apple has release a dev kit for their iPhone and iTouch interfaces, giving you the opportunity to create your own apps for the devices. Of course, there will be a huge community of users that will be all over this.

And I don't understand what you mean about not having an iPod because you adopted the mp3 format. I have a 4g ipod, and have never used anything except MP3 files on my ipod. And I have never used DRM protected media either. I am no apple fanboy by any means, but at the time, I looked at a lot of different mp3 players, and the ipod did have the best combination of features, price, and reliability. it is the only apple product I own in fact. But, if I were going to get a media player today, it would probably have one of the creative zen players.

also, I remember the good old days of the mp3, when it was all about FTP searches, and dealing with share ratios on private sites.