Laurie, you're a terrible addition to the TUAW staff, and pointless posts like this are why. We all know a Microsoft player won't be mac compatible- maybe some insight onto MS's whole shunning WMP deal would be more enlightening, but focusing on just another iPod knockoff really isn't on anyone's interest plate.

Go back to working at the Gentleman's club.

I'm going to share with you all a sad truth:

All environmental organizations are just political fronts. They are tools of a particular political party. The Sierra Club is essentially an alarmist propaganda tool of the Democratic Party. Greenpeace is the same way with the ultra-liberal front. They don't care as much about the environment as they do getting their politicians elected. Greenpeace only cares about its publicity.

It didn't get any love, but I love the original iMac's "Traffic" ad. I think it should've made the top 5, as it thoroughly described Apple's new design philosophy (which they still have today) without saying a single word. It could easily be argued that it even defined good product design as well.

I have the Marware Protection Pack (won't help you on your touchpad) , and it looks nice and is slick at first, but after about 2 months of heavy use it'll really wear and look really really bad. Cleaning it with alcohol helps the appearance, but it won't hide the worn texture.

iTunes 7 has been working wonderfully for me. Video playback is a million times better, and it feels a heckuva lot sprightlier than iTunes 6.

Sounds like a load of BS to me.

Given what a POS the 6700 is, and given what a miserable OS Pocket PC is, I can't imagine anyone wanting one unless their idea of a phone is a toy. I really wish HTC would spend as much time thinking through their devices (like that awful jog-thingy on the left side of the 6700 and numb joystick) as they did coming up with crazy designs (that are kinda cool.)

Apparently, Best Buy used to try to pitch Medion as a "high end european manufacturer." Knowing Best Buy, that's probably true. Knowing the experiences of friends (and customers) who had Medion, I would never

ever

ever

ever

purchase one. They are junk PC's.

Now see, I used the Zen Vision:M and didn't find it nearly as nice as the iPod for a few reasons:

1) The touch strip is nowhere near as intuitive as the click wheel. I really wish Creative would use something like a jog dial or Dell's scroll barrel. How can anyone possibly believe that the touch strip is better than the click wheel? I say take an ergonomics course, because it's my firm belief that having the scrolling motion directly related to the speed and movement of your thumb (especially when it's constantly in contact) is better than trying to guess with a strip.

2) When doing a lot of fast scrolling it tended to trip up, especially around photos. Go forward and backward through the menus really quick and it can't keep up. At least mine couldn't. While the menus look really slick and are responsive enough when you're demoing it in store, it really left me frustrated. I'd happily trade the cool graphics (which do look cool) for quicker menu.

3) The screen isn't better, because it can't be seen without the backlight on! These are mp3 players first, and I like how the iPod's (which is reasonably bright and crisp I think by any standard) can be seen in bright daylight without a backlight on.

4) Disk Mode works flawlessly!

5) iTunes is a great program, certainly better than Musicmatch Jukebox or Windows Media player is. And anyone who is concerned about sound quality isn't going to care about Playsforsure or any WMP-based store.


Yeah, things like an FM tuner might be nice, but the iPod got the basics right. So those who think the iPod is an inferior player, try using one. There are some of us who care more about how well it does its job than how many jobs it can do.

Those saddened by Palm's death spiral should check out Symbian (Series 60 and Series 80).

Windows Mobile is nothing but solid garbage. Between the half-implemented screen orientation modes, the the laggy performance, short battery life, and useless applications that come with it (Pocket Word is a joke... "Just like the Desktop Version" my @$$!") , to things like freezing when Bluetooth tethering (to the awful bluetooth implementation to BEGIN with) , It's amazing Microsoft sells any of them.

I was dumb enough to buy one. Thank goodness for eBay.

Ugh, Why must MS cram "Windows Mobile" into everything? Is "it runs like Windows" something you really want to promote? Do people go around saying "Damn, I wish this worked as well as Windows!" Didn't think so. I've got a Pocket PC at the moment and I want to beat whoever designed the UI senseless.

Needless to say, I think the UI tries to be 'stupid' as opposed to iPod or Rio-esque 'efficient,' . Although it has some nice tricks up its sleeve, I can't imagine anyone saying "Yeah, this thing with the plus-sign navigation and the UI that tries to mimic your crappy PC at home... yeah, this is better than an iPod" .