Views & Advice on this Combo Please...

[Mr T.]

Pros and Cons on this please people. Price v functionality etc. Is the Mini worth it or should I go for the normal iPod etc?

Combo = Apple iPod Mini and JBL 'On Tour' Speakers?

iPod Mini is good for 1,000 songs and the JBL works with any iPods, MP3 and CD players, laptops ad most portable devices.

iPod = £179.00

JBL 'On Tour' Speakers = £69.00

[Louby Lou]

Originally Posted by Mr T.

Pros and Cons on this please people. Price v functionality etc. Is the Mini worth it or should I go for the normal iPod etc?

Combo = Apple iPod Mini and JBL 'On Tour' Speakers?

iPod Mini is good for 1,000 songs and the JBL works with any iPods, MP3 and CD players, laptops ad most portable devices.

iPod = £179.00

JBL 'On Tour' Speakers = £69.00

I've got the 20Gb wheel i-pod not the mini and need another one... Would def go for another of the wheel pod's rather than the mini... they seem a bit of a waste really just cost they come in pretty colours

Got the car kit too... and it goes everywhere with me... also purchased the In Motion set Sound quality is excellent...

And i like

[John Touhig]

Bren,

You can get a 4th generation 20g iPod from Amazon.co.uk for £205. Thats defo the way to go.....


John

[And]

Thought you were going to the states soon Bren? Get one from over there mate. iPods are nearly half the price.

With regards to packages look at i-river and also Creative for comparisons. The ipods have always been greedy on battery life.


Andy

[Gavin Yates]

I would avoid the IPOD - expensive despite being tastefully done. Ear buds are crap and although it navigates better than anything else on the market - I'm not sold on it.

If you have mp3s already I'd get an Iriver - it acts just like a removeable hard drive - you can store any files you want on it and for £230 you can get a 40 gig baby. That means you could use it to back up presentations/files/whatever and if you had the lappy stolen - you can still be back on the road again.

[Rob Evans]

I've got both (mmmm shineeeeee) and the 20Gb one's the one to have - you never have to worry about shortage of space on it - - unless you're bloody Jay of course, in which case you get a 1Tb model

Who'd a thunk it, warning somebody off a 4Gb music player cos it's too small! It is very nice though.

Practically, stuff like the iRivers and the new ones from Creative are better in terms of functionality & battery life etc, but -let's face it- the Pod's the daddy
Get yerself one of those iTrip gubbins and you can tune your radio into the Pod too - abroad, naturellement.

Sorry, can't help on the JBL side of things - funky though eh?

Downside of the Pod by the way - mine's a year old and I'm having to replace the sodding battery already. Still, they're down to about £30ish nowadays.

EDIT: As per Gav's comments - apparently there are new earphones out for the iPod, supposed to be much better. That said, they'll still be crap and a walking advertisment for 'I've got an iPod, please pull out a knife and nick it off me', which is why I've got a nice set of BeyerDynamics which sound absolutely brilliant.

[JAG]

After many weeks of reviewing the IRiver, Ipod and Creative Zen Touch, all 20gb Models, opted for the Zen Touch. They were all very close but the 24hour battery life on the Zen was a major factor over the others. Navigation on the Zen is a breeze and the supplied software a doddle to upload music etc..

Just my 2p worth..

[Bantam]

I'd second that (from the iPod lovers). I have a 20Gb and 40Gb iPod and my Mrs has a Mini. She always nicks my 20Gb one as the Mini's too small so I now have migrated to the 40Gb.

NB - the 4Gb Mini's 3.7Gb really, the 20Gb is 18.5Gb really and the 40Gb is 37Gb really.

Also, the software on the iPod Mini and the new iPod 20/40Gb is identical.

Don't bother with the iPod photo - it's way too expensive for just a colour screen.

For the extra £40 squid it's worth going for the 20Gb. You can get all the iPods from the Apple Store - http://www.apple.com/ukstore and if you don't mind the wait they'll even laser engrave your name on it too.

Speakers - personal preference. I'd audition them first to be honest. I have some JBL Creature II's I take with me if I want music out and about

In the car I use an ice-link but am soon upgrading to a Screen-Link when it's released to go in the 407 to connect to the sat-nav.
In the beetle I use a belkin auto-connection kit which works a treat and goes in the tape deck head-unit.

Mark.

[Bantam]

Originally Posted by And

Thought you were going to the states soon Bren? Get one from over there mate. iPods are nearly half the price.

With regards to packages look at i-river and also Creative for comparisons. The ipods have always been greedy on battery life.


Andy

New iPod 40Gb has 12 hour battery life. Plus you can get a 4AA battery booster on the back which adds more life.

Also, believe it or not, you're actually wrong on the price mate. Sorry. I sat down with my Boss yesterday as we're off to Dallas next week. Frys have the iPod 20Gb at $294 (+GST at 15% which makes $338.00) and in the UK they're £219 inc VAT.

Current exchange rate is £1.87 = £1 so the USA item costs £180 and the UK Item costs £219.

Then taking into account warranty (the USA warranty's not valid) plus customs charges as it is over the personal limit (so add 17.5% VAT plus Duty) it's not as cheap as you think.... !

[ahar]

I like the iPod and would buy one but SWMBO spends all my money on DIY stuff .

For the speakers, it depends on what you want them for. I have JBL kit for my surround sound system and it's pretty good - they have a good reputation for modestly priced stuff.

If you just want to listen to the iPod on the move, then an iTrip might be the way forward for you. It's a tiny FM transmitter that you hook up to it to broadcast the iPod music to an FM stereo nearby. Very good for the car or if you have a home stereo already. One of my mates has one and he really likes it, have a look at :

http://shop.ipodworld.co.uk/iPodWorl...tters/GR02.htm