Dan
I think you're right. A couple of "music store" people have told me the same thing - in completely different US cities. And the Panasonic line will include a CD-ROM player in it. Now, if they could only keep up with GEM who may release a CDRW drive in their keyboards very shortly.
PS... you never emailed me about your best GC price on an SD1 or Yam9000.
Tom