iPod Mini

I’ve had the iPod Mini (2nd generation), for roughly a year now, dating back to 2005, the hardware is a bit old with its 4GB Microdrive (miniature hard drive) and 32MB of ram (SDRAM). Given the resurgence of interest in the “2000s-era aesthetic” and calm technology, I’d figured I would give my two cents on making the iPod more usable in the big 26.

Out With the New and In With the Old

Or was it the other way around?

Opening up the Mini is fairly simple, unlike the Apple products of today, its unibody construction, lends to a great repairability experience. Being two decades old, a new battery is a must. Third party batteries can be picked up through various vendors and are generally reliable.1

Next up, would be replacing the Microdrive with faster and denser flash storage. The Mini uses a CF (CompactFlash) interface for storage, so either buy a CF card or as I recommend, get yourself a CF to SD adapter and importantly use only the recommended SD cards (click on the SD Cards tab). For my iPod, I used the “EVO Select (Blue) UHS-I (U3) A2 V30” standard 130 MB/s version.

Custom Software (Rockbox)

After flash modding an iPod, you have the choice of installing custom firmware or sticking with the stock firmware; for either option you will still need access to a computer.

For reinstallation of the stock firmware use iTunes or if you are on Linux, manually flash the firmware.

Rockbox is a custom Linux based firmware for digital music players, that supports a wider range of audio codecs and transferring music to an iPod without iTunes. By default and as recommend, the installer will allow you to dual boot both Rockbox and the stock firmware2. Crucially, your iPod should be formatted in FAT32 for Rockbox to work; which is not the case for the Mac OS iTunes restore, instead you will have to manually flash the stock firmware. Linux users will have already formatted their iPods’ in the correct format.

Compared to modern options, the iPod Mini in nearly every aspect, be it sound, battery, or cost, loses. However, be it nostalgia or timeless design, the iPod as a whole is truly iconic.

Fin

PS: I’m working on USB-C (charge, sync, and DAC support), “OEM” battery1, haptic feedback, and potentially AM/FM radio support for a part 2.

Footnotes

  1. I’m planing to make a new, basically OEM, battery using the original BMS and a new pouch cell. ↩ ↩2

  2. Rockbox provides further instruction and various installation methods for each iPod model, of which, allowing for the complete replacement of the stock firmware and in turn granting a marginally faster boot speed. ↩