Apple announces 6GB iPod mini & 30GB photo and drops prices

Apple has now made its official announcement of its new mini iPod, featuring a 6GB hard drive which is 50% more Acer Laptop Battery storage than its iPod mini, improved battery life of 18 hours and is priced at around US$250, the price the 4GB iPod mini was sold at. This makes Apple's new player the largest capacity on the market with a 1" hard drive. However despite previous unofficial announcements on the upcoming iPod mini to feature a colour screen, the 6GB iPod mini still features a grayscale screen.

Apple has decided to continue its 4GB iPod Laptop Battery mini, but has improved the battery life to 18 hours also and cut the price to around US$200, thus making it more affordable for those on a budget. Finally Apple has also released a 30GB iPod photo model along with an optional iPod Camera Connector (due in March) to allow consumers to transfer images from their digital camera to their iPod, thus saves on carrying multiple flash memory cards or the dreaded 'Card is full' issue when you really need to take a shot.

The 30GB iPod Photo model is retailing for Acer TravelMate 290 Battery around US$350, its 60GB iPod Photo model has dropped US$150 in price to around US$449, while its 40GB iPod photo model has been discontinued. In the UK, Apple's 4GB and 6GB iPod minis sell for £139 and £169 respectively and its 30GB and 60GB iPod Photo models sell for £309 and £249 respectively. The iPod Camera Connector will be available in March for UK£19 and US$30. Quakester2000 used our news submit to send in the following news Acer BATCL50L Battery quote:

Apple has refreshed its iPod range of music players, cutting the price of the popular yuppie accessory.

Tacitly acknowledging that the color iPod Photo was overpriced, Apple lopped $150 off the price of the high end 60GB model, which is now $449 (UK:£309), and replaced the $499 40GB iPod Photo with a 30GB version that's also $150 cheaper (UK:£249). The cheapest 4GB iPod Mini is Acer BTP-73E1 Battery now $199 (UK:£139), a price cut of $50. It's joined by a 6GB model at the old price of $249 (UK:£169). The UK prices quoted include VAT.

Apple has also fixed two of the biggest weaknesses of the iPod Mini, its battery life and USB power charging. The company claims the new version runs for 18 hours and will now trickle charge over a USB 2.0 cable. Most Mac users have been able to charge their iPods over a FireWire cable since the product was launched; as before, Apple ships a USB 2.0 cable with the Mini but a Acer BTP-550P Battery FireWire connector is an additional purchase.

Apple will also make a cable that allows the iPod Photo to connect directly to a camera, for $19, in around a month's time.

Some more info is available here on PC Pro news here.

Up until now, I did not see much point in the iPod photo model as generally most people use their iPod to listen to music rather than go showing off photographs on it. However, the camera attachment does seem to give practical use for the iPod photo since once a user finishes taking their snapshots BTP-44A3 Battery at a site, they can simply pull out their iPod, transfer the images and have an empty camera ready for the next site.

Feel free to discuss about the iPod on our Audio Forum. For discussions on the iTunes music store, see our Music Downloads, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) & Legal Issues Forum.