ipod mini

I saw this on the news the other day...

http://www.suntimes.com/output/business/cst-fin-apple03.html

This does not surprise me...nothing seems to these days. Apple seemed to hit a home run with their ipod lineup (it pretty much resurrected the brand and put Apple back on the map), but now this comes along to put a monkey wrench in the works. Fortunately, the model that I have doesn't seem to be affected by this, as it only encompasses the earlier models (I'll have to double check). But I do have to keep in mind that the internal rechargeable battery in mine is non-replaceable, and that eventually I will have to either toss it, or ship it back to Apple for an expensive battery replacement when the battery finally runs down. I dunno, by then something new will probably be on the market that will render the ipod obsolete, so we'll see how it goes. As it is, I only use my ipod for workouts at Bally's (I know Wany, no butt references this time). I have to admit, though, the design is pretty good - the jogwheel is very innovative, and despite jamming all the music I care to listen to into it, I still have about 3 GB of memory left to use (out of 4 GB). Really makes me wonder how people make do with those 20 or 40GB models...