[pufftissue]

Thanks for the nice comments about my review.

Brief update: It's day #5, and I love the mini. I've been an ipodder since gen 1, and while the experience is fundamentally the same with the mini, I've got that geeky giddiness all over again. I've danced with ihp and rio, but I've renewed my vows to the ipod all over again.

With the rio especially, I spent a lot of time waiting for updates and better software and firmware to fix the instability issues, and it dawned on me that ever since I got my mini, i'm listening to music a whole lot more. And isn't that the point of it all? With the others, I spent a lot of time tweaking and searching for bug fixes. I'm not opposed that, but now the ipod is working for me, rather than me working for my mp3 player. The music just flows out of the player, which never happened with the other players. And there's that je ne sais quois about the mini, probably the tiny size, that makes it that much cooler.

I'm happy to report that I'm no longer paranoid about the battery life. It's good enough for me, personally, and the meter is far more accurate. I got sick worrying about the 3rd gen's battery all the time. It's still not up to the competition's, but it's definitely improved from the 3rd gen's, I'd estimate about by 25%, which makes it long enough to make it through the day, comfortably. The screen is definitely not too small for me, and when I saw the 3rd gen, I thought it looked a little too "pixel-y". I also don't miss the lack of an album title being displayed anymore, although there definitely is enough room to add this onto the display without it being crowded.

I'm very happy with this purchase. And the 3rd gen is long gone for me and I don't miss it at all. The mini fits my needs perfectly, and I don't see myself upgrading until someone else comes up with a player that reveals new needs that I didn't know I had :>

I'd be really interested in knowing the sales figures of the mini over its first two WEEKS vs the sales of the nitrus and muvo2 4gb players, combined, to date. Though the mini has benefited from a huge media blitz, I suspect the mini has already outsold, in just 1-2 weeks, the nitrus and muvo2 combined cumultative sales to date.

 

[Velkov]

What about the size? Is that working out for you? Do you find yourself adding/deleting songs more often than you would like to?

 

[pufftissue]

Quote:

Originally posted by Velkov What about the size? Is that working out for you? Do you find yourself adding/deleting songs more often than you would like to?

It's all about the smartlists.

I have a top rated list which is about 350 songs.
I have a top 25 list in each genre.
I have a newest 100 songs added list.
I have a never heard 100 songs list.

With that, I always have the songs that i love, and I have the newest songs that I just put on the ipod, as well as those potential gems or duds that i've never heard before.

So for me, I've got it covered. I do understand some people could never coexist with 4 gb only of space, but remember the original 5 gb ipod was hailed as a ton of space. 700 songs is still something like 3 straight days of songs, so it's enough. That said, I'll upgrade when the 10 gb comes out, I'm hoping at the end of the year. I honestly would probably upgrade if only a 7 gb came out.

The size is not a deal killer, and I don't miss it nearly as much as I thought I'd miss it. How I knew that is that when I looked at my smart playlists, each list was far less than 4 gb in size, so I figured I could get away with it, and so far, I have.

 

[IpaqMan]

With regard to sales, every USA Muvo2 4gb player that is available has been sold out within hours at every online retail outlet.

The Muvo2 4gb microdrive has not been altered like the drive in the Mini, so it is available for those who want a 4gb drive at a very good price. Hackers are at work to try to use the drive in the Mini but I have not seen a successful report.

 

[sohcahtoa]

One thing I've found about the mini is that, for me, it hits a certain 'sweet spot' in terms of size (no pun intended). 4gb is alot easier to manage than 20gb (duh, i know). With 4gb, you can fit anywhere between 40-60 CDs, depending on your encoding. This is enough to store, say, the last 10 CDs you bought, plus have room for another 300-400 songs. It's not your entire music collection for sure, but it is easily all of your current favorites mixed in with lots of your old 'standbys'. Since your size is more limited, you kinda have to be more attentive to what you put on it, which I think is good thing. In my experience, when you have a 20gb player, the tendency is to just throw everything on it just out-of laziness, and then if the UI is not that great, you're most likely to just hit "Shuffle'. I think this next generation of 4gb players priced in the $200-250 range is going to be very popular....Plus did I mention, slipping it in your pocket, it's like slipping a pack of gum!

 

[Sczervok]

I dont' know... in terms of how much space you actually need for a player... after about 4 gigs, it's kinda less worth it to buy more memory.
Maybe when portable audio prices arn't ripoffs any more...

I... have about... 1 gig.. of music...
w00t!

 

[carlin]

I love mine, its so small,and much more durable than my former pod. Its totally worth the money, and the blue one is the greatest color...

 

[cmascatello]

My blue is pretty damned sweet too...

 

[Skeeve]

Quote:

When you open the inside box, it gives you the good ol' "Proud to be an American" vibe when the box reads: "Designed by Apple in California."

Don't want to downgrade your vibe, but if its designed by the same person as the ipod then that should read "designed by an englishman."

 

[Skeeve]

Quote:

Originally posted by sohcahtoa One thing I've found about the mini is that, for me, it hits a certain 'sweet spot' in terms of size (no pun intended). 4gb is alot easier to manage than 20gb (duh, i know). With 4gb, you can fit anywhere between 40-60 CDs, depending on your encoding. This is enough to store, say, the last 10 CDs you bought, plus have room for another 300-400 songs. It's not your entire music collection for sure, but it is easily all of your current favorites mixed in with lots of your old 'standbys'. Since your size is more limited, you kinda have to be more attentive to what you put on it, which I think is good thing.

I'd agree with this, 4gb is big enough that you have room for a good variety of music or in my case music/audiobooks/comedy in a package that isn't much bigger than a flash player.

The way I looked at it when I decided to get a new hd player was that 20gb wasn't enough to hold all my music, so if I couldn't carry my entire collection then I might as well go for a player that offered me enough space for daily use.

 

[3Double]

My girlfriend got me one for my birthday, and after reading your reviews, I can't wait for my b-day!

 

[pufftissue]

Gratuitous update, day #8 of owning the mini.

1. I really like the ability to charge from the usb 2.0 port on my ibm t41. It wouldn't be a "mini" if it was the mini + the firewire cord + the usb 2.0 cord + an ac adapter (which is bigger than the mini!). All I need is the mini and the usb 2.0 cord, and I'm set. It takes longer to charge, but it will charge, even from a totally drained mini battery (I confirmed it).

My ibm t41 also gives this same vibe because while it's thin and light, the ac adapter is also a lot smaller than say, dell's. It's something that I really am fond of because it is that much more unobtrusive in my bag, much like the mini.

2. I finally went and saw the mini-s at the Apple Store. Wow, the colors are elegant. I prefer a deeper color of blue, but the gold, green, and pink were all very beautiful. I would easily be happy with any color, honestly. My silver mini, though, is perfect for me as sometimes it catches the light and looks metallic white (really) and then other times reverts back to being a relaxed and cool silver. The anodized finish is truly a long overdue thing with ipods, and it in no way diminishes the elegance of the ipod to me.

3. The line for the SF apple store grand opening was ridiculous, as in 850 people long. With steady lines thereafter of seemingly 300 people long. There was no way I was getting one of those lucky bags. I didn't even wait in line to get into the store.

4. I really like the new scrollwheel, more and more. This is definitely the smallest device that retains a full-sized device feel, and the mini is effortless out of the box, but after a week, it feels second-nature. Apple would be a fool not to include this onto the 4th gen ipods.

5. The battery life is longer than the 3g, for sure. And I submit that it's by 25%, on average. It's enough of a difference to reduce my stress to near zero.

6. I dropped the mini from waist height, thought I had scratched it on another occasion, and both times it's still in perfect shape. This thing is built to last.

7. I went jogging with the mini on my belt clip (not in my hand), and it's still weightless, and it never skipped. In fact, it still has not skipped.

8. I can never hear the hard drive spinning up, nor feel it through the back of the case like I could on the other full-sized ipods.

9. $249 is still a totally reasonable price relative to the competition. I'm getting what I paid for.