Storage on these things is getting ridiculous. I bought an iPod Shuffle.... it holds every damn CD I listen to! It's so quick & easy to wipe & reload, I see no need to spring for the insane storage versions.

BTW, iTunes sucks ass... horrid software. I use WinAmp + iPod plugin... far less buggy on the PC platform.

MP3's destroy music

lol, you land a job w/ the RIAA?

Stability.

My Mac has never had a virus and only once a major software conflict.

Most of the time I'm on it I'm 'bout as drunk as 200 indians, yet it still works perfect. Completely idiot proof.

No, the music industry destroys music.

Storage is good for photos or video and data.

The Creative unit has every single one of those accessories allowing you to connect to your car streo or anything you want. No difference there.

The Creative is 60GB as well. The ONLY difference is the color screen. If that's worth $100 then more power to ya.

By the way, I don't have either. It's just always fascinated me that people will pay so much for Apple stuff when they get the same thing or better cheaper with a different name on it.

I'd rather just...not be an idiot. Take a look at my avatar...I've never had a single problem with my PC and I paid about $1500 for an AMD 64 3700+ w/ 1GB RAM, 800GB hard drive space and a 256MB Radeon x850xt video card. (custom built of course.) Apple can't touch that.

As for stability, I had a little Mac/PC battle in another thread not long ago where I posted a screen shot of my system information showing a 28 day uptime. The only reason it was down after that was because my cat stepped on the power button on the surge protector.

You're right, though. Macs, I guess, are idiot proof. Too much, though. I used one 8 hours a day for almost 2 years. I really tried to like it. For a long time I told myself I just didn't know the OS as well and needed to learn all the keyboard shortcuts, etc. Didn't help. I get around very well on a Mac, but I can accomplish tasks twice as fast on my PC. Not to mention I used to have to bring work home (away from the brand spankin new G4 at the time) and work on my 1.4Ghz AMD because the Mac couldn't handle the illustrations I was dealing with.

Anyway, that's enough for now. Sorry, didn't mean to turn this into a Mac/PC battle. ;)

Not a big deal, buy what you need.

A computer isn't any different than a car, you buy it for what you need it for. :)

Not if you encode at a high enough bitrate. They say 128kbit is CD quality but it's simply not. I never go any lower than 192kbit and often use 256kbit. If you can hear the quality loss then...well then you can hear better than the rest of the world. Congrats!

So Bose, Pioneer, Kenwood, Alpine, BMW, Honda, VW and every other stereo maker/car company has products built for the Creative players? Umm... nope.

There are hundreds of companies making products specifically for the iPod. If I want a new case for my iPod, I have massive amounts to choose from. Same with boom boxes or any other accessory that I would be interested in because they have 75% of the market.

Not the point. Pretty much any portable MP3 player you buy these days is capable of utilizing an FM brodcaster, just like the iPod.

iPod is the most recognized name in the market; it does not have the market cornered however. As a matter of fact, you can buy comparable units for far less $... and have the same functionality.

Of course, you're one who partakes of the Apple kool aid, so I'm sure my heretical take falls on deaf ears.

I got a little MP3 player for less than $50. I think it's a MuVo. From Creative. It holds a few CD's and it plugs into one of the USB slots on my PC and shows up as an extra drive. It's simple but effective. Drag and drop and you're on the road. I also have an FM transmitter that plugs into the headphone jack that let's it play on my car stereo on the cheap. Simple but effective.

It may not say "designed for Creative MP3 players" but you can sure hook it up to every one of those types of stereo devices. I haven't seen how any of the car manufacturers are implenenting the use of iPods. Is it just a little thing you plug it into or something? The Creative unit is almost identicle to the iPod. It wouldn't surprise me all if it fit and worked just the same.

The same thing from apple would have been $129.99.