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Media (Apple) Businesses Media Music Apple

iPod Mini Sells Out 499

Posted by michael from the beanie-babies dept.
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."
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iPod Mini Sells Out More

iPod Mini Sells Out

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  • Slashdotters==Curmudgeons? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ackthpt ( 218170 ) * on Friday March 05, 2004 @06:58PM (#8480818) Homepage Journal
    Say it ain't so!

    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.

    Which should tell /. readers a couple things:

    /.'ers don't fit the target demographics (Ow! That hurts!)

    /.'ers are apparently sedentary, they sit at their screens so much that weight isn't a consideration, for that matter, they can listen to stuff while sitting at the screen, so why bother?

    /.'ers are more interested in pushing consumer technology to its more than whether there's a need. (It's all about the game!)

    /.'ers must be colorblind (I'm R/G) so the colors aren't interesting, let along exciting.

    /.'ers were wrong, and can't stand being wrong and are currently working on a strategy to change that rather than get a date for a Friday night. (Hey! This is important!)

    So what's the average age of a slashdotter? Undoubtably there must be a few in the target demographic, now how many have kids in the group?

    I identify more with Homer Simpson than Britney Spears and I'm cool with that, inspite of the tone of that post. Now if you'll excuse me I need to go buy some cargo pants, Justin Timberlake CD's, and iPod mini and a stone of oatmeal (because it's the right thing to do.)

    • Re:Slashdotters==Curmudgeons? (Score:5, Funny)

      by henrik ( 98 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @07:02PM (#8480853)
      Yeah, the main selling point to me is that it is smaller. If I wanted to maximize hard drive space for the dollar I could drag around a IDE tower.

      Size and weight is _everything_.
      • Yeah, the main selling point to me is that it is smaller. If I wanted to maximize hard drive space for the dollar I could drag around a IDE tower.

        Sure, and you could hack the thing, install Linux on it, and play Ogg tunes. I'm sure there's people whose eyes don't glaze over as we go into the technical details and merits of our accomplishments. I'm always shocked when I run into someone who knows what I'm talking about.

        "A left handed 9.4GB veeblefetzer with interchangeable 3.0 GHz portrzebie, no kidd

      • Re:Slashdotters==Curmudgeons? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by moonbender ( 547943 ) <moonbender AT gmail DOT com> on Friday March 05, 2004 @07:34PM (#8481079)
        Well, size and weight isn't everything, but the iPod mini does seem to have a fairly nice balance. I'd rather settle for half the storage if it allow a 20% decrease in size, but it's still a lot better than the traditional HD players while retaining mostly all their pro's.

    • Re:Slashdotters==Curmudgeons? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Lumpy ( 12016 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @07:20PM (#8481003) Homepage
      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.

    • Re:Slashdotters==Curmudgeons? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Cthefuture ( 665326 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @07:25PM (#8481036)
      You have to remember, the couple hundred posts you see on any given Slashdot thread are only a couple hundred opinions of the most active posters. It in no way respresents what the majority of people reading Slashdot think.

      I mean, you're talking tens of thousands of people versus only a couple hundred posts. Think about it.

      There are many regular lemmings lurking about.
      • Good point,

        I've been trolling around here for years, and I've only made about 200 posts in all that time. There's a handful of sexual intellectuals who post about everything. They're the ones who make up the bulk of the posts.

      • Re:Slashdotters==Curmudgeons? (Score:5, Funny)

        by AstrumPreliator ( 708436 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @07:53PM (#8481210)
        There are many regular lemmings lurking about.

        Really? I kind of thought they all committed suicide =).

      • Re:Slashdotters==Curmudgeons? (Score:4, Informative)

        by pavon ( 30274 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @08:05PM (#8481276)
        Yeah, but it is the rest of the readers that moderate them up. The active posters are actually less like to get moderation points than casual readers - says so in the moderation rules. For example I have excellent karma, meta moderate daily, and it has been over two years since I have gotten moderation points.

        That is what surprises me most when I see completely wrong posts moderated up to +5. I can understand someone saying a stupid thing, and I can even understand some people being fooled by it, but when all the moderators are fooled all the time it makes me worry about humanity :)

    • Re:Slashdotters==Curmudgeons? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by darkonc ( 47285 ) <stephen_samuel&bcgreen,com> on Friday March 05, 2004 @07:32PM (#8481070) Homepage Journal
      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,

      From a geek "my pod's bigger than your pod", point of view, this might make some sense.. From a consumer "I want something to listen to while I'm jogging" point of view, 4GB is how many hours of ogg audio?? Chances are that you're gonna have to change your batteries long before you have to change your playlist.

      15GB is so that I can backup my home partition with a decade's worth of email... Not many people are going to care to do that.

      The fact that I've got enough storage for a day's worth of music and a knoppix image for $50.00 less than a full sized ipod sounds just peachy to me.

      The smaller package is just a bonus.

    • I've held it... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by cryptochrome ( 303529 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @08:55PM (#8481539) Journal
      Saw one of these at an Apple Store. By then I had already determined that it WAS in fact quite competitive with the 256mb players price wise, was about the same size, and of course had much more space to boot. And therefore, the price was appropriate and I thought it would sell well.

      Anyway, after seeing it in person I realized something important - it's better designed than the regular iPod too! Firstly it's lighter and smaller - in fact I'd say the mini's size is probably optimal and they won't go smaller in the future. The rounded aluminum case feels and looks a lot nicer and more durable. The colors are a nice touch. And most importantly, the new scroll wheel and button layout is much better than the current white pods. You no longer have to move your thumb out of the wheel area to hit any of the buttons, as the scroll wheel itself now operates kind of like a d-pad for button operation in addition to the touch-sensitive scrolling, producing some nice tactile feedback. Try it for yourself to see what I mean. The (patented) iPod scroll wheel is the critical feature that makes the iPod's design worlds better than the alternatives, and they've improved it.

      So to sum up, the mini is wonderful from the design area, especially in the tactile sense. They really hit the sweet spot this time.

      I must admit, after handling it I was tempted to buy, but I've been waiting for an iPod to go under $200 and I'll wait longer if I have to. I don't listen to music enough to justify more than that.

      • Yep, got to hold it to understand (Score:5, Interesting)

        by zerocircle ( 559005 ) on Saturday March 06, 2004 @12:17AM (#8482700)

        I've used an iPod mini a fair bit, and from the first moment I picked it up, I knew it was a superior design.

        Now, my purpose in owning an iPod is not to carry around a handy collection of music; it's to carry around all the music I might want to hear at any time, so I got a regular iPod (10GB, US$209 at Target) and I've loaded it (so far) to nearly twice the capacity of a mini.

        I deeply wish my iPod had the mini's click wheel instead of the touch buttons, because the tactile feedback on the mini is worlds better -- try pausing or skipping just by feel when you're driving, and you'll really appreciate the click wheel. I don't like having to hover my finger over a button in order to touch it at the right moment -- I prefer to be able to lightly rest on the button and click it when needed. (Yes, I'm a touch typist.) I hope Apple incorporates a larger click wheel into the 4G standard-size iPods. I'll be first in line for one of those.

        Wouldn't mind if they used the brushed-aluminum finish on all the iPods, since it has better grip and isn't hyper-fingerprinty like the plastic/polished-steel case. But hey, the click wheel's the most important improvement, and the 3G iPod does look undeniably cool if you keep it reasonably clean in some sort of case or bag (mine's in a dice bag, works great), so...whatever. Just give me a click wheel and a good-sized hard drive, and I'll be happy.

    • Re:Slashdotters==Curmudgeons? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by ultranon ( 621942 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @09:34PM (#8481742)
      I actually have one of these ridiculously overpriced pieces of pop-garbage. Here are my thoughts about it.

      I consider myself a power user of gear. I'm an older geek with some disposable income, but I hate wasting money. I usually take weeks to shop for and decide on a new toy. I have an older flash player and before buying the mini, I purchased and returned many other players currently on the market. I found that they were all either poorly constructed, or suffered from poor interfaces.

      For example, the battery cover on the Rio Chiba [digitalnetworksna.com] falls off at the slightest touch. You have to snap the player into the belt clip if you want to keep your battery cover.

      The Nitrus [digitalnetworksna.com] seems nice until you start using it. The volume buttons are mushy and don't always work. The only button on this player that works and feels nice is the "Riostick." But even that doesn't hold a candle to the clickwheel on the mini.

      I have also used some of the RCA players, but Music Match is a horrible, crashy piece of software and getting files onto the player is unnecessarily difficult. My old flash player uses Music Match, and I found that as a result, the player tended to collect dust. I only went through the hassle when I really needed to. Usually only for long flights.

      I did like the Rio Cali [digitalnetworksna.com], even though the battery cover on this is a bit wonky too. But the player is $179. After adding an $80 256 meg SD card, I would be at $259. Why not buy better design and 4 gig for the same price? The marketing guys at Apple knew what they were doing. Though, if I were in the market for a solid state player, I would probably pick up the Cali or one of the iRiver players [iriveramerica.com].

      So, after trying many players, I decided to look at the iPod. When I first picked one up, I instantly knew that I had just moved into a new world. These things (minis and full-size iPods alike) are industrial design masterpieces. They feel good in your hand, they are solidly built, the backlight and display are beautiful, the wheel control is BRILLIANT, the GUI is transparent and iTunes is a simple pleasure to use. With the aluminum case, I feel like I could stand on this thing and not hurt it. The On-The-Go playlist deserves mention too.

      The whole iPod experience is unobtrusive and pleasant. The mini fits seamlessly into your life. I have several gadgets that I carry with me. I wish they were integrated into one well-designed device. Until that happens, I need my pocket gear to be SMALL so that I can actually take it with me and use it. I can't even feel the mini in my front pocket.

      I thought about getting a full-sized iPod, but I'm glad I didn't. The trade-off for size is worth it. I think the "for only $50 more" argument is silly. How many damn songs can you listen to on one charge? The mini holds 3 days worth of music! Your battery will drain after about 9 hours. With your firewire or USB 2 cable, you can quickly swap out music while you charge. iTunes is so easy to use, that the swappage is no hassle at all. And I have not found an easier way to rip CDs and organize files than iTunes.

      For the record, I don't fit the "Mac Trendoid" stereotype (although I don't know many Mac users who do.) I [realbeer.com] have a beer gut, poor social skills, and I'm balding. I pretty damn practical and far from stylish. My wardrobe consists of jeans, t-shirts and sneakers and I only replace them once a year, if my wife is lucky. I'm probably one of the Curmudgeons mentioned above. But I do enjoy the finer things in life, and well designed electronics is one of the finer things.

      This is also the first Apple pro

  • 4GB Compact Flash for $200? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by RobertB-DC ( 622190 ) * on Friday March 05, 2004 @06:59PM (#8480819) Homepage Journal
    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.

    More is right... a lot more! I was just pricing cards for my new digital camera (the $12 Ritz model got me hooked), and found out that the going price for 4GB is a whopping $1,130 [17photo.com]! Yikes!

    After dividing out, that came to 28c/meg -- about a penny more per meg than the Lexar-brand 256 MB cards ($70). So I figured a kilobuck must not be bad, if you need that kind of storage.

    But 4096 meg for $200 is less than 5c/meg!

    How on earth did MuVo get such a low price on their components?

  • For the inevitable ridiculous battery questions... (Score:5, Informative)

    by daveschroeder ( 516195 ) * on Friday March 05, 2004 @06:59PM (#8480826)
    For the inevitable ridiculous battery questions:

    iPod Battery FAQ [ipodbatteryfaq.com]

  • Fucking mainstream (Score:5, Funny)

    by ObviousGuy ( 578567 ) <ObviousGuy@hotmail.com> on Friday March 05, 2004 @07:00PM (#8480832) Homepage Journal
    You knew it the moment that it became popular. The iPod totally sold out. Those of us who supported it back in the old days when it was little more than a cassette player in a garage are left wincing at how they've totally gone mainstream.

    White case. Headphones. LED screen. Fucking sellouts.

    • Go Apple! (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Overly Critical Guy ( 663429 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @07:24PM (#8481032)
      I'm glad Apple remains a contender and a nagging thorn in the sleep of Billy Gates' mind. The fact that Apple is still around and won't go away has to bug him on some level.

      In fact, my next purchase will be an Apple laptop.

  • Andy Mack deserves credit (Score:5, Informative)

    by g0qi ( 577105 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @07:00PM (#8480836) Homepage
    Andy Mack [andymack.com] 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.

  • Sell out! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Orien ( 720204 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @07:01PM (#8480842)
    iPod Mini Sells Out

    Was I the only one that was thinking "The iPod sold out? What a poser! Down with conformity! Sold out luser!"

  • This just goes to show you.... (Score:3, Funny)

    by adamgreenfield ( 245052 ) * on Friday March 05, 2004 @07:01PM (#8480846) Homepage
    SIZE DOES MATTER!

  • Disassembling for fun and profit (Score:5, Funny)

    by Deraj DeZine ( 726641 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @07:02PM (#8480854)
    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.

    Wow. Seeing as how 4 GB flash cards seem to be going for a great deal more than that on eBay, I think I just found myself a new work-at-home job.

  • Most MuVo sales are likely regular users (Score:3, Insightful)

    by bwalling ( 195998 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @07:04PM (#8480873) Homepage
    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

    Some of their sales can be attributed to this, however I doubt that it is statistically significant. The majority of consumers are not doing this.

  • Kinda validate their price point (Score:4, Insightful)

    by joshv ( 13017 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @07:06PM (#8480886)
    I know a lot of people complained about the price, but given the fact that they've now sold out, Apple would have been stupid to set a lower price.
    • I know a lot of people complained about the price, but given the fact that they've now sold out, Apple would have been stupid to set a lower price.

      I dunno, Apple may be forced to drop the price in a bit. What percentage of those buyers already own an iPod? Is Apple really increasing its marketshare or is it just selling a device to its most diehard fans?

      Selling out on launch isn't impressive, the dreamcast did that, continuing to make sales after you sold to your hardcore fanbase is what matters. In

      • Re:Kinda validate their price point (Score:5, Insightful)

        by 2nd Post! ( 213333 ) <gundbearNO@SPAMpacbell.net> on Saturday March 06, 2004 @01:19AM (#8483052) Homepage
        Selling out on launch isn't impressive?

        Okay, that's your opinion, fine. However, couple that with, "but given the fact that they've now sold out, Apple would have been stupid to set a lower price," and you're being somewhat silly.

        A) Set a price at $250. Sell out
        B) Set a price at $200. Sell out

        Which one *logically* is more intelligent.

        Apple chose A. *If* they need to lower the price, they have that choice. If they don't, they can keep the price high.

        What you imply is Apple should have set B; and if they did that, they would have lost at least $5,000,000 in preorders as it were, not counting the sales channel!

    • If anything, the mini iPod price was too LOW (Score:5, Insightful)

      by alispguru ( 72689 ) <bob.bane@ m e . c om> on Friday March 05, 2004 @08:37PM (#8481449) Journal
      To an economist, "demand is far greater than supply" is just another way of saying "the price is too low".

      Can you imagine the Slashdot collective opinion, though, if Apple had priced it at $300? "You can get three times as much storage for the same price? Apple is insane!"

      Goes to show that geeks are not Apple's target market, at least for consumer gear.

  • Remember kids... (Score:5, Funny)

    by baryon351 ( 626717 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @07:06PM (#8480887)
    ...always listen to the most vocal people after macworld. Remember the iPod mini sucks, it won't sell, it's too expensive, nobody will like it, it'll flop. As read on Spymac! Macnn! macworld! Slashdot!.

    And look how right they were!. pfft.

    Congrats Apple. One more insanely succesful product :)

    • Re:Remember kids... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Ryan Amos ( 16972 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @07:14PM (#8480961)
      I'll put it this way: I have a lot more faith in Apple than I do in the rumor sites. Apple does their homework before they release something; they haven't really had a flop since the G4 Cube (which was a cool idea regardless, it kind of predated the SFF PCs with the same concept.) I guess their strategy now is to stay one step ahead of everyone who tries to copy them. It seems to be working, at least for now.

    • Re:Remember kids... (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      On the other hand, the Creative product got ZERO coverage at Slashdot or any other trendy tech site, and still sold as well as the super-hyped iPod. Congratulations Creative, on creating yet another insanely successful product, even without the endless coverage on Slashdot and drama-queen flair of the Apple marketing machine.

  • 4GB muvo2 memory (Score:3, Informative)

    by vistic ( 556838 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @07:07PM (#8480897)
    It seems the 4GB storage isn't flash memory... it's a hard drive that can interface with a compactflash port.

    It seemed unreasonable to think they could possibly sell 4GB of flash memory at that price.

    Since it's just a hard drive with a CF interface, it will be much slower than actual flash memory.

    • Re:4GB muvo2 memory (Score:5, Informative)

      by QuantumRiff ( 120817 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @07:45PM (#8481152)
      My girlfriend is a camera Freak, and spent alot of time researching CF/Microdrive cards for her new Nikon digital SLR. On slashdot, that makes me an expert, especially the GF part ;)

      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..

      • One of the reasons why I stay away from Microdrives is that I hike a lot in the mountains, and most microdrives don't seem to like being above 10k feet.

        I'm also worried about what happens when it's extremely hot or cold, though that worry has not been proven out as much I think.

        One last thing to think about is battery life, microdrives will chew through batteries quicker than solid state.

        I also have a Digital SLR, and GF, so I should have at least as much credibility. :-)

  • Remember Slashdot's History (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Pave Low ( 566880 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @07:11PM (#8480930) Journal
    Slashdot doesn't have a very good track record with iPods.

    Remember this about the original iPod?
    No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame. [slashdot.org]

    And now their criticisms of the iPod Mini before it even came out are biting them in the ass.Bottom line, the editors and most of the readers are out of touch with reality sometimes.

    • Re:Remember Slashdot's History (Score:5, Interesting)

      by rev063 ( 591509 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @07:41PM (#8481119) Homepage
      Now that's funny. Thanks for posting it!

      Here's a great quote from a comment [slashdot.org] in that article:

      Agree with the article poster - Lame. Not only is this a lackluster MP3 unit (which by virtue of being firewire will be limited to Apple Mac owners), but it has virtually no UI wizardry that might define it as an Apple product.
      This about a product which has garnered more admiration from its interface than just about anything else.
    • Well, obviously we differ, but I base my opinion of a product on how well it matches my requirements, and how good value it is _to_me_. The fact that 100,000 idiots have been suckered into buying a vastly over priced and under featured unit only tells me their marketing department is very good.

  • Three things about the mini... (Score:5, Informative)

    by diamondsw ( 685967 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @07:19PM (#8480998)
    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.

  • Directions on Taking Apart the Muvo2 (Score:5, Informative)

    by poofyhairguy82 ( 635386 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @07:28PM (#8481054) Journal
    I can't believe /. finally told about the awesome Muvo2 hack, but didn't give a link for directions to do it. Here are some taken from http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1 023&message=7308713.

    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. ;)

    • Re:Directions on Taking Apart the Muvo2 (Score:5, Informative)

      by Bilestoad ( 60385 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @08:29PM (#8481402)
      You don't necessarily have to upgrade the firmware to be able to make the Muvo2 function again with CF media, only if your Muvo2 does not come up in auto-recover mode when the Microdrive is removed. Re-flashing takes place after the CF card replaces the Microdrive. Good luck finding the firmware, Creative seem to have removed it but Google is your friend.

      The battery compartment comes completely off - makes it much easier to take it apart and put it back together again.

      When I did this procedure, "Media Error" turned out to mean incompatible CF card. On the two working CF cards I tried there was no "Media Error".

      The author of the instructions on dpreview seems to have done this to a Muvo2 with an older revision of firmware than what you get if buying today.
  • I don't think I was ever worried about it not selling. My thought was (and is) that it's not going to make that much difference long-term to market share.

    The thing that I saw Jobs hammer over and over agan was market share. He wanted the iPod to not just be the biggest seller, but to be the majority of the market. So... the question is, are these new iPod Mini sales new iPod sales, or are they existing iPod users trading "up"?

    According to Jobs, there's three market segments. I thnk he was a bit deceptive about the details of the segments with his "$50 more" line, but the basic outlines seem to be pretty solid. There's the low end flash based devices, there's the midrange flash and maybe small disk, and there's the high end. The iPod owns the high end.

    In terms of market size, the low end and the high end are the biggest. It seems to me that someone interested in market share would go for the wide open low end with a flash based $180 "iPod micro". Not dive in to the most competitive part of the market with a price that seems designed to cannibalise their own sales.

  • Saw it firsthand (Score:5, Funny)

    by Matey-O ( 518004 ) * <michaeljohnmiller@mSPAMsSPAMnSPAM.com> on Friday March 05, 2004 @07:54PM (#8481213) Homepage Journal
    I was at the local Apple Store Yesterday picking up an iTrip for the 10gb iPod I got on clearance from amazon. In my 10 minutes there, I saw three mini sales and the following conversation between two stereotypical female blonde mallrats:

    bmr1: "Man, I really WANT one of these things"
    bmr2: "So BUY it, what color would you get?"
    bmr1: "Blue-no-pink, I like the pink, but my credit card bill already sucks."
    bmr2: "Girlfriend, untill your visa's got three grand on it, I don't even wanna hear you bitch about your credit card bill."

    I'm thinking 'Bravo for managing your debt' and 'Good god, I thought bmr's only existed in movies'. Shows what happens when you got to a mall less than twice a year, I guess.

  • Nostradamus would be proud (Score:5, Funny)

    by eclectic4 ( 665330 ) on Friday March 05, 2004 @07:58PM (#8481242)
    "Raise your hand if you have iTunes ...

    Raise your hand if you have a FireWire port ...

    Raise your hand if you have both ...

    Raise your hand if you have $400 to spend on a cute Apple device ...

    There is Apple's market. Pretty slim, eh? I don't see many sales in the future of iPod.

    ~LoudMusic"

    This [slashdot.org] was modded up, 4 insightful.

  • Apple rips off UK customers (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Danj2k ( 123765 ) on Saturday March 06, 2004 @02:45AM (#8483431)
    Apple does not yet sell the iPod Mini in the United Kingdom, but once it does I expect it to be just as much of a rip-off as the regular iPod is. To show you what I mean, here's an example: in the UK, Apple charges GBP248.99 including tax for the 15Gb iPod. Take the tax off and it comes to GBP211.91, which is equivalent to $390.55. The same device is sold for $299.00 in their US store.

    Maybe if I was some trendy yuppie with a high paying job who has his car changed every 6 months just so he can get the new numberplate, I would consider buying an iPod, but for those of us in this country who are not earning 6 figures or winning the lottery, value for money is a far higher priority than how "cool" it is. You can get a Creative Labs player with 5Gb more storage for GBP69.00 less than the iPod.

    (On a completely unrelated note, why doesn't Slashdot reproduce the "pound" symbol, even when I use an HTML entity for it?)

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