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It feels like Christmas.... in a few hours I will replace a few of my iPods and I can't wait. The only question is, will I be able to purchase them today or will I have to wait.

Right now I have a Shuffle (2nd gen), a nano (1st gen) and a missing 30GB iPod (latest model).

All the rumors are fun to read, now I can't wait to hear the actual story...

First there was Napster, MSN Music, now Urge.

The digital music selling business is a disaster. I wonder how one "authenticates" these songs in like 10 years... will those DRM servers be around to give you the right to listen to your music?

At this rate... Rhapsody might be next.

I suspect Apple will be around a very long time and will be able to answer the phone when iTunes comes a calling... ditto for Zune, but really, who needs this.

update: forgot MSN Music.

This is sort of a non-review I guess. I still get a subscription to PC Magazine and Maxum PC. Every so often there are useful tidbits in there. Well in the latest issue I read about the Sansa Express player from SanDisk. I was intrigued by it's cheap price ($60), 1GB of storage, built in USB Stick, OLED display and FM Tuner.

I have an iPod Shuffle, nano and 30GB Player. I wanted something as small as a shuffle but with a screen and FM Tuner. You see, I love the shuffle, but the problem with the shuffle is that if I load it up with a podcast or two, I can never get to it so I can play. Also, if I am randomly listening to music, I usually don't want the shuffle to select a podcast in the middle of my tunes.

Well, the Sansa Express is still in my car. I'm returning it today because in my infinite wisdom I realized something after I got home. All my music is in the AAC format right now. I also have all my music ripped as WMA Lossless on my Media Center, but I'm waay to lazy now to convert that all to a lower WMA bitrate. The iPod can play AAC and MP3 but not WMA. The Zune can play AAC, MP3, and WMA. The Sansa only WMA and MP3.

At this point I can't deal with having another copy of my music library floating around. It means that if I buy a new music CD I will have to rip it 3 times. Ugh.

Anyway, the Sansa Express seems like a great little player. Of course it could suffer from horrible usability like every other player out there (minus iPod and Zune). Anyway, back to Fry's it goes. I hope there is a tiny Zune player in the works, or a shuffle with a display.

Scott has a great post on the relative pros and cons of the iPod, Zune and Clix.

This post is my delta of his, so go read his first.

I currently own the following

• iPod 30GB (5.5G, the new video one)
• iPod 4GB Nano (1G)
• Zune 30GB (Black)

I used to have two Nano's, one for me and one for my wife. However, mine broke, I returned it to Costco for a full refund and got the iPod 30GB (sidenote: Coscto has the most amazing return policy).

The Zune I have is on loan to me as I was an internal beta tester. I've had the thing for a while.

Since I stopped commuting from San Francisco to Mountain View every day, my usage of the device has changed. Back then it was all about the Nano cause I wanted convenience and smallness. I would just keep the thing around my neck and use the Lanyard Headphones and never had to worry about packing it up etc.

Now that I drive to work every day, smallness is less important. The Nano pretty much stays in the car all the time. If our second Nano broke I'd get something bigger.

Since I got the iPod Video though, I've radically altered how much we use the thing. Lora LOVES the iPod video. She has loaded that thing up with Video Podcast, Audio Podcast and TV Shows like Lost Season 3 and Heroes Season 1. Lora and I are spending a few hours a day in our Daughter's room feeding and trying to get her to bed in her crib, so it's awesome to have tons of content to listen to and watch. We just plop the iPod in our JBL On Stage B and entertain ourselves (and Sarah... she likes John Meyer and Jack Johnson).

Basically, TV Shows and Podcasts are the killer app for us at this point in our lives. We can't get enough of this. Sadly all these season passes are going to but a dent in our budget (they aren't cheap). When we start to travel more with Sarah, I imagine the video features will continue to be important.

Now the Zune. I think the video screen is better, but I have no video to watch on it. The Zune Marketplace is great for audio (I have a Zune Pass which is great for downloading new music I would not normally buy) but lacks any kind of video. Also the Zune SUCKS for Podcasting. You cannot "bookmark" a podcast, or advance chapters. This makes it a non-starter for anything but music... and for music I really don't need a 30GB player that's huge. Basically I'm never out of the house long enough to warrant having that much darn music. and needing something the size of a first generation iPod. Furthermore, I don't need or listen to all my music all the time. I pretty much stick to 20 or so albums and anything else I put into a playlist. Oh, and I definitely don't need Wifi right now. Not till a few more peeps are using the Zune.

That leaves all the other stuff (like the Clix). I stopped using Windows Media Player... seriously what's the point? PlaysForSure is dead to me, and the Zune app is new and different and it's bad enough that I need to run iTunes and the Zune app. I don't have room in my life for WMP (other than being a great ripping app, it's shown me no love over the years).... Oh, there is one small exception. That's what works on Windows Media Center, so till Zune has a 10 foot UX for Media Center I will continue to rip my CDs using WMP to WMA lossless and then Rip my Audio to AAC using iTunes. The beauty of the Zune app is that it can play my AAC files that sync to the iPod as well as any WMA files.

Oh, and I'm really quite close to getting a Shuffle. Why? Well as I mentioned, I no longer commute, and any traveling that we do I'll be bringing along either the iPod or the Zune or both. Size is no problem when you have a laptop bag etc. But when I'm out and about (like in town, or at the mall) it would be nice to have some tunes and I like the idea of clipping something the size of  a remote to my clothing and using my super sweet Shure E500PTH with their small cord (19 inches) and drowning my self in nothing but my music.

Starting November 14th, MSN Music will stop selling music. The best way to buy music these days is Amazon.com 1-click with Amazon.com Prime for free 2 day shipping. I refuse to spend more than $20 a year for downloaded music. The whole authorization mess and software + DRM makes it a hassle. I think for music subscription is still the way to go.