The iPod Mini (stylized and marketed as the iPod mini) is a

digital audio player A portable media player (PMP) or digital audio player (DAP) is a portable consumer electronics device capable of storing and playing digital media such as audio, images, and video files. Normally they refer to small, battery-powered devices ...

that was designed and marketed by

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Comput ...

It was positioned as a smaller, midrange model in Apple's

iPod The iPod is a series of portable media players and multi-purpose mobile devices that were designed and marketed by Apple Inc. from 2001 to 2022. The iPod Classic#1st generation, first version was released on November 10, 2001, about mon ...

product line to complement the

iPod Classic The iPod Classic (stylized and marketed as iPod classic and originally simply iPod) is a discontinued portable media player created and formerly marketed by Apple Inc. There were six generations of the iPod Classic, as well as a spin-off (the ...

. The device was announced on January 6, 2004, and released on February 20 of the same year. A second generation version with enhanced battery life and increased storage was released on February 23, 2005. While it was in production, it was one of the most popular electronic products on the market, with consumers often unable to find a retailer with the product in stock."supply shortages in Walmart: iPod Mini 2G, iPod Classic" - 2004 Walmart Announcement The iPod Mini was the first iPod device to use the

click wheel The iPod click wheel is the navigation component of non touch-screen iPod models. It uses a combination of touch technology and traditional buttons, involving the technology of capacitive sensing, which senses the touch of the user's fingers. Th ...

, which was developed for Apple by

Synaptics Synaptics, Inc. is an American neural network technologies and computer-to-human interface devices development company based in San Jose, California. It develops touchpads and fingerprint biometrics technology for computer laptops; touch, dis ...

. It combined the touch-sensitive scroll wheel of the third generation iPod with buttons located beneath the wheel. This interface proved to be popular and was adopted for several later iPod models. Above the wheel is a monochrome 1.67" LCD that displays a menu or information about the selected track. The iPod Mini was discontinued on September 7, 2005, when it was succeeded by the

iPod Nano The iPod Nano (stylized and marketed as iPod nano) is a discontinued portable media player designed and formerly marketed by Apple Inc. The first-generation model was introduced on September 7, 2005, as a replacement for the iPod Mini, using ...

Models

Details

The two generations of iPod Mini are almost identical apart from minor cosmetic differences. The first generation model has gray control symbols on the click wheel, while those on the second generation match the color of the body. Their major functional differences lay in their storage capacity and battery life. Both versions measure 3.6x2.0x0.5 inches (91x51x13 mm) and weigh 3.6

ounce The ounce () is any of several different units of mass, weight, or volume and is derived almost unchanged from the , an Ancient Roman unit of measurement. The avoirdupois ounce (exactly ) is avoirdupois pound; this is the United States ...

s (102

gram The gram (originally gramme; SI unit symbol g) is a Physical unit, unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI) equal to one thousandth of a kilogram. Originally defined in 1795 as "the absolute Mass versus weight, weight of a volume ...

s). The case is made from anodized

aluminium Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

. First generation iPod Minis were available in five colors: silver, gold, pink, blue, and green. The gold model was dropped from the second generation range. The pink, blue, and green models received brighter hues in the second generation but the silver model remained unchanged. The iPod Mini uses Microdrive hard drives ( CompactFlash II) made by

Hitachi () is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1910 and headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo. The company is active in various industries, including digital systems, power and renewable ener ...

and Seagate. First generation models were available in a 4 GB size, while second generation models were available in both 4 GB and 6 GB versions (quoted as capable of storing roughly 1,000 and 1,500 songs, respectively). Second generation models have their capacity laser etched into the aluminum case. The battery life for the first generation iPod Mini was criticized for its 8 hour duration, similar to the third generation iPod that was available at the time. Apple addressed this problem in the second generation models by increasing the battery life to about 18 hours, at the cost of removing the included

FireWire IEEE 1394 is an interface standard for a serial bus for high-speed communications and isochronous real-time data transfer. It was developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s by Apple in cooperation with a number of companies, primarily Sony a ...

and

AC adapter An AC adapter or AC/DC adapter (also called a wall charger, power adapter, power brick, or wall wart) is a type of external power supply, often enclosed in a case similar to an AC plug. AC adapters deliver electric power to devices that la ...

cables to avoid increasing selling costs. A proprietary Apple 30-pin dock connector is located on the bottom of the device. The iPod Mini can charge and transfer files when connected to a computer via

USB Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard, developed by USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), for digital data transmission and power delivery between many types of electronics. It specifies the architecture, in particular the physical ...

. Along the top, it has a hold switch, a headphone jack, and a remote connector for accessories. The iPod Mini supports

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany under the lead of Karlheinz Brandenburg. It was designed to greatly reduce the amount ...

AAC AAC may refer to: Aviation * Advanced Aircraft, a company from Carlsbad, California * Airborne aircraft carrier, a type of aircraft * Alaskan Air Command, a radar network * American Aeronautical Corporation, a company from Port Washington, New ...

/ M4A, WAV,

AIFF AIFF may refer to: * Audio Interchange File Format * All India Football Federation, the national governing body of Association football in India Film festivals * Addis International Film Festival, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia * Alexandria Internation ...

, and

Apple Lossless The Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC, ), also known as Apple Lossless, or Apple Lossless Encoder (ALE), is an audio coding format, and its reference audio codec implementation, developed by Apple Inc., Apple for lossless data compression of digit ...

audio formats. It supports integration with

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

and the iTunes Store, allowing for syncing of content between the software application and the iPod Mini.

Modification

Soon after the release of the iPod Mini, many third-party replacement batteries became available. By following online instructions, users could replace the battery themselves and avoid having to send the iPod back to Apple. Many third-party batteries also claimed a higher capacity than the 450 mAh original stock battery – some claiming up to 1,300 mAh. Commonly advertised capacities of third-party batteries are 500 mAh and 750 mAh. The iPod Mini could be flashed to run

iPodLinux iPodLinux is a μClinux-based Linux distribution designed specifically to run on Apple Inc.'s iPod. When the iPodLinux Linux kernel, kernel is Booting, booted it takes the place of Apple's iPod operating system and automatically loads Podzilla ...

Rockbox Rockbox is a free and open-source software replacement for the OEM firmware in various forms of digital audio players (DAPs) with an original kernel. It offers an alternative to the player's operating system, in many cases without removing the o ...

firmware which has support for extra codecs, games and various other plugins and allowed music placed directly on the iPod to be played without using iTunes. Users have replaced the 4 or 6 GB Microdrive with high capacity 8, 16,turn your iPod mini into a flash based iPod :: projects :: geek technique
retrieved January 30, 2014 32, 64 and even 256 GB

CompactFlash CompactFlash (CF) is a flash memory mass storage device used mainly in portable electronic devices. The format was specified and the devices were first manufactured by SanDisk in 1994. CompactFlash became one of the most successful of the e ...

and SD cards. Aside from increased capacity, this has the advantage of increasing battery life and making the Mini more durable since CompactFlash cards are solid-state with no moving parts.

References

External links

iPod Mini specifications, both generationsVideo of Jobs launching the iPod Mini at Macworld 2004
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ipod Mini

Mini The Mini is a very small two-door, four-seat car, produced for four decades over a single generation, with many names and variants, by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors British Leyland and the Rover Group, and finally ...

ITunes Computer-related introductions in 2004 Products introduced in 2004 Products and services discontinued in 2005 Digital audio players