Apple iPod Mini (6GB, silver)

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Average user rating: 3.0stars out of 111 reviews Back to product review

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2.0 stars

"Acceptable, but overrated" on March 31, 2005 by ce_reviews

Pros: Small, Looks good

Cons: headphones are junk, only works w/ ITunes, rotating menu doesn't seem to work well, no radio

Summary: This product is pretty average, and exemplifies the standard Apple strategy of non-compatibility.

I picked this up because I got a great deal via audible.com (Which is a GREAT way to listen to books, check 'em out).

This is by no means a bad player. However, there are a few things to be aware of if you're open-minded enough to consider that Apple doesn't have all of the answers.
1. You will HAVE to replace the ear buds. Even if they're more comfortable in your ears than mine, the sound quality is VERY poor. And I'm not an audiophile.
2. I hope you like ITunes. So far, I have been unable to get windows media player to work w/ it. It copies the files over, and they're there in Windows Explorer, but I can't seem to play them. I HATE THAT. It's not that Itunes is so bad as much as it is that I am from a Windows world where I can find other options. Plus, setting up a media library takes a lot of work. I don't feel like going through it again. Additionally, the auto-import feature has crashed on me once, and has some errors as well.
3. The circle scroll idea is pretty good, but I find that it only works smoothly on the very outtermost part of the circle. So far, I've been unable to scroll smoothly with 1 hand with any consistency.
4. You have to eject the ipod using either ITunes or Windows' hardware wizard before you disconnect it. If you're using ITunes, I guess it isn't that big of a deal.
5. Volume is decent, but not fantastic.
6. I want to be able to replace the battery. Planned obsolescence is very irritating.
7. For this much money, I can't get a radio?
8. I want BLUETOOTH!!!

Ok, lest you label me as a close-minded apple-hater, there are a few cool touches.
1. I like that it detects whether your headphones are plugged in or not, and pauses automatically when you unplug them. You'll do this a few times in the beginning while wondering if those earbuds really sound that bad, or is it the song.
Updated
A few things I forgot or didn't know the first time:

1. Below is a link to how to reset your ipod when it locks hard, which in a few weeks of light use, it has now done twice.
http://www.activewin.com/tips/tips/apple/ipod/7.shtml

2. One other thing. It doesn't play wma files. I just found that out when trying to put a radio program on. You're not hopelessly lost, ITunes will convert to mp3 for you (if it doesn't crash, which happened to me a few times), After that you just have to go figure out where ITunes put it, which it doesn't really tell you.

3. Sometimes it gets really slow. This seems to happen most often with my Audible content, but's it's pretty aggravating when you listen to books on a number of devices and are trying to seek to where you left off elsewhere.

4. I'm not sure, but I don't think it supports high-bitrate content either. Is 192kpbs the limit? It seems to convert my music before putting it on. Not too big of a deal so long as it doesn't leave the low bitrate versions lying around on my machine.
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3 replies to this review

reply on October 5, 2005 by pir8schmee

Just a quick comment. I have found the earbuds to be just fine in the sound department, maybe my hearding is really good. If you really don't like it then sell it on Ebay and apply the money to something you might term better.

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reply on June 29, 2005 by phantom454

1. I challenge you to find any Macintosh software that is not compatible any Windows OS or that doesn't have a Windows version avaliable. 2. I challenge you to find 10 Windows software products that work on Macintosh. Trust me it will be hard. 3. Macintosh made the windows operating system. Yes, they did forget to patent it, and that's their fault. But, Micrsoft stole it from them. Which in a way is a blessing in disguise because now Macintosh has mastered a different type of operating system that is impervious to any viruses. (unless you put that Microsoft compatability crap on there that makes everything that works on a Windows work on a Mac including viruses) So yes, there is a feud, but you're gonna have a fued like this with the compatiblility isues and all that jazz when one company is ticked because the other stole its idea.

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reply on June 25, 2005 by Sslagsvol

I'd like to say your review is a nice sum up of all the things about the ipod. But, i think there are a few things worth mentioning. First off the earbuds, really no matter what mp3 player you buy today, the quality of the FREE headphones will be sub-par. After reading through the cnet reviews on earbuds, they rated the ipod earbuds as one of the best "come with a player" earbuds. so you cant complain there, i find them comfortable, and the sound quality is pretty good. but whatever, they were free. next, the reason this player doesnt play WMA's is because microsoft and apple are never going to make their products compatible with the other company. same goes for the windows media player compatability. what were you expecting, its a mac product. you should be so lucky they even make it PC compatable. about the bitrates- the max bitrate for an mp3 on an ipod is 320 kB/s. you would know that if you read the tech specs. but, consequently with higher bitrates is shorter battery life. so, apple got its 18hour battery life figure from playing songs from itunes. (128 kB/s AAC) which is a type of Mpeg Layer-4 format (IE: .m4a) so a 128 Kb/s AAC song has about the quality of a 160 VBR. only slightly better, but this makes a big difference with 1,000+ songs. one thing i can say about the storage of the ipod. i dont really have a problem with the fact that they say it holds 1,500 and i can only get about 1,250 of MY music onto it. THE ITUNES MUSIC STORE HAS MUCH HIGHER QUALITY FILES THAN NAPSTER, the next top competitor. for you, i would have told you a long time ago not to get an ipod. if you read anything about it before shelling out the $250, you would know that its only compatible with Itunes (which i love), and that it wouldnt play WMA's you would be much happier with a dell pocket DJ, creative zen micro, or rio carbon.

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