Apple's miniature music mainstay, the iPod mini, just got bigger. Apple announced today it has bumped the mini's memory to 6GB (from 4), increased the battery life to a claimed 18 hours, and replaced the gold mini with a new silver model. The big news, though, is the price reduction—Apple has priced the 6GB player at $249 (direct), and the 4GB model at $199 (direct). The price cut brings the 4GB iPod mini to within $50 of the 1GB flash-based iPod shuffle, which is selling for $149 (direct).

Apple also introduced a new version of the iPod photo, with 30GB of storage for $349 or 60GB for $449.

Copyright © 2005 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in PC Magazine.