Apple unveils second generation iPod mini - Page 2

when do you guys think apple will introduce a new mini. second half of this year? or early next?

next year I guess! Specially if it sells as well as the 1G mini.

don't forget also that apple has f8cking brilliantly engineered the upsell on this... they waited a little to observe Shuffle demand.

so Shuffle demand is pretty much very very high, so if you were to walk into a store looking for 1GB Shuffle, oh wait, 1GB Shuffle $149 not in stock, but hey, $199, just $50 more and you get screen, 4x the storage amount, colors to choose from, remember also iPod mini screen and housing is very very scratch resistant - ask any iPod mini owner, i stopped using my external 'protective' case for my iPod mini a month ago

due to high Shuffle demand, iPod mini is IMO as you mentioned unlikely to cannibalise Shuffle sales... $99 iPod Shuffle 512mb is a no-brainer on the lowest end for anyone that just has to have an iPod, beyond $100, that's where the fun begins for a consumer walking into an Apple Store, going, hmmm, what's available, what more do I get for an extra $50-$100-$200

maybe even "ah what the hell i'll just foget about that stupid family vacation with the naggy wife and annoying kids and get me an iMac G5 and iPod Photo 30GB"

it's all about the upsell, y'all...

peace.

I think it's amazing that they were able to get the iPod mini's battery life up to 18 hours. Is this because the small hard drive doesn't consume as much power as the regular iPod?

I'd love to know what kind of hacks they use to get this amazing battery life from the things. I'd say that the smaller, and lighter, drive takes less energy to spin up. It may be that they can pull off some rort where they make it spin slower, and accelerate slower so that it uses less power, and I'd laugh if they did something like made the platter thinner so that it was lighter and used less energy.
Of course, they'll probably have made chip improvements and improved the battery too, but that's not as fun.
(Anyone who actually has informed ideas feel free to correct me.)

Re: USB 1.1 charging - it's reasonably well known I expect that a number of devices (Iomega Zip drives, scanners) can use the latent power in a Macintosh USB 1.1 bus. But nothing else can be used on the bus at the same time, cause it takes all 500mA.
FireWire can power and charge an iPod, or an external 3.5" HD.
I get the -feeling- that the power drawn to run and charge an iPod would be much greater than that taken by a Zip drive.

Mendosi

usb pisses me off sometimes because so many devices need USB, and there's always a power issue that crops up. give me two phat firewire400 ports anyday

okay for one thing, petitiononline is really stupid and it's one of the most worthless sites out there. nobody listens to them. to make the ipod mini cost less and to maintain margins apple didn't include the AC adapter and Firewire cable (i think the old mini included an AC adapter)

the minis don't need firewire. USB is great for cheap transfer of data that doesnt have to be fast. 4 and 6 GB minis don't hold that many songs. the normal iPod models will probably always have firewire because it is a higher cost, higher speed transfer method.

the only thing firewire 800 is needed for is HD DV video transfer and high speed external hard drives. it will be more popular when devices need more data transfer speed. (150 gb ipod!)

plus firewire isn't a failure. the ipod has helped firewire become more common, and firewire fills the niche of DV cameras and ...well ipods. probably every mac user who has purchased an ipod has used the firewire cable.

I'm totally pleased with the new pricing on the iPod Mini, and the iPod Photo. I may have to get a mini now.

i dono. it probably will but i wish it didnt. or at least make some more colors. and make a BLUE blue. not a green blue. they already have the green.

the new blue, green and pink colors are way too strong. it hurts my eyes looking at them. what the hell were they thinking? really ugly and very unapple-like. are they doing this to please the windows crowd? plus they shouldn't have dropped the gold. - oh well, at least the silver is the same.

yeah, i am not too concerned with regards to that petition you mentioned. it is unlikely that the iPod mini will drop firewire support anytime in the next year or so...

i have 1st gen silver iPod Mini, i kinda 'lost' my usb cable, and charger, so i pretty much just use the firewire cable ... it is f8cking sweet

so yeah, you want firewire? if only to not have to use up your available USB ports, just get the $19 firewire cable with your iPod mini and firewire 400 is totally totally sweet with charging and 'tunes syncing and data transfer...
also, if you don't like the colors, Silver mini is sweet. it is bloody very scratch resistant even the screen, i ditched my $30 'protective' case a few months ago, it was detracting from the beauty of the iPod Mini

have no fear my friends, mac afficionados, (Relic this includes you!!) the pee cee lusers aren't polluting our waters. Silver iPod Mini, $19 firewire cable, all the Macness preserved... at least for this year....

edit: in any case, going forward, speed of transfer will be important as apple would need that as competitive advantage, particularly with the 50GB ++ mark of iPods... yes, Firewire 800 might even be an option within the next few years, while retaining USB 2.0 or 3.0 or whatever for PCs... Apple will maintain its investment in Firewire 400/800, beyond that, that's where it will get interesting, to see if there is a standard that will be common for both PCs and Macs, whether that's Firewire 1600 or something or USB 3.0++ or whatever

the mini colors I would have liked... orange (cleveland browns orange), red (lusty), platinum (not silver), blue (like Grover from sesame street) and blue dalmation and flower power of course.

I guess there must be a change in the software as well, since with the old iPods the USB cable would not let you sync with iTunes. Found that out the hard way when my Dad tried to load his new iPod mini using the USB cable instead of the FW cable. With USB the iPod showed up on the desktop. but didn't launch iTunes etc. I was pulling my hair out for a while until I looked closely at the cable and a light went on.

I had a thought this morning, a power adaptor is necessary to reset the iPod? I hope they have made changes so you don't need one to reset it. i have had to reset a couple of times due to crashes, rendering it impossible without resetting with a power adaptor.

hmm.. i kinda lost my iPod mini power adaptor, so i am just using firewire cable to charge/sync/everything

IMO if you have enough juice you can reset your mini without needing a power adaptor... i think i tried it (reset) once or twice without it being hooked up to anythin'

That's not quite true, at least with my 3G one. All you need to do is have the iPod plugged into -a- power soucre. This includes being plugged into the computer but being unmounted.
I never plug mine in when I reset it anyway, works fine enough.

Mendosi

Just ordered my first iPod a 6Gb silver only problem is it will take 3 weeks for my reseller to get it in

dude sweet

I just saw the iPod mini in person, and COMPLETELY agree that the colors are way too "plastic" looking.

The old colors were MUCH better.

hmmm well that sucks, huh? i guess its for the pee cee windoze lusers... the mac faithful will stick to Silver...

I oredered mine from Apple and it shipped the next morning so that sort of sucks

well, new zealand is pretty far away

I live in New Zealand even the online NZ apple store here hasnt got them yet or iPod shuffles or Mac mini's

I actually got one of the 6 GB minis on Monday (silver). My first iPod ever!

So far I'm digging i immensely. I actually had placed an order online, but my inclusion of a Firewire cable had pushed the ship date way back. So, I removed the cable and wandered over to the Cambridge, MA Apple Store to buy the cable (and an AC adapter for kicks and giggles). Low and behold, there's a pile of iPods behind the counter! New minis, new photos, even a bunch of shuffles. I promptly unleashed the plastic and snagged one for myself. While I was waiting for the sales dude to ring me up, I saw 5 people buy shuffles and 2 buy photos. Consumerism at it's finest .

I walked outside and called the Apple Online Store to kill the original order. When the guy asked (very tactfully) why I was canceling I told him it was because the brick and mortar Apple Stores apparently had all their inventory.

dude sweet i'm sure the apple online store due was cool with you killing the order 'coz you got it at your local Apple Store...

now try and scratch that f8cker! you will notice the Silver iPod mini (6gb is sweet man...!!!) is really scratch resistant...!!!