no.) and see if it could be repaired and then sent back. Especially since the water (if that's the issue and not a short) had now been there for two days. Plus, I was in the middle of a really good book. Actually, I had one chapter and an epilogue left.
So, final verdict on the rice, helped a little, but not a total save. Certainly a low risk method. It did allow me a new backup so that I got all my current stuff saved to transfer to my new Touch.

*While e-books are technically books, the reader provider contract is a little different. We'll talk about that later.