Three days after the product's introduction, the controversy surrounding the iPod has progressed from a bloody war of words (the likes of which the Mac community hasn't witnessed since the Great No-Floppy Flame Battles of 1998-- we're still waiting for our eyebrows to grow back) into a sort of calm consensus. Here's the description we're calling "the peacemaker": the iPod is by far the best MP3 player out there for Mac users, but while you get what you pay for, a lot of people just won't be able to afford the $399 price tag. Ta-daa! Everybody's happy, and we can all get on with our lives.

Actually, maybe it's something of an overstatement to say that everybody's happy, since the folks who want an iPod but who don't have four Bennies to spend on one surely aren't exactly jumping up and down in euphoric glee. Well, we're here to help. No, we're not giving away an iPod; if we actually had one, we'd be cramming it full of indie rock and Keely Smith, not handing it out in some ill-conceived promotional stunt (and if you seriously thought otherwise, you've got a dangerously inaccurate sense of the relative sizes of our technogeek lust and our commitment to the success of this little show, here). Nor are we giving out any cash to subsidize iPod purchases. What we can do, however, is 1) tell you how to save a few bucks when you finally submit to the irresistible urge to buy one of those sleek little suckers, and 2) give you yet another reason why the iPod is a must-have at any cost.

First, knocking that price down: well, first of all, if you live in England, move to the U.S. as quickly as possible. As reported by MacUser (and many, many UK-based faithful viewers), Apple actually raised the iPod's price by £20 on the first day it was released. At this rate, an iPod in the UK will cost more than a new car by the time the thing actually hits store shelves; sure, we've got anthrax in the mail over here, but hey, it's a small price to pay to get an iPod for a (more) reasonable price. Oh, and another thing: once you're here, enroll in school. It's been widely reported that Apple has knocked $30 off the iPod's price for educational purchasers-- which is a great thing, because whereas most starving college students could never justify spending $399 on a portable music player, virtually every last one of them will be snapping these things up at $369... a price so staggeringly low, it's virtually pocket change.

As for finding yet another reason why you absolutely need to buy an iPod (aside from being able to carry a hundred CDs' worth of music on it in your pocket, sync it effortlessly with iTunes, and even boot your Mac with it in FireWire disk mode), faithful viewer Rooser points out that our old buddy Niko Coucouvanis over at MacAddict stumbled upon the deciding factor: "if you select 'About' from the main menu, then hold the center button for a couple seconds, a mini Breakout! game appears on the screen." Yes, Breakout!, the game that took the Pong principle to exciting new levels. Niko's not joking; MacityNet has a photo of iPodOut in action. Game Boy, Shmame Boy; now that you've found out that you can actually play Breakout! on the iPod while you're jamming to your tunes, that $399 is looking downright cheap, isn't it?