no 16GB??? Lame....Apple fails with this stillbirth. One thing that was good about the iPod - flash or HDD - was Apple's ability to introduce higher capacities at lower prices, which was easy for them to do with their market domination. They just made the better contract deals with memory makers at record volume price points. Something that other, smaller DAP makers could not do. But it was still a positive for the consumer, even the ones that didn't like the iPod, because it helped drive down prices and allowed for ever increasing capacities.

I haven't seen Apple trumped on the basics since Creative's Nomad Jukebox Zen Xtra.

Apple HAS to give a 16GB Nano. They just HAVE to.....

dpreview




not dapreview




lol

there's already IMO an un-noticed, low-profile DAP that already beats both the iPod and the Zune in that it provides the best of both worlds: the Creative Zen Vision:M. It's low-profile because Creative never marketed the player like it deserved. It's been out for more than a year now, and it still is the King of the HDD-class, large-capacity DAP IMO when it comes to having stellar video capabilities in addition to great audio quality.

The only thing it doesn't have in comparison is the Wifi sharing of the Zune, or the gapless and games of the iPod, but it ties or surpasses both the Zune and iPod in every other feature mentioned above. Creative now has started using the single-platter 60GB HDD, so both the 30GB and 60GB are the same size. And you can find the 30GB ZVM's for below $200 on amazon.com these days, while both the 30GB Zune and 30GB iPod are still selling for closer to $250....

"We've held off on publishing these bloated 17-inch MBP battery stories for a few months now"

and you say that the swelling is the "final stage" before exploding? Wow, aren't we the shining example of responsible news reporting, especially when it comes to issues that may actually save an eye, if not a life. And I agree with TorontoGuy above on the Dell laptops that caught on fire due to defective Sony batteries: you didn't show much hesitation in posting those stories, nor did you refrain from blasting Dell for putting defective, hazardous products onto the market, before you found out that the issue involved Sony more than Dell. When Apple's Macbooks starting doing the same thing (due to Sony batteries), the problem was no longer laughable, and Apple got your sympathetic condolences.

Once again, Engadget fails.......

The Zen Vision:M cannot be as thin as the iPod is in terms either the 30GB/60GB single-platter HDD's, or the 80GB or larger double-platter drives, without Creative Labs doing an extensive over-haul of the ZVM's design. When Creative was designing the ZVM, they followed the old architecture that they, Apple and others adhered to, which was based on the available lithium-ion slab battery designs at the time: a slab that's basically the length, width and thickness as the HDD, and rests stacked against the HDD, and behind the HDD and screen.

Apple changed their design with the 5th generation iPod with video. Their battery is more "gum-stick" shaped than slab-shaped, and sits at the bottom of the iPod, UNDERNEITH the HDD and screen. The Zune is also designed this way. This design better enables the thinness of the iPod (0.43") and Zune's (0.55") form factor.

Unfortunately, Creative was well underway with the design of the ZVM when the 5G iPod came out, and could not change direction. It also would have been impractical on a manufacturing scale to change course in mid-stream during the past year, and redesign the ZVM after just releasing it. This is why the ZVM has been so thick in comparison. Switching from a double-platter 60GB HDD to a single-platter 60GB HDD does not require any major design changes, and really should've been expected.

Hopefully this switch to the single-platter HDD will not represent the next-generation ZVM, but is only a temporary adjustment, and we will still see the Zen with built-in X-fi technology and the Sigmatel 3600 SoC processor that's been proposed.....

Well, they say that everything in Texas is bigger.


I guess that means lies, too.......

There have always been petty civil disputes like this in the US, and other countries as well. The only difference is high school kids used to not have $200-$300 objects of desire to carry around with thme at school.

For the poster of this news to make crass remarks about the fingernails of the one girl is no less crass and petty than what this newspost is about. For the people who have commented, flamed, and made ignorant jokes and remarks about this newspost also are no less petty and crass. I've come to this site in the past and read pathetic back-and-forth rants all day long, just because someone had the audacity to put down a specific mp3 player, computer, or OS. If you get that emotional over absolutely nothing, then I'd be surprised if you sue someone who loses your iPod (or whatever).

You'd probably just bring a weapon to school the next day, and start shooting everywhere.

Grow up, people. Seriously.......your life is wasting away.

you can really tell the collective ages of the posters here based on their comments.

Viruses were very common on Mac's in the late 80's and early 90's - more common than with windows PC's, in fact.

the OS X system is not immune from viruses, by any means, although the occurences have been rare in recent years. My opinion is, they will become more frequent in the coming years.

this is an interesting page of links to read up on OS X viruses:

http://antivirus.about.com/od/macintoshresource/

Hey, Otto:

1. FM radio for listening to music is, I'll agree, about the lamest, but to listen to talk radio like ESPN, Rush Limburgh (I prob. spelled his name wrong, but I don't listen to him), etc., or to sportscasts of local games (like I do), an FM tuner has definite value. To be able to have that feature integrated, without having to spend $$ for another adapter/accessory to keep up with, is a definite plus for those people (like me).

2. Once again, I agree that the video feature is minor compared to playing music, but at least it's there (unlike the Nano). How big are the screens on cell phones that have video playback? How popular are they? Once again, there are people out there that consider video playback a valuable feature, but they won't get it with the Nano. Even sites like here, CNET and ilounge were hoping for video support for the 2G Nano. Sounds like you're in the minority on this point.
3. This sounds like an issue between you and Keith. I'll leave it laying there....
4. I think what Keith was referring to here, was the ability to connect the Sansa - in MSC mode - to any PC: WinXP, OSX, Linux, be able to load content onto the Sansa, and then PLAY that content (as long as the formats are compatible, like mp3's). You can download mp3's to a Sansa from your Apple Mac PC without any drivers or PC media players, and play them immediately. You cannot with an iPod: you can download the content without any drivers, but you can't play the content, even if they are .aac files. They'll just show up as "data", like the iPod is a thumb drive......

@tekdroid,

currently, the Sandisk Sansa is the closest flash DAP to meeting all your requirements. And once it gets rockboxed, the final issues (gapless, FLAC, OGG, etc.) will be filled...

and to Ally, Apple recently upgraded the iPod Nano on September 12th to 8GB of storage, primarily to respond to Sandisk's moves with their 6GB e270 and 8GB e280 Sansa's. Many were thinking that the Nano would also get video support, or at least a more customizable GUI, to match the Sansa, as well as the Zen V, and Clix, but that didn't come.

Apple was the first to introduce 5GB microHDD to the mp3 player market with their 1G iPod, and 4GB flash with the 1G Nano, but they were not the first to introduce higher HDD capacities (20GB, 40GB, 60GB, or 80GB), 6GB & 8GB flash (Sansa), color screens, video playback, gapless playback for audio, or the more durable aluminum cladding, and yet they have added these features and aspects to the iPod over the years. The DAP market is no different than any other competitive consumer marketplace: the principle players will forever continue to introduce new features and designs, and their competitors will forever respond, and the first parties will respond to the responses. It's like a chess game.

Using the Sandisk Sansa as an example (since it appears to be the biggest competitor to the iPod, right now), the Sansa certainly is not an iPod copy, as it has too many built-in features and design aspects that either surpasses/surpassed the Nano (the more scratch-resistant face & liquid metal back was far more durable than the 1G Nano's soft plastic/chrome backing, but now not so much in comparison with the 2G Nano's aluminum cladding), or were aspects that the Nano, or any iPod, didn't even have. Add to that the higher capacities for a lesser price, and the Sansa was not a copycat knee-jerk reaction to the Nano, but rather a serious competitor that was expected by it's creators to best the Nano. So much so, that even with the improvements of the 2G Nano, the Sansa still exceeds the Nano in many areas...