This is an amazingly compact unit, about the size of a business card. Very intuitive, you will be listening to it before even cracking the manual. Clear display, EQ choices, holds between 1000 -1500 songs. Apple support is excellent. Very cool styling. Lots of optional equipment available. And like Mercedes, MACs and the like, Apple sets the standard by which all others are compared - and righfully so...

The little adds ons add up. Charges from the computer, so if you want portable charging, add $40 for the charger. Rubber skins or other protective covers, add $20. Extended warranty (more later), add $60. iTrip so it plays over the radio frequencies, add $25. Battery is not user replacable, if needed, Apple charges $100! to replace, although cheaper competitors are out there. And on and on. Main complaint is that had a malfunction in about a month - unit would not communicate with the computer, where one does all the programing for the ipod. Apple's excellent service sent me an overnight mailer and had it back to me in five days. Must be complimented for that. BUT, in the next couple of months, now out of tech support warranty period, had a similar communication problem. Now, the Apple person said I needed to either spend $49 to speak with her, or purchase the extended warranty plan for $59, which extends the tech support to (2) years from (90) days and extends the physical warranty, including the battery, from (1) year to (2). Since I had a previous problem, she waived the fee. Proceeded to inform me that there had been no repair made before, simply a reset. One supposedly resets by simultaneously pressing two buttons, but this did not work for me in the (6) seconds as stated in the manual. After about (30) seconds, it reset and worked fine. So, don't know if there was EVER anything really wrong with the unit, but annoying nonetheless. And, not a problem for me, but if you intend to store every friggin' cd you own, then the capacity will be a problem. I store music I regularly want to listen to, so at roughly (66) cd capacity of this (4)gig model- (6)on the $250 model, is MORE than enough. But sure some want to load everything they own, in which case, the regular ipod would be the ticket. And, at the price, the regular ipod would appear to be a bargain in terms of storage, but can't beat the compact size.

This is one great ipod. Love the size, and sound. But high tech products come at a price, literally and conceptually.

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No other MP3 type players, just portable CD players.