The unit's structure and design, however, go further than shrunken dimensions. The case is made of anodized aluminum, which is more difficult to scratch than the regular iPod case, and gives off a shiny metallic look. Best of all, the iPod mini comes in five colors: silver, gold, blue, pink, and green.

Apple was forced to make slight layout adaptations as a result of the iPod mini's size. The smaller unit face required Apple to seek a new solution for the control buttons -back, forward, pause/play, and menu-so the iPod mini, instead of buttons, features one button-a Click Wheel, combining four buttons with a solid-state scroll wheel. The scroll wheel is touch-sensitive, like a PowerBook® trackpad; and the four buttons are placed under the wheel, which depresses slightly when pushed at its ends. This solution has the unfortunate side effect of introducing another moving part into the iPod design-exactly what the touch-sensitive scroll wheel was intended to eliminate-but the mechanical buttons are still an efficient use of space. They also present a more natural button setup than on the regular iPod, which requires the user to move his thumb away from the scroll wheel to control the unit.

While the screen has a slightly smaller 1.67-inch diagonal, the iPod mini has the same user interface and extra features as the regular iPod, including Games, Calendar, Contacts, and Notes.

In lieu of a carrying case, Apple includes a far superior option: a white belt clip that tightly snaps onto the iPod mini. Unlike the regular iPod carrying case, you're free to access the unit's controls while it's attached. Since the player's decreased size and weight make it ideal for athletic use, Apple also offers a $29 arm band. As with the belt clip, the unit just snaps in and is held firmly; the adjustable neoprene band is comfortable for running or jogging.

Apple offers other accessories for the iPod mini as well, including $39 in-ear headphones. The iPod mini doesn't include a dock, requiring that you instead use the included FireWire and USB 2.0 cables; but Apple offers a special iPod mini dock for $39.

Sizing Up the Competition
At Macworld Expo, Jobs touted the iPod mini's value using a head-to-head comparison with the Rio Cali, a Flash-memory based MP3 player that includes 256MB of memory for $200. With the iPod mini's advantages over traditional high-end Flash players, including its $249 price tag, Apple's new offering, according to Jobs, "is the best $50 you'll ever spend."

Is he right? On the same day, Apple announced that it would increase the capacity of its lowest-end regular iPod from 10GB to 15GB while keeping its price at $299. So, for only $50 more than the cost of the new iPod mini, a customer can get 11GB of additional storage. And many 256MB Flash-memory players, while far inferior to the iPod mini, cost less than the Rio Cali's $200.

As a result, the iPod mini is Apple's least-expensive iPod but should still be considered a luxury item. Paying a premium for a gadget's small size is nothing new (take the original iPod, for example) but consumers seeking the best value should look at Apple's higher-capacity offerings.

Jobs is confident that the iPod mini will successfully do what Apple wants it to do. "The iPod mini is designed to go after ... the high-end of the Flash market," he said at Macworld Expo. "We think it's going to do very well doing exactly that. We think is going to be a great second member to the iPod family."