john1701a said:
However, the competition has temporarily exceeded the current model. I know. I own one of those iRiver players and have done iPod comparisons. The screen is color, making it dramatically easier to see. And the higher resolution doesn't hurt either. iPod will offer the same in short order.
hehe.. Apple now has the iPod Photo, which adds, among other things, a color screen.
I own the '3G' 30GB iPod currently. I bought it used from a friend only a week before the current line of 'Click Wheel' iPods came out. It's more than I need presently. My music collection is 15GB, and I use the iPod really as a glorified Walkman, just what it's 'core use' is for. It's great for that. The interface is the best I've seen (and I actually did a lot of comparison shopping.) The battery life could be better, but apparently the newer models have significantly increased battery life. I do have it sync my contacts and calendar, but I have yet to actually use that, as my cell phone already syncs. I prefer Apple's Music Store to the competition mostly on 'style', and did so even before I had seriously considered buying an iPod. (And when I was considering an mp3 player, I had determined that it would be easy to 'move' my iTunes-purchased music into another program, so the iPod didn't get an 'automatic advantage' there; although the fact that the iPod syncs with iTunes *WAS* an advantage, because I greatly prefer iTunes to any other jukebox software.)
Recently, my wife has learned of the joy that is the iPod. She's not a techno-phile by any stretch, and has problems figuring out how to work the DVD player without written instructions, yet she figured out the iPod without any help at all from me. (The biggest problem she had was figuring out how to connect it to the stereo.) So she has 'claimed' our existing 30GB iPod. I'm thinking now is a good time/excuse to get myself an iPod Photo. I take a lot of digital pictures, and one of the biggest problems I have is being able to show them off. I have them all on my desktop computer, not my notebook, so it's hard to show them off that way. Even my digital camera (a Sony T1) requires a dock to connect to a TV, so it's difficult to show off pictures directly from the camera. The iPod Photo seems to have the perfect integration and functionality for showing off photos. I was skeptical until I used one in a store. Now it's DEFINITELY on my Christmas list. (The additional battery life helps.)
As for video? I own a VERY good Sony 'Watchman' TV that is now about a decade old, yet it's still great. Yet watching TV on it is hard, because the screen is so small. And for audio, headphones are the only reasonable solution. I've watched videos on a friend's PocketPC, and they're just dismal, even though they are playing at 30 fps. It's just too small to truly enjoy. The only thing I can imagine watching on such a small screen is the news. So I fully understand Apple's decision to not include video playback. (Although the ability to store video, and play it back on a TV using the video out would be a nice touch. Then I've even got a portable home-video viewer.)
As for SUV size and power being meaningless? What, are you kidding me? H2's are still selling like hotcakes, and the luxury SUV market still seems to be about 'bigger and badder'. Only the 'small SUV' market (dominated by Subaru) seems to be worried about other factors.