On 10/24/05, Nick G <Nick at hkcradio.com> wrote: > Anyway, IPods are worthless. The glammer and stuff is all marketing. Go > find a Reo Carma or Carbon, players made of all metal construction. Don't quite disagree with you there, but I must admit, the only reason why I haven't already gotten anything from Rio or iRiver or any of the other companies and got myself an iPod is because the interface is more intuitive than the norm. I certainly don't agree with how Apple is price gouging on the iPods, and I don't like that the iPod does not support FLAC or Ogg, but nevertheless, I think it's worth a tradeoff when I don't have to pore over the user manual and spend a few hours getting used to the controls. I like that I can just keep my iPod mini in my pocket and press buttons and know exactly what I'm doing. As for strength when it comes to the iPod nano, Ars Technica's review of the device included driving over it and throwing it here and there, and it didn't stop playing music until a 30 foot drop, after all of the previous abuse. It's also so unbelievably light that if I wanted to, I could swing it around with just the headphones attached, and it wouldn't fly off or anything, and the same goes to the shuffle and the mini. Seeing as how it's more stronger than my cellphone which is about to break any day now, I'd get a nano the day I have enough money to splurge on it. Granted, some people did sue Apple for all the scratched Nanos, but out of all the people I know who got one nobody's complained about the scratching. Also, the new iPod is made up of new material that resists scratching. Cheers jane
