Right now, I'm enamoured with my Creative Zen.
I believe what I want to say involves the economic concept of marginal utility. The 'simplified to death' explanation is that people want a bang for their buck. For example, suppose folks have some extra cash to spend. This means they'd analyse the ways they could spend it and choose the item or service which could provide them with the greatest pleasure.
I sometimes decide on an extra purchase by how much I feel it will impact my life. I underestimated this one! The $120 I spend on the 4 GB mp3 player has already changed my life. I'd pretty much forgotten about radio. Although a Canadian resident for eleven years this week, I had never spent any time listening to CBC Radio. Now thanks to the convenience of podcasts, I'm listening to that medium through podcasts. I've subscribed to all sorts of things. This really has redefined my world. I know I could've listened to streaming audio from all over the world, but I didn't. Now science and technology podcasts from Digital Planet come automatically to my player from BBC England. NPR broadcasts turn up on the little screen. Even a weekly file of Andy Rooney slides through the USB cable into the player.
I outgrew old radio long ago. Now, I'm getting reacquainted with new radio.