When artist Casey Neistat discovered that his iPod’s battery had lost its power after 18 months and Apple customer service advised him to just buy a new iPod and forget about the old battery, he declined their advice. Instead, he took direct action and FedExed the product to Steve Jobs. Jobs’s assistant promptly called to reiterate the company’s battery policy: They’re not meant to last forever. So Neistat and his brother Van took their fight to the streets, stenciling IPOD’S UNREPLACEABLE BATTERY lasts only 18 months on iPod advertisements throughout New York and posting a film of their endeavor at ipodsdirtysecret.com, where it was downloaded more than 110,000 times in 48 hours. Then just before Thanksgiving, he got a call from Apple’s “executive office” telling him that they had decided to offer a $99 replacement battery. The revolution may not be televised, but you can at least still listen to it.

Related:

• Archive: “Intelligencer Features”
• Table of Contents: Dec 15, 2003 issue of New York | Subscribe!