[Simon]

ThinkSecret today spilled the beans about the new iPod mini. I guess just like everybody expected, it's supposed to come with a 5 GB Seagate HDD. It's could be announced as early as next week. The really surprising part is that it's expected to get a color screen.

Apple apparently wants to make a transition to color-only iPods within the next revisions. The real bomb comes from ApplerInsider which claims that the normal iPod will not get a color screen right away. Instead the 40 GB model is to be discontinued and the iPod photo models - each a $100 less - will take over its place. That would leave the 20 GB iPod and U2 SE iPod the only remaining grayscale iPods.

I like the idea of the iPod photo replacing the 40 GB. The only downside is the iPod photo's slightly higher width. I wanted to get a normal 40 GB iPod, but if this really happens the way AI claims, I'll be getting a 40 GB with a higher resolution color screen and a carrying bag for the same price. Sweet.

[Wiskedjak]

Originally posted by Simon:
The really surprising part is that it's expected to get a color screen.

They kinda have to, what with iRiver's 5gb player having a colour screen and being only $20 more than the 4gb, monochrome mini.

[Disgruntled Head of C-3PO]

Originally posted by Wiskedjak:
They kinda have to, what with iRiver's 5gb player having a colour screen and being only $20 more than the 4gb, monochrome mini.

But it gives less of a reason to buy the damn expensive iPod photo.

[Simon]

Originally posted by Disgruntled Head of C-3PO:
But it gives less of a reason to buy the damn expensive iPod photo.

Well, the 'damn expensive' iPod photo will be a $100 less, meaning that the 40 GB iPod will become a 40 GB iPod photo. I think maybe Apple has come to the conclusion that people aren't buying the iPod photo because it shows photos, but because they just want the big iPods. So in the future there could be the normal iPod (20 GB) and then larger iPods (40 and 60 GB) which incidentally also display photos. Sounds like a smart move on Apple's behalf.

[Commodus]

I have to say that a 5 or 6 GB iPod mini with a colour screen and (hopefully) photo support would be perfect for many people: carry your music with you, but have just enough space left over to either use the mini like a photo wallet or give yourself some room to grow.

In that sense, Creative/Gateway/iRiver have had the right idea; they just don't have either the marketing momentum or the know-how to really get people buying. Creative's 6 GB player (when it's released in June) will cost $299 and looks like a fat Zen Micro; Gateway's has a 128x128 screen that isn't terribly useful for photos (or music, even); the iRiver's controls aren't as good as they should be.

[bgotori]

Hey Simon

Did they say when we could expect the New Models??? Looking to Upgrade my 30gb iPod to someting at least twice the size. It'll be Great if there $100 cheaper!!! Might get two(2)of the Bigger Models...hahaha


Thanks!!!

Brad

[Burke]

I'm glad, just because I prefer the readability of the color screens over the monochrome ones. I'll be snagging a new silver iPod mini as soon as they're available, fo' real.

[im_noahselby]

I'm really looking forward to this iPod mini update. It's been well over a year now and an update is needed. I agree with a lot that is said in this thread. Does anyone think Apple will add iPhoto support to the new iPod mini's? I'm thinking since they are adding a colour screen, they might as well...

I have a feeling that Apple may be changing around the colours this time. This will either piss off or please a lot of users. My bet is that gold is definitely gone, but we'll have to wait and see. I can't wait for next week to come.

Noah

[Simon]

Brad, it's just a rumor, so there's no real intro date - or at least we can't know for sure. ThinkSecret claims the mini updates could come as soon as Tuesday or the week after at the latest. AppleInsider says the iPod photo price drop should come 'soon'.

[bgotori]

Hey Simon

Thanks for the Info!!!

You guys have your Act together, thats why I come to this WebBoard. Info on here is pretty straight to the point for the most part, and your LOOK-A-HEAD's are REALLY CLOSE to the REAL DATES OF RELEASE.


Thanks Again!!!

Brad

[mitchell_pgh]

I'm really considering the iPod mini. I love the green and blue. A color screen will just add a level of niceness... I'm more interested in the HD bump.

[Disgruntled Head of C-3PO]

Originally posted by Burke:
I'm glad, just because I prefer the readability of the color screens over the monochrome ones. I'll be snagging a new silver iPod mini as soon as they're available, fo' real.

I thought monochrome was easier to read especially in sunlight?

[jcabanti]

Originally posted by Simon:
...it's supposed to come with a 5 GB Seagate HDD...

The new drives from Seagate have the new RunOn technology that makes the drive significantly resistant to adverse motion (like when running or other high movement activity) so there's less read errors and less freezing. I wish Apple would bump it 6GB and boost the battery life to no less than 10 hrs. The color screen would be great for displaying album art, but other than that, I don't really see any value to a color screen. But if the new iPod mini costs the same as the old mini, I'll take the color screen and whatever new bells & whistles are included.

[Eug Wanker]

Originally posted by Simon:
5 GB Seagate HDD

[Elvin]

Just a question out of curiosity... I have 10GB of music, so if I were plug in an iPod mini, does it handle my music library the same way as a shuffle would?... will it ask me if I want a random selection of music, or just higher rated songs.. or just start filling it until it is full?

Thanks in advance!

[Paco500]

This is fantastic news in my opinion. Not because I want a color screen- to be quite honest, the longer battery life and better readability of monochrome screen are more suited to a portable music player as I see it. But...

We can find lessons from Apple, NeXT and Palm's histories that not adding color to a product, even if it's not the "best" thing to do, can harm you, perhaps irreparably, in the market place. When I was in high school in the mid to late 80's, I had an IBM PCjr- possibly one of the worst consumer computers ever made, and I looked down on Macs because they didn't have color. Now when I actually used one, I became a convert for life, but the the ignorant, a crappy PCjr, a crappy PocektPC or a crappy ANYTHING else other than a NeXT Cube looked better, and the "better" product either began to loose, or never attained, the leadership position it should have had.

I can just imagine the Steve Jobs of the past saying "MP3 players don't need color" and watching stubbornly as the iPod's market share begins to die.

[HazelGirl]

Maybe Apple will formally announce these ipod updates at the same time he announces the public release of Tiger. I think that would be pretty cool.

Edit: Wow...with the new technology in the mini to combat the while skip problem when in a moving environment....looks like I will have to wait to decide which one I want...the mini or the shuffle? I like the screen factor of the mini. I wonder if the color screen will drain the battery? oh well....we'll see

[kmkkid]

Maybe the 'colour screens' will be OLED, and only consist of a few colours...



Chris

[Eug Wanker]

Originally posted by HazelGirl:
Maybe Apple will formally annoce these ipod updates at the same time he announces the public release of Tiger. I think that would be pretty cool.

Nah, that would majorly suck, since Tiger won't be released for several months yet.

[macgyvr64]

After dropping my 40 GB iPod (and hacking it), I'm thinking about getting an iPod mini as soon as they do this revision. 4 GB is too small for me, but 5 or 6 would be just right. Granted, I have TONS of music (hence my 40GB), but I find that it's too much to listen to. Too many songs are filler. Maybe that means I need to slim down my music library..but I can't bear to divide up a complete album.

They're bound to get larger hard drives, at least 5 GB...5 is essentially the bottom line of HD based players now, so it will be good to see that spec go up. And a color screen is just an added bonus -- the iPod Photo screen is just gorgeous (especially the solitaire game!).

[pengin]

According to MacShrine, the date seems to be wednesday?

MacShrine Article

Apple is due to drop another iPod bomb on Wednesday with a shakeup of the line. The regular iPod we know and love will be dropped and replaced with a new 30GB iPod photo ($349) and a 60GB iPod photo ($449). The iPod mini also gets a shakeup with the "Gold" being dropped and new 6GB iPod mini ($249) with color screens being introduced. A regular 4GB iPod mini ($199) will remain

That'll be interesting: a 6GB and 4GB mini. I love the lower price for a 4gb mini, but i wonder if it'll get any changes from the current minis.


Derek

[davidu]

Will the new iPod minis (and new iPods in general) still be compatible with iTunes 4.6? I don't want to upgrade my iTunes since everything is working just fine right now and I don't trust Apple not to put malicious disabling code (e.g., breaking 3rd party programs that keep the music we've bought as useable and transferable as possible) into new updates of iTunes.

[macgyvr64]

Originally posted by davidu:
Will the new iPod minis (and new iPods in general) still be compatible with iTunes 4.6? I don't want to upgrade my iTunes since everything is working just fine right now and I don't trust Apple not to put malicious disabling code (e.g., breaking 3rd party programs that keep the music we've bought as useable and transferable as possible) into new updates of iTunes.

Aside from the "iPod Download" plugin, I don't think you have anything at all to worry about. Purchased music should work fine with just about any of Apple's software/hardware. They want to keep things as interoperable as possible (at least within the confines of their own products). It's part of what makes the Mac great.

If you need to remove the DRM to get purchased music onto other devices, check out JHymn or read up on converting audio from one format to another -- both solutions work. If you're just using iTunes+iPod, you have nothing to worry about.

As for simply getting songs off your iPod onto your Mac, get PodWorks.

Originally posted by davidu:
Will the new iPod minis (and new iPods in general) still be compatible with iTunes 4.6? I don't want to upgrade my iTunes since everything is working just fine right now and I don't trust Apple not to put malicious disabling code (e.g., breaking 3rd party programs that keep the music we've bought as useable and transferable as possible) into new updates of iTunes.

They've never done that before, why would they do it now?

[macgyvr64]

Originally posted by hayesk:
They've never done that before, why would they do it now?

Maybe just to show the music industry that they're at least doing something to stop (and I use "stop" loosely here) transfer of music from one machine to another via an iPod. I could be totally wrong, though..

That, and it was something likely very easy to do. Yes, they could stop PodWorks and the myriad of other apps out there that have the same functionality, but iPod Download worked right inside iTunes...it was probably a 10 minute "fix" to disable it. They can't stop them all, though...the iPod stores the files in an easily retrievable format. Just read in the tags from the hidden folder and have at it. iPod Download was just something easily within reach.

Thoughts?

[davidu]

Originally posted by davidu:
Will the new iPod minis (and new iPods in general) still be compatible with iTunes 4.6? I don't want to upgrade my iTunes since everything is working just fine right now and I don't trust Apple not to put malicious disabling code (e.g., breaking 3rd party programs that keep the music we've bought as useable and transferable as possible) into new updates of iTunes.

Well, I just answered my own question: they will *not* be (and are *already* not) compatible! See http://www.apple.com/ipod/download/ in the bottom right corner:

"iPod and iPod mini Requirements:
Mac or Windows PC with Firewire or USB 2.0 port
Mac OS X 10.1.5 or later (Mac OS X 10.3.4 or later recommended, and required for USB 2.0)
Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 or Windows XP
iTunes 4.7 or later"

You see: "iTunes 4.7 or later"-- why is that???

[JHromadka]

I'll be buying an iPod mini for my sister as soon as they are announced. I noticed they have a 5-7 day ship time right now.

[iPodilla]

Some real fun is going to be seeing the album cover artwork on the new iPod minis. If you don't have it already...

Best new iPod accessory? MPFreaker 1.0

www.mpfreaker.com

[macgyvr64]

Originally posted by davidu:
Well, I just answered my own question: they will *not* be (and are *already* not) compatible! See http://www.apple.com/ipod/download/ in the bottom right corner:

"iPod and iPod mini Requirements:
Mac or Windows PC with Firewire or USB 2.0 port
Mac OS X 10.1.5 or later (Mac OS X 10.3.4 or later recommended, and required for USB 2.0)
Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 or Windows XP
iTunes 4.7 or later"

You see: "iTunes 4.7 or later"-- why is that???

They are still compatible. I've personally *used* new iPods with iTunes 4.6... Maybe it's just them pushing the new version on their site. iTunes less than 4.7 will work with iPods because we've all seen it work first hand - it's a clear feature of iTunes. The only way they could stop iPods from working with iTunes would be through an iPod firmware update, and I don't think they would do that...there's just too much of a chance that there are users who have yet to upgrade to 4.7.1.

It's sort of a "we recommend this" suggestion. Generally, products get better with each successive update, so they push the new version to squash bugs in older releases.

I'm sure you'll be able to buy iPods for many months that will still work with iTunes 4.6. I think Apple recently stopped iTunes 4.5 or less from accessing the iTunes Music Store. They probably made changes to the Music Store infrastructure that required code in iTunes greater than 4.5, so they made the switch mandatory.

I think, for the most part, it's safe to update your Apple software on a regular basis. Just keep an eye on the Mac news sites for alerts. Once in a while a bug slips through, and the news sites all jump on it ASAP.

[irockdabari]

I want a green iPod mini. Does anyone think strongly that Apple will discontinue it? Should I go out and buy one right now?

[macgyvr64]

Originally posted by irockdabari:
I want a green iPod mini. Does anyone think strongly that Apple will discontinue it? Should I go out and buy one right now?

There you have it :-P

The new 6 GB models are great... 6 GB worth of music is, for me, about 3 and a half days worth of msuic time. So the 18 hours play time is excellent, and you won't run out of tunes.

[Simon]

Hmm, it's certainly a smart move on Apple's behalf to cut the included accessories down to what's really needed, but it puts me in a weird situation because I need a dock and that makes the new iPods less of a bargain compared to the old ones.

Before I would have gotten a 40 GB iPod for $401 (university deal) which would have included a dock.

Now I can get a 30 GB iPod photo plus the dock for $363 or a 60 GB with dock for $461.

I'd like the 60 GB because of the huge disk and color display, but it's pretty expensive and $60 more than what I wanted to pay originally. I could get the 30 GB and be happy with paying $38 less. But OTOH $38 saved for 10 GB of HD less is a bad trade-off. That would mean, I should get the old 40 GB iPod. However, I don't like that idea either, because I'd prefer the higher resolution color screen and the beautiful GUI of the photo. I have 17 GB of music, so 30 GB would be enough, but... I guess it's either the 30 GB or the 60 GB. Darn.

Decisions, decisions. Hell, just when I thought I knew which iPod to get. What would you guys do?

[Commodus]

Simon:

Get the 30 GB model. It'll take you a rather long time to fill up that 30 GB (unless you have roughly 10 GB of photos waiting to go), and on top of that it's roughly the size and weight of ye olde monochrome 40 GB iPod.

[Simon]

Originally posted by Commodus:
Simon:

Get the 30 GB model. It'll take you a rather long time to fill up that 30 GB (unless you have roughly 10 GB of photos waiting to go), and on top of that it's roughly the size and weight of ye olde monochrome 40 GB iPod.

Yeah, the 30GB is thinner and lighter. Good point.

But, when I see that $60 more than I was planning to spend, is going to get me 20 GB more disk space... The 60 GB sure is tempting.

Plus, I'd hold the right to brag about having the ultimate config.

[Eriamjh]

The really surprising part is that it's expected to get a color screen.

No color screens.

[im_noahselby]

Originally posted by Eriamjh:
No color screens.

This has kinda been washed over in much of the news coverage. When looking for information about the mini's "new coulor screen", I had to go directly to Apple's site to see for myself. As much as a colour screen would have been cool, I think, and I'm sure others will agree with me when I say that the iPod is a strong enough product without one. So it's not really that big of a deal.

Since the new ones and old ones look pretty much the same, I can't decide which one to go with. I'll probbably grab the cheaper green one!

Noah

[Lancer409]

Originally posted by im_noahselby:
This has kinda been washed over in much of the news coverage. When looking for information about the mini's "new coulor screen", I had to go directly to Apple's site to see for myself. As much as a colour screen would have been cool, I think, and I'm sure others will agree with me when I say that the iPod is a strong enough product without one. So it's not really that big of a deal.

Since the new ones and old ones look pretty much the same, I can't decide which one to go with. I'll probbably grab the cheaper green one!

Noah

18 hour battery life!

[Eug Wanker]

IPOD MINI,6G,BLUE-PERSONALIZED-USA P9803LL/A

On or before 02/25/2005

[revmitcz]

I noticed it said "3 new colors". Am I missing something or did they just kick up the saturation on the previous colors? One article I read said there was now 6 colors. I'm confused. Though, it DOES appear that they changed the colors on the actual buttons on the scroll wheel.

[BrunoBruin]

Originally posted by revmitcz:
I noticed it said "3 new colors". Am I missing something or did they just kick up the saturation on the previous colors? One article I read said there was now 6 colors. I'm confused. Though, it DOES appear that they changed the colors on the actual buttons on the scroll wheel.

To me the pink and green look exactly the same! MAYBE a BIT darker... but the actual iPods were always darker than they appeared on my display. Guess I'll be forced to visit the Apple Store to look at them in the wild. I still want a pink one, but I was hoping for 8GB.

I'm a bit miffed by this "price cut" that was really an "accessory cut." If you add in the FireWire cable and AC adapter, the 4GB model is still $247.

[im_noahselby]

Originally posted by Lancer409:
18 hour battery life!

As tempting as the better battery life and slight HD bump is, it's not really worth an extra $80 Cdn, in my oppinion. Maybe had there been a colour screen and new colours, I'd be tempted, but I think the old one will be fine for me. I don't plan on using my iPod for more than 2-3 hours at a time anyways, so the increased battery performance doesn't really do much for me.

I made some phone calls and stores in my area have pretty much no iPod mini's in stock. Well, some had "a couple pink ones" left. On my last call, one store had a silver one. It's not green, but at least it will match my PB The new lower prices are awesome!

Cdn iPod mini Prices:
4GB iPod mini = $249 (was $329)
6GB iPod mini = $319

Noah

[Eug Wanker]

Originally posted by im_noahselby:
As tempting as the better battery life and slight HD bump is, it's not really worth an extra $80 Cdn, in my oppinion. Maybe had there been a colour screen and new colours, I'd be tempted, but I think the old one will be fine for me. I don't plan on using my iPod for more than 2-3 hours at a time anyways, so the increased battery performance doesn't really do much for me.

I made some phone calls and stores in my area have pretty much no iPod mini's in stock. Well, some had "a couple pink ones" left. On my last call, one store had a silver one. It's not green, but at least it will match my PB The new lower prices are awesome!

Cdn iPod mini Prices:
4GB iPod mini = $249 (was $329)
6GB iPod mini = $319

Noah

Slight HD bump? It's a 50% increase. In my case it is effectively almost a 100% increase in music, since I need about 1.5-2 GBs free for data. So instead of a 2 GB music player it's now a 4 GB music player.

BTW, the educational pricing is:

4 GB: $225
6 GB: $289

In any case we both win. I get my 6 GB, and you get your $50 price drop.

[im_noahselby]

A freind of mine and myself actually got something kind of mixed up, so for those who aren't aware of this:

Apple is actually releasing NEW 4GB iPods. This new lower price ($199US/$249Cdn) isn't for remaining stock of older 4GB iPod mini models, rather, it's for the new 4GB models. So both the NEW 4GB & 6GB iPod mini's will feature the 18+ hour battery performance. Nice.

With this said, I guess I will be getting both the colour I want and battery power of these new iPod mini's afterall.

[BrunoBruin]

Originally posted by Eug Wanker:
Slight HD bump? It's a 50% increase. In my case it is effectively almost a 100% increase in music, since I need about 1.5-2 GBs free for data. So instead of a 2 GB music player it's now a 4 GB music player.

I was REALLY tempted to buy a discontinued pink mini for $179, but like Eug, that extra space will make a big difference for me. I can have a good percentage of my music and still have room to carry files back and forth. And that extra battery life is not to be sniffed at.

Kodawarisan's unboxing pics made up my mind, though; it made me realize that the previous pink minis were almost a shade too purple, more of a violet color, while the new ones are PINK. And if you're gonna have a pink mini, it might as well be PINK.

[Eug Wanker]

Actually, one interesting accessory I'd like to have is this iPod mini holder that they're advertising at the Apple Store. It's blue with black highlights and has a very nice design: