A year ago, Apple phased out the 40 GB iPod ($399), leaving consumers with only a 20 GB iPod ($249), 20 GB iPod U2 Edition ($299), 30 GB iPod Photo ($399), and 60 GB iPod Photo ($499).

Now, Apple has phased out the black-and-white regular iPod altogether (well, short of the iPod Mini and iPod Shuffle models). The cheapest iPod you can buy is a 20 GB iPod ($299) with a 65,536-color screen. The next-best iPod (I guess) is a new iPod U2 Edition -- new because it, too, has a color screen. It sells for $329, $30 more than the black-and-white iPod U2 Edition. The top-level iPod is still the 60 GB iPod, which has come down in price to $399. The cool thing about these color iPods is that they will display cover art, if you have it, along with the album being played.

The great thing about the old Generation IV 40 GB iPod was that it came with a dock. With the phase-out of that iPod, consumers had to purchase a dock separately. The dock is great because you can plug the dock into your computer and just set the iPod inside the dock, where it syncs and charges without having to plug things in and out (especially for people with desktops with no USB ports on the front). Purchasing a dock adds $39 to the price of your order, but these new color iPod docks come with an S-video connector, meaning you can play photo slideshows on your TV (and can accompany them with music if you have an S-video connector that does audio as well as video).

I was really upset when I discovered that Apple no longer sold the 40 GB iPod, since it was essentially like getting an iPod for $360, plus the $39 dock. I guess Apple decided that they wanted people to pay extra for the dock. It's still a better than value than paying $299 for a Generation II 10 GB iPod, which I got for Christmas in 2002 and still use to this day.