We all know the ipod to be the most popular portable media device in the world. First seen in 2001 the original model had 5 gig of memory and was only compatible with mp3 files but at the time, 5 gig of memory was the most anyone had every seen in an mp3 player so it was a monumental success.

There have been five re-releases of the classic version and it is therefore now in its sixth generation. When you read the specifications of the newest model you can see how far the ipod has come since its original release.

This sixth generation ipod comes with either 80 or 160 gigabytes of memory and supports pretty much any file format. It can play back images, games and videos and due to the vast amount of memory available, it can also be used as a portable hard drive to store anything on.

Of course, there were other models that took different shapes to the classic shape. There was the ipod mini which was only in production for a few years as the release of the ipod nano rendered it somewhat superfluous. The ipod mini was however the first ipod to have a coloured exterior (other than black or white), and was also cheaper than the classic.

Then there was the ipod shuffle, which was essentially a cheap version without the screen. The shuffle is a much simpler version and only plays songs. The lack of a display screen means that they are far cheaper to manufacture and therefore far cheaper to buy.

The most recent addition the ipod family is the ipod touch. This version has a full length touch screen and looks fairly similar to the iphone. It has huge storage capabilities and some have even said (slightly falsely, although I can see where theyre coming from) that the only difference between the ipod touch and the iphone is that you cant make phone calls on the ipod touch.

All the new models and updates have seen the ipod grow to be the most popular portable media device available today, over 173 million have been sold world wide and that number only looks like it will continue rising as ipods adapt to changes in consumer needs.

Nowadays, most people own Xbox 360s as opposed to the older version. However, there are a few people left out there that enjoy the old gaming console. Unfortunately, both systems have had problems over the years not being able to read discs, games freezing up, or even hard drives failing. Depending on the one you own it’s difficult to even think about the kind of repair costs it will take to fix yours.

The repair cost usually depends on whether or not your gaming console is still under warranty. If you own the older Xbox, there won’t be a warranty left and in order to fix it you’ll have to literally take matters into your own hands. On the other side of things, some people may have a warranty left on the Xbox 360, if this is the case then send it off to Microsoft.

However, if all warranties have expired and you send the 360 off to the manufacturer it’s going to cost a pretty penny. Just to have your system fixed it can run you about a hundred and eighty dollars, but once you include shipping and everything else involved it ends up being about two hundred dollars. After spending $300-$400 on the system itself, you don’t want any additional costs.

One thing to understand outside of the repair costs, is the amount of time it’s going to take to for them to return the system to you. They originally tell you anywhere from four to six weeks, but due to high volumes and slow solution rates it’s a lot longer. In fact, it can end up being anywhere from 6 to 9 months when it’s all said and done. So you have to decide if it’s actually worth your time and money to let them do the repairs for you.

On a more positive note, by employing a little DIY, both systems can be repaired. In fact, a vast amount of work has been put into compiling lists of solutions which cover almost every conceivable problem which one could encounter. Further more, these lists are unique to the system for which they are intended, and each list is compiled in a step by step format.

Yes, taking the DIY approach does mean you’ll have to invest a certain amount of time in order to carry out the repairs yourself but then again, the amount of time you spend doing then will be negligible compared to how long it takes when you send the console away.