iPod Mini

daveyjoe

There is good news regarding the price of the ipod mini.
Apple has confirmed it will sell the mini version of the popular mp3 player for around £130, which is cheaper than the american version at current exchange rates.
£130 is also equivalaent to about €187, so expect the ipod mini to retail at between €189 to €200 here in Ireland.

Typedef

I assume Apple has some sort of ridculous software interface that only works with Mac/Windows, so you'd be complete snookered trying to use it with a real OS like OpenBSD or even Red Head Linux?

Where the prospects of mounting the ipod-mini as an external mass storage device and simply dropping files in is... nil?

Creamy Goodness

Originally posted by daveyjoe
There is good news regarding the price of the ipod mini.
Apple has confirmed it will sell the mini version of the popular mp3 player for around £130, which is cheaper than the american version at current exchange rates.
£130 is also equivalaent to about €187, so expect the ipod mini to retail at between €189 to €200 here in Ireland.

it won't be that price here remember we are living in rip off ireland where it's actually cheaper to buy cd's 14,000miles away (aprrox.) in hong kong than it is to walk into local shop and buy them

Woden

ah though if its confirmed its selling them for £130 we'll be able to get them for that price off overclockers or something

daveyjoe

Originally posted by Typedef
I assume Apple has some sort of ridculous software interface that only works with Mac/Windows, so you'd be complete snookered trying to use it with a real OS like OpenBSD or even Red Head Linux?

Where the prospects of mounting the ipod-mini as an external mass storage device and simply dropping files in is... nil?

It looks like they are using the same interface as they did for the original ipods. ipods are pretty well supported on linux actually through third party apps like ephpod which give you pretty much all the functionality of itunes.

Originally posted by Cr3m0
it won't be that price here remember we are living in rip off ireland where it's actually cheaper to buy cd's 14,000miles away (aprrox.) in hong kong than it is to walk into local shop and buy them

The (approx) £130 price that Steve Jobs was reffering to, is the apple store price. So I presume it will be available on apple ireland website for under €200. obviously if you go look for one of these things in compustore you will have to pay more for it.

luckat

From last week's Sunday Business Post:

http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2004/01/04/story973319931.asp

Sunday, January 04, 2004_:

iPod costs €100 less in the US

By Susan Mitchell
The Apple iPod was the must-have Christmas gift of 2003, but you could have saved more than €100 by buying it in New York because of the weakness of the dollar. Costing from €349 in Irish stores, the slim gadget that stores up to 10,000 songs highlights the growing price differences between Ireland and the US.

American consumers can buy the top-selling iPod for only €238 ($299). The most expensive model costs €549 in Ireland, compared to €397 ($499) in the US._

netman

Originally posted by super_furry
Complete rip-off. When you consider that you can buy a 20GB Jukebox Zen for $279 from Creative's site, why on earth would anyone fork over $250 for a 4GB MP3 that looks a bit nicer?

it's a different technology, and as such carries a different price. as you well know, size matters to some people. the 20/30/40/60 gig ones are using 2.5" hard drives, the 1.5 / 4 gig ones are using 1.5" drives.

personally i find the zen nx a bit bulky, ipod is slightly smaller, and the mini is half the size. now that's something that can easily fit into your shirt pocket and not make you look like you're storing a brick in there.

having said all that, i'm still looking to buy a zen nx. it looks better (in my opinion) than ipod, and the minis ain't gonna show up in ireland for another 10 years, and when they finally arrive they'll probably be 500 euro.

StickyMcGinty

you CAN use it as an external sotrage device, and it keeps this info away for your songs!!

Do they have a firm irish launch date for the mini yet? i cant wait to get one a these little beauties!

Creamy Goodness

Originally posted by daveyjoe
The (approx) £130 price that Steve Jobs was reffering to, is the apple store price. So I presume it will be available on apple ireland website for under €200. obviously if you go look for one of these things in compustore you will have to pay more for it.

compustore actually match the apple store price strangly enough on the ipods anyway but they never have them in stock

Woden

people could also check out spectra photo on grafton street which stock mac stuff, i assume if compustore are the same price as apple, spectra won't be much different

StickyMcGinty

they are selling these ipod minis for €250 on the irish website www.compub.com

how the hell are they gettin these so quick?!!

po0k

a few questions:
1) can it be used as a removable USB drive under Windows and Linux?
2) Does it/will it/can it be hacked to support OggVorbis or whatever audio codec happens to take your fancy/that you have your entire collection encoded in?
3) What's the battery life?
4) Can it record voice á la a dictaphone?
5) Does it have an FM tuner and if so can you record directly from the radio?
6) Why isn't it available in Rallye Red, Royal Blue or Jet Black?

netman

Originally posted by VinnyL
they are selling these ipod minis for €250 on the irish website www.compub.com

how the hell are they gettin these so quick?!!

That's funny. I went into the Apple Center (Dawson st.) and asked them about the mini. They said it won't be released in europe until April (which is backed up by Apple's official website).

I know there's places in the UK who are taking orders now, and will ship in April.
Not sure if compub managed to get theirs from the states, or if they're simply taking pre-orders without saying so.

egom6

Just back from L.A. I visited the Apple store and they said they will not have the iPod mini until mid Feb or so.Also they felt that apple.com had not shipped any minis in the US yet so I think its likely that compub.com is taking pre orders only.