now, i have had my own 4th gen vintage ipod for about two years now, and it is starting to show its age, marks on the back, tuffs of the screen, even that wonderful click wheel is showing rub marks on it. this is after two years of near constant use, i use my ipod all the time, i listen on the train to work, on the airplane, anywhere you would use your ipod i do. i dont use a case either, i have a leather jacket that holds my ipod and attaches to the front of my bag, which my ipod slips into, but it doenst cover the front or the top, so it is quite open to the elements.

i dont mind a few marks on my ipod, give it a sense of it being lived in, and it has suffered a few bad falls, knocks and even a kick, and it works fine, better than fine, it works like the day i got it, apart from shorter battery life, but that is not because of any of the knocks it has gotten, what i was wondering is what has your ipod survived? what has it had to put up through, and still come out punching, and if not punching but at least working?

I used to have a 4th gen, and that thing was extemely durable. One time I was changing clothes in a bathroom and I hung my pants over the stall and I forgot my iPod was in my pocket. It fell out on the tile and cracked open. Popped it back together and it worked fine. A couple months later it started acting up but I think it was just age.

My dad's silver 1G Mini survived a fall from a ski lift into the snow. Luckily the lift supports were numbered so we just remembered the two numbers it was between. We [skiid?] went and looked for it and when we found it it was still playing!

My mini has survived soda, wine, and numerous falls. My 5G and Nano, just numerous falls.

As is evident, I drop things often.

i dropped my 5.5 30gb once on carpet and it gave me this message like "restore ipod using itunes" i guess it hit the edge of a drawer(sp)(its late) on the way down

My 3G had one hell of a fall the first day I got it
It survived a battery replacement, and Im gonna replace it sometime real soon
The back of it is completely brushed, it survived 3 restoration, one ipodlinux installation gone bad, a changing of fonts etc...
It's still rocking really well, I don't see it dying anytime soon...Oh and the original earbuds are still in a perfect condition

i find that my earphones dont last half as long, they have dropped and i have stepped on a pair when walking, and things like that, i have a remote thing, which came with another pair that did last long either, the remote too, i sometimes put my ipod in my pocket, and with all the walking the but where the cable joins the ipod started to fray a bit, it finally gave out, and now i have two parts of an ipod remote.

My 5G Video survived multiple falls at the warehouse I work in, I'm not talking little falls I'm talking falls off of lifts. However, it WAS in a shock resistant case.

in a warehouse, i assume the ground it hit was hard, does the ipod still work like it should, and what damage did it take?

My first ipod was a 10Gb version with the 4 buttons above the wheel, with everything being touch sensitive.

I was riding my bike home from the beach, when I changed songs and went to put it into my backpack. It slipped, and fell to the ground. It fell, did a few cartwheels, and slid for about 10-15 feet. I went back expecting the sorst, but it was still playing!

my 10 gig 3g survived no less that FOUR car accidents....I'm a bad driver. After the worst accident, where I completely cleaved the front of my car in two, the screen went fuzzy and was never the same again, but it was still usable!! sadly it was replaced with a 5.5g this christmas, but I'll always remember it fondly.

my ipod survived rolling around ion the trunk of my car a couple of times.....i left it in there by accident.

Mine survived my taste in music.

Last month on vacation in Chicago (yeah i know vacation in Chicago... in the winter!) anyway at the hotel i ran on the treadmill. I had forgotten my good earbuds and used some others. the cord length was different. Set it on the front of treadmill to watch video while running. after about 30 seconds i hit the cord with my swinging hand (never do that with my normal Shure earphones) and it fell to the treadmill floor and was flung into the wall behind the treadmill. still worked. whew. did this 2 more times before i decided that it was best not to watch movies that particular day

My old mini was dropped several times, and it fell in a street gutter filled with water. Still works pretty well, considering what it went through. So far, my 80 GB iPod has avoided any mishaps.

when i got my new case for my original mini (now i have 30gb white video) i purposley threw it at the ground and ive dropped it a few times and i cropped it into a bowl of spagheeti before