Just got my IPOD mini today!

[Azrael]

Hey everyone. I'm so happy with my new mp3-player Has a 4gb HD , sounds and looks great and I just love the scroll function on it. Very cool!

[gmeanie]

i have the 15G ipod and love it.
only used 1.2G so far thou LOL

[Azrael]

Put about 3,5 gb on it now but my music collection is about 14gb. But I don't listen to all those songs everytime anyway so it's no problem. The Ipod-mini has enough space for me to store most of the songs I like on.

[Polaris20]

My wife's got the silver mini, and she loves it. She runs with it every morning, rain, sleet, or snow. I got her the shock jacket thingy, which is a good thing because she's already dropped it.

As much as I see the 20 or 40 gig model and think to myself [in a Tim Allen way] "Arrr Arrrr Arrrr 20 gig is completely necessary" I think I'd get by just fine with 4 gig.

What's cool though is that since my computer at home has USB2 and FW, and my work computer has USB2, I can use it to transfer files back and forth, which is cool.

[Carlo]

what do you guys think of the new iPOD shuffle?

I think it's only $99....it looks like a stick with no LCD display.

[JESTER700]

Problem with iPod is Apple and their proprietary-ness. The new version of iTunes will now switch ON DRM for any tracks where it was switched OFF. I suspect that will be changed due to public outcry pretty quickly, but it's annoying that it's there at ALL.

I like my Sandisk unit. It's an MP3 player that I can put my 512MB Cruzer Micro flash drive into. It was $50 (the Micro was $40-ish) and I also have a flash drive I can use.

[shredmaster]

i was very close to getting one and then i discovered the DELL JUKEBOX. it's made of aluminum, same options as ipod, has 20 gig, and uses windows media player to rip cd's to wma or mp3. categorizes and sorts by artist, album and song automatically. i do nothing. it's the same price as mini. sounds awesome.

[darren wilson]

Originally Posted by shredmaster

...categorizes and sorts by artist, album and song automatically. i do nothing.

You make that sound like it's something new. iTunes has been doing that seamlessly since day one, as has the iPod.

[Azrael]

Itunes is just plain awesome.......always used it on my mac ( even before the ipod was on the windows market) and it's just great!

[shredmaster]

i know itunes does it but that's something extra i don't need to load on my pc. i'm very picky with what goes there. i'm sure it's great software.

[Polaris20]

I find it amusing people like WMP over iTunes. I purposely removed WMP, Messenger, Outlook Express, and Explorer from my computer, because they all suck so bad.

[Azrael]

I replaced them with Thunderbird / Itunes and Firebird

[jemsite]

i know there are a few topics on this... what bitrate do most people rip to MP3 at factoring good sound but reasonable size.

i've been ripping at 192kbps with WMP10 which is estimated at 86mb per cd instead of 256kbps which is estimate at 25% more 115mb/cd. am i making a mistake? right now i'm using these to listen via my PC on a small stereo and/or my wireless notebook. sometime when the devices get smaller i'll grab an mp3/wmp player... glen

[pawel]

once you get to 192kbps and up it becomes harder to see the difference. What about a test run? Burn your favourite CD at 320, 256, 192, and 160kbps. It is possible that for you the improvement above 192 will not be worth the extra MBs needed. Personally I would go for 256 though...

[Jeff]

I'm not sure how much disk space you would save/lose, but look into variable bit rate encoding. By using that, it uses a lower bitrate for parts of songs that don't need the high bitrate, but still uses the high bitrate when necessary. With most ripping programs, you can set a minimum and a maximum bitrate.