While I’ve bought some music from the iTunes store, most of the music on my iPod has been ripped from my own CDs. I got tired of carrying CDs back and forth from work, and am not comfortable storing many at the office, and the iPod solved all those problems.

Re the design, you’re right — it’s hard to compare, esp. with the video integration.

When it comes to podcasts, iTunes’ podcast directory is my worst enemy. It stopped updating my feed months ago, and now I can’t figure out how to get it going again. Absolutely no help anywhere on this issue. Lots of podcasters have experienced the same thing. Other directories offer excellent podcasts too — Podcast Pickle, Podcast Ready, Podcast.net, and dozens of others.

Re content is king, it may be hackneyed. I was trying to argue that people over-obsess about the technology more than the content they’re playing. I can listen to excellent content on a 2 year old second-rate MP3 player and still get a lot of enjoyment out of it.

The worst thing about iPods now is that they’re becoming trendy, which goes against their early appeal.

1. Granted, iPods aren’t the only devices out there, but if enough people call ‘em “MP3 players” the error, albeit a small one, is overlooked. Not a huge blunder, I’d say. This is akin to “Hey, I need a Kleenex” when the tissues are really Costco-branded. No worries.

2. You’re right, you can’t sync your iTunes from a subway, bus, moving car, and the like, but I’m guessing many consumers already understand this. With any luck, the lads in the Apple store address this one before the purchase is done.

3. I’m not so sure other devices are “comparable.” There’s an advantage to buying the original instead of a knock-off. You get award-winning design, decent support, and an instant connection with lots of other Apple followers. Heck, the guy in the mailroom (or, for that matter, the boardroom) can probably answer your question about how to manually sync a playlist.

4. Content matters, but the old “content-is-king” mantra seems a little hackneyed. I’d say enjoyment-slash-information is king. If I can listen to Keith Jarrett and NPR shows on the same device, I’m a happy camper.

5. I would agree, podcasts are fab. Some are better than others, of course, but there’s many good ones out there.

Didn’t think you were attacking it per se…

I have a 4GB Nano (old model) and I DO use iTunes to manage the music on it. But there are 3rd party apps available (one was featured on lifehacker.com recently).

You can download MP3s from anywhere, so iTunes is really just the interface to the iPod (as well as being a pretty good library application… it handles the 100GB of music I have.

Podcast wise I’ve still haven’t gotten into listening to them regularly as I don’t really have the right circumstances. I used to commute by train and used my iPod heavily, but since switching to the car I rely more on radio (I car share so can’t really choose what we all listen to).

I see iPods everywhere, esp. on the morning metro. You seem pretty happy with your iPod. Do you want to share the model you have and how you download content for it? Do you download podcasts or music, and how many gigs of content is on it?

It’s so easy to get music from other sources onto the iPod, that I hardly think it’s a drawback to the iPod.

I am (on a sliding scale) a highly technical user. I wouldn’t swap my iPod for anything though because (and I’ve tried others) it’s just easier to use than anything else. It is not without flaws, of course, and it has limitations but I’d argue that those 99% of users don’t really care about anything you’ve mentioned. Us geeks are a small minority of MP3 player users…

Ohh and point 2? Not sure what you mean by ‘anywhere’ (as in, it doesn’t have a radio built-in?) but you can use other 3rd party apps for iPods quite happily (if unsupported).