I wasn't. The PMA430 has a WiFi "range" that's actually shorter than Bluetooth; I have to be in visual range of my router to even get a signal.

I was surprized there turned out to be an antenna in there at all...

Actually thinking about it, I'm not too surprised after all. I had the 604 wifi and returned it after a week.

I think the hacked increased wire length has to be an exact multiple of the wifi wavelength to work. I figured it was more work/risk than desired. Recieving strong quality wifi signals was more important to me than carrying around a slightly more bulky media player. But I still would like to just move all my mounds of CDs and DVDs into a single, handy unit someday (...soon!),

Do they make 1 TB PMPs already?
(Actually, I'll probably need closer to 3 TB, but I'm willing to compromise)

Wait about another 12-18 months when we'll all be carrying our whole lives around in our shirt pockets using something that is..

"cheaper and more energy efficient than flash memory. The new technology has been branded programmable metallization cell, and differs from present storage technologies in that it "creates nanowires from copper atoms the size of a virus to record binary ones and zeros."

http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/27/t...nd-the-corner/

That's a lot of Pr0n!

My local Circuit City FINALLY got a working demo Archos 605 running. It is shorter than the N800, tho thicker and taller. It didn't seem too fragile (no shake from the HD). But, I must concur w/ some other reviews I've seen about the low contrast screen. It's like it glazed over or something (anti-reflect coating?) But as nice and smooth as the videos were, the images didn't have the pop and snap like the N800 or the iPod.

I've been agonizing over what gizmo to get before the end of the year, and I think I finally settled on a Zune (for now).

The Archos interface is AS BAD as you think it is - as a former interface designer, it is APPALLINGLY bad. It is SO bad, in fact, that I picked up a Zune in disgust, and it left a good taste in my mouth. I really wanted to like the Archos - it has a nice screen, much MUCH smaller than the Zen Vision W, has Wi-Fi, relatively light... ah well.

I realized all I want is something for Podcasts, FM radio, and big enough to hold all my music & play some ripped DVD's, so the Zune fits the bill (... "for now"! :-))

If the iPod Touch had a HD, I'd probably have foregone the FM and got one instead..... I'm banking on next year being the year of the PMP/IT fusion for <$400 with a decent CPU and video capability...

-Dan

The new, 100x-1000x efficient Flash process available after next year may revolutionize everything and add terrabytes to little ITs, iPods, etc.

I could see people going to video/electronic stores and buying inexpensive, small tablet players in dedicated Special Editions that have, say, the whole run of Seinfield on them.

BTW, I re-visited Circuit City's display Archos 605 and their bigger 30 gb Zune (which NEVER had samples of ANTHING on it before 2nite - whatta way to sell 'em!).

I was looking forward to viewing the image quality of the new sample videos on each...

....And both sucked