I'm just hoping they will be selling unprotected h264 mp4s by the time I want to replace my AVIs. I never expected it to happen with music, so I'll just keep bugging Amazon and Apple.

Because it's bundled into a simple-to-use package that will have free lifetime updates and comes with all the benefits of surfing on iOS?

I'm satisfied with Atomic & Knowtilus, each of which I got on sale for 99 cents a while back. Use appshopper to find deals.

Correct, you simply have to do a relatively quick factory restore before you hand it over, and even that is rarely enforced.

Hope they can pull it off. Mint is a pleasure to use, for the most part.

The Today Show video mentioned in TFS states clearly that the statute has run out; that it's only 5 years. Thanks for the correction, no need to berate anyone.

This is my main problem with the service.

You say 'walled garden' as if it's a bad thing for regular users. You and I can jailbreak if we want full portable computer functionality.
The way it is now: stock iPhone means no malware, stock Android means you can get malware since Google doesn't check any apps unless they get complaints, and by then lots of damage has already been done.
So, iOS walled garden=good for regular users, Android apps-from-anywhere=malware=fine for us, but not for regular people.

As far as I remember, those were laptop-sized drives. The iPod used the smaller 1.8" ones. I should have been more clear. It was the whole reason it was as small as a deck of cards, and if we're being honest, the Nomad wasn't shirt pocket-sized. But yes, the Nomad did have a 6 GB hard drive-based monstrosity available in 2000.

And what was this "faster" connection you mention? Serial port? USB 2 wasn't available on anything at that point. Remember, wifi at the time was 802.11b. 802.11g was just on its way, and certainly wasn't in any Nomad or iRiver product in 2001. The very first iPod had firewire, and the wifi and USB connections on the others couldn't come close for transfer and charging speed.

It wasn't Apple's innovation? The first MP3 player with a hard drive? The first MP3 player that had a faster connection than USB 1.1 to transfer your music? You say the scroll wheel interface was genius, yet that doesn't count as an innovation?

Very convincing.

the same way as nVidia, Samsung and Ti have been doing

It's clear (battery life tests and real-world use) that Apple has done a far better job of getting those components to work together than Samsung or any other competitor. It would seem that it's not as simple as you make it out to be to "merge them and add some memory" if all these competing tablets can't run for more than a few hours vs. iPad's 10+.

an iPad can't take SD cards, which naturally require power to operate

You are sorely mistaken about SD support. Apple sells a box with 2 adapters, USB and SD, with no power source required other than the iPad's internal battery. In other words, the iPad supports SD.

Hopefully you're not spreading this lie elsewhere.

There is a reason the iPad 2 only has a 1024x768 screen, rather than the 1280x1024 or higher on similarly priced competing models

What is the reason, in your carefully considered opinion?