Obviously, Apple was the last to the party with a color screen, but now that they’ve emphasized photos over video, you can bet everyone else will, too. Case in point: Gateway’s new MP3 Photo Jukebox, a smart-looking 4GB hard disk-based player (no 5GB?) with a 1.6-inch color display. The highlight features look very nice: MP3, WMV, and AAC playback, including support for Microsoft’s PlayForSure DRM and the “Janus” DRM that will let you copy downloaded songs from all-you-can-eat monthly subscription services like Napster and Rhapsody to the player (I’m very curious to see how customers respond to that). And of course, all the photo stuff, too, including USB Host functionality, so most newer cameras can be connected directly to the device and dump their images to its hard drive.
FULL STORY via Gizmodo

One of these days, I’m going to have to sit down and do some in-depth analysis of the ever-expanding range of these hard disk based media players and figure out what’s good and what’s worthless.

There are several downsides that I’ve been hearing complaints about, from friends or fellow bloggers, that have kept me away from these in the past. Things like the short battery life, the problems associated with having a hard drive in the device, and other such annoyances that would generally deter the non-tech.

I’m also very hesitant to buy more PDA’s and Mobile Gadgetry because I go through it so quickly, I never seem to want to use a certain device for more than a few months, and then it becomes old, or useless, or less than it was billed as being.

I don’t think it’s just me either, I believe that most people who are holding back from the edge are concerned with issues like the ones I listed above. Manufacturers beware, get the product fully functional before you release it, I won’t buy from you in the future if you screw me now.