Im hoping to be there.

As I commented on the original article;

"Surely thisll break when Apple do an update, leaving all the customers of these �licensed� companies with unplayable media until an update (if possible) is made available. You wouldnt see me buying any media from those companies.

Also, what EXACTLY is stopping these companies selling their media to work on the iPod as it is? The article makes the iPod sound as if it will only play DRMd files. Just sell MP3s or MP4 movies and theyll play on the iPod.

This sounds like a very dubious business idea to me."

"but how many nano owners do they expect will ever check under the hood?"
Well you lot, clearly!

"(unsupported hardware)"
Maybe theres a firmware update due out shortly.

"Xerox allowed Apple to have their "look and feel"...they didn't steal it..."

besides that they actually bought it off Xerox, the Apple UI bears little resemblance to Xerox's original. Apple used Xerox's research to create their own UI, whereas MS pretty much ripped Apple's. But thats another discussion entirely.

...Apple sues anyone who copies or uses anything "Pod." Why is it not fair if another smaller company has its ideas stolen by Apple to do the same. Only the cult of Steve Jobs would disagree....

thats trademark, not patent. Its completly different, but I agree with the point.

they blatently had stolen it all from Xerox!
cough
they blatently had bought it all from Xerox!

these companies should have marketed their products

I dont think these patents generally involved 'products' from the originating company, just 'ideas' or 'concepts'.

Can I take a patent on breathing air?

Ridiculous, who's handing out these patents? They need to be slapped with a cod. Repeatedly.

looks very reminiscent of the old clamshell ibook to me. Oh for originality.