Did you hear the one about the guy who plugged his Nano into the USB port of his computer? He ended up having kind of a hot time. According to the owner, referred to in the article as “Dale,” after between five and ten minutes he saw the player “explode, open and begin shooting sparks and spewing smoke.”

If that wasn’t disconcerting enough, the immolation event is followed by a runaround of sorts with tech support at Apple. Basically, the iPod blew up on a Saturday and those in charge of giving the okay for a replacement didn’t come to work again until Monday. This gets Dale consternated to the point that he goes through three different “Geniuses” at the Mac store and then writes a two thousand word letter to Steve Jobs.

This begs the question of, after being told he needed to come back on Monday, was there really that pressing a need for the theatrics? Certainly there was some scintillating Olympic coverage or at least a rerun of Full House or something to bridge the gap until he could plug in again. [Consumerist]