Upgraded +1

Steve Jobs just laid down the news that the new generation of iPods can play Video, will boast an extra 10 gigs of storage, and will not raise in price. He also broke the news that the new iMacs are about a half inch slimmer and come with a built in iSight camera, also at no extra cost. Even more, he let loose the latest version of iTunes, version 6, that now categorizes and plays video files much more easily. The iTunes music store will also sell music videos and episodes of TV shows. This means that the iPod I'm getting for Christmas will be 10 gigs bigger and will play music videos.

It also means the iMac my house is getting to replace our busted-ass Dell will be an inch slimmer and will come with a built-in iSight.

Life is good.

Another thing:
At $299, I no longer consider the 30 gigabyte iPod overpriced. It isn't. It plays music, pictures, and video. Before they enlarged the screen, storage capacity, and added video playback, yes, it was too expensive for me to talk about with any degree of confidence; but now I feel that I can recommend the player without guilt. It also comes in black now, a detail I failed to mention in my original post. Combine all this with the fact that I use and love iTunes, and the new video iPods look damn good.