Digital Trends

Apple iPod Mini 4GB July 26th, 2004 | by Larry Chen

Setup and Features

The setup process for the iPod mini is extremely simple. All you have to do is make sure you have Apple's iTunes software installed and plug one end of the included cable into your computer and the other into the Dock port on the bottom of your iPod mini. iTunes will automatically detect your iPod mini and ask you to provide a name for your beloved portable audio device. Once you have named it and chosen whether you want the iPod mini to be automatically synchronized with your music library, you are ready to go. If you have less than 4GB of music and choose to auto update the iPod mini, your entire music library will be transferred to the iPod within minutes. If you choose to transfer your songs manually to the iPod, you'll be able to start filling it up by dragging and dropping tracks from your music library.

Initial setup screen and iTunes play list

The iPod mini, like other iPods, not only works as an audio player, but also has other neat features built into its operating software. The extra features include a clock, an alarm clock, a sleep timer, contacts, a calendar, a to-do list, notes, and games. The sleep timer is especially useful when you want to listen to some soft music before going to sleep. The contact list keeps all your address book information with you on the go and is automatically synchronized with your Mac computer. Calendar and to-do list give you a monthly calendar view and from there you are able to browse to specific dates to view your schedules. The calendar is also synchronized with your iCal calendars. By placing text documents in the Notes folder of your iPod, you will be able to read notes with your iPod onthego. Best of all, Apple included four games for you to kill your free time with: Brick (similar to Breakout), Music Quiz (plays a random clip and lets you guess which song it is), Parachute (you get to shoot down choppers and parachutists), and Solitaire. As usual, the iPod mini also works as an external hard disk drive that you can use to backup important data or transfer files between computers. With all the built-in extra features, who needs a PDA anymore?

Conclusion

“A thousand songs in your pocket”, smaller, lighter, more colorful, and with loads of extra features, the iPod mini easily outdoes all other portable audio players on the market in terms of style and quality. It is too hot to handle, too easy to play with, and too lovely to not obtain one. Apple has surely scored another homerun with this little sister to the original iPod.