Oh man, I'm probably going to be alone on this.
I would almost suggest anything but an ipod... unless size is really that important to you- although there are some small ones out there.
I got rid of my awful IPOD recently. You can't really use it as a mass storage device being that you have to try a bazillion different third party software that might or might not work to get songs on and off of it. It use to work, until itunes/ipod was updated to break that-- uh oh, heaven forbid I use music I purchased from you and actually want to move it from another computer. Or even worse... something I recorded...like notes.. are they protecting copywright issues of me? The sound quality is just beyond terrible... not even an equalizer involved. The battery life sucked big time for me. The "40 dollar headphones" are terrible too. You have to download itunes to use it. Some of your current movies and music as the disclaimer on ipod says may not be able to be used on your ipod because it only supports certain file types.
I recently got an iRiver H10 at costco for under 200 and I couldn't be happier. In reality since it is from Costco and they have their no questions asked refund policy... it's like a down payment... if I'm ever unhappy they take it back and give me my money back. All i had to do was plug it in and drag songs into the drive like a mass storage device is suppose to be used. This is really important to me, I have 2 computers and the one at home-- so I switch my music around all the time and sometimes give it to my brother. It even holds data files. It's small, light, pretty sleek, comes in different colors, has beyond awesome sound quality with a very advanced equalizer. Has a built in fm/tuner and voice recorder. Came with a carrying clip and also a silicone skin. Came with comfy sennheiser headphones and to boot a free month to napster to go online... not that I'm using it but I might. My two cents on the Ipod.. which at one point I was very excited about and soon became disappointed...
You want a real beauty in that ipod photo/video 30gb+ price range...try any of the cowon iAudios x5 + m5 being my faves... that's awesome sound quality,small,sleek, easy easy to use... it just is a hard drive you can put almost whatever on it. I've seen hard drives backed up on it. It supports .oof and .flac-- best rips...sometimes better than radio quality.
www.iaudio.com
Sorry if this was a very anti-ipod post, but I use to be a supporter... and for me their technology isn't improving all that much (although the size of nano is impressive) and their price isn't going down much either... there's just better stuff out there... and I think you should pick based on your needs... if an ipod works for you then great.
I have literally taken my ipod and my iriver... plugged in the same headphones and listened to the same song from my computer on them and the sound quality cannot compare to the iriver. This is on just an .mpg file. If you get an iaudio it supports .oog and .flac files... which are like the HD of music... seriously you can hear artists music the way it was intended/recorded.
*p.s* although I know for a fact that no one can ever argue with "but it's so cute" for an ipod. sooo... in that sense the ipod always always wins. especially when i see a girl apply her eyeliner in class to her ipod nano's very shiny mirrored back. gotta love UT
