Completely agreed Christopher if you shop about a bit CD's are just as cheap as downloads so it makes sense to buy a CD version because of all the advantages that gives you.

as a sony owner, i'dd like to agree with you all that atrac is entirely pointless, and the only faults with their players are that, and sonicstage

but the battery life on my nw-hd3 is quoted at 30hrs, but that's only for 64kbps atrac, if you use 256kbps mp3 or higher, you only get about 20 hours of battery, so the 50hrs would probably be reaslistically around 30-35, i know it still kicks the ipods arse, but it's not quite as fantastic as quoted

Read that the walkman bean is to be discontinued in couple of months time. Looks like Sony isn't getting any closer to fighting the iPod...

I often wonder why companies bother taking on the iPod anymore. It's clear the market is sewn up. In any case Sony have got so many other fronts on which to fight their battles. PS3 v XBOX for starters...

Sony's products tend not to last more than a couple of months so I don't think you can read anything in to it. That's roughly how long a version of the Ipod lasts.