I originally bought a Rio MP3 playerin Birmingham. This was great, though the memory wasn't very big and I would have had to buy a memory card (which was reli expensive)! However, after having had it for approximately a week, and it played up, then wouldn't turn on. I couldn't take it back to Birmingham, so I had to go to my local store. This was a smaller store and had not got a replacement in stock, so they gave me a refund. Woohoo! A hundred pounds to spend. I was happy.
I had always wanted an iPod. Fact. Unfortunately though, they had always been just out of my reach on the cost front. Recently, however, I had received £15 from my aunt and uncle (late Christmas present!) and my mum owed me £25. I felt rich... I had £140 in my pocket! I knew immediately what I wanted... an iPod mini, 4GB, which was exactly £140.
Firstly I searched on the internet. I was ecstatic when I found one on Amazon for a meazly £100!. I placed my order straight away ( well my mum did... i paid her for it). It was supposed to take 3-5 days, and was due to arrive at my dads work. I was a very excited teenager, and from days 3-5 i texted my dad eagerly to see if it had arrived. It didn't. After a week it still hadn't arrived, and by this point I was becoming more and more pessimistic. Exactly eight days after we had ordered the iPod, we got an email saying that for some reason our order had fallen through. I was really disappointed. I hurridly searched the internet for another offer, to see if I could find another offer of a similar sort, and of course there wasn't. The next day I happened to be shopping in stratford with my mum, and there was one iPod mini left in curry's. And it was blue! my favourite colour! I was over the moon. I bought it straight away,
but was warned that I may have to buy a separate firewire cable as they didn't always include them, but I said I was ok as I had a USB2.0 port on my computer.
When I got it home, this is what I had. The box is small, and is the same colour of the iPod inside it (how cool!) So I had a bright blue box, and wore a grin from ear to ear. On one side of the box it says iPod Mini in big letters and underneath it states that it is '4GB 1000 songs PC+Mac'. The other side shows a picture of the iPod mini, an actual size drawing. The side of the box lists these features :
Holds up to 1000 songs at near CD quality on a 4GB hard drive.
Up to 8 hours of playback with rechargeable, lithium-ion battery.
Super portable at 3.6 ounces and only 0.5 inches thick, 2 inches wide and 3.6 inches tall.
Automatically synchronises music, playlists, and audiobooks with your Mac or PC.
Innovative click wheel for easy navigation
Plays AAC, MP3, WAV, AIFF and Audible formats (presumably including WMA)
High resolution, backlit LCD display
Includes iPod mini, belt clip, earphones, USB2.0 cable and iTunes for Mac and Windows.
iTunes 4.7 or later ( i don't know why that is on there as it is included... but hey.
Having read these boring bits of information i was eager to open the box. The inside bit slides out and opens out into two halves (sounds odd I know but if you have one you will know what I mean.) The ipod is slotted into one of the two halves, and you can see that it is wedged in so it is protected. Inside the two halves, are earphones, (with tacky covers that you don't need, I just ignored those) a belt clip, and the USB2.0 cable. This USB cable is individual to iPod, and has a specific iPod attachment to one end, so unfortunately if you have to buy a firewire cable instead you have to buy a specific iPod one which is about £25! Rediculous if you ask me. Anyway, the first thing that you have to do before you can put any music onto your iPod is to install the iTunes software. This is easy, you just insert the disk into the CD drive and follow the on-screen prompts. Once you have that installed, you are ready to add music.
Unfortunately the only way to add music is through the iTunes software. You can insert a CD into the drive, and it will bring up the tracks on the screen. You can select which ones you want and when you click import, this will save it to the programme. This is important, as I originally thought I had saved it straight to the iPod and was confused when there was no music on it. The next time you plug your iPod into the computer, the programme automatically updates your iPod ( rather quickly I must say) and then you can play the music. If you have an alternative programme that downloads MP3's like I do, then once you have downloaded them you must locate the file, right click on it, and go to open as... iTunes file. This will then start playing it on iTunes, but if you close that it will be automatically saved onto the programme, so when you next add your iPod it will update it. Overall it is relatively easy to add music once you have worked it out.
Playing the music on your iPod. This is the best bit! The iPod itself doesn't have an on or off buttom, it is always on, i suppose you would call it , standby. You press the click wheel, and it will come up with the menu. The middle button is the 'ok' button, and you scroll down to 'play music', and it will come up with a list of things such as 'playlists, artists, albums' and you choose what you want. You can go to all, and it will play all the music in order. However, if you want to have your music playing randomly, like I do, then you go back to the main menu (using the menu button funnily enough) and scroll down to shuffle songs. This will then randomly shuffle all the songs, but it will only play the lot once through, I havn't yet worked out if there is a repeat option.
## UPDATE! I have found the repeat option! :O lol. it is is the settings... obviously *groans* it was right underneath my eyes.... :-( lol :p ##
When the music is playing it will come up with a screen that tells you the name of the artist, the name of the track, and a bar that tells you how far through the song you are. Also on the screen is a symbol showing how much battery is left, and the time ( you have to set this on separately) and also it will tell you what number song you are on out of how many. I am currently on number 51 out of 158.
Settings on the iPod. There are many things that can be set on the iPod. There is a setting where you can set whether the white backlight is on or off, and for how long. There is an equaliser where you can change the bass settings etc, but unfortunately it is confusing as you don't know which one you are changing as they are not labelled so you have to listen and see which sounds better!. There are date and time settings,language settings etc etc.
By the way I must mention before I forget how to scroll through the menu's. You move your finger around the click wheel clockwise to go down, and anticlockwise to go up the menu. This is the same for the volume when you play the music, clockwise makes it louder, and anticlockwise the opposite.
Extras on the iPod The extras are all pretty basic ones. There is a calender, a section for notes, the clock, which you can alter to 24 hr etc. The one thing that did surprise me are the games. There is solitaire, and random brick game which i cant get the hang of, a parachuting game, and a music quiz. These are of course in black and white but are pretty advanced for such technology and I was surprised when I found them. The music quiz is the best in my opinion, as it will play an extract from the middle of a song and give you a list of songs and you have to choose which is correct. you have to do it quickly however as points decrease, and you fail after about 10s! It is good fun however and tests your knowledge of your music.
Drawbacks to the iPod Yes, unfortunately there are always the drawbacks. Luckily I have to say there aren't many. The instructions are pretty poor, but luckily it easy to work out what you are doing on the iPod as there are so few controls. The battery life is relatively short, so far it hasn't made it to the supposed eight hour, but it does play for at least 5 so i suppose I cannot complain. The one main drawback is that there is no charger for the mains included. The player charges when you attach it into the computer, however you can buy chargers for iPod, but they will be quite costly. The speakers to the iPod are quite good, but unfortunately mean that everyone else can hear your music, especially if you want it loud! I recommend that you buy some better headphones if you want to keep your music to yourself , but the ones provided are good enough for play if you are on your own or don't need to worry about noise. One thing I must say is that thieves look out for the distinctive white headphones of the iPod so be careful! That's about it for the drawbacks.
CONCLUSION Overall, I think the iPod mini is brilliant. It holds 1000 songs, which is plenty for me, and the sound quality is very good. It has lots of extras and cool games if you are bored. Also, to make sure there isn't a chance of you accidently playing music in your pocket there is a 'hold' button on the top which is quite handy. when there is an orange strip showing, it is on hold. The iPod is very easy to use, and is a cool accessory to have!
I will now mention that recently a new version of the iPod mini has been released, a 6GB. This holds 1500 songs, which is a little better if you want more memory and costs £170 or thereabouts.
They are very easy to get hold of, most electrical stores will sell them, and also places like argos. I got mine from curry's but dixons and comet will also sell them plus loads of other places.
Thanks for reading! Happy music listening!
rach xx
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Advantages: Very cool and sexy, Packed with features, Good sound quality through headphones, Disadvantages: Built in speaker quality, battery when online, durability, and price (but its Apple so y'know :) )
sean1234567890 18.03.2009 (18.03.2009)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
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