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My iPod Nano (old plastic scratch attractor version) and the iPod shuffle gumstick versions came with manuals, and iTunes on a CD. And I remember my friends first gen, second gen, and 4th gen iPods coming with the same things. In each case, the manual is pretty small, but explains how to turn it on and off, control the music, and to use iTunes to add music to it.

Interesting. I stand corrected! I do know that my father's iPod and the iPods of a couple of coworkers didn't come with a manual at all, and frankly I don't think the manual you're describing is enough.

At any rate, for me this is all a moot point, and I agree with Cris completely. You should have a choice as to how you load your music. Personally, I will never own an MP3 player that isn't a mass storage compliant device. This is one of the reasons I'm so impressed by Archos. Since the AV500, you get to choose whether the player is a mass storage device, or can synch via Windows Media Player, and it's not a choice you have to make and then live with, you can switch back and forth any time. I'm not sure why no other companies (that I know of) have done anything like that.
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Matt