arif,
you kena tunggu about 2-3 weeks before shipment arrives?

If you can't wait, run, don't walk to Singapore Apple Store selling 30Gb for S$548 = RM1,205 (2.2 exchange rate). But I bet you have to wait for a week before the shipment arrives to the stores.

Malaysia's price? Add 21% tax and I guess the price for the 30GB will be RM1,499 (to match their previous price strategy).

Jabatan Kastam =1, iPod lovers =0

p1p,
someone who shares my sentiment, I'm sure Apple has enough margin for dealers to make profit but here in KL there is a disparaging margin that makes Apple products expensive!

Just browse through their non-Apple stuff in any Apple store here in M'sia, and you see they sell almost everything (mouse, cables, HD casing) more expensive (5-15% ~ this is a ballpark figure)? What gives?

With more dealers than (let's say) 5 years ago, competition should make prices go down, not up.

BTW, I'm kinda shocked at the MSRP price for 5th iPod ... RM15xx?

People, please vote with your wallet, buy somewhere else IF possible!

Apple is just testing the waters with the 5th iPod.

While I doubt the video service on an iPod will turn into a moneyspinner any soon, its more likely to create an aura of "geewhiz" factor and rolling with the times, with an iPod that (can do) almost anything.

Why would anyone spend so much money US$1.99 paying for a TV show thats only 320 x 320p size when they can tape it for free (VCR), tape it while they are busy (TiVo), watch it over and over again (DVD)?

Apple makes a nice fat margin on iPods (50% ~ oh yeah!) while Apple makes only like 3-2cents of each iTunes song they sell. The majority of the profits goes to the record companies, distribution, marketing, and finally the artist themselves.

Source: http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=1283

So if their music / video distribution channel grows to a sustaining profit entity, that's a big fat bonus for Apple!

aladdin,
Not exactly tax problem with Apple's computers since its tax free? I doubt Apple Malaysia can't unglue themselves with the nice fat profit margin they make. I think distribution cost might add up but I doubt till the point of a large margin?

I was thinking, marketing costs might add up too, but Apple's products still has the ability of selling themselves, so what's adding all the cost of getting a Mac? Sure damn ain't the service!

Wei,
virtually no promo for Apple products, and definately not when they have hot products like the iPod, usually their promos is to move old items like the eMac which is not selling well or the first gen. Mac Mini which was discounted to RM1,899 last pc fair.

wei,
You are a man who knows his destiny and products

Are you getting the iPod Photo now? Few days ago, I had this serious though about getting a 6g (gig not generation) iPod mini, but damn, LY peeps still selling at the usual RM1120 price...

cos Steve knows his stuff, and ensures people who buy them enjoys them as well...

Basic rule of Marketing :>> You gotta know what you're selling (and who to sell them to) !

Again people,
The Apple iPod is a portable music device, that incidently plays video in the form of H.264 and MPEG4 hence it is an iPod that PLAYS video.

The current 5th gen iPod will not be able to play any other video format/s because the system-on-chip (PortalPlayer 5022) only supports native encoding/decoding for only H.264/MPEG4.

You can still play your Divx video, you just need to convert it to MPEG4, thats all...

zaakath,
Creative Zen Vision is a Portable Media Player, and works best as one. You can load loads thousand of songs into it and treat it as a MP3 portable device, but I doubt anyone would want to carry such a big device around in their pockets or bags?

The 5th gen iPod is a further update of the world's most popular (and best selling) portable music device, and now Apple has seen fit to add a bigger screen and the ability to play video. It won't replace your favourite Shinco or Zen Vision or any other video playing device, just treat it as an extra bonus if you are a new user to an iPod!

zaakath,
iPod's main selling feature is still to play audio, and play it with style AND substance . Now with the 5th gen, it plays video as well, something some users might find useful, but if you don't want to, you can just ignore it.

While both devices share some similar capability, you'll be better off getting a Zen Vision if you want to rip and decode your DVD or downloaded Divx collection to watch on the go, and nothing more.

A nice little tool to convert your DVDs to not so small MP4 files.

Sorry mates, only for OS X and Linux!

http://handbrake.m0k.org/

What is HandBrake?

HandBrake is a GPL'd multiplatform, multithreaded DVD to MPEG-4 ripper/converter. HandBrake was originally available on the BeOS, but now has been ported over to MacOS X and to GNU/Linux.

* Supported sources:
o Any DVD-like source: VIDEO_TS folder, DVD image or real DVD (even encrypted)
o PAL or NTSC
o AC-3, LPCM or MPEG audio tracks
* Outputs:
o File format: MP4, AVI or OGM
o Video: MPEG-4 or H.264 (1 or 2 passes or constant quantizer encoding)
o Audio: AAC, MP3, Vorbis or AC-3 pass-through (supports encoding of several audio tracks)
* Misc features
o Chapter selection
o Basic subtitle support (burned into the picture)
o Integrated bitrate calculator
o Picture deinterlacing, cropping and scaling
o Grayscale encoding

Corrections on my part,

Both Jefferies and Company (http://www.jefco.com/) and ArsTechnica (http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/video-ipod.ars) have dissected the new 5th gen iPod and found out a dedicated Broadcom chip videocore BCM2722 which does among other things:
5 mega-pixel digital camera support, MPEG-4 VGA or H.264 CIF video encoding/decoding at 30 frames per second and TV output.

Broadcom's news release: http://investor.broadcom.com/phoenix.zhtml...9003&highlight=

The DSP chip is PortalPlayer 5021C-TDF chip (same chip as the one in the new iPod Nano as well), and NOT the 5022.

iPod with video works with the new iTunes 6. It will work with older iTunes but you will not be able to copy videos into your new iPod with video, just music.

iTunes 6 is available for both Mac & PC. So iPod with video will work will a PC (Win2K and above).

Verify the info before you believe in anything a salesperson says!

aladdin,
On most cases, it would be valuable if you evaluate on what you WANT (e.g. I want to play games, listen to my modest music collection, etc), not on what the device offers.

Keeps you sane by doing that, at least your needs will be fulfilled and your money well spent!

The PSP is a big money-time-sucka, in a bad way!

Get at least (minimum, 1Gb is better) 512Mb MS Duo card = RM350++?

Get a MS card reader to copy files to the card = RM35++

Get a game = RM150++

Buy a PSP=RM900++

Spend countless hours trying to find a PSP with a BootROM of ver 1.5, or you will only get a change to play that 1 game you manage to buy.

Since when did you need to service a hard disk? If the HD dies, there isnt much you can do with, maybe slap it around, pry it open to get a really nice magnet.

There are no "limitations" per se, its either a 30Gb or 60Gb, fill it up with music and rock on.

You don't need to worry about file management or disk defragmentation (you won't see the effects long enough though, by the time Apple comes out with the 6gen iPod you'll soon forget your 5th gen iPod )

You can find 3rd party software to upload files to your soon to be iPod, but why bother? iTunes was designed for iPod and vice versa. iTunes allows you to manage your gigabytes of music (if you have that many music files) in a clean, efficient and elegant way.

I highly recommend you to download iTunes 6.0.1 today and start ripping your CDs to your PC, in preparation for your iPod. Create music playlists, and once you got your iPod, just sync and your done!

PS: Even if you end up without an iPod, iTunes is a great program to have around and manage your music library, try it today!