An interesting thing happened a few weeks ago. I won an Apple iPod mini as part of a weekly "work-your-tail-off" promotion at Quilogy. Coincidentally, I was considering purchasing a new MP3 player to upgrade from the one my Mom bought me for Christmas last year. It worked well enough and was teeny-tiny, but it only held like 2 hours of music and constantly needed fresh AAA batteries. My research had brought me to the usual suspects, but I had all but written off an iPod since they were slightly out of my desired price range and their notorious scarcity.
Low and behold, the decision was made for me. One Friday afternoon, your friendly neighborhood blogger (me) sat unassuming to be greeted by a little white box with an Apple logo on it and a very small, but powerful prize inside.
This thing was incredible. Pastel green, but incredible nonetheless. While it's color would have been my preferred choice, I figured it was an appropriate color given that I paid nothing for that others were paying premiums for (via eBay and other sources).
In any case, it was with mixed emotions (as much as you can have mixed emotions about winning a $250+ gizmo) that I got the mini. It's only got 4GB of space, which they say will hold 1,000 songs. I was looking at the mondo-huge iPods with 30GB or more. I don't have 1,000 songs. I have 1,000 CDs. I already had a small MP3 player that I could synch a subset of my music to. I figured this was going to be a similar, albeit larger under-sized device for me.
I was wrong. 4GB is quite enough considering that it is SO teeny-tiny that it's possible to forget that you have it in your shirt or pants pocket. It's amazing to see how much smaller it is compared to it's bigger brother. I can get around 8 hours of music on my iPod mini. Conveniently, the rechargeable batteries last about as long.
The interface is everything you've heard it is. "Easy" is too bland a term. I can fire up the player and be listening to a random playlist of my entire library (that's on the player, of course) in less than 10 seconds. If I want to play a particular playlist, it's only about 2 more seconds. The goofy little touch pad control thingy is right on. It's accurate, convenient, and efficient, even if there is a slight learning curve to getting used to it at first.
There are the obligatory games that are useful enough to keep you from drool-inducing boredom, but not necessarily how you'd want to spend your Friday nights. In fact, the "Music Quiz" game is quite clever. It takes clips of YOUR music library and plays them back to you with a list of song names. You then have a timer counting down while you select the correct song title. It's amusing and shows you proof positive how well you know your own music.
In summary, it's great. I'd recommend it to just about anyone. Sure, it's not as spacious as other devices, but also significantly smaller. Since iTunes will handle swapping music in and out of the player, it easily compensates for not being large enough to hold my entire music library.
Very cool stuff folks. It's crazy how often I get stopped and asked about it. I give it a happy recommendation.
Later.