Mini review

Wow…didn’t realize it’s been 10 days since I lasted blogged. I haven’t been incredibly busy, just lazy really!!

Like millions of other lemmings, I bought myself and Jenny an iPod (silver and pink)...mini ones to be precise. I like the fact that they’re incredibly small and stylish compared to their bigger brothers.

Styling:

The iPod is hands down the sexiest mp3 player one the market. The mini one comes in a variety of different colours (bar white…don’t get me started on how racist it is to be paying more for a normal size white version!!)

Sound:

To be honest, I’m a little disappointed at the sound quality outputted from the unit. At first I thought it was due to the crappy stock headphones. But, even when my trusty Sennheiser headphones were plugged in, you can hear some distortion when cranked to the max volume. Other then that though, the sound can be modified as you like by the software equalizer.

Functionality:

What do you want out of an mp3 player??....err, news, weather info, cinema listings, support for RSS feeds…because that’s you can achieve with this dinky device. Using iPod agent, you can quickly sync a whole load of info directly to you pod, excellent for when you’re on the go and bored. You can also use the pod as an external hard drive to transport your files!!

Cons:

Could really find a section for these, so thought I’d create a dedicated one. Whilst, I’m singing the praise of the mini iPod, it does have some very irritating flaws. The first being it’s battery life. From the three days I have been using it, the average battery life is just over 7 hours. This is with minimal “fiddling” about with and no EQ / backlight settings being on. Pretty shabby, but I don’t mind charging it everyday as it charges whilst syncing.
The second flaw is the software…I reallllyyy hate iTunes, its pants!!!! Why do I need to create a playlist for every album I have?!? Why can’t it keep the folder directory structure that I have on my hard drive rather then sticking everything in the “library?”
My final gripe, as mentioned before, is the headphones. After one day of use expect to have very sore, if not bruised, ears!

Overall, I would recommend the iPod. But, if you’re not a lemming like me…seriously consider buying the Creative Zen Micro. It’s a bit cheaper and comes with a gig extra storage. However, let’s be honest…like your old Walkman and MD player, you’ll be buying something new to replace it within a couple of years anyway!

+nicks