it's called a palm pilot
Let me list the reasons people are saying iPods would be great for a college student. Then I'll list the reasons why a $200 Palm would do better. Cheaper. Easier.
1) Record lectures. How grossly inefficient is it to have every person in class record lectures when the professor could do it and post it? And ask any college student how often in four years they RE-listened to a lecture. I GUARANTEE you could count the answer on one hand. A Palm can play MP3s as easily, and spoken lectures take up very little space.
2) Audio books. Yes, audio books are nice, but how much academic learning can be done with one? Little to none. I'd bet less than 1% of academic material used is available as an audio book. I'd bet less than 1% of that would ever get listened to.
3) Big stereos in dorm rooms. Most college students I know still had big old speakers so they could listen to music w/o their earphones. Most had MP3 players. All had computers. An iPod would only add to the stuff in the room, not take away. If you're in your room, you use your computer for MP3s, since you're probably IMing on it anyway. If you're out, you use your MP3 player, which doesn't have to be an iPod.
4) Portable storage. 30 gigs of storage is asking for piracy. NO ONE needs that much space for class work. My four years of email, college papers and the associated PDFs was nowhere near 1 gig. Small USB pen drives (128MB for $40) are much more cost efficient and would accomplish this goal just as well. Or a bluetooth enabled Palm.
If this rumor turns out to be true, it is a gimmick and nothing more. A waste of money. I will be disappointed in my alma mater if they decide to do this. Mark my words, the iPod's life is limited. A pure music player is becoming obselete more quickly than the markets realize.
