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5 GB iPod Mini?

rdowns said:
Not to single your post out, but drop the price drop thing already. Apple has had a very successful strategy in growing the iPod business. Keep the price the same and increase the capacity and add a feature or two. Why stop now? It's not like the Minis are sitting on shelves gathering dust. Apple would be stupid to lower the prices; a smart business does not leave profits on the table.
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thank you. price drops are great, but what incentive does apple have to drop $50 off the price right now? i still don't see a glut of minis piling up at the apple store.

if the iPod micro thing is real, keep the mini price point where it is, add some storage to it, and put the new flash player in the $150-175 price range. then you would have a clear division in price point & storage capacity.
 
sinisterdesign said:
thank you. price drops are great, but what incentive does apple have to drop $50 off the price right now? i still don't see a glut of minis piling up at the apple store.

if the iPod micro thing is real, keep the mini price point where it is, add some storage to it, and put the new flash player in the $150-175 price range. then you would have a clear division in price point & storage capacity.
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Amen. I've been saying the same thing ever since the rumors started picking up a little steam.
The mini needs to close the gap that has developed as Apple keeps upping the capacity of the low-end iPod. 6GB for $249, 8GB would be nicer. No need for a price drop.
Personally, while I think the mini is cool, I already have a 20GB 4G. There are certainly times that I'd like to lug around something smaller, but for me the mini isn't it. It is still too big, holds more than I need it to (I have a 20GB if I need to lug ALL my tunes), and costs too darn much. I can see the alure of the mini, just not for me.
A iPod micro, OTOH, is something I can see picking up. If it is around 1GB (heck, 512MB will be okay, especially if it is AAC+), costs about $149 (or 2GB for $199), has at least 15 hours of battery life, and can connect with my iPod to dl playlists to it? It wouldn't even need a screen, although it'd be nice. A device like this is meant to be used for short bursts. Set it on shuffle and skip the songs you don't want to hear. Sign me up.
 
ROFL to all the people who are still complaining about the price... 😀
Why on earth would Apple lower the price if the demand is still this high?
I know you're hoping, but it won't happen, sorry.
 
Diatribe said:
ROFL to all the people who are still complaining about the price... 😀
Why on earth would Apple lower the price if the demand is still this high?
I know you're hoping, but it won't happen, sorry.
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Actually they want more storage, and better batteries, with the price drop. Yeah..that's gonna happen. 🙄
 
I own a mini, and an looking forward to an upgrade. I really could care less about the move to 5 gig drive.

What will inspire me to upgrade is better battery life. Give me 12-15 hours, and I'll be the first in line.
 
Mainyehc said:
I've been thinking about something lately... HE-AAC will be the next big thing, indeed. What if Apple implemented some kind of "on-the-fly encoding"?

Picture this: You could have your entire collection encoded in Apple lossless (or "HE-AAC lossless"? Is HE-AAC scalable? I don't know a lot about encoding so bear with me 😛), which would be nice if you wanted to connect your Mac/PC to your stereo system, and each time you plugged in a regular iPod, it would convert them to AAC, or HE-AAC.

The same goes for the Mini, or the rumoured "micro-screenless-whatever" iPod; If you plugged in one of those, iTunes would automatically re-encode your lossless/AAC tracks in HE-AAC. A mini would hold a lot more songs, and a 1GB "iPod micro" could hold as much songs as a mini can hold now (and the lack of screen *would* become a problem 🙄 ). This way, you wouldn't need to keep different versions of your tracks in your computer's HD, just the lossless ones. I'm preety sure Apple could pull this off, and make a very useful and straightfoward feature out of this concept. The only problem would be re-encoding M4P tracks. I don't know if Apple could find a way to implement that without breaking their DRM.

Let's hope Apple gets it right with HE-AAC, and if they do, it will be a huge slap in the face of Sony, because of their "ACRAP/8TRACK 3 plus" enconder 😉. By the way, if the iPod uses a more compressed format, won't we be getting better battery life? 😕 😀
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What you say is possible, but not feasible due to encoding speeds simply not being fast enough even on Apple's top-end hardware for users not to notice a slowdown. In order for it to be feasible, Apple would have to choose an arbitrary maximum song length and not implement the feature until iTunes can encode a song of that length on all supported hardware in less than whatever Apple's user interface engineers see as the longest delay. Let's pick some numbers here... 8 minutes for the longest song, and maximum encoding time of .25 seconds... not likely to happen until 2010 at the earliest.
 
Windows Media Player has had on-the-fly transcoding for portable MP3 players for a long, long time. Sure it takes longer to sync your player, but I for one would welcome the feature in iTunes. I'd like to have a lossless archive on my computer (which can play the higher quality files to my stereo receiver via iTunes) and then put 128kbps AAC on my iPod so they will all fit.
 
weldon said:
Windows Media Player has had on-the-fly transcoding for portable MP3 players for a long, long time. Sure it takes longer to sync your player, but I for one would welcome the feature in iTunes. I'd like to have a lossless archive on my computer (which can play the higher quality files to my stereo receiver via iTunes) and then put 128kbps AAC on my iPod so they will all fit.
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I didn't know that Microsoft considered it feasible now. I guess that means Apple could implement it in iTunes and copy MS for once 😉
 
weldon said:
Now? We're talking Windows Media Player 7.1 from a few years ago.
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Boy am I not with the times when it comes to Windows Media Player - maybe it's because I've never used the Windows version or the Mac version heavily.
 
My wife and I have a mini and the ONLY thing we do not like is battery life.....especially since our iPod Photo can get around 15 hours.

Here is what I am hoping for in the updated mini:

-Increased battery life (at least 12 hours)
-Increased storage - preferably 6 or 8GB.....though 5GB would be fine if they increase battery life and implement the HE-AAC
-Implementation of HE-AAC - this will benefit both of the areas above: the ability to encode at lower bit-rates will allow more songs on the mini and lower bit-rates should use less battery while playing.
-More colors.........particularly orange (my favorite color)

I could care less about other features on the mini.
 
Jovian9 said:
My wife and I have a mini and the ONLY thing we do not like is battery life.....especially since our iPod Photo can get around 15 hours.

Here is what I am hoping for in the updated mini:

-Increased battery life (at least 12 hours)
-Increased storage - preferably 6 or 8GB.....though 5GB would be fine if they increase battery life and implement the HE-AAC
-Implementation of HE-AAC - this will benefit both of the areas above: the ability to encode at lower bit-rates will allow more songs on the mini and lower bit-rates should use less battery while playing.
-More colors.........particularly orange (my favorite color)

I could care less about other features on the mini.
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Definitely all good recommendations. I'm not sure if we'll see HE-AAC anytime soon, but who knows, it would be nice. And yes, we can always use more colors... 😎
 
The New mini ipods

5gb isn't bad if Apple lowers the price to $225. If they do release new ones,
they should really change the colors like what they used to do with the
old imacs. Maybe bolder colors, like a deep blue, orange, dark green,
even a black one with the white wheel.
 
agentmouthwash said:
5gb isn't bad if Apple lowers the price to $225. If they do release new ones,
they should really change the colors like what they used to do with the
old imacs. Maybe bolder colors, like a deep blue, orange, dark green,
even a black one with the white wheel.
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Well, they sure should add at least orange and purple to match the Socks, but I'd looooove a deep blue one!
 
dili said:
Right. ...why not upgrade it to a whooping 5.2Gig. ...that will rock!! 🙂

Nope Apple! You will have to do better. 6Gig is the minimum AND a price drop if you ask me.

We'll see.
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Obviously the more storage and the less cost the better. If I was in the market for a mini I would welcome this upgrade of course. However, if I was not this upgrade would not entice me to be in the market.
 
ummm... we have to remember that no one makes a 6 or 8 gig 1" hard drive. So a 6 or 8 gig iPod mini is not feasible unless they use flash. Except that would put the price to about $600 for an iPod mini.

I have a 40gig 3G ipod but I have come to realize that it is too big to work out with. I'm a cyclist and its too big and heavy to take on 2+ hour rides. My brother got a mini and i've been wanting one since. I've been holding out since the mini is nearly a year old and due for this update at MWSF. I may go for the flash iPod (if released) or an updated mini.

I would want more battery life and increased storage is a plus but really not necessary(to me at least, although its nice). A decrease in size and weight would also be a plus.
 
jamito said:
just want to note that the Macworld Jan issue has a table that confirms that ipod mini will be 5gb and will keep the same price.
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Interesting to note if they have the inside scoop on the iPod releases in January, then there is no iPod flash. Also, no mention of improved battery life.
 
To me a *second* error points to it being more likely. If there is change to two items, it's less likely that there was a single clerical error... right?

THen again, why would Apple give inside info to *anyone* outside their co.?
 
jamito said:
just want to note that the Macworld Jan issue has a table that confirms that ipod mini will be 5gb and will keep the same price.
Click to expand...

No freakin' way. How do you think Macworld got that info? It surprises me that they're apparently reporting it as fact.
 
iPod mini is an obsolute ripoff!

it costs 180 quid - 4GB
the 20GB iPod costs about 230 quid

if you pay an extra 50 quid, you get an extra 16GB of space!
why not?

but people still prefer the mini. dont they know the worth of their money?
sure its small and comes in cute colours but the price is way way over the top...
the battery life is crap! apparently there are problems with the headphone socket as well. the iPod batteries die out after 2 yrs. so we pay this 230 quid or 180 quid for a 2-yr product. the only way to save yourself is to pay an extra 50 quid and get the Applecare Plan and exchange it for a new iPod/mini before the 2yr warranty ends.


we've got way too many stupid people in this world. talk about RDF...
 
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