iPod Mini Review - Specifications

A major reason Apple has had success with the iPod series is the amount of design and engineering put into each product so that the end result is easy to use, fashionable, and durable. For example, Apple pioneered the famous touch wheel to make scrolling through a music collection quick and easy. In conjunction with a backlit LCD screen, the iPod is designed for easy one-handed operation.

Here is a chart of specifications for the iPod mini:

Some things to note are audio support, connectivity, and skip protection. AAC, a new audio codec which stands for Advanced Audio Codec, is developed by the MPEG group (Sony, Nokia, AT&T, Dolby, FhG). It has a better compression rate than MP3 and is used with downloaded songs off iTunes. The MP3 format is more than 10 years old, and advances in technology have shaped AAC and made it technically superior to the MP3 format. Popularity, however, is a different story; the MP3 format remains on top. Considering how large hard drives are and how fast broadband is, the demand for a more efficient audio codec is minimal, which is why AAC will not be replacing MP3 any time soon. The iPod of course, supports AAC as well as MP3. What is missing here is support for Microsoft's WMA, which is also superior to MP3 but not nearly as popular. While people have looked to the WMA format to fit more songs without sacrificing quality on smaller flash based audio players, 4GB holds large number of songs, regardless of format/compression efficiency. The lack of WMA support is not too big of a loss, and probably stands as a political statement toward Microsoft.

All iPods connect to computers through either FireWire 400 or USB 2.0. The iPod mini comes with both a FireWire cable and a USB 2.0 cable, giving you the option of using what you prefer. Depending on hardware setups, some users find USB faster than FireWire and vice versa. It'll be interesting to see if Apple's next iPod features FireWire 800 support.

The iPod mini features skip protection of up to 25 minutes. This is because the 4GB Hitachi Microdrive it uses is a moving part -- an extremely small hard drive. This Microdrive is sometimes confused with CompactFlash because it looks the same and uses the same connection, but flash drives don't move and Microdrives do. Rest assured you won't be able to tell the difference.

The major differences between the iPod mini and the regular iPod are storage space, LCD size, physical dimensions, weight, and the included accessories. In terms of battery life, skip protection, ports, connectivity, battery charge time, audio format support, and included software, the iPods are all the same.

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