All those things seem like downsides to me too, and as a consequence, i've never owned an iPod. But clearly, empirically, lots of people love them. donw write

All those things seem like downsides to me too, and as a consequence, i've never owned an iPod. But clearly, empirically, lots of people love them. donw writes as if the appeal of an iPod is universal, but maybe this is just another example of their second point - MP3 player manufacturers before Apple had assumed that people want a tiny electronic gizmo that is an almost forgettable adjunct to their PCs, just a way to shovel music from hard disk to ear. Whereas it turned out there was a significant market for a player that was an artifact in its own right.