It has the following
- same screen as iphone
- wifi
- buy music online using the device
- buy music from startbucks
- no phone
- no camera

and also a $100 less.

I have to say I don’t much like the iPod user interface or sync mechanism. So right now my perfect player would be an iPod Classic 160 running Rockbox with plain old USB mass storage. Although sharepod.exe+winamp is almost an acceptable replacement for iTunes.

I have absolutely no interest in iTunes, iTMS, Urge, Rhapsody or any other DRM crippled service. All my collection is plain old MP3 with most of it ripped using LAME -presetstandard (192K VBR)

What puzzles me is why there’s no iPod Touch with a hard disk. $399 for 16Gb? Pah!

Whether you “buy” a CD or not, you’re not actually buying the song. Just like software, you’re licensing the song for your own use. Music subscription is the same concept, except your licensing it for a certain period of time (a month). The downside to this is, of course, once you stop paying, you don’t have the music anymore. The advantage to this, however, is you end of saving money in the long run if you’re a regular music listener.

I personally purchase around 5 CDs every single month. If I can listen to these albums, and any other albums in the future, anytime I want, anywhere I want, for the same price per month as a single CD, I’m sold on it. I’m now an URGE subscriber. I’ve only been an URGE subscriber for a few days, and I can already see a major benefit to it.

The casual music listener may not see any advantage to it. They might buy a CD once or twice A YEAR. If you’re a hard-core music listener, music subscriptions make sense in the long run.

- Adam

Finally, subscription services are the last great hope for the labels because they require DRM. But that’s another reason i’m against it. I want more labels to follow EMI’s lead in ditching DRM, not having them hang on for a few more years clinging to a model that so far simply hasn’t worked.

Finally, subscription services are the last great hope for the labels because they require DRM. But that’s another reason i’m against it. I want more labels to follow EMI’s lead in ditching DRM, not having them hang on for a few more years clinging to a model that so far simply hasn’t worked.

That business model had already been tried, and had already crashed and burned back when Apple was first evaluating the market for a portable music player. Look at the iTMS revenues, and look at any of the also-rans.

Case closed.

That business model had already been tried, and had already crashed and burned back when Apple was first evaluating the market for a portable music player. Look at the iTMS revenues, and look at any of the also-rans.

Case closed.