apple iPod 4gb mini

[randy]

Ryan is heading over to Iraq sometime in early Sept. He wants an iPod. most of the guys in his platoon have iPods, and one of the guys has an Apple laptop they are taking with them. In addition the iPod is popular all over, so the military PX over in Iraq carries some sort of baggy type thing that the iPod fits in and pretty much protects the iPod from all sand/dust in the area.

 

So I am thinking the 4GB mini. Seems about the right price and feature set. just wondering will this iPod have the shuffle feature, and the FM tuner? It seems the iPod is kind of modular, so does that mean the ipod FM tuner and shuffle feature are additional units?

 

I know there are a lot of long time iPod users on this board, so please give me all the info you can. I have already figured out how to use iTunes, and have ripped most of my CD collection onto my PC hard drive. So when Ryan comes home for two weeks R&R before he leaves, we are going to rip his CD collection and load it onto the iPod.

 

once again all information is appreciated.

[Barglowski]

 

Apple's website has the answers: iPod

 

Tuners are 3rd party. I don't know about shuffle.

 

How much music are you going to put on it? If you really have an entire music collection you may have to pick and choose (only 1500 songs, according to the website).

 

New iPods have color screens and can store pictures as well. That might be a very cool thing for an overseas soldier? That works with iPhoto, and that might be Mac-only?

 

Later,

jan

[randy]

Thanks for the link. Yes 1,500 songs is fine. yea not sure about pictures. We have discussed taking a number of family pictures and loading those into the newer model iPod. I will think about that some more and do some more reading.

 

keep the comments coming.

[sgendler]

All ipods can shuffle the songs. Only the 'ipod shuffle' allows you to turn the feature on and off with a dedicated button, since it has no screen. The rest require you to use the menu to do it.

 

There is no ipod with an FM radio. There are a variety of aftermarket radios that can be added.

 

The extra $50 for 2GB of capacity might well make the unit useful for longer. An extra 500 songs is definitely a good thing when you might be stuck in the desert for a long while with no easy way to change the songs out.

 

--sam

[SunZmSpark]

You may want to consider a 20Gb iPod (discontinued or refurb model) at the Apple Store... They are only $219. The 4GB minis are only $179. You'll get much more bang for the buck (if the size isn't important). Go to www.apple.com, click on the "Store" tab and look for the the red tag that says "Sale" on the lower right side. http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore/

[BobFV1]

I hava a 4 gb mini and it is fine for a few hours, but on 12 hour flights to Asia I wish I had more variety. When you start putting albums on there it fills up fast and if I was going to be in an isolated place like Iraq, I would look for the biggest capacity iPOD I could afford.

 

No tuners on iPods.

 

Another option - a laptop (doesn't have to be an Apple by the way) with a big music libtaty and an iPod mini that you can then change the music on from the laptop.

[randy]

wow you guys must have some extensive music libraries. I am not sure I could get 1,500 songs total, let alone 1,500 songs I actually want to hear.

 

The refurb item is a good idea. I like buying refurb. In most cases items are returned and work just fine, but the OEM are required to check them out. At least that is what Philips does. So I will look at the apple refurb store today.

 

Ryan does have access to a laptop (a friend going to Iraq at the same time) so changing out songs, or just adding songs is an option.

 

keep the idea's coming, he comes home on Monday Aug 1, and I want to buy the unit next week, and have it delivered by August 4 at the latest.

[SunZmSpark]

Apple gives you a full one-year warranty on the refurbs and will replace them if there is a problem. Here's a tip... If you have an Apple Store near you, the last weekend of every month, they bring out their reburbs, open boxes and scratch and dents. i picked up a 20GB iPod a few months ago for $199.

[Trinity]

Since no one has mentioned it, the capacity of the larger iPods is very directly related to the sampling rate when you create the MP3 files. Higher sampling = larger file size = better sound quality, but consumes more space on the device. (That said, the higher sound quality could be "overkill" if you aren't using audiophile quality headphones.)

 

I have a 40 GB iPod and rip files at 320. At this point, I have 32 GB of music which translates to about 3,600 songs.

[randy]

Am I missing somethig???

 

3,600 songs. Say the average album has 13 songs. That is about 275 albums. At best, I figure on most albums I really like say 5 songs. So figure 700 albums, and 5 songs on average off each album, that is 3,500 songs. And that is at a high quality sound rate. At say 160 (good enough for my ears) that would mean maybe 1,200 albums at 5 songs per album

 

Is this correct? What does an album cost, maybe on average 20.00??? So 1,200 albums at 20.00 each is 24,000.00 !!!!! Shoot that would be around three years salary for Ryan. I am pretty sure he does not have that many. But what do I know. Maybe he does. So maybe the refurb 20 gig is something I need to look at.

[J Mart]

Ahh, but don't forget Itunes - $0.99 cents a song, so less than $3600 to fill up the Ipod! I have a 4GB mini, and found that I started repeating songs on a round trip (bike, not plane) from Minneapolis to Boston.

[Chris K]

Randy, I don't know about Ryan but I just asked Derek (my 20 year old son) how many individual CD's he has. As of yesterday he has a total of 459. Now I see how these kids fill up an 80 GB hard drive in a week!

[sgendler]

I don't know where you are getting that 3500 songs number from. The 4GB mini claims 1500 songs at 128kbit AAC (which is a fine bitrate unless he has very expensive headphones). The 6GB model will get you 2000. Of course, that is probably factoring only a 4 minute song into the equation. I'd have to do actual math to tell you how many minutes of music will fit.

 

About his friends laptop. He can certainly use it for changing songs, but he should be aware that the software will only allow a mini to be associated with one computer at a time. The first time he plugs it into his friend's laptop, the software will force him to delete all the songs on the ipod and then only load songs from that computer. This is apple's attempt to keep folks from copying music from computer to computer, or downloading songs from a friend's music library. Of course, there are plentiful and easy ways around this, if your son is savvy enough to prepare in advance, and I think his circumstances justify a certain bending of the rules, but he should definitely make sure everythingg works to his satisfaction BEFORE leaving hbis music library behind, so if he loses all his music, he can restore it before he goes. If he searches for 'ipod rip' he will surely find one of the packages that will allow him to suck all the music off his ipod and onto the computer. He will have to do that, before he can add any songs from the laptop, since the iTunes software will require that he delete all the old music before it will install anything new music. By copying all the old stuff off, first, he can then re-add any old songs, along with the new ones. If his friend's hard drive is small, you might consider spending an extra $100 or so on a larger firewire hardrive. He can keep his library on his own hard drive, and just use the laptop for transfers.

 

 

Or he could buy a larger model and carry every album he owns along with him, of course. I happen to like the mini because of its size (and the colors)and its battery life. The larger drives in the larger ipods eat up battery more quickly, although the 4th generation models are apparently much better than my 3rd gen one, which only last 5-6 hours - in other words, it won't even last him the whole plane flight over there. My wife's mini lasts about 10-12 hours on a full charge. Noise attenuating ear plugs (like the AZ Al ones) extend battery life, too, as they allow you to run with a minimum of volume. I can imagine, however, that noise attenuating earplugs have both advantages and severe disadvantages in a war zone.

 

Oh, about the size of our libraries. I think most of us that complain about runnning out of spacde may use higher bit rates. Also, it is a pain in the neck to select individual songs out of a large library for copying to the ipod, so most of us just copy whole albums, bad songs and all. That's actually one of the things I like about the smaller ipods. They force you to be MUCH more discriminating about what gets installed, so you spend less time skipping past bad or inappropraite songs. When we ride somewhere together, my wife and I always prefer her 4GB mini to my 40GB ipod for precisely that reason. We skip 2 out of 3 songs on my ipod (which also eats into battery life).

 

--sam

[Win3855]

wow you guys must have some extensive music libraries. I am not sure I could get 1,500 songs total, let alone 1,500 songs I actually want to hear.

 

My 20 gig is full. I just purchased a used 40 gig. I store books on mine, listening to a story can be very helpfull to my peace of mind. Hope things over there work out well for him.

[SunZmSpark]

Hope things over there work out well for him.

 

Yes. He has my appreciation, my respect and will be in my prayers.

[Trinity]

I stand corrected... I just checked and I've got 2800 songs and used 32 GB. Also, a dozen or so of my absolute favorites are ripped using AAC "Lossless" which only has something like a 1:2 compression ratio...lots more dynamic headroom, but they take up more room than the more highly compressed MP3s...

 

The reason I like the higher capacity iPod is that I use it primarily when I travel (mostly to Europe for business). During the 10 - 14 hours of flights and layovers, you never know what you'll be in the mood to listen to. It's nice to have something to fit almost any situation.

 

Best wishes to your son and wishing him a SAFE return.

 

YMMV