I was out last night gallivanting and am about to schlep to White Plains for the duration of the weekend, but I feel compelled to answer a few of your questions first.
1. Q: "Why no pics, you merciless para-human aphid!?"
A: Because I'm a writer and musician, not a photographer. You'd amazed how photographically undocumented my life has been thus far. However, there is promising news: Ian claims to have been in Vinnie's room taking pics while I was there (though not, of course, of me). This means he'll either post the pictures here or on an HES thread in the Member's Lounge.
2. Q: "Mother of Pearl Bailey, this is going to be expensive -- especially factoring in the 120GB HD!"
A: (a) The larger hard drive is simply being discussed as a possibility, whereas the iMod/ALO will be available very soon. First, it's a bit premature to be kvetching about HD prices when the option is only being considered. Would you really be happier if Vinnie decided not to offer the option? Second, no price for the drive itself has been suggested separately or in bulk (think group buy). Third, remember that the drive would be offered as an option, not as part of the iMod per se. Rather than kvetching about the price of the drive itself, consider the possible price of installation elsewhere by other third parties: Vinnie has a long history of adding extras for free in tandem with installing the iMod, such as replacing batteries and offering customer care well beyond normal warranties. If I had heard this news, I might think a Hank more positively about the chance to avoid installing a new drive in a tiny PMP myself. For example: If changing the drive were included in the cost of the iMod and I owned a 5G 60GB, I might look for the best deal possible on a larger HD and ask Vinnie whether I could send it to him along with my iPod.
The point is this: If a new drive is too rich for your corpuscles, then sobeit: it has never been an obligatory part of the cost of the iMod and is only being considered at the mome. But if you might be able to afford a new drive, and are concerned about additional installation costs or the consequences of your own technical incompetence, then Vinnie's history of being willing to install such things along with the iMod would seem a nifty possible perk.
(b) Since the price of the iMod/iMod cable combo has yet to be announced, kvetching about its expense seems a touch surreal. I realize that complaining can be exhilarating and gives many of us that special facial glow, but you'll just have to wait to complain until you have something tacit to complain about.
3. Q: "OMBloodyG, is this REAL or is it HYPE??????"
A: The 5G iMod is indeed real, as my past will show and Ian's presence in the Red Wine Audio room confirms. In the lo-o-o-ng history of my time on Head-fi, my only other product announcement was for the Qualia line as revealed in Sony's Qualia Room in New York City, which I visited months before its official opening (and gruesome demise). If I were the tittering perpetrator of hoaxes, everyone would know.
4. Q: "I'm skeptical about the cable and the caps. How dare you announce this without explaining precisely how the cable will work."
A: Again, I'm only a writer. I asked questions about the cable, but I am not privy to detailed information as to how the cable is made, how it will work, or what options there might be for people who will need both RCA and miniplug configurations. Negative speculation is to this conversation what dystopian science fiction is to the present.
5. Q: "After all is said and moaned, the original iMod seems more to my liking, as I own a 4G, have no need for the headphone out and would rather have the option of using cables I own already."
A: Then rejoice, since Vinnie will continue to offer the original iMod for the 4G as well as the newer option. When I was in the midst of handing Vinnie my 4G, we discussed whether I'd prefer the newer or older mod. My immediate reaction was that, since my Photo 4G is the thickest iPod ever made and won't be used in transit, I'd prefer its iMod to be completely independent. At such time as I send him a lithe and svelte 5G to mod, the cable/headphone option will seem especially attractive and I'll be grateful it exists at all, given the impossibility of modding the 5G in the recent past.
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