Microsoft already had the same idea with portable media centre which died on its arse, portable digital players capable of video playback have been around for ages too and no-one really bothers with them outside of South East Asia (which is where most of them originate funnily enough). People will buy this, because its an iPod and some will even watch the occasional video but it will never be as successful as portable audio because unlike portable audio its pretty hard to appreciate portable video without smacking into a lampost. The video iPod will also find itself in competition with stuff like the Sony PSP, which offers higher (admittedly disc based) video playback and the current generation of PDAs which also play back video and MP3s and utilise cheap, easily interchangeable SD card/flash memory. There is also the issue that post-napster file sharers are a little smarter, maybe people will pay for video, but HDTV quality video is only a google search away with BitTorrent. Maybe others feel differnt, but I think people are less inclined to want to "own" video than music. Once you've seen a movie once, you'll only want to watch it once or twice, unlike a song which you will play over and over again, I think "renting" movies by offering them at much cheaper than €2.50 a pop but with a DRM license that limits playback to four or five viewings makes more sense.

PMP's, or personal media players have been around in various guises for the last few years. iRiver has a couple, as does creative. And the Sony PSP is new to the market. I myself recently purchased an Archos AV420. Its got a prety nice 3.5" screen which has a pretty decent picture. Bought it for those long train/bus journeys which i frequently take. Its only got a 20 gig harddrive, not much when you consider its primarily for video, but im sure a harddrive upgrade will come along. It also display pictures and of course is at its most basic, an MP3 player. The future is Media players as opposed to audio players. People want to be able to show off their latest photos or home vid while also availing of the audio aspect of the device. As for apples entry. A 2.5" screen is pretty small and wont compete with the current PMP market leaders. But still, it will be a selling point.

It's got nothing the iRiver doesn't have already (except a better frame rate I think). The ipod will always be s**te because you need s**te itunes to put s**te music on the piece of s**te. s**te!

I use iTunes to rip my cd's to MP3, and i find it a piece of p*ss compared to some of the other software out there. If you are an ordinary joe, who just wants a cd converted, and who isnt computer literate, then iTunes couldnt be easier

Tried Musicmatch Jukebox? it throws the occasional crashing wobbler but overall I find that the most straightforward music software by far.