Either I am extremely unlucky or I have done something to offend every consumer electronics manufacturer on planet Earth. For, despite my best efforts, almost every consumer electronics gizmo or gadget I have ever purchased has harbored some sort of defect or gone kaput before it ought to have.

Today, for instance, I took my iPod to one of Apple's famed Genius Bars address the strange buzzing my iPod had begun to emit during music playback. The Genius donned a pair of headphones and informed me that he had, "Never seen anything like this before." What cosmic forces conspired to sell me the one iPod of millions that had a strange buzzing issues I will never know. To Apple's credit, however, the Genius did give me a brand new iPod to replace my defective model that clearly missed its calling as a bee.

But the recent "Defect at the Apple Store" saga does not end there.

A week ago I purchased an iPhone -- hands down the best cell phone I have ever used -- but I had been bothered by a slight looseness on the lower left side of the device's lower plastic antenna cover. So, having waited forty-five minutes to see a Genius, I brandished my steel and black communicator and inquired about the gauche give. As it turns out, that too constituted a defect. So the Genius also replaced my iPhone.

I must commend Apple for so deftly handling this issue. Rarely do I walk into a store with two broken gizmos and walk out an hour later with two fully-functional replacements. Though I would really appreciate it if a consumer electronics company saved me from having to replace the gadget in the first place.