What's the biggest hangup with the iPhone? The AT&T network that comes with it (see Jason O'Grady's diary). The fix: Give customers everything but the phone part. Now watch the iPod Touch outsell the iPhone. Another notable thread: This iPod launch is the first installment of Apple's touch screen halo effect.

There are several scenarios where recording audio can come in handy: a business meeting, a software demo or training session, lectures, seminars, classroom training and even podcast recording. For whatever reason Apple has chosen not to include a recording function in their popular iPod.

I've owned an Apple iPod nano now for over a month now and I'm immensely impressed by the design and the features it offers. Being a huge fan of Audible and audio books in general, a small, easy to use, 8GB capacity flash-based player is what I've been dreaming of for some time. The nano fits my needs very well. However, the design of the nano leads me to believe that it's not the kind of player that's going to take rough handling all that well.

From scanning the posts in the forum it seems that 2nd generation iPod nanos of all capacities are affected (2GB, 4GB and 8GB) and that the problem could be pretty widespread - at least one forum member has had four replacement nanos, all of which suffered from the problem. One forum member has recorded the sound made by their iPod and posted it to the web (you can download the MP3 file from here) while someone else made a video. There's little doubt that the problem exists. What I'm not sure of is how serious it is.

You make choices every day, from the clothes you wear to the music you play. Now making a choice means making a difference. The iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED holds up to 1,000 songs, 25,000 photos(1), and a little hope.

Yep, it's true. This year there's an iPod on my wish list. An 8GB iPod nano to be exact. Kathie, my wife and business partner, nearly fell off her chair when she saw it listed on my Amazon wish list. After all, I've said some pretty nasty things about the iPod over the past few years (some of it on this blog) and in previous years I've resisted all attempts to have iPods thrust upon me.

Readers have been weighing in on the iPod nano screen scratching issues. I may have been a bit over the top in calling the nano a potential clunker, but a screen that scratches easily under ‘normal use' conditions, as has been reported, isn't going to help sales. At this point, Apple should have something to contribute to the conversation, especially with predictions from UBS Investment Research claiming that the 4G nano could be Apple's "key product" into 2006.

The iPod is a successful music- and video-playing device, but some users have complained about the player's lack of extra features, such as an FM radio and a voice recorder. If you fall into the latter camp, XtremeMac has one possible solution for you: the MicroMemo ($60). Unfortunately, you'll need a fifth-gen or newer iPod or a second-gen Nano to use it, but those who do will be rewarded with an easy-to-use device that gets the job done.

There's no shortage of protective, stick-on skins for the iPod available on the market, but GelaSkin has taken that existing idea and put a fresh twist on it. The thick, textured stickers are decked out in cool art by well-knowns (such as Van Gogh) as well as up-and-comers (such as Aaron Kraten). You can choose from more than 50 designs, depending on the iPod you have. (GelaSkins makes the stickers for the 4G, 5G, Mini, Classic, Touch, and all of the Nano generations.) I had no trouble finding multiple designs to suit my taste--particularly the colorful and fanciful doodles of Alex Noriega. If you have trouble deciding yourself, If you're having trouble deciding, I fully advocate buying more than one--why not change it up every few months? Keep an eye out for the promotions GelaSkins run from time to time, and you might even get a deal.

We've gotten our hands on a wide array of portable speaker systems designed for the iPod, but we haven't reviewed one that was quite as thin as Altec Lansing's $130 inMotion iM500. The splendid-sounding iM500 measures only 0.67 inches thick when closed up for transport, so you can pretty much stick it (or slide it) in any bag, backpack, or carrier. With a pleasing design that matches the black iPod Nano, these speakers look as good as they sound, though the speaker set could be better with a remote control.