On its way out?

Bad news on the gizmo front. First off, the noise canceling headphones I ordered almost two weeks ago, knowing that I had a 14 hour flight coming up, failed to arrive. I felt quite naked, when all around me were gizmo guys -- we recognize one another -- sporting the self-same noise canceling headphones and falling asleep in the blissful quiet they afford. Quite by coincidence, one of those guys worked for Bose, and told me that a base station for the dockable iPod will be available in a matter of weeks. Now that will be a fine thing. Pity I don't need one. Or do I?

In a way, though, the lack of headphones was a good thing, because the iPod is showing signs of imminent death. After just an hour or so of tunes it gave up the ghost. Dead. Not responsive. Annoying. It is coming up for 16 months old, so I suppose it could be the dreaded battery failure. Whatever the reason, I was reduced to the airline's tunes, over the airline's noise canceling headphones, which weren't all bad.

At the hotel I managed to get a Google search on dead iPod and found the treasured reset; Menu and Play simultaneously. And that seems to have fixed things, for now. But if the problems persist I may have to spring for a new battery soon.