Who Can Really Say?

Instapundit is looking for advice on iPods. He's not sure whether to get the iPod Mini or the 40gb model, but figures the 20gb model is the compromise in the middle that he doesn't want.

Here's my experience. The iPod mini is the compromise, and you should only buy one if you cannot afford the 20gb or 40 gb models. It's physically smaller than the others, but that's a marginal advantage when you consider just how small iPods are already. And if size is really that important, then you don't want to consider the 40gb model, which is slightly larger than the 20gb.

As between the 20gb and 40gb, I own the 20 gigger, on which I've got 2,200 songs with 6.8 gb of space remaining. (Most of my songs are ripped at 192kb/s rather than 128kb/s, so they take up a bit more space). Although I don't expect it to happen soon, it's obvious to me that I could conceivably run out of space before the gizmo's useful life is up. Given how storage space is always used up more quickly than we think it will be, my advice is get the most storage space you can afford. When you consider just how little storage space the Mini has, it really isn't competitive in my view.

Last, (and I assume Glenn doesn't need this advice) what I tell anyone thinking about buying an iPod is that they need to understand exactly what it does and doesn't do. What does it do? It makes the music collection stored on your Mac or PC portable in the sense that you can listen to those songs anywhere. It doesn't make them portable in the sense that you can easily move songs off your iPod onto other machines.

It's not easy to copy songs off an iPod. The device is designed to copy songs ON TO it, and to do that you've got to have songs on your PC or Mac in the first place. If you have a collection of ripped music already, or want to build one and carry it around with you, then the iPod is great. If you think you're going to get an iPod, go to your friends house, grab his music, and then copy it FROM your iPod to your PC when you get back home, well you'll learn quickly this isn't the easiest thing to do. Yeah, you can do it, but it requires some work-arounds that aren't for everyone.

Oh -- and although I haven't done it (yet), consider getting the extended warranty. I've already had my iPod die on me and although it was replaced, I can easily imagine being frustrated and disappointed once the one year warranty is up. I generally don't get extended warranties, but think in this case it's a good idea.