iPod Mini or iPod full size?

I'm thinking about buying an iPod. In fact, I already went to a store and looked at them, and got sort of confused, and decided to wait. I was wondering what everyone here thinks is better, a mini iPod or a full size iPod. I know the mini holds a lot less, but is does it have any huge advatage over the original ipod besides from it's smaller size?

Beefore anyone get into the $50 difference and the larger disk. The question is what are your needs? Do you have a large music library you plan to load on it? is size importnat to you? or is function more important to you? What format is your current music in?

Agreed.. i went with the regular iPod since the storage limit of the mini was too small for me. Because not only did I put all my CD's on it, but I also put news feeds, directions, notes, etc etc on it.. so 4 GB is just way too small for me.

Personally, I think for the $50 difference it is silly to get a device that is only 4GB. The regular iPod isn't all that big. Of course this is from a guy that has a minidisc player and is looking at the new Hi-MD's that are coming out soon (1GB per minidisc). But my wife does have a 40GB iPod.

true....just get the 15 in my opininon...or wait until the price of the mini goes down....the $50 difference isn't worth the loss in 2/3rds disc space.....

for me...it doens't matter..I got the 20gig...so I spent lots of money (I didn't have)...but now I have 1100 songs......and 14.5 more gig to use for whatever I need it for...and I will need it..

but you can use it for a portable disc drive..even if you don't need to right now...you may have use for it later...and it's more than three times the capacity for only 50 bucks more...

I'm thinking I should go with the larger one because I have more than 4 GB if I upload all of my CDs onto a computer.

Some other questions that I couldn't find definite answers for:
-Does anyone have problems with the touch navigation system on the orginal iPod? I was playing with one in the computer store, and it seemed to react very slow when I touched it. Is that a common problem? Are the normal buttons on the mini better?
-Can you store other stuff on an iPod besides from audio files? The reason I'm asking this is because I was wondering if I could transfer some large, non audio files that I have to another computer.

Also, is uploading music to an ipod with a USB cable instead of a firewire cable a lot slower?

Thanks

woofboy111 said:

I'm thinking I should go with the larger one because I have more than 4 GB if I upload all of my CDs onto a computer.

Some other questions that I couldn't find definite answers for:
-Does anyone have problems with the touch navigation system on the orginal iPod? I was playing with one in the computer store, and it seemed to react very slow when I touched it. Is that a common problem? Are the normal buttons on the mini better?
-Can you store other stuff on an iPod besides from audio files? The reason I'm asking this is because I was wondering if I could transfer some large, non audio files that I have to another computer.

Also, is uploading music to an ipod with a USB cable instead of a firewire cable a lot slower?

Thanks

Click to expand...

i just got my ipod 15 today and i'm glad i chose it over just the 4 gig mini, the mini is really slick lookin, but it depends if you'd rather have function over fashion.

to answer your questions.

i found the sensitivity issue to be the opposite from what you experienced in the store, my ipod is way sensitive, and the hold freature works great.

as for storing data and stuff, you can use the ipod as a hard drive as well.

oh yea..and those cheesy lookin earbuds that it comes with it sound pretty **** nice.

If you want to use the iPod when you run, jog, or do any type of exercise then I would tell you to get the iPod mini. This will be better because you may get some skipping out of the original iPod's since they have a hard drive rather than the flash memory that comes in the iPod mini. Personally, I want an iPod mini really bad because I know that it would be perfect for everything, rather then spending the money and then you not being able to use it when you jog. This is just what I have heard about the 2 so don't quote me on this. I bought a iBook to use as my iPod, but I just use it at work and home not as a recreational use. Good luck and I'm jealous with either one you choose.

- Jason

I have over 60 GB of music on my Mac with about 400 CDs I would eventually like to archive to disk as well. I just bought an iPod mini for my wife tonight. 4GB will hold a quite lot of music, more than you can listen to in a day. You have to plug it in every night to recharge it so why not just rotate the music occasionaly? Also the smaller size was nice and the fact the iPod Mini uses a larger cache to prevent skipping.

jasonf said:

If you want to use the iPod when you run, jog, or do any type of exercise then I would tell you to get the iPod mini. This will be better because you may get some skipping out of the original iPod's since they have a hard drive rather than the flash memory that comes in the iPod mini.

Click to expand...

the iPod minis use hard drives, not flash memory. they use hitachi's 1 inch micro-drives. and there really shouldn't be a problem of skipping with any of the iPods--original or mini. they both have 25 minutes of skip protection.

this is true..but both iPod minis, and originals...have cache..that's why if you just put hold on, and let your iPod play without pushing a lot of buttons..you get a lot more battery life...cause the hardrive doesn't have to start up as much...it puts things into some sort of cache...

Well, I don't really care for the colors myself and 4gb just isn't enough. I have the original 5gb model and it just doesn't cut it anymore. Someday(*Soon*) I plan on getting a 15gb model because I need the space and want something new. So if anybody is in the market for a nearly mint 5gb 1g ipod, I may have one for sale with case and car charger(Shameless plug)

Also, I think the idea of jogging with an ipod is a very very bad idea. Hard drives are pretty sensitive and even if they are packaged in the ipod to accept levels of shock, I wouldn't run with it in use. All you have to do is scratch a platter the slightest and it's over. If you ever have a bad hard drive, you usually can't fix it because to take it apart and fix any internal components...you usually have to be in a controlled atmosphere. One without dust and I can't honestly think of one place that doesn't have any dust of debris in it. Take an old hard drive apart sometime and you can see what i'm talking about with the platters and the read/write heads and on old hard drives the components are larger considering the ipods hard drive is pretty compact compared to hard drives of yesterday.

Just my two cents, which has a varying exchange rate of about 5-6, give or take

KLank said:

Personally, I think for the $50 difference it is silly to get a device that is only 4GB. The regular iPod isn't all that big. Of course this is from a guy that has a minidisc player and is looking at the new Hi-MD's that are coming out soon (1GB per minidisc). But my wife does have a 40GB iPod.

Click to expand...

I was at the Apple Store yesterday looking at the mini-ipod's and the $50's is not as clear as it seems.

The Mini-ipod comes with ~$100 worth of accessories (i.e. USB and firewire cables, and cases). THe mini-ipod also will work with USB lower the 2.0.

The 15GB ipod comes with really nothing just cable and standard headphones. the 20GB give you the case and the inline remote headphones.

If you want a Mini right now, you also have to consider the 6 week wait...

I have a 40 gig iPod that is quickly filling up. It's going on ebay the second I hear anything substantial about 4g models.

Are you sure that you can use it with USB lower than 2.0? and are you sure that's $100 in accessories? I can only get a few places to verify any extra items and that would have to be the USB 2.0 cable for windows. And Apple's site kind of mentions this really cheesy looking case, but I wouldn't ever use it for fear it would break. And as far as the 15gb and 20gb go....you might as well get the 20 because it comes with:

the dock - $39
inline remote - $39
case, and the case isn't so bad - $39

plus 5 more gb of music. And for the record, the usb 2.0 cable is $20 and you'd be crazy not to go find a firewire card for that kind of money.

I finally got my iPod. I spent the big money and got a 40 GB model. I can't say I'm entirely happy with it though. I found out after I got the iPod that it is not compatable with Mac OS 9. I figured that by saying Mac OS X on the package, it ment that the software (like iTunes) that came with it was only for OS X and the iPod itself would work with older versions of Mac operating systems as well as the newer ones. All that happens when I attach the iPod to the computer is that I get an iPod icon on my desktop, and I could put files in it. The problem with this is that even though you could store the files on the iPod as a very expensive hard drive, I can't figure out a way to listen to these files. I could use it with my windows computer, but I'm not too happy about that since most of my music is saved on my mac. I've been looking all over the internet to see if I could find some way to get my iPod to work with my mac without updateing my operating system, but I've been unsuccessful so far. Any suggestions?

I realize you just said, without updating your OS...but why not? As well, when it says OS X...I don't see how you could perceive that any other way. As far as working with OS 9, if there is a way...it's out there somewhere. Why not transfer all your music to your PC? I've heard many people say that iTunes doesn't work very good with windows but that just isn't the case. My iPod, nor any of the other ones I've owned, have had any problems with windows XP. I've owned a 1g and my current 30gb, 3g obviously.