iPod Mini vs. iPod Shuffle for skiing

[Lynx]

who wants to help me choose my new iPod????

apparently i have enough "reward points" with one of my credit cards to get an iPod mini or an iPod shuffle (either the 512mb or the 1gig).

any suggestions??? I thought i was all about the shuffle cause it's so small, but then i wondered if there would be a time when i wanted to be able to cue up a certain song real quick and thus, the iPod mini would be better. For the most part i guess i ususally just hit play on my "music for skiing" playlist and then go.

the mini uses more points (8000 more) than the shuffle, but it is 4gigs vs 1gig, and either way i will still have points leftover for other goodies later on. I already have an iPod, but i wish it was smaller for skiing. and now i can get a new one without paying for it, so i might as well.

damn, i love these reward credit cards.

[Benny Profane]

Shuffle. Small, of course, durable, and most important, long battery life. Much longer than a "screen" IPod, especially in cold. And, hell, it's so cheap, if you trash it, just get another.
Perfect amount of music for a ski day - about 8 hours.

[Cornholio]

If you ever use it otherwise, like bussing to work, in the gym, in the car, etc-- I've never thought the shuffle would be very good.

How many points do you need for a Nano? Might be worth saving some more!

[Tap]

mini - it's just more memory and you get the screen

[iceman]

Yeah the nano would be the way to go if possible. I think the minis are still hard-drive based (I could be wrong on this), which is less than ideal for applications where it's going to be bounced around a lot, such as skiing.

The 1-gig shuffle is fine, except not being able to find specific songs is a bit of a pain and if you're going on a road trip or won't be able to access your 'puter for a while for some reason it can be pretty limiting.

Nano has enough space for tunes for at least a week and is solid-state so it's not affected by getting shaken up. Plus it's cool-looking, especially in black.

[Tap]

i snowboard and mountain bike with my hard-drive based ipod and it has never skipped or had a problem with bumps.

must be i'm so smoove.

[iceman]

Heh, I'm sure you're smmoove as shit, but what I heard is that using a hard-drive based ipod in an active environment causes the unit too work hard as it loses it's place on the disk and has to search to find it again (I know, this is very technical) which runs the battery down much faster. Supposedly you don't hear it because there is a buffer built in but it's still churning way more than if it wasn't getting bounced around.

But all of that is what I've heard, maybe somebody with some actual knowledge should chip in here.

[bagtagley]

I have actual knowledge, but this is the sort of thing I charge for. I'll shoot you guys a PM w/ my Paypal account and my hourly rate.

[iceman]

Don't worry about all that, just have your people send my people a bill.

[Steezus Christ]

The mini has a 32mb memory chip that buffers up to 25 minutes of music. The head does need to seek more, but when bumped it is only moving about a butt hair out of place. The platter however does not need to spin faster like portable CD players that spin the CD faster to read faster to maintain it's buffer.

I personally love my mini but I think I would lose or break a Nano. Other than that, I would wait for a Nano. The shuffle doesn't store quite enough for me as I hate messing with playlists all the time.

[Tresckow]

Go with the Shuffle. Long battery life, easy to use with gloves on or through your jacket, doesn't skip (though my 20 gig never did while skiing last year), and it's so small that if you crash, you'll break something else before you land on the shuffle and bust it. You'll forget it's in your pocket, though I'm sure a nano or mini wouldn't be too noticable. Ask Foggy, he rode with the mini and was rocking out.

[Sensisnow]

Heh, I'm sure you're smmoove as shit, but what I heard is that using a hard-drive based ipod in an active environment causes the unit too work hard as it loses it's place on the disk and has to search to find it again (I know, this is very technical) which runs the battery down much faster. Supposedly you don't hear it because there is a buffer built in but it's still churning way more than if it wasn't getting bounced around.

But all of that is what I've heard, maybe somebody with some actual knowledge should chip in here.

It's not so much that you have to worry about it skipping as you have to worry about it corrupting data on the hard drive. When you repeatedly bump or shake a hard drive based mp3 player there is a chance that the head will come into contact with the platter causing it to get scratched and cause irrepairable damage to the hard drive itself. I've never had it happen myself with my Creative Nomad Zen player, but I'm planning on picking up a flash based drive before this season for that very reason.

[Steezus Christ]

That is really hard to impact the head with the spinning platters. I know with computer hard drives, the head is usually toast after it that happens.

[Lynx]

alright. I am basing my choice solely on skiing because i was able to squeeze a regular iPod out of ol' santa clause last christmas, so I am all good for road trips and such.

Nanos are not currently offered through my rewards program. I think i might go with the shuffle. My roomate has a mini though, so maybe i should test drive it for a day. I will have more points leftover if i go with the shuffle though, thats a definite plus there. ok...eFF it...i'm getting the shuffle.

edit: done and done.

[snorkeldeep]

sometimes i worry that the sky is going to fall.