To add to your accounting:

Don't these units usually include dead reckoning? I remember my Infiniti had it. I could drive through the Lincoln tunnel and still know where to go after I got out. Portable units get lost and when they emerge in the big city forest of buildings, many can't pick up a signal.

Also integration with the rest of the car costs some money. Like when you run low on fuel, don't some factory units will automatically pop up a list of nearby gas stations.

i dunno, the psp navigation works cause it's a small screen. on a big screen, everything looks out of proportion. and how does it look on a 42" plasma that's 10 feet away from the sofa? looks like it might be hard to read or make out the icons.

doesn't really matter for me though, $600 is outta the question for a game console.

Re: Disposable mp3 players

Actually, I was in the airport (EWR) a few days ago and found some disposable mp3 players already. They were used for audio books. The package had some headphones and a little player not unlike the one pictured. The one I looked at had about 20 hours of content though I don't remember how long the battery lasted. Cost about $15 IIRC. They had about 20 different "books" to choose from. Not expandable (at least as far as I could tell without buying one and opening it up) and only one book per device.

Here's another review:

http://www.mobiledia.com/reviews/motorola/slvr-l7/page1.html

I just got one since they're $299 without a contract and wanted a new phone. It's pretty old technology, same old sucky Motorola interface, low-quality VGA camera, but it's nice looking and the built in speaker sounds pretty good. It'll come in handy when I'm in a hotel room without a CD player and I wanna listen to some tunes. Plus hooking up to iTunes is nice as is the ability to play my iTMS songs.

One question: the review I linked to mentioned support for Media Net Live Ticker, anybody find a way to activate this? I haven't found it yet.

Is it a plug and play operation? Or are there EFI settings to update?

Yeah then we can walk around with iPods for the REST OF OUR LIVES! Thanks shure. I never have to take out my earbuds ever again!