ipod

12/13/2005, 10:20am, EST

Tuesday, December 13th

iPod fan upgrades iPod mini to 8GB

MacNN reader Jason Parry has managed to upgrade his iPod mini to 8 gigabytes of storage. He upgraded the now-discontinued music player by installing an 8GB "Seagate Photo Hard Drive," which sells for around $200-$250. Jason recommends that users attempting the hard drive upgrade get a battery upgrade at the same time from Sonnet Technology, as the company includes tools and an instructional video to aid in getting the Mini open. Parry also provides instructions for restoring the iPod's operating system after installing the new drive. With the hard drive and battery upgrades, "Mini enthusiasts can double the capacity and battery life of the iPod mini and extend its usefulness arguably past that of Apple's replacement, the Nano," writes Parry.


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scottkleinberg
smart?
0
12/13, 12:38pm, EST
So for $200-$250 plus the cost of the battery, this person now has an iPod Mini that's 8 GB instead of 4GB. Mmm-hmmm. And that means $300+ when you could have purchased a brand new iPod - nano or video -- for either less or not that much more. Cool on being able to do the install. Duh for spending all that money to upgrade a -- albeit sadly -- now outdated mp3 player.
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Joined Nov 2003
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jayparry
$
0
12/13, 1:04pm, EST
Yes, i realize the cost-benefit isn't totally there yet. Still, its cool that it works and might be an option for some people!
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rytc
Outdated?
0
12/13, 2:25pm, EST
Huh? Why? It still plays music, what else is it supposed to do? To be honest, colour screens and the ability to play video are just gimmicks for the sole purpose of making people feel their's is outdated, why give into slick advertising?
Mac Enthusiast
Joined Jan 2001
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BDLatimer
Several benefits
0
12/13, 2:39pm, EST
Yes, a color screen would be cool - but by no means is the mini "outdated". It can still play all the same audio file formats, and is still a great form factor. If Jason wants to increase the storage space in his unit, more power to him.

But, also keep in mind that older iPods and the mini (all capable of Firewire data connections) can be used as bootable hard drives - not so with the USB-only nano and new "video-capable" iPod. This is, admittedly, a fringe use of this device - but for those of us who have grown accustomed to the great usage and feature set, the elimination of this capability is a significant issue.

In all, its the new iPods which - unless you absolutely "must" have the nano's small size and/or the new iPod's video capability - seem to be less-than compelling upgrades. Spending the money on enhancements to a more-capable unit, actually sounds like a viable plan to me. As such I'm going to keep my 20 Gb color iPod around for quite some time to come...
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cyanideg
ipod repair
0
07/03, 3:49pm, EDT
ipodmods.com has the 8GB drive here: http://www.ipodmods.com/shop/ipod-mini-hard-drives.html they are #1 for any ipod repair. http://www.ipodmods.com
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