iPod Size

If you are thinking of getting an iPod you might wonder what kind to get. Well, if you have a ton of money, get that fancy new G5 that looks like a giant iPod!



Okay, don't do that.



Basically, if you want the most stylish thing and you don't have a ton of music online, then get an iPod Mini.



Otherwise, get the biggest iPod they make.



I had a Mini mainly because it was a firewire-compatible 4 gigabyte hard drive that I could use to move files (multi-gigabyte game prototypes) back and forth between work and home. Of course, once I got it, I started loading up more and more music.



Later, for free, sort of, (well, by accumulated credit card points), I got an iPod 15 gig. I couldn't resist - it was free (shipping and all).



Now it turns out I have about 27 gigabytes of music files on my PC. The net result is that I have to actively manage what I put on the iPod 15 since it won't hold all of my music.



That's why you should get the biggest iPod you can - you just sync it up and let it copy everything. The whole idea is to take your music with you and decide what you want to listen to on the spot. So having to manage which subset of your music you copy to your iPod makes it less than completely cool. (Bigger iPods come with the iPod dock, which costs an outrageous $34.00 separately.)



Of course, nobody knows whether you have your complete music library with you, so you still appear cool, even with a Mini. In fact, if appearing cool is your goal, then get a Mini, because owning a Mini says, "I don't care how cost-effective this is! It's cool! Which means I'm cool!"



(Update: I swear I didn't know this was coming a few hours ago when I created today's blog entry ... but a couple of hours after posting, Apple annouced the iPod Photo which has a 60 gig hard drive! It's expensive. Buying a 40 hour iPod which holds 100% more music for 25% more cost made sense. But I don't know about this iPod Photo thing - it costs $600.00 for the big 60 gig version! Still, my point is the same - buy the biggest iPod you can afford. You'll appreciate it.)



© 2004 Stephen Clarke-Willson - All Rights Reserved.