The Truth About Apple Ipod from a nonfanatic 49

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Then you definetly want to look at a Dell Digital Jukebox. dhs&~ck=mn

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My nephew bought an iPod...I wasn't impressed.

The DDJ can be had for as little as $149 for the 5GB model and $199 for the 20 GB model. Although they are listed at regular price right now,keep an eye on Dell.com,they will go on sale again. I bought my 20GB model back in August for $199. It's about the size of a deck of cards,has a brightly lit LCD display and it's very user friendly.

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Not with DDJ,although YMMV. I had mine fully operational within 10 minutes of connecting it to my 'puter. To date I have 2200 songs on the HD (about half capacity) and have yet to encounter any problems as far as s-w,file transfer or functionality are concerned.

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I think the DRMA prohibits the user to sync a cd directly to an mp3 player. With the DDJ you have to first record a cd to your computer HD & then transfer the file to the DDJ HD via USB cable. Once you have transfered the files to your player just delete them from you HD if you wish. I found out they hard way that if you delete songs from your computer HD while the mp3 player is connected to your computer the songs will be deleted from your mp3 player too.

One other thing...if and when you do decide to purchase an mp3 player do yourself a favor and invest in a good set of headphones.The ear buds that are included with most mp3 players are crap at best.The same goes for the open-air headphones that come with most "walkman" type players. I would recommend these headphones: Don't buy them from Sennheiser.com though. Do a Google search and I gaurentee you that you will find this same model much cheaper somewhere else. I paid $39.00 for mine.

Whatever mp3 player you choose,enjoy it.

HTH -Dan