Earlier this week, The Consumerist reader Dale was revealing to the world how his fist-gen nano went up in flames while being connected to his computer. In a rather unusual manner, the company that manufactured Dale's device immediately responded to the complaint, promising to replace not just this iPod, but all iPods affected by this issue, for free.

The complaint letter of the iPod nano owner to Steve Jobs spoke of a malfunctioning device. Dale's first-gen nano "was chugging power from his PC's USB port when suddenly he saw it 'explode open and start shooting sparks and spewing smoke'," the report said. The owner claimed his nano burned like that for quite some time too.

It looks like Apple has been in a really good mood lately, having also announced its willingness to replace broken MagSafe adapters as well, again, free of charge. Almost as if Steve Jobs was telling his staffers "Ok, we put up a good act, but now it's time to take the blame for what we didn't do so well," Apple, in an official statement issued just recently, promises to replace the faulty first-gen nanos.

"Apple today responded to statements reported by Japan's METI regarding batteries in the first-generation iPod nanos. Apple has determined that in very rare cases, batteries in first-generation iPod nanos sold between Sept. 2005 and Dec. 2006 can overheat, causing failure and deformation of the iPod nano," the company explains. "Apple has received very few reports of such incidents (less than 0.001 percent of first-generation iPod nano units), which have been traced back to a single battery supplier. There have been no reports of serious injuries or property damage, and no reports of incidents for any other iPod nano model."

Apple adds that "any first-generation iPod nano customers who have experienced their battery overheating should contact AppleCare for a replacement." Also, if you have other concerns about your first-generation iPod nano's battery, you should also contact AppleCare, the company advises.