New iPod Mini 4GB Silver version - $242.99 shipped

[sxr7171]

Originally posted by: CrimsonKing
I read an interview with a guy whose company makes the micro HDs and he claimed they were much more jitter resistant than a normal hard drive, so in addition to being 60% of the size of the normal iPod ( 3.6 cu in vs. 6.1 cu in.), it's less susceptible to damage or skipping when working out, especially running. Personally, I would never have time to put all 7-800 CDs on a hard drive. Nor would I want that to be the main source of music. Compressed music sucks, sonically, and I didn't drop thousands of dollars on sound systems and CDs to hear them garbled up by a computer. It's good for the airplane, walking to the office from my car and running on a noisy treadmill. It'll never replace the real thing until it can read shn files. And even then, I prefer the packaging my CD comes in from the artist to a file on my hard drive. But that's just my opinion; I could be wrong. . . </OFF soapbox>I think these units will eventually fall a few more notches, price-wise. If anyone has used both the Rio microdrive unit and this one, I'd love to see a comparison. Good sound is important to me, and one of the reasons I held off on the normal iPod was because I heard it didn't sound as good as the competition. -KC As an added observation, I just started looking around the apple site to find out what kind of batteries this uses (hopefully AA, but I can't find it). I find it interesting that Apple thinks someone who listens to compressed audio would want to shell out the extra $$$ for a Monster Cable to connect it to their stereo system! LOL

I don't know. If you like uncompressed music then you might want the bigger iPod, since you can only put maybe 7-8 CDs on the mini at one time. I really think the iPod needs to support some form of lossless compression before I seriously want one. I realize the point of you post is to say that you want to use the mini iPod just for a small fraction of your collection in compressed form. The interesting thing is that Stereophile (okay, they used to be good but nowdays they seem to going the way of Stereo Review, but they're still credible to some extent) did a review on the iPod, and it turns out that it has pretty good performance playing .wav files. In fact it measured better in some areas than a pretty good CD player. Still, it would never replace my CD player, but it can be an option sometimes. PM me if you want info on the review.

 

[0roo0roo]

well as for sound quality, headphone.com seems to think the ipod is ok. http://www.headphone.com/layout.php?topicID=2&subTopicID=28

lots ofpeople on head-fi.org use ipods with nice headphones and amps too

 

[usernamemax20charact]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
if your deck has a line in, or you can use a cassette adaptor or fm transmitter. i wonder if one could install a switch box at the amp though, that wouldn't seem too hard using normal radio shack stuff. cept i'd be afraid of accidentally turning the ipod on at full volume by accident....freak out!

Another option would be to use Alpine's Ready Interface kit. According to Alpine's press release, the kit would allow people to connect and control their iPod from their in-vehicle sound system.

Using a one-cable connection, iPod users will be able to operate key playback features from the Alpine receiver's buttons and have display of playlists, album, artist and songs on the head unit. The iPod can then be safely stored in the glove box or console because it acts like a portable hard drive connected to the head unit through Alpine's Ai-NET system bus. The Alpine connectivity solution also provides charging of the iPod's internal battery.

Of course, this means you'll have to have an Alpine audio system in your car. The kit should be available some time this summer as the kit was just unveild at CES.

 

[3point14]

Originally posted by: VaG

Originally posted by: 3point14
Alex, if I were you I wouldn't worry about what VaG thinks. He is just a troll that comes into a thread, cr@ps, and leaves. Just check out some of his past posts and you will see. I think that he contributes something useful to a thread maybe 10% of the time (and that is being generous).

As for your post, I think you make some good points, but were a lil' harsh saying "This is such a rip off, anyone who buys this is a huge idiot." The new iPod would never fit my whole music collection, but it would be perfect for these short little business trips I have been going on. It's small size would make it perfect while I am struggling to find my boarding pass, ID, second form of ID, retinal scan, and other things they require to see at the security gate I just sold my Nitrus once I heard about these 4GB players. Thanks bradolson for the hot deal!

Here's my two contributions for the day.
1. Carefully read the post and practice your comprehension skills before you reply to avoid misquoting someone. kimagurealex didn't say anything that you quoted him as saying. He was offended by what I said to nickels84.

2. Don't be offended by anything an anonymous stranger says to you and defiantly don't be offended by anything an anonymous stranger says to someone else, particularly over the internet.

I wasn't the one who was offended there cupcake

 

[VaG]

Originally posted by: 3point14
I wasn't the one who was offended there cupcake

Yeah, I know. #1 was for you and it seems that you still need plenty of work on the comprehension portion of it. # 2 was for kimagurealex.

BTW 13point14: Thank you for the PM advising me that I needed a "grammer" coach.

 

[sxr7171]

NM

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: usernamemax20charact

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
if your deck has a line in, or you can use a cassette adaptor or fm transmitter. i wonder if one could install a switch box at the amp though, that wouldn't seem too hard using normal radio shack stuff. cept i'd be afraid of accidentally turning the ipod on at full volume by accident....freak out!

Another option would be to use Alpine's Ready Interface kit. According to Alpine's press release, the kit would allow people to connect and control their iPod from their in-vehicle sound system.

Using a one-cable connection, iPod users will be able to operate key playback features from the Alpine receiver's buttons and have display of playlists, album, artist and songs on the head unit. The iPod can then be safely stored in the glove box or console because it acts like a portable hard drive connected to the head unit through Alpine's Ai-NET system bus. The Alpine connectivity solution also provides charging of the iPod's internal battery.

Of course, this means you'll have to have an Alpine audio system in your car. The kit should be available some time this summer as the kit was just unveild at CES.

hmm interesting iw onder how much it'll cost.

its still too bad more decks don't have line ins. i guess its not in their interest, they'd rather you buy more expensive mp3 capable units then hookup something external... grumble.

 

[redgoatracing]

1.5 GB is alot of songs! 4GB is HUGE! at least for my usage. My big question is this:

How easily will this unit skip?

I've got a RIO with 256MB but it's great because it CAN'T skip. I roadrace, ride dirtbikes, trailrun, and rockclimb with this unit, and the NO-SKIP feature is what keeps me using it. So I'm fine with 1.5 or 4 GB... I just HATE HATE HATE when my music skips. Does anyone have a knowledge/experience with this area of concern? Please don't speculate, OK? My units experience serious acceleration & decelaration, not shock (I don't crash...often!). Thanks in advance for the info!

 

[Rufio]

ooOH.

i am tempted to get one for myself.

I can get it for $239 shipped at my work, and no tax!

 

[usernamemax20charact]

Originally posted by: redgoatracing
1.5 GB is alot of songs! 4GB is HUGE! at least for my usage. My big question is this:

How easily will this unit skip?

I've got a RIO with 256MB but it's great because it CAN'T skip. I roadrace, ride dirtbikes, trailrun, and rockclimb with this unit, and the NO-SKIP feature is what keeps me using it. So I'm fine with 1.5 or 4 GB... I just HATE HATE HATE when my music skips. Does anyone have a knowledge/experience with this area of concern? Please don't speculate, OK? My units experience serious acceleration & decelaration, not shock (I don't crash...often!). Thanks in advance for the info!

There's no problem with skips if you're only jogging with the unit, but anything else with lots of jerks and motions (i.e. riding dirtbikes, roadracing) then you'll definitely have issues. The trailrunning and rockclimbing should be okay, but I have no experiences with them. The iPods 25 minutes of skip protection should be enough for most uses.

 

[soltrain]

Wow. The power of Apple's marketing team is amazing.

 

[SuepaFly]

Guys, the 10gb is now on clearance at most Apple stores at the 249 price point. They are pushing the 15gb's as a replacement for the 10gb's.

Unless you like the color or the smaller size, this deal is only warm.

 

[CrimsonKing]

Originally posted by: SuepaFly
Unless you like the color or the smaller size, this deal is only warm.

Well, see above, but I think that IS the point of these models. Size, weight and shock resistance.

 

[DaRufus]

I'm just wondering if anybody else has had problems with Rio in the pat. So far I have bought their mp3-Cd player which broke very easily afew months after I bought it and two of their flash based mp3 players (they were on sale for $20 after MIR and IR, I got one for myself and my mom). Mine broke pretty quickly, the off/hold/on button just snapped and stoped clicking back and forth, so I stole the one I got for my mom (which she barely used) and then not too long after that, that one also broke in the exact same way. This has just led me to not trust the overall quality of SonicBlue products (one reason I have jumped on the great deal the 1.5 gig player is). I've had friends who also bougt the mp3 cd players (two other which have also bought the 250) and theirs have all broken in one way or another: one becoming nothing more than an FM tuner, another (like mine) not turning on at all.
I'd like to hear if anybody has had problems like this w/ the new rio products
-thanks

 

[SuepaFly]

Originally posted by: CrimsonKing

Originally posted by: SuepaFly
Unless you like the color or the smaller size, this deal is only warm.

Well, see above, but I think that IS the point of these models. Size, weight and shock resistance.

I guess I'm just a greedy bastard that wants the most bang for the buck.

Mass-wise, things things are like 40% smaller...

 

[Madcat207]

Wow.. for the same price, i got my RCA 40 GB player, which includes a car kit, etc etc..... talk about a rip...

like Apple says guys.. think DIFFERENT (aka.. NOT apple...)

 

[neovan]

go through the educational store at apple.com and it's $229.

 

[sat4fun]

Originally posted by: SuepaFly
Guys, the 10gb is now on clearance at most Apple stores at the 249 price point. They are pushing the 15gb's as a replacement for the 10gb's. Unless you like the color or the smaller size, this deal is only warm.

$237 at Amazon

 

[emmpee]

 

[AntMan530]

during xmas, i seen some commerical that displayed dell having some wannabe ipods for cheap. i think it was 10 gigs for 250. anyone see the same i did?

 

[Achtung]

Originally posted by: neovan
go through the educational store at apple.com and it's $229.

But they'll still charge you tax and shipping, so the total will come to more than if you bought it regular price at Amazon.com.

I purchased one, and the ship date is listed as Jan 29, with delivery expected by Feb 4. Any chance of that actually happening? The Apple Store had a ship date of Feb 16 listed.

 

[Fant]

I cancelled my ordered for the mini-ipod. I am instead getting the Creative Labs Muvo2 4gb (same 4gb microdrive which is possibly removable and exchangable for other compactflash media). The muvo2 is costing me $185 shipped from computers4sure.com after $20 coupon (check dpreview.com forums for coupon). Here are the pro's and cons I listed:

Creative Labs Muvo2 4GB vs Mini Ipod 4gb

Pros for
- Cheaper price ($185 vs $243)
- Drag and Drop (no software needed)
- Swappable microdrive/compactflash (possibly with a little effort)
- Excellent sound quality
- Customized equalizer
- Replacable Li-On battery
- optional wired remote adds FM radio
- WMA support

Cons:
- PC only
- USB2.0 only
- slighty larger than mini-ipod
- no cool color options
- probably not as easy navigation menu

So if you are a PC user who doesnt feel the need to buy in on the mini ipod's coolness factor, the muvo2 may be just for you at a lower cost.

 

[MaxDSP]

Originally posted by: Fant
I cancelled my ordered for the mini-ipod. I am instead getting the Creative Labs Muvo2 4gb (same 4gb microdrive which is possibly removable and exchangable for other compactflash media). The muvo2 is costing me $185 shipped from computers4sure.com after $20 coupon (check dpreview.com forums for coupon). Here are the pro's and cons I listed:

Creative Labs Muvo2 4GB vs Mini Ipod 4gb

Pros for
- Cheaper price ($185 vs $243)
- Drag and Drop (no software needed)
- Swappable microdrive/compactflash (possibly with a little effort)
- Excellent sound quality
- Customized equalizer
- Replacable Li-On battery
- optional wired remote adds FM radio
- WMA support

Cons:
- PC only
- USB2.0 only
- slighty larger than mini-ipod
- no cool color options
- probably not as easy navigation menu

So if you are a PC user who doesnt feel the need to buy in on the mini ipod's coolness factor, the muvo2 may be just for you at a lower cost.

lol, didnt I just see you on thw FW thread? :beer:

 

[ponyo]

Apple is going to sell ton of these iPod Mini. My wife already told me to buy her one as soon as it's available. Looks like I'll be ordering from Amazon.

 

[Flair]

From the chubbybilllfold thread.




<< FYI - you CANNOT remove the 4GB Hitachi drive from the new 4Gb Muvo2 and use it in another device. Unlike their 1.5Gb model, Creative ordered these drives with a proprietary connector for this very reason. It is not a CF/ATA type connection. I had a lenghty discussion about this very fact with a couple of Creatuve engineers at CES last week. They also had an exploded version on display in one of their CES displays. When you open the 4Gb Muvo2 it has the drive sub-chassis soldered to the Muvo2 MB. Creative was also selling these at CES for $199.99 + $7.00 FedEx 2nd day S&H.