Apple iPod mini 4GB - Blue [9436B/A]

Yes, it was like Christmas when I opened up the new bain of my life and was eager to get my 1,000 songs on this little, fashion machine. However, I encountered a few problems that I will share with you and the solutions. Now, these may seem like simple nothings to those already acquainted with the digital music revolution but these somewhat 'simple' problems nearly caused my a mental breakdown!

1) Getting the most out of your storage. To cut a long story short I loaded some of my music which I had ripped straight from my CD collection to iTunes onto my iPod when I first got it and found that, despite having only 150 songs on the iPod it was saying it was already full. After much frustration and a call to Apple I discovered that I was transfering my music as WAV files instead of AAC files. I thought that iTunes automatically converted it but oh, well...! To change the file type, go to 'Edit' in iTunes, 'Preferences', 'Importing' on the tag and then change the file type to AAC. If you already have music in iTunes as WAV files you will need to convert these files to AAC. To do this select all songs, go to 'Advanced', click 'Convert' and then wait while iTunes converts these files. There will then be two versions of the same song - you must delete the WAV file by right clicking on the song, 'Get Info' and check which is the WAV file and which is the WAV file. Connect your iPod and then iTunes will automatically update your iPod with the AAC files and then you can actually get your 1,000 songs on there!! Phew!

2) Phoning Apple for help. My advice is unless you reeeeeally have to then DON'T! That's in my experience anyway. The problem that I stated above is a simple problem but it took the Apple 'technicians' 30 minutes to solve and that was after trying to sell me a bloody Apple Care insurance policy. You only get one, yes one (!) 'complimentary' call for help with your iPod if you don't have this Apple Care policy (which I think stinks to be honest!) and I was told by my vendor that I must contact Apple to sort out my problem. Corporations, eh?!

3) Be selective! If you want to make the most of your iPod mini put only your favourite songs on there to get the most out of the 3.7 GB of space.

4) Want to listen to your music on speakers? It depends how fussy you are about the quality of what you listen to but you CAN buy basic speakers to listen to your iPod at home. I didn't think you could and was contemplating buying the £49.99 Subwoofer set from Amazon but instead I experimented with some Phillips powered speakers that I bought from Woolworths for £9.99 and, in my opinion, work a treat and saved me a bomb! You can use normal Walkman style mini speakers but Powered ones are better.

5) Taking your iPod mini abroad? DON'T buy the Apple Travel Pack - you can use a basic travel adapter for your chosen continent that will cost you roughly £3-4 rather than £19.99 for the Apple one.

6) Remember you can save LOTS of money by buying non-Apple accessories and they will probably be much better quality (such as headphones). By buying the accessories from Apple you are paying for a fashion accessory rather than 'the best' that you can get.

I really DO LOVE my iPod mini and would recommend it, I would just urge buyers to look around with regards to the accessories!

It is actually bigger than I thought but is very light. It probably is about the size of credit card but it's a lot thicker. Once you take it out of the box it is quite easy to pick up how to use it. You get everything you need whether you have a mac or a PC, and you'll also get a beltclip which is secure and is actually useful! The sound is fantastic as are the extra things like organiser and games (the 'personal' music quiz is amazing!). The battery life seems fine to me at the moment. I don't know if I've had 8 hours yet but would you really use it 8 hours continously anyway? The more important thing is how you won't have to buy batteries anymore!

Also underrated is the itunes software which comes with the ipod mini. As alot of my songs were in WMA format I was worried I might not be able to put them on my ipod. Fear not because itunes will convert any WMA files into the correct format for you! I wasn't particularly an illegal download fanatic before I had my ipod, but now; with the fantastic itunes software (music store is included on the software) and my new ipod mini, I will be buying any music I don't want to buy from a shop from itunes!

My only complaint is that often when I was using itunes to take songs from a CD and upload to my ipod mini often the songs would skip when played back. It only really happenned when I uploaded an entire album. To get around this though you can upload the songs using Windows Media Player (WMA format) then itunes will convert them to the right format. No problems then!

You CAN get around 1000 songs on the ipod. Just think... you'll never have to carry all those cds or minidisks on roadtrips ever again! All your favourite songs in the palm of your hand! Don't be afraid about buying one of these! I can definitely see why they will be 'the thing' selling like hotcakes this Christmas!

So anyways i saw this at £115 in the local John Lewis department store and so bought one. I wasn't expecting much. Knowing the creative processes and flops apple has gone through i was expecting this to be difficult and purely a style accessory. After 20-25 minutes my ipod was set-up and that was that, no messing, no overnight charging, simply charge for 2 hours and upload your itunes songs on automatically, needless to say i was impressed.

The other thing i had been skeptical about was the sound. Is everyone lese hearing what i'm hearing?!? its fantastic, even with the apple earphones and the fact that i encode at 96KBS MP3 its not far off hi-fi quality, the images just dont do this baby justice.

The battery life is fine, 6-7 hours easily and the fact you get a mains charger helps even more.

Now apple have launced the 6GB edition heres what you will get for your money:

A 6GB iPod mini (Cool!)
The usual periphals (Coolish!)
NO MAINS CAHRGER (Not so cool)

Yes, apple are not giving out the charhger with the new ones so unless your constantly near a PC you're in for trouble, this applies to the shuffles and the new 20gb and 40gb generations expected out soon. Do yourselves a favour, try and track down the old 4GB mini and give yourself piece of mind, you mite lose a few hundered songs but wouldnt you rather be able to actually listen on holiday, rather than having to wait until you come back to charge it, i know i would.