Arc Technica weighs in with a solid argument that iPod Mini does make sense. Super-short condensed argument: the Mini is not the new low-end iPod, and doesn't make price sense against other hard drive players. But the Mini is positioned against flash RAM based players, where your same $250 buys you 512 Meg of storage. In that sense, the 4 Gig iPod Mini is a steal. It seems like a good argument to me. That then shifts the argument to discussions about whether the flash player market is after size, battery life, or solid state electronics. If your average flash player consumer wants shockproof droppability, or a longer battery life then the Mini doesn't hunt. But if the average consumer buys based mainly on size then the Mini is a hell of a deal. Since I'm not a flash consumer (my iPod has 3200+ songs on it and I'm still rolling on CD ripping :-)) this argument hadn't occurred to me. But it seems sound. Anybody want Kool-Aid in any of five fruitalicious colors?

So Nintendo unveiled their new thing. A portable with two screens huh? Just plain weird. And they don't think it will erode Gameboy SP market share? Here's my best guess: They keep trying to make games that need the Gamecube AND a GBA, and they've come up with a variety of stuff that works on a dual-screen handheld. Put some decent networking on it and you have portable Crystal Chronicles, for example. I dunno, discuss below :-) If you live in Japan and know Japanese games (hint, hint), I'd be curious to hear their take on it!