On iPod/iPhone capacity…
I’ve heard people take issue on more than one occasion with the perceived storage deficit of newer flash based iPods (or any other portable, media playback device) and the size of one’s media collection. It’s happened enough times now, that I recently wrote out how it works and how it can work for you. Just wanted to capture that here for those who may be interested and/or those I might need to refer to this blather in the future.
You would be hard pressed to prove to me you could consume (listen to or watch) 4GB of audio/video media in a day’s time. The storage capacity of the media playback device you get should be based on the amount of media you consume between the times you sync it with the computer that houses all your media. Device storage capacity should *NOT* be based on the total size of your media library.
I understand you (and other people) want “choice” and the ability to choose any particular thing you might want to listen to at any given time. I find on a day that I do a lot of music listening, I get through 50-70 songs. Averaging say 4MB per song in MP3/AAC format, that’s 200-280MB. Let’s throw some video in there… we’ll be generous and say 1.5GB for 2 hours worth of video I might want to watch whether it’s a movie, tv shows, vodcasts, or music videos. We’re still under 2GB here. The remaining space can be filled with your “choice” media… the stuff you might want, but not anticipate it ahead of time. You can intelligently anticipate the stuff you want through the use of smart playlists so you’re very likely to have something you’ll want, or at least be happy with, at a moment’s notice.
It works. Trust me. My largest iPod I’ve ever had is 60GB and my media library is probably in the neighborhood of 200GB, so I’ve never been able to fit my whole library on my portable device. (Note also the size of that collection won’t even fit on the largest of laptop hard disks.) While more space perhaps provides additional comfort or breathing room, the necessity is debatable.
Hope someone finds this useful.