Fashionably compact AND functional? Oh, it's true!

I have to admit, I'm a slave to Apple products. Next year when finances improve [after our wedding is done and paid for ;)], my fiancee and I plan on purchasing a powerbook.

When I first learned of Apple's release of the iPod mini I was immediately in love. Three of my favorite things: MUSIC, COMPACT SIZE, & an APPLE product all wrapped up in one? Heaven.

Wonder why I am so smitten?

The FEATURES

- Holds over 1000 songs at near CD quality on a 4GB hard drive
- Up to 8 hours of continuous playback with rechargeable lithium-ion battery
- Super portable at 3.6 ounces and only 0.5 inch thick, 2 inches wide and 3.6 inches tall
- Automatically synchronizes music, playlists and audiobooks with your Mac or PC
- Innovative click wheel for easy navigation
- Plays AAC, MP3, Apple Lossless, WAV, AIFF, and Audible formats
-Skip protection of up to 25 minutes
- High resolution, backlit LCD display

The only thing preventing me from pure bliss was the price tag. Apple's products have always been super expensive (well, at least prior to the new mini computer being released shortly.) The Apple iPod mini sells for $249.00

My hold on pure bliss was only temporary however, as I managed to talk my fiancee a few weeks back into getting me one as my early birthday present.

CHOICES, CHOICES, CHOICES

Now once you've decided to purchase an iPod mini, the first thing you must decide is the color of your choice. Unlike it's older sibling, the iPod mini comes in 5 available colors. These include: Silver, Gold, Blue, Pink, and Green.

Of course, girly woman that I am, I opted for the pink.

The PACKAGING

When there was a knock at my door, I immediately jumped off the couch, and just about jumped the UPS guy who was, of course, delivering my brand new iPod mini.

It had come in a huge Amazon box, and was almost impossible to open. Once I got through the 15 layers of tape, my iPod mini box was revealed, and boy was it small! Appropriate right? The iPod box itself is a small, compact box, and displayed with a white background and multicolors displaying the "iPod mini" text, along with a picture of the iPod mini in the color of iPod you have chosen. Very snazzy.

When you open it up, a smaller box pops out which folds in half. The left side contains the iPod mini along with itunes/ipod software, warranty card, manual and included earphones. The right contains a white case, firewire to iPod cable, and AC adaptor.

The LOOKS

FROM Apple:

iPod mini dimensions Fashionably Compact
Apple engineers squeezed all the best features of iPod into a case weighing just 3.6 ounces and smaller than any cell phone. iPod mini features an anodized aluminum case that resists stains and scratches. Like its (slightly) bigger brother, iPod mini gives you over 25 minutes of skip protection and lasts up to 8 hours on a single battery charge. So you won't pay a penalty for miniaturization.

The Apple iPod Mini is indeed compact! Slightly bigger than my Sanyo 8100 cell phone, while being much slimmer.

It easily sits comfortably in the palm of my hand, and slides easily into my pocket or purse... so light I often forget it's there!

System REQUIREMENTS

FOR MAC:

-Macintosh computer with FireWire or USB 2.0 port (USB 2.0 requires Mac OS X v10.3.4 or later)

Mac OS X v10.1.5 or later

FOR WINDOWS:

- PC FireWire or USB 2.0 port or FireWire or USB 2.0 card

- Windows 2000 with Service pack 4 or later, or Windows XP Home or Professional

My THOUGHTS

When you first remove your iPod mini from it's box, the first thing you need to do is plug it in for charging. Your iPod will be 80% charged within the first hour according to Apple, and they claim it takes another 4 for the remaining 20%.

In my experience the initial charge only took about 2.5 hours. I had turned mine off during the entire charging process, not sure if that made a difference in charging time.

While your iPod is charging you can go ahead and install the iPod software on to you Mac or PC. This software includes itunes, which is Apple's version of a winamp, or window's media player.

Once installed you can either drag music you have on your computer already, or load cds into the itunes software. This is very simple to do as long as you are able to locate where your computer files are. CD's will automatically show up on the itunes software once placed into the drive, you'll just have to click the songs you want and import them in.

After you are satisfied you have all the music you want imported into itunes you're ready to go. Simply wait for your iPod to finish FULLY charging and plug the USB cord into your computer/iPod and itunes will automatically pull up and transfer the songs to your iPod.

This part I had some trouble with at first, I had it plugged in and once it is plugged in the iPod displays a "do not disconnect" message with an animated spinning wheel to let you know it's doing something. So, I waited. And waited. And waited. Two hours later I had enough of waiting and unplugged it to see what was taking so long.

The problem? Apple claims that you are REQUIRED to have a 2.0 USB port to work with the iPod mini. My laptop only had a 1.1.

I tried plugging it into my fiancee's desktop and he of course has a 2.0 USB. And in a matter of seconds my beautiful iPod was filled up with his country music. OH NO!!!

I unplugged my iPod and took it back over to my laptop, plugged it back in and this time itunes automatically started downloading additional software to sync with my 1.1 port. Once this was complete a warning popped up explaining that the songs would transfer slower because my port was only a 1.1.

Slower? To be honest, I don't ever notice it being slower than it was on my fiancee's desktop. It takes about 5 seconds per song to transfer to my iPod.

As for all those country songs it had downloaded when plugged into Mike's computer, well they were magically gone! Okay, it's not magic ;) Another feature I love is that it automatically deletes all songs on your iPod and transfers the songs in the itunes of whichever computer it's plugged into. This means that I can take my iPod, transfer all my music... and if my fiancee wants to take it to work the next day, he can simply plug it in his and it automatically deletes all of my music and puts his in. In order to take advantage of this feature, you of course have to be sure to keep your music loaded onto your itunes software. This is a feature some people love, and some people hate. You can also set your iPod to manual, which will stop this from occurring, and allow you to individually select songs to transfer.

As for navigating the iPod... without doubt, my favorite feature of the iPod Mini is the convenient click wheel. As you may have noticed, a lot of MP3 players have either bulky or undersized hard to navigate buttons. Apple's WONDERFUL engineers changed all this with one amazing feature. The click wheel for those unfamiliar is an ultra sensitive "wheel" with the buttons hidden underneath. This allows us to glide our finger around the wheel, allowing us to scroll through hundreds of songs with just a touch.

This feature is very easy to navigate. It took me about 30 seconds to get the hang of it. To date I have had absolutely no problems with it whatsoever.

Besides music, the iPod also includes games (3 of them), a calendar, and the ability to add contacts and notes.

Another feature I love is being able to play the provided games while listening to music at the same time.

Any CONS?

Asides from the HORRID ear phones... which I tossed about 2 minutes after placing them in my ears. The sound quality is horrible with these, you can't go anywhere, even to the other side of the room without having them fall out of ears. After replacing them with my trusty sony ear phones, the sound was amazing.

I find that the battery life lasts about 6-6.5 hours for me, compared to the promised 8. This isn't really a problem for me as I rarely listen to it for hours on end consistently. Plugging it in to recharge over night is not a big deal from where I stand.

Although I haven't had any bad experiences so far, I got a little freaked out after the day I had purchased it (before I had received it)

After cruising the Apple online forums, I discovered a LOT of people have had problems with the battery. Since it is a lithium-ion battery, it only will recharge so many times before it needs to be replaced.

When it dies, Apple requests you send it in. If it's under the 1 year warranty, they will replace it and return it to you. If the warranty has expired I believe there is a $100 fee for them to replace it.

From what I gather, as long as there are no other problems with the iPod of your own fault, they will send you a new one. They don't "replace" the battery, they simply send you a new iPod mini.

I've heard many horror stories however about people who had sent it in and had it returned with a note explaining that they couldn't replace it as it was scratched up which indicted misuse to them. These people claim their iPod only had a few scratches on it. I can't really imagine Apple refusing to replace a product under warranty because of a few scratches, so I'm not sure if this is simply customers overstating, or a problem with customer service.

I would however recommend investing in a cover. Apple offers covers called "iskins" that cover the iPod's body, yet leaves the click wheel and screen open for easy use. I have purchased one of these, and it definitely does protect my iPod from any potential scratches from every day use.

OVERALL

Although a lot of people find the iPod mini to be a waste, since it's sibling iPod's hard drive is 5 times as big for only $50 more, the mini does have it's benefits.

If you, like me, can't even think of 1,000 songs to transfer into your iPod, and prefer a smaller, compact size... the mini will suit you better. The mini is very easy to travel with, small enough to go running with, without feeling like something is weighing me down ;).

Overall, it's very simple to use, wonderful sound, good battery life and looks really snazzy. If you can afford the $249 price tag, it is definitely the superior choice.