In praise of my iPod Mini.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Many years ago, when this whole crazy iPod thing was just starting to get rolling, I saved up a whole lot of my pocket money and bought a cute little first generation matte-ish blue iPod Mini(4 gigabytes.) It replaced a mini-disc player (remember those? Bonus fact: they are still inexplicably popular in Japan.) The Mini was tiny and adorable and the edges were smooth and it felt perfect in your hands. It had 4 whole gigabytes of memory and was vastly more convenient than my MD player. Well, that was what, about 5 years ago?

I used that poor little thing pretty hard. Direct falls to hard concrete floors, flying leaps off of exercise machines, falling off desks, getting stepped on and sat on and all kinds of things. Then, after about 3 years of hard use, I decided to replace it with an iPod “Classic” (although it wasn’t called that then.) 80 gigabytes. That was two years ago. My little Mini still worked fine, but I bowed to the march of progress and went for the huge hard drive (bigger than my laptop’s hard drive at the time), color screen video playing capabilities, etc.

Terrible decision. It gave me all kinds of trouble and I had to send it back 3 times before I figured out the problem with it–issues with QuickTime conflicts. Apple’s tech support was useless–obviously reading off the same tech support page that I had just been reading on the internet, then telling me to send it back. I finally figured out the problem through the genius of this very message board.

I had the “classic” for a less than a week before it’s oh so cool shiny black case was scratched to all hell and a weird blotchy discoloration had occured on the shiny silver back of the “classic.” I promptly bought an over-priced case, which at least protected the screen but left hundreds of tiny little scratches on the silver backboard. A few unfortunate falls left small cracks radiating out from the touch wheel and I don’t think the thing has been free of greasy smudges since I took it out of the case.

By comparison? That little iPod mini is still almost flawless 5 years and 2 owners later (it was passed down to my mother, and then my sister for use at the gym–so lots of sweaty hands and dramatic falls from running machines no doubt occured.) Sure, there’s a little scratch in the paint on the front, and the top and base of the machine have a few chips taken out from all the falls, but it works 100% perfectly and looks almost like new…

as I recently discovered, since the headphone jack on my iPod Classic, that miracle of modern technology, recently failed, and I reclaimed the Mini from my sister and started using it AGAIN. Five years after I bought that sucker! I’m not sure whether this is a praise or condemnation of Apple, but man do I love that little sky blue Mini. Sure, I miss things like the ability to manage podcasts and easily manage playlists, but it’s so damn cute. And it fits into my hand much nicer than my classic ever did!

2

Oh yes! I got mine five years ago, Christmas 2004. It’s gold, 4 gigabytes. I too love how it fits in the palm of my hand, and how the controls are exactly the perfect size and sensitivity for my clumsy fingers. I have kept using it, even though I have way too much music in iTunes to fit on it, so I have to select what music to load each time I plug it in. I take it to the gym all the time, where clumsy me drops it at least once a week.

It developed some unusual glitches around Thanksgiving, and then, in December, it went into a coma and was unresponsive for more than a day. I even posted a eulogy to it on my Facebook when it suddenly came alive again. It’s been working just fine ever since. I think I’ll stick with it until it dies, or can no longer hold a battery charge for 1 hour. I just love the thing.

My friends who always upgrade to the latest gadget laugh at me, but I know for a fact that I am more satisfied with my 5 year old Mini than they are with their up-to-date goodies.

3

One of the cool things about the original Mini is that you can replace the HD (if it fails) with a flash memory card.

4

I started out with a 4 gb mini as well (green). I grew to dislike it because of the flaky battery management. I could never seem to get a straight-up indication of how much battery I had left no matter how many times I reset it or whatever other fixes were floating around. I upgraded to an 80gb classic too but had better luck. Most recently I fell under under the spell of the touch because I wanted the internet and apps plus I never came close to using 80gb. I sure did like the feel of the mini (with the clip on) and how it was built solid as a rock, though. I still have it, actually.

5

Hurrah for the Mini!

I have a silver one with “keep going” etched on the back. I use it for swimming.

Swimming? Yeah, when I bought it I bought it with h2oAudio in mind. I got the iPod and a waterproof case and headphones to go with it.

I think I got it in 2005, right when the 6gb model came out. I opted for the 4gb model so I could spend money on the water-proof case.

So, 5 years later and the Mini is still my only iPod. I still use it in the pool. I also use it in the car with a Monster cable, and put it in my bra when I do yard work.

When I first got it, I put all of my CDs on the computer then carefully selected 4gb worth of music to include. I actually didn’t change any of the content until LAST YEAR when I decided I’d like to listen to audiobooks and podcasts in the pool instead.

It’s once again time to get my ass back to swimming, and once again the Mini will be coming with me. Hurray for the Mini!

6

I have an old 40GB third-generation iPod that just won’t die. Still rides with me in my truck to this day. The new iPod Touch 64GB rides in my coat pocket.