After watching the keynote I was a bit under whelmed by the announcements.
I got a chance to catch the last day of Macworld in San Francisco. When I picked up the MINI... WOW!
Steve was right, pictures do NOT do it justice.
Aesthetically it is perfect. About the size of a cool cellular phone, but much smoother. The rounded edges with the hard aluminum is a nice feel. No fingerprints to worry about. Scratches wont be as big a problem either. It's just the right size. It wasn't heavy either.
The wheel and integrated PUSH BUTTONS are wonderful. The circumference of the wheel seems smaller than the 3G iPod, so it's actually easier to spin your thumb around it. I HATE the static buttons on my current iPod, but LOVE the push buttons on my 5GB original. The MINI combines the best of both generations. The static wheel works great, and the push buttons underneath allow you to know 100% when a function is invoked. In short, it makes navigating the MINI a snap. The lock button won't be needed so much anymore due to the push buttons.
The screen is smaller, brighter, and sharper (and has the bluish hue in the background). My 3G iPod's screen was quite a disappointment over the original 5GB's screen. The MINI's screen looks wonderful, and despite being visibly smaller over the previous generation, is amazingly clear.
The volume output SEEMED better than my current iPod. Apple was using very nice headphones at the show, so maybe that was the reason. The MINI was plenty loud and quality was exceptional. No static pops between songs or hard drive induced interference noticed (that was such a pain on early versions of the 3G iPod).
The MINI has two problems: price and capacity. Both of which will be solved over time. Price will go down and probably settle between $150 and $179. Capacity will increase over the next three years, to probably 30GB.
Battery life: who knows at this point. It can't get much worse than the larger 3G iPod. For me, that's about 2.5-5 hours.
Colors: All look cool. I'll skip pink because I'm a guy. Blue and green are nice.
I went from 'eh' to 'wow' in about one minute. There's definitely a MINI in my future. The moment the price hits $199, I'm in. I really hope most folks will withhold judgment of the MINI until they get a chance to have some hands-on time. It is a wonderful music player in every way. Nice job, Apple!
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