Building a Better iPod

I’m a big fan of music, and also a lover of Apple products. So naturally, the Apple iPod is something that interests me a lot. Although I’ve thought about getting one for a while, I’ve never quite gotten around to getting one. Now Apple has released a new version that may finally tempt me to becoming an owner.

The iPod has been around for a while. Apple has typically offered the music player (and more) in three sizes — most recently in 10GB, 20GB, and 40GB sizes. Any of these will hold a TON of music. And they range in price from $300 to $500. This has probably always been the main thing that has kept me from getting an iPod.

However, at the MacWorld Expo this week, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced the iPod mini. This little player holds 4GB of songs and is the size of a business card. It weight around 3.5 ounces and is only half an inch thick. Very cool. The standard price is $249, but with the educational discount, I could get one for $229. Still a decent investment, but a very useful toy/tool.

For example, Jen has the entire NIV Bible on CD. I recently converted the entire collection to AAC files. This is Apple’s version of an MP3 file, but with smaller filesize and greater sound quality. The whole Bible weighs in at just over 1GB of data. So with a iPod mini, I could carry around the entire Bible to listen to and still have gobs of space left over. I’ve converted all the CDs we own to AAC, and I don’t think they add up to over 3GB. I also have purchased quite a few songs and a couple albums from the iTunes music store. This is really a great way to get music conveniently and legally.

Here’s a picture of the new iPods, available in 5 cool colors.

They are due to be released in February. Since my birthday is in early March, maybe this will be tops on my wish list.