Do you use your iPod while working out, cycling, hiking, skating or any physical activity in which your body produces sweat? If so, you are voiding the warranty on your iPod. Provided your iPod crashes or stops working because the sweat from your own body has come into contact with the small copper contacts in the units dock connector.

With the exception of the iPod Shuffle, most iPods have an exposed dock connector at the base of the unit. This connector is a bus bar with a row of very small copper "fingers" that act as contacts. On most iPods, there is no cover to protect these contacts from moisture, of any kind, even perspiration.

Here is what happened to me.

I have been using my iPod Nano while I work out ever since I got it. I wear the Nano strapped to my upper arm and it has seen me through many a grueling work out. Until, the day it quit working.

It just died! Every try to revive the iPod by resetting it failed. When I connected to my computer, there was still no life at all.

It had not been a year since I received the Nano as a birthday present from my wife. So, I knew, or thought, the unit was still under warranty.

When dealing with Apple to replace an iPod, still under warranty, one must make a "reservation" with a rep at the "Genius Bar" of local Apple Store. After spending about 45 minutes on the phone waiting to talk to a live person to create this "reservation", we finally found a time that worked for them.

Once at the Apple Store, I met with the rep. who, using a mediscope (this is what your Doctor uses to look in your ear), looked at the dock port and asked, "What do you use your Nano for?". "Listening to music", I replied. "No", he continued, "How do you use your iPod?". "In my car and while working out", I replied.

He then began to explain how he could see some of the copper connections on the dock port had turned green. Meaning they had been in contact with some type of liquid. "Damn!", I said. "I knew I never should have gone scuba diving with my iPod!"

Thinking this would get a chuckle, which it didn't, he then showed me, using the mediscope, the two connections that had gotten wet.

He said that using my iPod while working out, I probably got some sweat on the unit and that damage to the iPod voided the warranty. Apple would not replace the iPod. To make sure I was getting this cold slap in the face straight, I asked; "So, you are telling me that using my Nano while I work out voids the warranty?". "No", he said. "It was the physical damage of the drop of sweat on the contact that voided the warranty".

I quess iPods were not meant be be worn on the human body.

So, if you are using your iPod while you work out or any physical activity, even yard work, that will make your body produce sweat and your iPod is attached, somewhere, to your sweaty body - as far as Apple is concerned, you might as well be using your iPod while scuba diving! The warranty will be void if it dies!

Here's a tip if this does happen to you:

If one small bead of sweat or one, tiny, drop of water get's onto the dock connection and kills your iPod and it is still under warranty, before you take it into the Apple Store clean the copper connections in the dock port with a small needle or pin and electronics cleaner.

Spray the cleaner on the connections and run the tip of the needle over each copper "finger" from the inside out. Don't scrape across the dock bar from side to side.

You will need a magnifying glass or mediscope ( you can get these at Walgreens) to ensure you have cleaned all the green stuff off the contacts. Then, when you are in the Apple Store, talking with the "Genius" rep. tell them; "I just don't understand! I was scuba diving with it and now the damn thing won't work!"