Arthur, the card reader is included in the price here, but it is a separate product in a separate box, so the 7000 package is the same in that respect. The 5000 had a welcome pack with free disks etc, and the 6000 had a free stand included when they first came out. These were introductory offers that lasted only a fixed time and then lapsed. I have no idea if the card reader offer is only for a fixed time span. So it is just a marketing thing by Technics UK, not from Technics Japan. I think it's a great idea - maybe overseas distributors should look at the example and learn something...

Alain, many professionals will tell you that ME is much worse than 98SE, and microsoft sold the world an unfinished product with ME. That's why they completetly dropped the architecture and went the XP route instead. Whatever you do, do not upgrade windows, this leads to more compatability problems than anything else. The jukebox program specifically states it is not guaranteed to work with windows that have been upgraded. A clean install is required of whatever system you prefer