Interesting response from Steve Jobs regarding the ear. Basically says that Apple clients get the girl.
Personally I'm not all that interested in the Zune. Just like the other 30 "iPod Killers" on the market right now with similar and in some cases higher specs / more features, they just don't make me frunny in the pants if you know what I mean. I'm sure that MS will continue their grassroots / astroturfing campaign to show how so many people just love the Zune and might even gain some foothold in the market. However, since they are still being compared to the iPod still, and since music/media players are still referred to as "iPod Killers", we know who is on top. When we're looking at the top 32 Zune killers some Christmas, then things will have changed.
What I am looking for for myself (and I doubt such a thing exists):
See, I don't understand this thinking of "it has to have XXX gigs because I want to store ALL of my mp3s on it." Your mp3 collection is not static, it's constantly growing and changing. So buying a player that'll hold your entire collection is pretty much well-nigh impossible.
I have a 20 gig 3rd gen iPod that holds all of my mp3s and still has room to spare. But I don't listen to all of them.. in fact I'm considering going through and clearing off a bunch of crap off of the iPod because I just don't listen to it. It's still on my computer, I can put it back on when I want. No one needs their entire mp3 collection all the time, I don't think ;)
I don't really think anyone should use their iPod/mp3 player as their main mp3 storage. Too many things can go wrong and you lose your entire collection. I really believe that a computer should be the main storage of mp3s, with the player being just that. A player, and perhaps secondary storage. And its feature to work as a backup harddrive is an extra added bonus.
Just me ;)
I do agree though that it should be able to play a variety of formats, and DRM needs to go out the window. The fact that stuff I d/l from iTunes I can't play on anything else, and the same with all the other music services, is so lame. Corporations fscked up the 'net man.
(to be honest, I didn't even want the 20 gig iPod in the first place... too big! But I was swayed by two reasons: 1) At the time, I could back up my entire laptop harddrive on it, handy when you have as many Issues as I was having and 2) the 20 gig was coming with a bunch of stuff for free like a case and the dock.)
My thinking for the disk size is that I really hate having to decide what to listen to. I either want something smaller (2/4/8G) that I can just create a playlist or 2 and add a couple of hundred songs to it, or something big enough I can just sync *everything* to it. Not looking at is as the main storage, just a backup of some/most/all of it.
As for purchasing music, no thanks, if I want to do that I'll buy the CD and rip it.
Wanna get rid of your 2G iPod? :)