The mini Ipod rocks my world. Courtney Loves new CD is pretty good too. But the mini Ipod, ahhhhh........

must find gadgetfreak
must find where he lives
must GET hands on mini iPOD.

Good luck. I originally bought it for my wife. When I got it home she looked at it and said "youre going to steal this from me arent you?" However, my wife is more than capable of taking care of herself. After using it for the weekend she informed me that it was so cool that I could get one for myself if I wanted. But no chance of getting hers. Now I have to wait for the stores to replenish. They went on sale last Friday at 6:00 EST and I arrived at 6:20 to find 4 left.

Don't understand why anyone would still invest in an MP3 device, I'm waiting for video...

1000 MP3's is nice, but 40 hours of movies is better.

It will be a long time before you get something with video this small. The screen wouldnt be worth watching. Plus, the half life on something like this is what, nine months maybe. I see a point in waiting really. When a video one comes out that is a new object or gadget lust or a new toy. Meanwhile I'll enjoy the miniPOD

I played with one in the store today. I must say I love one, but it's still a bit pricey.

Don't get me wrong, it's a lovely device, I just think it's time Apple did more to it, it's years old and all that has happened is a thinner model and a small model, where is Bluetooth, colour display for viewing album covers etc...

Color display would kill the battery. But BT would be fantastic. I was thinking about that when I was loading it up. Especially since they do it so well on PowerBooks. One problem would be the speed however. I dont know the specs but Firewire has to be vastly faster for synching. Also, they are real small. I was pretty shocked when I saw it.

BT for syncing wouldn't work - it maxes out at a whopping 720kb/s. But it would be cool for other stuff. I think having a portable storage device with a few GBs of capacity that could communicate with my mobile phone for display and control purposes plus audio via BT would be cool. Seems like SE announced something like this a year or so ago.

WRT video, it is happening already. The TAZ1, the various PMC devices, and the various clunky Archos contraptions are either on the market now or imminent. For me, this is the killer portable app. I played with a PMC a while back (the Samsung form factor that has been scuttled now, unfortunately) and the ability to pop that thing into a desktop cradle and sync all your TV shows from XPMC is very, very cool. Beats the heck out of yet another episode of "nobody likes raymond" on the flickery, 12" overhead monitors.

Rez is as good as many of the PTV devices on plances today. The TAZ1 has a 720p-capable widescreen LCD. That'll work for me.

Edited to add: Evidently, the TAZ1 is going to have very tight integration with TiVo, allowing programs to be sent directly from Now Playing to the TAZ1 for playback when undocked. If (and IMO it's a big "if") this thing isn't vaporware or a scam, it may turn out to be the ultimate gadget.

Unfortunately, I'd give them about a 20% chance of getting to market - they still haven't shown anything but CAD drawings, are hedgy about a ship date and specs, and right before Christmas started taking pre-order deposits with no delivery date and no refund possible until April (all with very convenient excuses). Time will tell, I guess.

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-alan in sitges, home of the new, improved, and now legendary Si-Re-Do

[This message has been edited by alanw (edited Feb 25, 2004).]

Colour displays nowadays draw just a tiny bit more power than old B/W LCD's, just look at all the new colour cellphone displays.

Bluetooth would not be suitable for the main (initial) sync of the device, but would be perfect for adding the few songs you do a day, just setup so that whenever it detects it's base it grabs all the new music waiting for it, or transfer playlists with friends, plenty of possible uses for it. WiFi would be even better but would be a major battery drainer and a hassle to configure with just a jogdial.

I'd like Bluetooth built in the iPod for wireless headphones, or maybe for dialing from the directory to my cell phone, like the Palm Tungstens and my Mac do.

Of course, I haven't seen any wireless bluetooth headphones for music... just the ear dongles for cell phones.

Feel free to drop me a line if you'd like to order through Apple's Web store. I'll keep an eye on your order for you and make sure you get it asap.

Also, if you order directly from Apple, you can get it engraved on the back for free.

I was in 2 stores this evening, and both had the mini in stock. It's cute, but after you add a remote and the docking station the 20Gb is a better value...

Yes, it isnt a good deal. I realize that. But then again, when my wife and I walked into the Apple store on Ginza a couple days ago we realized that this was one gadget that no one here has yet. That is definately worth something

Im going to order one and end up using both that and my DellPod. Im still working on exactly how

Out of stock again now it seems, at least at the Apple store near me. So I went ahead and ordered it. They are saying a 1-3 week wait on shipping. I cant believe my wife made this necessary by keeping the one I got her as a gift and not letting me steal it