The Continuing iPod Phenomenon

To those electronics manufacturers who have been talking trash about the iPod, I would counter: stop burdening your devices with needless features and design bling bling - usable elegance is the new cool. Stop making your gadgets out of materials that feel cheap and fragile - tactile design, heft, and durability is very important. And please, require no configuration, no extra cables, no docks, and no extraneous crud. I just want to listen to my music, and if your player gets in the way of that in the slightest, then I'm not buying!

Note that the chips in the iPod shuffle are recording and FM radio capable, but Apple doesn't use these features. Also note that they make an 40% markup on each unit:

People are making (and selling) iPod shuffle art. I want surfboard designs:

Libraries are now lending iPods with audiobooks on them:

Bars are letting customers be DJs with their iPods:

In related news, a man connects a Mac mini to a 60-inch TV and creates a spectacular-looking media center. It ends up being far more capable and much, much smaller than any of the other boxes attached to his TV: