My cousin, Jessica, got an iPod Touch recently and didn’t know what to do with her old iPod Mini 1st generation. I bought it from her, because I like the idea of having a real iPod. It looks really good; no scratches, a case, and a car stand. Jessica even had the original packaging. I don’t know what it is about Apple that makes you keep the box it came in. My MacBook box is in a closet.
The first thing I did was look on the Internet, Wikipedia, to identify the version and get a manufacturing history. The Mini was made for 2 years; 2004-2006 and replaced by the new Nano. The next thing was to look for aftermarket mods. There are two well known changes poeple make, replacing the battery with a larger capacity and replacing the hard drive. The Mini’s contain a 1″ hard drive complete with a spinning disk inside. Apple made 2, 4, 6 gig versions. Though it’s somewhat challenging to open, it’s very easy to work on. Now that some time has passed there are lots of instructions on the Internet. When this came out a hard drive was the way to go. Today, they make flash memory that has no moving parts and uses a fraction of the electricity. Some people claim to get 20 hr off one charge after replacing the battery and storage.
So, I have a new project to play with. $100 for a 16 (15.1) gig card, $20 for a battery, $70 for the Mini, upgrading a new device Priceless. This is almost as much as a real 30 gig iPod. I don’t care. The scratch resistant aluminum shell and standard iPod connector will last for some time. I can work on it myself.