The first 6 hours with my iPod Mini have gone well, but I thought I’d use this post to sum up my experiences so far in case someone else finds them useful.
Apple recommends that you use USB2 but it’s still possible to use USB 1.1 with no problems. You will of course find that file transfers are much slower than they would be using USB2 or Firewire but if you’re stuck on a machine that doesn’t have those (like I am for now) then it’s not the end of the world.
I never knew this, and had I known I’d have been more keen to buy it sooner. It means you can charge the iPod without needing to plug it in to a computer – handy if you are on holiday and have left your computers behind, for example.
According to this iPodLounge article, doing 5 full recharge/discharge cycles boosts the Mini’s battery to 10 hours – 2 more than the advertised estimated time. Which will be good for very long train journeys (although now most trains provide an AC socket by the seats).
Merely having iTunes installed on its own doesn’t work. You have to install both. You can probably guess I realised this the hard way 🙂 .
Arguably the iPod isn’t much more than a very small removable HD with a few fancy buttons on the front and so like any other removable disk it appears in Windows Explorer (apparently using the FAT32 file system). You can therefore use your iPod like a HD, or at least you could if the files were sorted logically. Your music appears in the hidden folder ‘D:\iPod_Control\Music’ (where ‘D’ is the drive letter assigned by Windows to your iPod, and the files are installed in various folders below that. It’s not exactly intuitive but it’s one way of getting to them. Accessing your calendar, contacts and notes is somewhat easier, thankfully – they’re in unhidden folders at the root of the drive.
I use dBpowerAMP Music Converter to create my MP3s, because it uses the Lame encoder which is the best around. If you have it set to create ID3v2 tags (as opposed to ID3v1), then the iPod won’t be able to read the data from it. They’ll still play but say you had 4 songs by one artist on it and one of those songs used ID3v2 tags, only those 3 with ID3v1 tags would appear on the menu.
If you’re considering buying an iPod yourself, I hope this is helpful to you. I’ll probably have more to add as I get used to using it, so stay tuned.
Yeah, I did the constant charge/flatten cycle for a few days and I get a comfortable 10 hours out of mine. It does make a difference.
I gave up with iTunes as I really didn’t get on with it and have zero interest in it as a service.. so I use Anapod Explorer which is just great.
Two other observations on the iPod mini.. It can be tricky to Play a genre or band without skipping up or down and therefore playing the wrong one (especially on the move). And whacking the volume up high affects the battery life more than you’d expect.
I have converted most of my CD rips to AAC instead. You should try it out. It’s supposed to be better quality for the same bitrate and a smaller size. Important when you are running out of space like I have.
You can also try out iPod Agent – I use it for getting feeds into my Notes. I read yours in there on my daily commute 😉
What trains do you use? None of the ones round here (Cambridge) have AC adaptors, at least that I’m aware of…
Virgin has them all through its trains, GNER and First Transpennine have them in first class on many of their trains. It tends to be the long distance services that provide them.
I’d consider AAC but there’s a greater compatibility issue. You can throw MP3s at anything and they work. 🙂
I never noticed the ID3V2 problem on mine, but a quick Google appears to show lots of options for dealing with the problem!
I am glad you enjoy your iPod mini! I did not know it came with an AC adapter either. I think I would be more inclined to buy a mini if it was a 6 or 10 GB drive. For now my 15 and 30 GB iPods will have to do 😛
That 4 GB HD is too small to hold enough music AND a copy of OS X on it, as I like having a bootable OS X install on my iPods at all times, just in case.
Neil, you article prompted me to check out iPod prices on amazon and I’m just trying to figure out the advantage of an iPod mini (4GB, around £179) over a regular iPod (20GB, around £204).
Also, having checked out the specs on-line I was trying to figure out if there is a limit to the filesize allowed. For example I am presently shifting my audio cassette collection to ogg/mp3 format an of course – until you splice the file up into individual tracks – that makes for huge files.
The new iPod obviously has more space and also has a battery that lasts longer when fully charged. I mostly went for the Mini due to it being smaller in size and cheaper.
Thanks for the useful advice Neil. It’s good to know that my ipod mini will still work with USB1.1. I may convert up to 2.0 some day – I’ll see what the xfer speed is like.
Do you know of any ‘dongle / adaptor’ that can be used for usb 1.1 -> 2.0 conversion? ie. without having to switch cards around inside PC.
No such dongle exists. It’s like looking for an adapter for a diamond 4mb video card to give it more mem or speed but it still has the same rgb port. USB 2.0 uses the same connector but a different packet chaining technique. When a device is connected, it sends an inquiry to see if it will respond to a USB 2.0 packet chain. Sort of like ping-pong. If there is no pong, it switches to USB 1.1. Usb2.0 cards are cheap as hell here in the states. I would recommend a USB2.0/Firewire Card, killing 2 birds with one stone. They are extremely simple to install and are plug and play, so under winxp you won’t need any drivers because the system already has a set. I would recommend the IOGEAR GUF320 PCI, i already have one in my older unit, and it works perfectly.
The Star will soon be welcoming a new member to its team. Kevin Mills has been named editor of the award-winning newspaper.
Kevin Mills has been named editor of the award-winning newspaper. He will replace former editor Bob Hall who left the paper last month to take a position with Selkirk College.
Currently a reporter and assistant editor at the Abbotsford News, Mills will begin his new position in Nelson on October 21.
Mills admitted leaving the Fraser Valley will be difficult: “I’ve spent more than two decades covering the issues there and made many friends and contacts. However, coming to a community as beautiful, interesting and diverse as Nelson will make the transition much easier.”
Mills is a graduate of Simon Fraser University where he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in English. He started his journalism career working at the Mission City Record in 1989 and then moved on to the Abbotsford News.
During his time there, Mills has served as reporter, entertainment editor, sports editor, special sections coordinator and business editor.
a good case could be made for Jenn Grant being awarded honourary Nelsonite status, even though she hasn’t been here yet.
“Do you know if there are any gluten-free places in Nelson?” asks a curious voice through a crackly telephone.
The voice belongs to Jenn Grant, the Halifax-based folk pop songstress who has been steadily wowing listeners and peers since her debut album, Orchestra for the Moon, first came out six years ago. Now, four studio LPs, a number of EPs, countless collaborations, and a side project or two later, Grant is finally coming through Nelson. And if a friendlier town for gluten-intolerance exists in Canada, then modern day cartographers haven’t mapped it yet.
In fact, a good case could be made for Grant being awarded honourary Nelsonite status, even though she hasn’t been here yet. There’s her fierce and fearless sense of communal music making — even while straying from the folk-pop sound that she’s made her signature — from her scene-stealing guest spots on a number of hip-hop artist’s Buck 65’s tracks, to her genre-bending electro-leaning collaborative project AquaAlta with producers Charles Austin and Graeme Campbell.
There’s also her aptitude for the visual arts: Grant is a holder of a BFA in painting. “It’s a luxury to be able to paint,” she says. “Painting is an exercise that strengthens you and makes your mind more open to creating music. It’s using a muscle that then triggers something, and you become more open to art.”
She also used the previous leg of her tour to showcase works by artist and printmaker Charley Young, who specializes in architectural monoprints of condemned urban facades. Though Young’s work is no longer touring with Grant, that doesn’t negate her artsy bonafides.
But Grant isn’t coming to Nelson alone. She has recently joined forces with Canadiana pop titan Ron Sexsmith to tour the country both promoting her latest record (last year’s sublime The Beautiful Wild) and trying out some new material. “To be honest, I kind of felt like the album cycle was short-lived for this record,” says Grant. “I feel it deserves a bit more time to get around the block.”
If her restless touring and creative schedule were interrupted, there’s good reason. “My mom passed away while were making it [The Beautiful Wild], as we were finishing recording. She loved the record and it’s really a tribute to her in some ways so I wanted to honour that.”
When asked if it was difficult to return to these songs, just over a year later, at the risk of bringing up heavy feelings, she doesn’t balk: “Oh yeah, definitely… but it’s been therapeutic. I didn’t know if I’d be able to, but it’s actually been a really beautiful thing. I’ve felt a deeper connection to the feelings that I had before. It’s been special.”
Jenn Grant and Ron Sexsmith will bring their distinct brands of thoughtful folk pop to Spiritbar this Tuesday, October 8.
And when informed that she wouldn’t be able to walk through downtown Nelson without bumping into something that was gluten free, Grant laughed: “I’m so happy. I want to go there now!”