my take

1. it's very, very ugly.
2. it looks to be a bit larger than the iPod.
3. it's USB.
4. no thanks.

I agree

It is ugly... blech. Ya gotta wonder how someone decides, "OK, that looks good." when it looks like that. It *does* have 2 times the space as the iPod for almost half the price. I can't tell the size but it's most likely larger. USB will be too slow, but compatible with a lot more than the iPod. Of course, there goes charging from the Mac.

Just thought...

I can't imagine copying ALL 10 GB over USB. That's gonna take forever!!

usb? wow....

so this sucker will take um, ten hours to fill?
where do i sign?
the premium on firewire is what, $50?
what are these folks thinking?

4.5 x 5.5 x 1"

but it does have a remote.
must be for very tall people with very deep pockets?
cuz if it's across the room in your stereo cabinet you ain't going to be able to read the lcd display anyway... doh!

laughable

but at least it sucks

It's hoooooge!

Just looked at the specs on their site and, guess what? It's almost exactly the same size as a stack of three CD cases! Get 3 CDs in your hands and try to figure out how that monster's going to fit in your shirt pocket!

2.5" drive & USB = icky

Despite the cost, I doubt the iPod will see any serious competition until other people start using them tiny hard drives and get their FireWire on.

I've transferred Gigs-o-Mp3's via USB (Neo 35/45), it should not take five hours to transfer 10 Gigs (have a 30, but there's NEVER that much music I want to listen to at once)

Besides, how long will it be until Apple releases a new version with higher capacity for $349?

I'm not sure...

...it's fair to say this is a response to the iPod. Sure, it offers some of the functionality of the iPod, but the time it takes to design and produce something like this means it's been in the works since long before the iPod.

Also, it's clear that this is not targetted at the iPod market, since it is basically just another big, ugly, hard to use, slow to fill Mp3 Jukebox. What is worhty of emulation in the iPod is exactly that it is an Mp3 jukebox without any of those shortcomings.

So sure, it's big, ugly and slow, but it's competing with other big, ugly, slow devices. It's not competing with the iPod.

Its just an MP3 player, and hard drive, why are all MP3 players being compared to the I-pod. I bet half of the companies don't even know what the I-pod is. It may be ugly, but if you can fit it in your pants pocket, no one will see it, so I don't care what it looks like. All I want as a consumer is choice, and depending on what it is, style, color, price, connection type, speed, may not be in the same order as everyone else's. Apple only offers 1 choice in MP3/hard drive, and at one price point. I don't want to end up like some people at one point would wear only things with one brand label on them, like Nike. I want choices... I don't want to be an Apple drone.

Isn't that the Neo?

Sure looks like it. It's big, bulky, eats batteries for breakfast.
I made the mistake of buying the D-Link MP3 CD player. It's the worst P.O.S. I ever bought. Even turned off it drains the batteries in a couple of days; it is incapable of playing more than 1 minute of music without skipping, even from a regular CD, even with the antiskip turned on; and the MP3 playback works very poorly.
Looks like you might want to turn to another vendor if you want quality products.