I have enourmous problems explaining to my Singaporean relatives why I worship at the shiny and white instead of investing in fine Singaporean technology. For a start, I was in the “I don’t need one, but I want one” category of fetishists.

So, I had a look at Creative’s line of products and came to the conclusion that… well… they suck :) I’m sure there are other less popular (and better) portable players out there somewhere, but I haven’t found one yet. Actually, I don’t think I’d buy one even if I found one, and I base that on buying new Amigas for a much longer time than anyone would have considered healthy.

BTW: Brad DeLong has an excellent post on the many ways Apple disappoints people.

The value is there, for US customers anyway. $9.95 iTMS albums represent a reasonable saving over $15 retail discs.

Dunno why you’re so down on Apple. Name a competitor to the iPod that is even close to it in terms of functionality, aesthetics, quality, and ease of use.

What Apple sells, IMHO, is the dream and satisfaction of owning something that works “better” than what everyone else is using. The only problem is, apple products don’t work better than their competition.