Magnet with iPod nano?

I'm not even sure if the back cover of the iPod nano is even a metal that a magnet would stick to, but would a magnet hurt anything? It's on flash memory rather than a hard disk so that's not a problem. Anyone see any other problems with that?

I'm no sure to be honest, but wouldn't like to try it out either !

Can I ask, why do you want to attach a magnet to it anyway ?

If it will actually stick to a magnet I'd like to use it to mount in my car easily. I'm doing a pretty customized mount for my truck and that would be the easiest thing to do. I don't want to have to attach something to the back side (like velcro or anything) and I don't like any of the mounts I have found. They're all too big for the nano.

I wouldn't try it. Even if it doesn't do anything obvious right away you're still tempting fate long term.

Can't you craft a tiny case for the nano to incorporate into your rig somehow? Then you can use an alligator clip or something to affix the case to the dash of the truck somewhere. For that matter you could probably creative reappropriate an item found at a department store or office supply store.

From what I understand flash ram not only still relies on electric fields to store, but it also degrades with each write making it useless after 10,000 writes or so. I can only presume a magnet isn't going to help. You're also tampering potentially with things beyond the memory itself, there's all those amp chips and other fun things packed in there.

Stick a magnet on there and proceed without fear. This is an electronic device, not a floppy. Field Effect Transistors rely on field, too, yet we don't avoid magnets with those. This sounds more like an old wives tale.

So you're asserting definitively that a strong magnetic field will not, over time, adversely effect capacitors, voltage converters, amplifier circuits? It will have no affect on UI programs and control logic stored in EPROMS? Just so you're absolutely sure. It's not an area of expertise of mine but the two things that came to mind to me are the amplifier circuitry and voltage converters, which surely both must exist in there in some form. At the very least it has a $0.49 Jameco equivalent amp IC. I honestly don't know the influence of a continuous long term effect on such things, but I do know they are obviously prone to interference from all sorts of things: metal detectors, anti-theft scanners, close range communications (walkie-talkies) big-time, and even cell phones when the signal crosses the path in the right manner. I'm not as confident as "have no fear" irregardless of the effect on any memory itself as you.