1.) The Apple web site says that the battery is fully recharged after 3 hours and is 80% recharged after an hour. Is this true in your experience?
Time is about right in my experience...actually when I run mine all the way down, it is fully charged in aroudn 3.5 hours...
2.) Is it water-resistant or can you buy a carrying case to make it so? I run a lot and always work up quite a sweat. Can the unit or a case handle it? Does anybody make an armband case?
I have a marware sportsuite convertible case for mine, comes with an armband and has a solid case around it. I used my ipod quite a bit last summer working in the yard, and while the back of the marware case would get wet from sweat, I never experienced any problems. I dont believe though that they make any guarantees toward water resistance.
3.) I see that the latest version can handle both Mac and PC format. Do I have to reformat the device depending on which platform I wish to use or can I go between both?
Dont know about going back and forth, but I am pretty sure it does not matter. I use the windows XPLAY application, I drag files on there, set up playlists etc.
4.) Can I use this as an external hard drive? Will it show up as a letter drive in my directory?
Yes
5.) Can I record to it using a pair of CSBs? Even to mp3 or AIFF format would be nice.
Unforunately there is no way to record to it yet.