Murgirl ... Thanks for finding this "I don’t know for a fact who built the first Flash based MP3 player or the first hard-disk-based MP3 player. I do know that both happened way before Apple entered the market. In late 2001 in “Goin’ mobile” I discussed my experiences with several audio technologies including XM Satellite Radio and the e.Digital MXP 100. The latter was the star of a week long RV trip with its then capacious 340-Mbyte IBM Microdrive. The e.Digital engineers came up with a truly innovative and rugged design that caches content in RAM, minimizing the time that the disk spins to avoid damage from shock. In addition to normal navigation features, you can also control the MXP 100 via voice for use while jogging or driving. The iPod followed the e.Digital and other disk-based players and did up the storage ante by moving to a 1.8-in disk drive. But iPod blazed no technology trail. And today I can buy a 2-Gbyte Flash-based card for my MXP 100."