oh and to respond, my iTRIP has not given me any problems thus far.
i've said it before and i'll say it again, my car's entenna is the thing that's wonky. i've run the iTRIP on all sorts of different radios (including, Taylor, your van's radio) and it was working in perfectly good stereo. i can say unequivically that the iTRIP is the best add-on to the iPOD and because of this awesome third party support this one of the reasons people are drawn to the iPOD

no i was serious. Sony's aim is for the Network Walkman is trying to do everything the iPod currently does, except better. better compression meaning up to twice the capacity (i'm not big on ATTRAC 3 or whatever, but it offers the potential of 13,000 songs compared to the iPod's 4000) better battery life, a comparable interface.

i think were you to ask anyone working at SONY whether the HD-MD or the Network Walkman was in any more direct competition with the iPOD i'm pretty sure they'd say the latter.

Alright, it should work now. Stupid IE and it's stupid inability to handle a basic character. C'mon, it's just an apostrophe. You don't even have to spell the fuckin' word!

FUCK, PARAS!!! IT'S DOING IT AGAIN!!!

LOOK:

'''''''''''''''

Beck, as far as mp3 players go... the Lexar's actually pretty cool I guess (I like the built-in FM transmitter, but be careful; even Ngz' iTrip is kinda wonky. I'd suggest finding some consumer reviews on it). But also, that's assuming you're not going to want to have a lot of music with you at any one time. It doesn't have anywhere near the file capacity of the iPod, and using SD memory as removable media gets pretty damned costly pretty damned quick (as opposed to $4 minidiscs or even $11 for the 1GB HI MDs). While the iPod is a mass-storage device and the MD is a removable storage device, the Lexar instead seems to be representing the new wave in top-of-the-line mp3 players. I can't tell you what to buy, but I'd say think twice about the Lexar... but again that's just me. Apparently what I'm looking for in audio devices has very little to do with what the average consumer is looking for. And besides, you said you're looking for something that has qualities of both MDs and iPods... and the Lexar seems to fit.

Eric... hold up a sec here. I hate the internet for exactly this reason. I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not. At first I thought you were serious when you said that the Network Walkman is Sony's iPod killer (and I was like "what the fuck!?") but now I'm not so sure you were serious. You were joking about that right? Kuz like... the network walkman is just a shitty iPod clone (granted it has a better battery, but it's gonna take a hell of alot more than that to overthrow the iPod empire).

And as for the SONY STORE... Even I can't really think of anything good about the Sony store... so I don't think it's gonna be pretty.

Hell, I bear no more allegiance to Sony than I do Apple. I personally think that Sony makes shitty electronics (unless you're willing to pay for their top-of-the-line models which are extravagantly priced). It's unfortunate that unless you go to Asia, you're not really gonna find a lot of comparable alternatives to Sony when you're shopping for MDs here.

Err, Microsoft Windows that is.

OoooOoo, score one post for moi.

Death to windows!

best nerd movie title ever, "SLQ of Rock"
thanks Chris.

Wow, that's pretty cool that the Lexar player has the FM Transmitter and Voice Recorder built in.

Ok, folks. I changed over the message board to a mySQL database. I think I have everything cleaned up and working. Pretty much the same rules as in October: test the limits if you want. If it breaks, let me know (I think that's what e-mail is for...)

I have a NetMD, it does it's job... I can't tell the difference between a 128 MP3/192 MP3/cd and I live with someone who has an iPod. Frankly I think some sort of a hybrid would be best. The MD is great on battery life, but sucks for disk space (I don't have the 1 gig version) and I like the removable media thing. The iPod has a built in rechargeable battery which unfortunately for AD gets worse over time. Both have pretty shitty software necessary for file transfer.

I'm looking at getting the Lexar LDP600 when my MD craps out.
It has the removable media (1 gig) plus the 512MB built in, plays MP3 and WAV files without converting to a different format. It doubles as a removable mass storage device. It has no software required, it shows up as a USB device and you just drop the files in there. Unfortunately it has the same battery style as the iPod, built in custom rechargable. But it also comes with all the bells and whistles (ie. FM transmitter) that are not available for the MD or cost an extra $50-$70 each for the iPod. It's also priced at $130 - $170 US which kicks the crap out of either the iPod or MD.
It probably doesn't have the features that Tay is looking for, but it fits just about everything I want... except the damn battery... but nothing is *perfect*