When apple shut down the Newtwon division, it was more profitable than Palm.
I don't consider that death. The newton only died to idiots like you-- a typical slashdot poster, unfortunately-- who know nothing about technology other than what they are told to feel by teh popular technology press.
The newton, and virtually every other of those items you list-- was and is an unqualified success.
But then, you're an idiot who will look at a few things that don't work and porcliam the most innovative company of our time a failure, and look at a company that has never introduced anything original (say Microsoft) and call them a success on innovation.
Yes, you can clock down, but if the CPU needs the power, the setting clocks up.
In other words, during the compilation period, the CPU runs at full power, and only steps down when its not fully needed.
On an x86, you cannot run at full power without draining your battery considerably.... So, while you may be able to disable it, you lose a lot of battery life.
On the mac, the few secods of compilation are not enough to shorten the batterylife.
You just cannot get around the physics of a CISC architecture that has to draw far more power than a RISC one.
IF you're developing on a laptop, I assume you're going to be doing so while mobile--and hte X86 has to cut its clock rate by half or even to a quarter in order to have decent battery life.
Well, under Linux they will be using GCC, right? Maybe some other java compiler... but both systems are unix and from a OS standpoint, the compilation shold be based on memory, buss and processor speed.
Though x86 laptops have to lower their CPU rate when on battery so that should negatively impact even a linux development machine (this is where RISC really is an advantage).
But the bigger impact is going to be the development environment... it may be that eclipse is a dream to operate under Linux... but I think the Mac OS box has an edge there.
Apple has come from behind and done really good work improving their development environment since the release of X and especially XCode.
I love how that is moderated "insightful" but the dissenting view is moderated "troll".
For a long time I thought Visual Studio was the best development environment-- the Mac side of things, including Codewarrior was not nearly as good.
Project builder did what it did well, but wasn't spectacular.
But XCode is really good. I have no incentive to try codewarrior (ok, I did try it again in late 2002) because XCode is totally excellent.
And its much better than the Visual Studio version I was using.
Integrated help, great compilation speed, ease of development and a short develop-compile-debuge-change-debug(without recompile) loop makes it a killer environemnt to work in.
I can see where Eclipse can be great, but the mac port isn't quite there yet.... so XCode, in my opinion, is the best development environment I've ever used, on any platform.
Its important to remember whether you're talking about compiling on the run, or doing so while plugged in.
Any PC Laptop drops processors speed (And performance) dramatically when unplugged... but Apple laptops continue to operate at full speed when you're running off of battery.
So, if oyu really need a laptop to do compilations while travelling, then you definately want to go powerbook.
Also, the superiority of the Mac development environment cuts down on the need to compile as often (for objective-C at least, not sure about java-- you can make changes and incorporates them without recompiling and re-linking) so this is a big benefit.
Sounds like you've never had a powerbook before- either borrow or rent one and try it out if you can. But if not, I think you'll find that the mac may not be significantly faster than the PC for java compilations, but in most other ways they are much faster.
And I wouldn't be surprised to see them faster in java as well. When I Was last doing Java development I did it all on a 400MHz powerbook, and the rather large app compiled very quickly... never had to wait. You know, that nice pause while you think about what you're going to test-- and before it occurs to you to get up and get a soda or something, the compilation is already done.
As usual, you are incapable of hearing what anyones saying, being totally fixated on the idea that someone might be stealing your code.
If you will notice, the BSD people are open source people-- they put their changes into the public tree.
They don't think of it as "giving back" they think of it as their part of the process.
You are so fixated on the evil bourguoise capitalist parasites that you can't even notice that they produce more benefit to the community than your fascist communist party that wants to control everything.
You are just like the foolish russians after the revolution... but let me guess, your knowledge of history is so poor you cannot comprehend why the comparison is appropos.
"Actually, anything non-GPL is not Free Software."
Yes, and to hitler anyone non aryan was not human.
But that doesn't make it true.
You don't get to redefine free to mean the opposite of what it means, just as he doesn't get to redefine human.
I love how you talk about "community" and "greedy" and the "Selfish".... you sure are a communist, aren't ya? Bet ya think corporations are generally evil? I think you've never written a line of code in your life.
If you had, you'd know you can't close open sourced software in a commercial environemnt practially-- you have to commit your changes to the public tree, otherwise you have to track what everyone else does.
All the "stealing" you guys think you're preventing is a figment of your imagination.
Just like all communists who want to force others to live like they do "for the good of the community" you try to force people to your ideology, and are very intolerant of people who try to exercise the freedom to act individually. The GPL was created to have viral nature to force people to be unable to make a profit from software (Because its evil to make a profit according to communists-- bad for the community, and it shows "Greed" and "selfishness")
Fortunately, like communism, the idea is failing... people are rejecting the GPL, and BSD style licenses are far more popular.
Cause at the end of the day, companies who acually make money actually pay salaries, and their employees will contribute more to the open source movement than you communists who march around and spout ideology, but have never written any code.
Actually, BSD creates an obligation to give back changes-- not a legal moral one, but a practical one.
IF you don't then you have to fork, or constantly integrate other peoples changes to keep your private code in sync with the updates to the public code.
A major pain in the ass.
Reality is peopel do not privatize BSD code, they contribute their updates so that they can keep in sync.
They just get to do it without worrying that a bunch of fascist zeolots are not going to hit them with a lawsuit for failing to follow their draconion worldview.
Look how intolerant the people who post here in support of the GPL are-- and especially at the moderation. Notice the moderation is based on position, not quality of the response.
Pure intolerance. They're a bunch of control freaks who, I suspect, have never written a line of code in their lives-- sop they have no clue what it would be liek to try and privatize and open source project and keep in sync with the changes to the public repository!
Ah, I knew it was just a matter of time before a GPL Zeolot claimed that people who didn't like the GPL wanted to enslave people.
IF you believe in liberty and sharing, then share your code.
You'll find that those people who are "Exploiting" you are actually going to give back their changes because..... they actually believe in open source!
Near as I can tell, people who use BSD licenses believe in open source more than people who use GPL licenses.
The purpose of GPL is not to support open source, but to try and eliminate closed source.
There are two kinds of people in the world-- Mac Zeolots and those who have never used a Mac.
Of course the second group doesn't understand-- they are mired in the compromises and pain of using whatever OS they are using. They are so used to it, they don't even realize that it doesn't have to be this way.
The point is, that everyone here is biased and just as conflicted in their interests-- only with the opposite polarity. So they see a problem in this guy that they cannot see in themselves.
See-- "Youre trying to steal my code!!!" they scream, having never written any.
But you're right, they are excited. They have zeal. And in doing so they move from "We support free (as in BSD, not GPL) software" to "You must use GPL, you are NOT FREE to release your code any other way. Anything non-GPL is "non free" and therefore evil!"
Despite the fact that objectively BSD is more Free than Linux-- the GPL imposes an economic cost and restrictions on use that BSD does not.
It is only religious delusion that gets people excited about forcing this ideology on others, and lets them think that more restrictive is more "free".
There are companies out there who sell linux with the sales bullet point "By licensing our version of linux, you free yourself from having to worry about complying with the GPL. Since we release our code under GPL, you don't have to."
Linux is the MS Windows of open source-- the media has been declaring it the victor for half a decade and so it has become a self fullfilling prophecy (just like they did to Apple back when Apple was 3 times the size of Microsoft!)
Microsoft is zealous about controlling their code-- Windows, with copyright. Linux Zeolots are Zealos about controling their code-- Linux, with the GPL.
BSD, on the other hand, is just free software. No need to be a control freak.
The BSD license shows far more faith in open source than the GPL does. The GPL is a paranoid control freak license from a paranoid control freak!
I don't (currently) use either so I can speak relatively objectively about this:
There are far more linux zeolots than BSD zeolots. And the Linux Zeolots are far more obnoxious, uninformed and ignorant than the BSD proponents.
The Linux attitude is "You must use GPL, if you are doing anything involving a company you are an evil polluting robber baron who kills little puppies on the weekends". Linux Zeolots-- most of whom have probably never written a line of code not in a scripting language-- are constantly telling people that "you just want to steal my code!" Its an amazing amount of obsessive paranoia there. Of course, this is not all Linux proponents, Linus is a great guy and there are other great guys-- but in the area of people turning others off to a platform-- this is how and why Linux people turn people off.
The BSD attitude is "We think that if you love something, set it free. IF others love it too, it will come back to you a hundred fold."
And so far the BSD attitude is winning-- with far fewer people and while being completely ignored by the press-- they are achieving much the same level of progress as Linux.
My attitude is "If it doesn't have a great UI, I can't get interested" and so I use Mac OS X. I have done more work under Linux than BSD (excluding OS X) in the past, and I am in the early stages of a project that will likely use Linux. I'm not a Linux basher, but Linux Zeolots are the worst.
Naw, I think the profit margin on Ipods is $20-$40.
You always hear people on slashdot talking about how apple overcharges and makes huge margins, but its generally not true.
Notice the mini iPod is $249-- the same as the Rio product with a 4G drive.
Those 4G drives are selling on amazon.com right now for $500. They got the price to less than half the retail price of one of the components--- that's REALLY price competitive there.
I bet they are costing Apple $240 to make right now, with the expectation that they can get the cost down to $200 as volume ramps up. Which means they are losing money at first.
Except that you're comparing a 2.5 inch drive formfactor to a 1 inch drive form factor.
Find me a microdrive for $250 why don't you?
They go for almost $500 on Amazon.com. The Rio product based on this same drive retails for $250. Is it overpriced? The creative one retails for $350.
You want a smaller form factor device, you need smaller hard drives-- we're talking about 1 inch drives here instead of the 1.8 inch in the iPod. It costs more to drive the size down to tiny from the "small" iPod.
The Karma is bigger and thus its cheaper to get higher capacity.
Why is this so difficult for the average slashdotter to see?
Probably because you ignore the technology and the size and look just at price.
So, you all should have 3.5 inch drive based MP3 players-- after all, they are much cheaper per gigabyte!
No, all you guys say that... but you're full of it.
A great example is the mini iPod. IT costs $250 and you guys say its over priced.
But it uses a Microdrive-- a CF formfactor drive.
The drive alone, from Amazon.com is $500 right now (or high $400s).
So they release a product for half the price of ONE OF ITS COMPONENTS and you idiots go on and on ranting about how its over priced compared to some 3.5 inch drive based player you bough that weighs a tonne.
Apple isn't overpriced-- "Everyone knows" -- its common for the ignorant to claim they are, though.
Show me a place where you can get a 4G microdrive for $250 and then you can talk about how apple is fair priced... show me a place where you can get them cheaper and then you can talk.
Until then you're a idiot who doesn't know what he's talking about.
On the contrary... when people bash me they are modded up to 5, when I defend apple, I'm always modded down.
Slashdot is very ANTI-APPLE.
Hell, you can read slams in their summaries for every story the post.
What do you expect from a bunch of half educated x86 linux idiots?
(Yes, I think slashdot sucks-- not the articles, articles are decent, but the moderation system does... oh, and its interesting that they silently prevent certain people from moderating-- like me-- I used to get mod points, but now I don't because of my opinion. Keeps moderation nice and biased.)
The whole slashdot comments system is bullshit. They shoudl get rid of it... its pointless and there's nothing useful that comes from it-- cause anyone who knows anything about what they are talking about doesn't find it worth wading thru the idiots.
On;y reason I'm here is it pisses me off-- cause it would be nice to have an actual technical conversation with competant people online sometime, nad this would be a good place for it... but apparently, that's not a priority for OSDN.
Or you're the typical slashdot idiot who thinks "Good ui" is a fullsized keyboard and unix shell commands.
The amazing thing is Apple has just released an iPod based on a 4G microdrive for $250. Nobody has noticed that just buying a 4G microdrive from Amazon.com costs $500!
So the player is half the cost of the drive.
They've driven down prices for that form factor....
But you guys are apparently terminally incapable of noticing that the form factor is different.
A player based on a 3.5 inch drive is a better deal according to you guys because even though it weighs 2 pounds, its got more storage for less money.
Slashdot Mirror
When apple shut down the Newtwon division, it was more profitable than Palm.
I don't consider that death. The newton only died to idiots like you-- a typical slashdot poster, unfortunately-- who know nothing about technology other than what they are told to feel by teh popular technology press.
The newton, and virtually every other of those items you list-- was and is an unqualified success.
But then, you're an idiot who will look at a few things that don't work and porcliam the most innovative company of our time a failure, and look at a company that has never introduced anything original (say Microsoft) and call them a success on innovation.
You're a fucking idiot. Go kill yourself.
Well, I think the premise is wrong.
I think there are far more firewire ports out there than "480Mbps" USB ports.
And a much higher percentage of the Firewire ports are being used...
Firewire is in millions of consumer devices, millions of iPods... while USB is still a PC oriented port (except for the iPod).
From the consumers perspective they are both great, and from a sales perspective, they are great as well.
But I bet in terms of total ports sold, Firewire outsells USB 2-1.
No. The issues apple has-- rarely-- are much less than the PC competitors do, all the time.
They are not perfect, but the difference is drastic.
Right... so you cut your clock rate by %20 or so.
ON a PC, they have to cut the clock rate by %50 or %80 on battery power.
At the end of the day, the RISC architecture requires less watts per MIPS than the CISC architecture that PCs employ.
Sure, its not completely cut and dry, but that is one of the areas where the PowerPC really does shine.
Yes, you can clock down, but if the CPU needs the power, the setting clocks up.
In other words, during the compilation period, the CPU runs at full power, and only steps down when its not fully needed.
On an x86, you cannot run at full power without draining your battery considerably.... So, while you may be able to disable it, you lose a lot of battery life.
On the mac, the few secods of compilation are not enough to shorten the batterylife.
You just cannot get around the physics of a CISC architecture that has to draw far more power than a RISC one.
Did you conduct your tests running on a battery?
IF you're developing on a laptop, I assume you're going to be doing so while mobile--and hte X86 has to cut its clock rate by half or even to a quarter in order to have decent battery life.
Well, under Linux they will be using GCC, right? Maybe some other java compiler... but both systems are unix and from a OS standpoint, the compilation shold be based on memory, buss and processor speed.
Though x86 laptops have to lower their CPU rate when on battery so that should negatively impact even a linux development machine (this is where RISC really is an advantage).
But the bigger impact is going to be the development environment... it may be that eclipse is a dream to operate under Linux... but I think the Mac OS box has an edge there.
Apple has come from behind and done really good work improving their development environment since the release of X and especially XCode.
I agree-- the moderation system is broken.
Even more so because if you ever talk about how the moderation system is broken, you are never allowed to moderate again!
The site is for linux weenies and linux weenies only. Anything related to mac is slanted, and any non-critical-of-apple post is moderated down.
After all, Apple doesn't release their code under GPL, therefore they are evil.
I love how that is moderated "insightful" but the dissenting view is moderated "troll".
For a long time I thought Visual Studio was the best development environment-- the Mac side of things, including Codewarrior was not nearly as good.
Project builder did what it did well, but wasn't spectacular.
But XCode is really good. I have no incentive to try codewarrior (ok, I did try it again in late 2002) because XCode is totally excellent.
And its much better than the Visual Studio version I was using.
Integrated help, great compilation speed, ease of development and a short develop-compile-debuge-change-debug(without recompile) loop makes it a killer environemnt to work in.
I can see where Eclipse can be great, but the mac port isn't quite there yet.... so XCode, in my opinion, is the best development environment I've ever used, on any platform.
Its important to remember whether you're talking about compiling on the run, or doing so while plugged in.
Any PC Laptop drops processors speed (And performance) dramatically when unplugged... but Apple laptops continue to operate at full speed when you're running off of battery.
So, if oyu really need a laptop to do compilations while travelling, then you definately want to go powerbook.
Also, the superiority of the Mac development environment cuts down on the need to compile as often (for objective-C at least, not sure about java-- you can make changes and incorporates them without recompiling and re-linking) so this is a big benefit.
Sounds like you've never had a powerbook before- either borrow or rent one and try it out if you can. But if not, I think you'll find that the mac may not be significantly faster than the PC for java compilations, but in most other ways they are much faster.
And I wouldn't be surprised to see them faster in java as well. When I Was last doing Java development I did it all on a 400MHz powerbook, and the rather large app compiled very quickly... never had to wait. You know, that nice pause while you think about what you're going to test-- and before it occurs to you to get up and get a soda or something, the compilation is already done.
As usual, you are incapable of hearing what anyones saying, being totally fixated on the idea that someone might be stealing your code.
If you will notice, the BSD people are open source people-- they put their changes into the public tree.
They don't think of it as "giving back" they think of it as their part of the process.
You are so fixated on the evil bourguoise capitalist parasites that you can't even notice that they produce more benefit to the community than your fascist communist party that wants to control everything.
You are just like the foolish russians after the revolution... but let me guess, your knowledge of history is so poor you cannot comprehend why the comparison is appropos.
"Actually, anything non-GPL is not Free Software."
Yes, and to hitler anyone non aryan was not human.
But that doesn't make it true.
You don't get to redefine free to mean the opposite of what it means, just as he doesn't get to redefine human.
I love how you talk about "community" and "greedy" and the "Selfish".... you sure are a communist, aren't ya? Bet ya think corporations are generally evil? I think you've never written a line of code in your life.
If you had, you'd know you can't close open sourced software in a commercial environemnt practially-- you have to commit your changes to the public tree, otherwise you have to track what everyone else does.
All the "stealing" you guys think you're preventing is a figment of your imagination.
Just like all communists who want to force others to live like they do "for the good of the community" you try to force people to your ideology, and are very intolerant of people who try to exercise the freedom to act individually. The GPL was created to have viral nature to force people to be unable to make a profit from software (Because its evil to make a profit according to communists-- bad for the community, and it shows "Greed" and "selfishness")
Fortunately, like communism, the idea is failing... people are rejecting the GPL, and BSD style licenses are far more popular.
Cause at the end of the day, companies who acually make money actually pay salaries, and their employees will contribute more to the open source movement than you communists who march around and spout ideology, but have never written any code.
Actually, BSD creates an obligation to give back changes-- not a legal moral one, but a practical one.
IF you don't then you have to fork, or constantly integrate other peoples changes to keep your private code in sync with the updates to the public code.
A major pain in the ass.
Reality is peopel do not privatize BSD code, they contribute their updates so that they can keep in sync.
They just get to do it without worrying that a bunch of fascist zeolots are not going to hit them with a lawsuit for failing to follow their draconion worldview.
Look how intolerant the people who post here in support of the GPL are-- and especially at the moderation. Notice the moderation is based on position, not quality of the response.
Pure intolerance. They're a bunch of control freaks who, I suspect, have never written a line of code in their lives-- sop they have no clue what it would be liek to try and privatize and open source project and keep in sync with the changes to the public repository!
Ah, I knew it was just a matter of time before a GPL Zeolot claimed that people who didn't like the GPL wanted to enslave people.
IF you believe in liberty and sharing, then share your code.
You'll find that those people who are "Exploiting" you are actually going to give back their changes because..... they actually believe in open source!
Near as I can tell, people who use BSD licenses believe in open source more than people who use GPL licenses.
The purpose of GPL is not to support open source, but to try and eliminate closed source.
Once you go Mac, you never go back.
There are two kinds of people in the world-- Mac Zeolots and those who have never used a Mac.
Of course the second group doesn't understand-- they are mired in the compromises and pain of using whatever OS they are using. They are so used to it, they don't even realize that it doesn't have to be this way.
The point is, that everyone here is biased and just as conflicted in their interests-- only with the opposite polarity. So they see a problem in this guy that they cannot see in themselves.
See-- "Youre trying to steal my code!!!" they scream, having never written any.
But you're right, they are excited. They have zeal. And in doing so they move from "We support free (as in BSD, not GPL) software" to "You must use GPL, you are NOT FREE to release your code any other way. Anything non-GPL is "non free" and therefore evil!"
Despite the fact that objectively BSD is more Free than Linux-- the GPL imposes an economic cost and restrictions on use that BSD does not.
It is only religious delusion that gets people excited about forcing this ideology on others, and lets them think that more restrictive is more "free".
There are companies out there who sell linux with the sales bullet point "By licensing our version of linux, you free yourself from having to worry about complying with the GPL. Since we release our code under GPL, you don't have to."
Linux is the MS Windows of open source-- the media has been declaring it the victor for half a decade and so it has become a self fullfilling prophecy (just like they did to Apple back when Apple was 3 times the size of Microsoft!)
Microsoft is zealous about controlling their code-- Windows, with copyright.
Linux Zeolots are Zealos about controling their code-- Linux, with the GPL.
BSD, on the other hand, is just free software. No need to be a control freak.
The BSD license shows far more faith in open source than the GPL does. The GPL is a paranoid control freak license from a paranoid control freak!
I don't (currently) use either so I can speak relatively objectively about this:
There are far more linux zeolots than BSD zeolots. And the Linux Zeolots are far more obnoxious, uninformed and ignorant than the BSD proponents.
The Linux attitude is "You must use GPL, if you are doing anything involving a company you are an evil polluting robber baron who kills little puppies on the weekends". Linux Zeolots-- most of whom have probably never written a line of code not in a scripting language-- are constantly telling people that "you just want to steal my code!" Its an amazing amount of obsessive paranoia there. Of course, this is not all Linux proponents, Linus is a great guy and there are other great guys-- but in the area of people turning others off to a platform-- this is how and why Linux people turn people off.
The BSD attitude is "We think that if you love something, set it free. IF others love it too, it will come back to you a hundred fold."
And so far the BSD attitude is winning-- with far fewer people and while being completely ignored by the press-- they are achieving much the same level of progress as Linux.
My attitude is "If it doesn't have a great UI, I can't get interested" and so I use Mac OS X. I have done more work under Linux than BSD (excluding OS X) in the past, and I am in the early stages of a project that will likely use Linux. I'm not a Linux basher, but Linux Zeolots are the worst.
You sure are ignorant.
The functiosn done by that software are availible in programs on the Mac, and at least one of those products is on the Mac.
Hell, Mathematica was DEVELOPED on the Mac.
Naw, I think the profit margin on Ipods is $20-$40.
You always hear people on slashdot talking about how apple overcharges and makes huge margins, but its generally not true.
Notice the mini iPod is $249-- the same as the Rio product with a 4G drive.
Those 4G drives are selling on amazon.com right now for $500. They got the price to less than half the retail price of one of the components--- that's REALLY price competitive there.
I bet they are costing Apple $240 to make right now, with the expectation that they can get the cost down to $200 as volume ramps up. Which means they are losing money at first.
Except that you're comparing a 2.5 inch drive formfactor to a 1 inch drive form factor.
Find me a microdrive for $250 why don't you?
They go for almost $500 on Amazon.com. The Rio product based on this same drive retails for $250. Is it overpriced? The creative one retails for $350.
You want a smaller form factor device, you need smaller hard drives-- we're talking about 1 inch drives here instead of the 1.8 inch in the iPod. It costs more to drive the size down to tiny from the "small" iPod.
The Karma is bigger and thus its cheaper to get higher capacity.
Why is this so difficult for the average slashdotter to see?
Probably because you ignore the technology and the size and look just at price.
So, you all should have 3.5 inch drive based MP3 players-- after all, they are much cheaper per gigabyte!
Because most of the songs on those services are ones you cna't buy... ones you can just rent.
On iTunes all the music is music you can buy.
Do you know the difference between buy and rent?
Do you care to keep your music even after you leave the service?
That's why iTunes is so much more popular.
No, all you guys say that... but you're full of it.
A great example is the mini iPod. IT costs $250 and you guys say its over priced.
But it uses a Microdrive-- a CF formfactor drive.
The drive alone, from Amazon.com is $500 right now (or high $400s).
So they release a product for half the price of ONE OF ITS COMPONENTS and you idiots go on and on ranting about how its over priced compared to some 3.5 inch drive based player you bough that weighs a tonne.
Apple isn't overpriced-- "Everyone knows" -- its common for the ignorant to claim they are, though.
Show me a place where you can get a 4G microdrive for $250 and then you can talk about how apple is fair priced... show me a place where you can get them cheaper and then you can talk.
Until then you're a idiot who doesn't know what he's talking about.
On the contrary... when people bash me they are modded up to 5, when I defend apple, I'm always modded down.
Slashdot is very ANTI-APPLE.
Hell, you can read slams in their summaries for every story the post.
What do you expect from a bunch of half educated x86 linux idiots?
(Yes, I think slashdot sucks-- not the articles, articles are decent, but the moderation system does... oh, and its interesting that they silently prevent certain people from moderating-- like me-- I used to get mod points, but now I don't because of my opinion. Keeps moderation nice and biased.)
The whole slashdot comments system is bullshit. They shoudl get rid of it... its pointless and there's nothing useful that comes from it-- cause anyone who knows anything about what they are talking about doesn't find it worth wading thru the idiots.
On;y reason I'm here is it pisses me off-- cause it would be nice to have an actual technical conversation with competant people online sometime, nad this would be a good place for it... but apparently, that's not a priority for OSDN.
Tells me you've never used one.
Or you're the typical slashdot idiot who thinks "Good ui" is a fullsized keyboard and unix shell commands.
The amazing thing is Apple has just released an iPod based on a 4G microdrive for $250. Nobody has noticed that just buying a 4G microdrive from Amazon.com costs $500!
So the player is half the cost of the drive.
They've driven down prices for that form factor....
But you guys are apparently terminally incapable of noticing that the form factor is different.
A player based on a 3.5 inch drive is a better deal according to you guys because even though it weighs 2 pounds, its got more storage for less money.