Say what you will about the absent social skills of people who walk around city and campus deeply absorbed in the music being pumped into their ears, courtesy of Apple's trademark white ear-buds. Maybe it's just a little unhealthy (and probably more than a little unsafe) to walk the streets listening to music, staring at your own personal 2.5" movie screen, lost all the while in a private digital media experience. But what a wonderful private digital media experience it is! Who needs social interaction, anyway? Santa Claus may have to register for a few more credit cards and mortgage his North Pole workshop to meet the incredible holiday season demand expected for the newly-released shiny 5th generation iPod. Somehow the geeks (and I use that term entirely out of love) over at Apple have managed to outdo themselves once again, adding a larger screen, a bigger hard drive and-their most revolutionary accomplishment in years-video playback to their iPod music player, already enormously popular with its audio and photo features.

But don't be fooled: while the new iPod can support up to 150 hours of video on its expanded hard drive, the device is still an audio player at heart. The iPod's advertised battery life may be up to nearly 20 hours on the 60 gigabyte model, but you're unlikely to get more than 2 hours of continuous video playback even under the best conditions. In fact, most users report a battery life of about one to one-and-a-half hours while using the iPod's new video features. If you're searching for a gadget primarily for video usage, you'd be better off with something along the lines of Sony's recently released PlayStation Portable (PSP).

Although the iPod's expanded battery life unfortunately does not extend to its video functions, the ability to store and watch all your favorite movies and TV shows is quite an added bonus for iPod users and contributes to the value of this already incredible device. This newest generation features a thinner, sleeker and more intuitive design. Released around the same time as Apple's new and "impossibly thin" iPod Nano, which becomes just about invisible at some angles, the new video-capable iPod is quite an improvement over previous models. At under half an inch thin, the 30GB model iPod takes up around 45 percent less room than the original iPod released in 2001. The new model also features the popular "click-wheel" scrolling device which became a staple of the iPod line after it first appeared on the now obsolete iPod-mini.

At $299, the new 30GB model, available in both black and white casing, is quite an improvement over the last generation iPod, without any increase in price. In fact, users now get 10 extra gigs of hard drive space for the same price as the old 20GB models. As with all new technology, the 5th generation iPod is sure to be replaced by an updated model in no time and potential consumers, as always, are stuck with the same dilemma of whether to purchase the new model or wait for the next one.

Consumers will no doubt be faced with the same Catch-22 when Apple undoubtedly rolls out the next iPod a year from now. Nevertheless, the most recent model is just about as good as it gets. Sure, Apple could stand to improve the video battery life, but for now the newest installment to the growing iPod culture has everything most users can dream of and all at a fairly affordable price.

The bottom line is that this is a must-have for music lovers, electronics gurus and technophiles of all kinds. The 5th generation iPod-despite its few flaws-continues the iPod tradition of providing an intensely personal experience to users and is by far the best iPod to date. As far as personal media players are concerned, what more could you possibly want?