iPod nano "Not recognised by computer" fix

I recently got an iPod nano 8gig. Yesterday i hooked it up to the usb port as usual but instead of being recognised and booting iTunes it simply charged. I tried to connect it to my other machine and the same thing happened. Feeling a little deflated, i tried it on a friends machine and what do you know, the same thing once more :S

If you are having the same problem, do not despair as i found a way to fix this rather annoying bug:

Hold down the middle and menu buttons on the nano for around 5 seconds. This will perform a hard reset to the unit. When you then plug it back in to the computer it will be recognised as usual...

I am afraid that i have no soloution to fixing the utterly crap headphones that come with the current iPods. You will just have to buy some new ones.