OK. I was definately impressed. This was the first time I had seen an Empeg in person and the small size and simplicity is really impressive. When compared to the 'pc in the truck' type solutions, it is great how much functionality the guys at Empeg have managed to squeeze into this little package.

The visuals are the most immediately impressive thing. One of my minor gripes about the empeg has always been that the display seems a little small. It may be unfeasable from an engineering standpoint, but it would be really cool to have a face that was entirely an lcd screen (no buttons) so that the visuals could be larger and track information could be displayed without blocking part of the visual.

As far as comparison to the MP Shuttle, the Empeg is definately a superior device. I had always wanted to replace the Shuttle with an Empeg once my number came up. The empeg's playlist technology is far superior, the design is better, and I don't have to worry about finding a hard drive that will actually work with it. In addition, I can't even get the MP Shuttle support people to return my emails (regarding finding a large hard drive that will work properly) where Hugo just took nearly two hours out of his presumably busy schedule to chat with me (I don't even own an Empeg) and Tony (who I believe got his second hand from Ebay).

I am kinda dissapointed that we didn't get to play with voice recognition (Hugo didn't have a mic or the appropriate cabling with him), but I am sure it will be great.

I have been following the creation of the Empeg since before they had even registered empeg.com (I think I first saw Hugo's mp3mobile www page in may or june of '98). It is really neet to see the results of their work.

What more do you want me to say? It was cool ;-)

-Mike