> since the xxxxxx phone-mute still doesn't work for me

Works fine for everyone else - I know many owners use this feature, because we get support enquiries about how to set it up. If your hands free kit switches between 0V and 12V then it's easy to get working - just configure the player from emplode to know which state is active mute. If the kit switches between 0V and open circuit, you need to add a 10K resistor between the mute line and 12V, then configure the player to mute on 0V. Our support people know this so I don't know why you weren't told as much.

> one said they couldn't check since they had no hand-free

Nobody here has a car kit because we tend to change mobile phone models every few months. In any case we don't need a car kit to test something as trivial as phone mute - a piece of wire is all thats needed! This is the first time I've heard of anyone being unable to get it working (assuming you've tried what I said above).

> even thought I don't belive the M$ part...maybe no lunch, but please please tell me they gave you
> something in return

Believe what you want, but WMA is Microsoft's product which they licence. The pricing is very competitive against MP3, but they're not giving it away. You seem to think we're supporting WMA because Microsoft have talked us into it which I find a little odd - we're supporting it to deliver on our promise of CODEC upgradability.

Rob