Michael St. Clair

http://www.studio2f.com/archives/000438.php

Yep, the hard drive is a regular old CF microdrive...you can yank it out, format it to FAT on your PC using a card reader/writer, then stick it in your Nikon for zillions of pictures (4GB drive).

You can also stick a regular CF flash card in your iPod mini...less songs, but probably adds battery life.

Remember the myth of the $100 profitable iPod? It's pretty obvious that Apple loses money on the hardware (not that there's anything wrong with that).

EDIT: Disclaimer: Some people say it doesn't work, that the drives are locked in IDE mode. Others say it does if you format the drive correctly. Perhaps both are true; some drives locked, some not.

NickSo

Jason Wilcox

it doesn't mean apple is losing money on the hardware.

hitachi just might be making a huge profit off of the hard drives when they are sold straight to consumers.

Michael St. Clair

Apple might be making money, though I personally suspect they are just breaking even at best. My opinion only. Even if they cost of the hard drive is $100, once you add the battery, the electronics, the hardware, manufacturing, the r&d, the support, marketing, and distribution costs, then the retail markup, I don't see profit. Again, that is fine, I can appreciate the razor/blade model.

Jobs has made it pretty clear they'd love to have players in the $100+ range if they wouldn't take a bath on the hardware.

Seth_L

Apple is making money on them. Hitachi is making more money on the Microdrives.

The MD from the Muvo2 actually works, unlike the one in the Ipod.