Why don't they make a dedicated iPod just for...

You are out of touch with high tech product marketing. The lifespan of these products is too short to perfect the product. The goal is to get the product to the market first and then gain maximum market penetration in the shortest possible time. Adding video is an excellent way for Apple to expand the iPod's potential market.

Similar to audio, you don't have to watch the video on the iPod's screen, you can hook it up to a big screen display. A person can go to a friend's house with a whole season of "The Shield" plus dozens of albums and just hook into his system. Perfect? No! -- Amazing? Yes!

This has been an enlightening exchange... It has certianly shed some light on the topic of how Apple makes their business decisions. Just Micro 101 i guess....

Allow me to pose a final question... Are there any companies out there that offer a large capacity portable audio solution with a digital out that would be comptabile with Apple Lossless? I guess this is what I am (and I suppose other audiophiles) really after...

One more question... Using Apple Lossless about how many 4 minute songs could I fit on the 30gb and 60gb iPod Video?

Thanks again!

Figuring 6 MB per minute of music (from 10 MB uncompressed), that works out to 1250 4-minute songs on the 30-gig and 2500 on the 60. These are very rough estimates, since the amount of compression will vary from song to song.