I was just talking to TivoGuy and asking him about his iPod Video since we got both ours yesterday. He told me it was great except the interference from the cell phone messed the ipod up. So I tried it myself, I made a call while holding my phone next to the iPod Video and the thing went crazy, the volume just kept going up and down quickly non-stop. I can’t believe this, now every time someone calls me on my cell phone my ipod is going to go crazy. Sucks.
Update: Here is a crappy video showing what I am talking about. Will shoot a better video in the evening with a better camera.
[Video 3GP 260KB] Right click and save as
Update 2: Just renamed the video file because some sites have been linking to it directly. Sorry for the inconvenience.
36 replies on “iPod Video doesn’t like phones”
Yah..I experienced the same thing yesturday!! its frustraiting!! But I still love it 🙂
Sony Ericsson phones have high interference, try it next to a Nokia.
that just sucks..how silly of them not to test that
so does the Nano Ipod next to a nokia phone. i cant believe they didnt test it or do anything about it. we should all email them with complaints!
Happy First Anniversary!
And if it does work out for you, I’d really love a copy …
Thanks alot pearl, you’re very sweet:)Btw I never got to tell you in person yet but congrats on your first baby:D
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Just sent an email to gizmodo ..
It’s probably due to Apple making the click wheel on them this time around, remember, this is click wheel Version 1.0 for them, synaptics have been making the technology for years and solved this problem way back and Apple obviously havent.
People have been saying the new wheel is more sensitive, obviously so sensitive that the wheel thinks that the radio signals are thumbwheel synaptics.
ooooh.
Many people on iLounge (including) myself have experienced this. I have tried it with 2 Nokia phones and it happens. Not only was it very loud for my ears, the headphones went wrong (stock iPod earbuds).
It’s this sort of poor quality control that makes me wonder why Apple is so secretive. Can’t they put a few cellphones next to it?
Two points: The cell phones are not interfering with the iPod per se, but rather the scroll wheel. Apparently Apple used a different type of scroll wheel (an in-house design) for this generation of iPods. Secondly, this problem isn’t that huge of a deal since the iPod has to be within a few inches of the cell phone and turning on the “hold” switch will prevent any interference from occurring at all.
Hmmm. I have a Nokia 6682, and when I make a call or use WEP/GPRS/EDGE, it doesn’t screw it up even when it’s right next to it, playing or being paused.
Is it my phone or my iPod that’s making this NOT happening, I’m wondering.
This happened to my 60gb white pod and my Sony Ericsson K750i after receiving a text message. Annoying, to say the least.
I’ve experienced this with my computer, although not with my iPod – if the phone is under the monitor shelf, the monitor spazzes out when it rings, and when I’m playing GTA: San Andreas, it causes my radio stations to cycle wildly. Not sure how it’s causing mousewheel commands with my wired mouse, honestly.
not experiencing this with my nokia 3205 but i am experiencing a weird shut down problem, holding down teh play button to shut it down but if i scroll with the wheel i can hear the clicks… meaning the unit is on. if i turn it on again it will have changed volume or place in scroll etc…. very scary since im trying to shut the unit off but its just wasting power anyway… no sleep state. this has happened about 5 times out of the 10 times ive shut it down.
It’s happens to both iPod (Video) and iPod nano. I was using them with my Er6i headphone and when my mobile rings near them, the Volume jumps up and down and it nearly makes me deaf.
Sure does – big time. I have a vodafone/ericsson PCMCIA GPRS card in my laptop and made the mistake of placing my shiny new vIPOD next to it – the volume went to _max_ suddenly… much to my surprise and the people sitting around me! I think they found the bleeding from my ears a bit disconcerting (just kidding but damn it felt like it!!!)
I am afraid I got bad news for everyone. It’s not your Ipod, its your cellphone. This kind of inteference has been known for quite a while it has to do something with the reciever rather than the transmittter. It is noticable more when you recieve call than when you place you and by noticable I mean the distance from the ipod is greater. It is something like what the first generations of microwaves had, they disrupted tv signals in something of a 20meter radius if i remember correctly. Anyways, try this with your soaraways cellphones. Put it in your car, put you volume up while listening to the radio and make sure someone calls you. you will hear some cracking, and if you think is the radio station do it again. Till you are convience then you go out and buy a new cellphone.
Oh yes, Ipod are tested by a privated entity for things like interference.
A great video, I just want to ask few things, does this happen all the time or just when the “keylock” is open? What is the actual range (in feet) for this to happen?
A Treo 650 will also make the Vid iPod have volume level orgasms as well. It’s happened a couple of times with mine.
Collapse: well, any cell phone has to emit radio waves to communicate, whether you place a call or receive one. The thing here is that no previous generation of iPod seems to have gone loop the loop for a phone call, while 5th generation iPods do. It is not a cracking noise in the headphones that is the problem, but the sound level changing uncontrolled. The cracking sound can probably be experienced with any iPod if you have a cell phone too close to the headphones wire, but the volume changing only happens to the new iPods (and should really not be happening at all).
Stop press! – mobile phones cause interference to electronic equipment. 😉
YESssssssssssssss – my iPod did that and I thought I’d discovered something hitherto unknown to man! 🙂 really weird….
Plus – does it happen to everyone and to older iPods…the earplug wire is so crappy that jostling it changes sound volume in one or both plugs!
Just discovered this yeasterday. I was at work enjoying my music, when the sound totaly went down, when i got a txt on my Nokia. I thoght that was a cool feature of ipods to do that. I was like way to go Apple. But it came to my attention the next day when i had my ipod next to my cell, that my ipod would not start at all. I could hear the click wheel click, but nothing was showing on screen. I panicked and i had to press Menu+Enter buttons to restart the ipod. It was fine after that, but not sure what is the long term effect my phone had done to my ipod? All I can say at this point is my cell phone is comming no where near my ipod…
Had related experience with both my ipod mini and earlier generation ipod (1 year old) – happened when I received a call on my Sony Ericsson 616 … I paused the podcast I was listening to while I answered call, and then found that the ipod screen had gone blank and would not restart. Happened on two separate occasions with two different ipods. Found also that a hard restart seems to have resuscitated the ipods.
iJunk! My pod works maybe 30min on full charge, 2 years after…
Just wait when the ipod nation finds out this ivideo-junk’s real color…watching movies…loosing their eyes and the damn thing runs out of battery in 40min Never buy one again.
Can’t run with it, as it will skip…The commercial is a fraud…if you whip it around like that it will stop and U have to reset it.
The same crazy volume problem happens with my Blackberry 7290 too. Even when they are some distance away from each other.
Presuming that the interference is related to the click wheel, does this mean I shouldn’t operate my iPod whilst close to my pet dolphin too?
Motorola’s Black razor makes the voulme go up and down like crazy. Its a shame. Apple is gonna get sued over this.
I just had the volume spazz happen to me at work, and got to this thread from google. Glad it isn’t just my ipod! It’s one thing to have the weird pulsing sound, but to have the thing’s functions affected is a different ball game. Especially when your volume can be cranked up to maximum in an instant…not healthy. The ipods should have been tested and cleared for this kind of electromagnetic compatibility before they were ever marketed. Product recall maybe? Could sort out the scratched screens then 🙂
I was having this problem with my iPod also! I thought I was going nuts. My iPod has been having a bunch of problems as it is and I’ve only had it over a month, I think it’s time to send it back :\
I get the interference with my Motorola Razr phone. The volume jumps, and I get the ‘pulsing’ noise in the earbuds. Good to know that I’m not the only one with these problems.
my ipod didn’t react at all when i put it next to my mobile phone… why did most of ur’s freak out?
WOW! That explains a lot… I’ve been having this happen to me ALOT and it was all unexplainable. Never thought about my phone, my MPx220 actually puts out TONS of interference even when I’m not making a call, speakers go crazy too… that crackling is beginning to sound like hell.
Anyways, if there was only a way to hone this mistake… have a remote control that could control the volume on your iPod… hehehe
I use the SE K750i for listening to Mp3’s and playing videos too, so there’s no problems like that. If you have k750i, just get a pair of decent earphones and a larger memory stick then the phone will be a music and video player too.