Slashdot Mirror
iPod Mini Sells Out
burgburgburg writes "According to USATODAY.com, the iPod mini is virtually sold out after two weeks. As we know, it had 100,000 on pre-order. It's the top seller at the Apple Store, where they advise people that there will be a one to three week wait. And it isn't a component shortage that's causing the delays. It's the huge demand amongst teens (for the colors) and athletes who like exercising with the ultralight device. While many here on /. felt that the mini was overpriced and pointed out that for $50 extra, you could buy a regular iPod with 15GB of storage instead of the 4 GB of the mini, Apple seems to have correctly identified the price point and the market they were going after. The space has become so hot that Creative's MuVo2 has also been selling well, but also for a slightly different reason. The MuVo2, which also has 4 GB of capacity, uses a CompactFlash card (which can be used in a digital camera). People have been buying the MP3 player and taking it apart for the card, which would cost more than the $200 dollars for the MuVo2."
For the inevitable ridiculous battery questions:
iPod Battery FAQ
Andy Mack deserves credit for that compact flash card hack. I saw it published on his website many weeks ago.
The quality of the photos on his website always amazes me.
Yea. I know.
The muvo uses a 4GB hard disk, which is far cheaper than 4GB CF. It retails for around $350-400. OEM prices are rumored to be *much* lower.
Don't Panic
With whatever manufacturing capability they have, they can only be built so fast. Demand currently outstrips supply.
Simple, its a CF type II compatible card but it doesn't use flash. Its actually a 4GB hard drive. You have been able to get the 1GB model (IBM Microdrive) for years. The 4GB model (now made by Hitachi) is fairly new and costs ~$400 retail. Apple and Creative are getting deep discounts due to volume.
You might have priced a solid state CF card. Those are much much more desireable than the MUVO2's minidrive based CF card. Those minidrive CF cards still cost around $400, afaik.
Hitachi is scalping people for the $400 because they're only competing with the $1130 solid state cards. It apparently didn't occur to them that they were underselling themselves via the MUVO2.
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
1) I was firmly in the "it costs too much for too little" (no pun intended) crowd. Then I saw one in person, and held it in my hand. The thing is light as a feather, and still feels more "solid", largely thanks to the all aluminum body. I have a 20GB 2nd-gen iPod, but as soon as the iPod mini has at least 12GB of capacity (size of my current music collection), I'm buying one. It's just incredible.
2) Don't forget that even though the iPod is only $50 more, this sets the entry level iPod price even lower. Before to get any iPod you had to spend $300. Now it's $250, and will probably get lower with future generations of the mini line.
3) Just to clarify, the iPod mini also uses a Compact Flash compatible drive - the Hitachi 4GB Microdrive. I'd bet all you have to do is format it as FAT32 and then stick it in your camera.
I don't know what kind of crack I was on, but I suspect it was decaf.
and the fact that they are sending for free to random VW beetle owners to further the hype.
I know of 2 people that recieved them unsolicited in the mail, and no none of them own a aplle anything.. the only thing that is common is they both own a VW beetle.
I have also heard of at least 5 other reports of this happening.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Before you do anything else, visit this link:
http://www.nomadworld.com/downloads/firmware/wma-m uvo_2_4.asp
And upgrade the firmware of the unit. This is VITAL. If you do not upgrade ahead of time, you will have serious issues later on. Upgrade the firmware FIRST. It has some auto-recovery features that will prove necessary in later steps. Remove the battery when you are done. Now ground yourself.
2. At the top of the Muvo2 there are two small screws. With a very small philips screwdriver, remove these screws.
3. Open the battery compartment. At the bottom, there are two very small screws. Remove these as well.
4. Remove the back of the unit.
5. Lift the circuit board carefully. It was held in place by the previous 4 screws.
6. Underneath the top circuit board, there is a plate holding down the microdrive. At the top, there are two screws. Remove them. On the side, there is a very very small silver screw. It is smaller than the two black ones. Remove it.
7. There is a piece of black tape in the lower corner. Underneath that tape is the last screw holding down the MD plate. Remove the tape carefully, and unscrew the screw.
8. Lift the plate out. Now, CAREFULLY pry the pin-array from the microdrive. Very gently use a small flat screwdriver to work your way down the black plastic strip. DO NOT FORCE ANYTHING. It should come out easily.
9. Take the 4gb MD and format it in your camera. You should have a 4gb MD now.
10. Put the 1gb MD back into the array. Carefully press it down. Again, do not force anything, it should slide in very easily. 11. Replace the screws, place the tape over the black screw where you found it, and reassemble the Nomad. 12. Turn it on. It will report that there is a media error and go into recovery mode. 13. Select Reload firmware from the recovery menu. It will take a few seconds, reload the firmware, and then report a media error. 14. Select Connect to PC. Now, connect the USB connector to your PC. 15. Run the Firmware upgrade again, and allow it to upgrade the firmware. 16. Power it down. Then back up. 17. When it turns on, it will report a scansearch error, or a media error then throw you into recovery mode. Select Format. It should take a few seconds to format. 18. Power it off, power it back on, and you should have a working 1gb Muvo2, a working 4gb MD in your camera, and a big smile on your face.
I know it is easy to find on the web, but after reading some of the questions (many of the mod +5) on /. I wonder if some people even know google exists. ;)
Open Source Sushi
The iPod mini drive is reportedly NOT working in digital cameras, something to do with formatting..
Wired News has more on this whole thing about the MuVo2..
Guess I'll have to use this damn iPod mini for listening to music, instead of.. um.. tolkien ring??
I hate spyware and spies
The Microdrive is slower at pulling the data off the drive, but much quicker than CF at writing the data to the disk. (i believe on her 1GB IBM/Hitachi, its 2 seconds for a 15Meg pic, vs 5 sec for a CF card. While the flash cards are more resilient to shock and abuse, the flash cards have a limited number of writes before they start having errors. (its a very, very high number, but no-where near the level of the microdive)
when doing quick photography (like nature or action pics) the limiting factor on most cameras is how fast the memory buffer can dump the huge pics to the disk..
What are we going to do tonight Brain?
Zero. The iPod dosn't support ogg.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
I'm sick of this "Microsoft saved/bought Apple" crap that I keep hearing from uninformed retards.
*After* it was totally apparent that Steve Jobs had saved Apple, Microsoft took the opportunity to buy a real small amount of Apple's stock at at an artificially low price (they made a killing on it as the stock went up 10x in value from that over the next year).
Microsoft also got some good PR for their Mac Office product which had long been a cash cow for Microsoft. In the year leading up to the release of Office 98 and the announcement, Microsoft's sales of Office for Mac had been surpased by Nissus Writer. After they got their big PR boost thanks to Steve they were back raking in the dough from selling Office for Mac.
The amount of stock they bought was $150 million. At the time, Apple had a $7 Billion price cap and $2 Billion in cash on hand. The quarter that MS made their "investment", Apple's profits were more than $150 million.
Also Apple was forced to cross license patents with Microsoft and ship Microsoft's crappy IE browser as the default on Mac systems.
Did Microsoft "prop up" Apple. Hardly. They took advantage of a weak moment and robbed Apple blind.
Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
It looks like the anodized finish on the silver minis is flaking off already.
;-)
It's the TI book all over again. Apple hasn't posted anything about it on their forums yet.
You're a pathetic liar! I mean that in both senses--that you're pathetic and that you're not a good liar!!
You see "anodized" means that the surface of the aluminum has been chemically altered to become an extremely hard and durable surface. "Anodization" is not something that is spread onto the surface, it is part of the metal itself, it does not "flake off"; about the only way to damage it is to scratch it, and that's not easy to do. The TiBook was painted, and paint, if not done well, can flake off under various circumstances.
OK, I suppose you could always have been making an attempt at humor... If so, you got me good
How does this make them any better than a "power hungry" monopoly like Microsoft? ....basically all I'm saying is that Apple is as money-hungry Microsoft and I don't think they have any more scruples than MS does in getting paid. To think otherwise is foolish...
All publicly-traded corporations are legally required to be money-hungry, and Apple is certainly no exception. However, one of the things that makes them better than Microsoft is that Apple is not a monopoly and does not abuse its position the way Microsoft always has. How many times has Microsoft been found guilty of breaking the law? How does that compare to Apple?
Besides that, Apple makes better quality products.
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
WAV is a subset of RIFF, which (being another IFF derivative) shares a lot more in common with AIFF than people realize, and so it might be able to do metadata also, but I don't think any tools actually support it, and most stuff working with .wavs that I've seen just seem to assume that you only have a single WAVE chunk in the file so they'd probably break horribly if you gave it anything more complex anyway.
There are 10 kinds of people: ones who understand ternary, ones who don't, and ones who think this joke is about binary