What do you have? If you have one. If you don't have one, just post what you wish you had :]

I have an Ipod with video. :]

iPod Nano, Black, 2GB. Rumor has it Apple will be introducing some multicolor Nanos on Tuesday....

iPod Nano, Black, 1GB. I wish I had the white one but my husband got it by opening this bank account and that was the only color available. Plus, it has a Jets logo on the back. But it's ok, he's a Jets fan!

iPod Nano, black 2GB. I have it running the Rockbox firmware replacement:

http://www.rockbox.org/

which changes the interface and allows Windows to treat it just like an external drive. It lets you bypass all that iTunes nonsense and drag-and-drop files directly :). The installation process is not for the faint of heart, however.

Hmm, multicolor nanos, eh? That'll be interesting to see...

Hmm, multicolored nanos? That'll be interesting to see...

& black ipods aren't so bad. I have one, but you can see all the finger prints on it...but it doesnt bother me all that much. :]

I'll have to try the rockbox thing that you mentioned, but it looks so confusing XD Although being able to drag-and-drop files would make life so much easier.

Ipods are cool, but expensive. Personally, I think iTunes is a pain in the ass. If you like the drag-and-drop interface, I would HIGHLY recommend the Dell DJ (which apparantly Dell isn't making anymore) or the Creative ZEN. It has a similar interface as the Dell DJ Explorer software. The interface is similar to using Windows Explorer. Its so simple to use! Loading and organizing your songs couldn't be easier! I've used a few other different players (ipod shuffle, archos jukebox, phillips GoGear) and the Dell DJ (if you can find one) or the Creative ZEN are by far the BEST!

My best bit of advice when it comes to MP3 player shopping is stay away from anything that uses Windows Media Player, which works with a Sycronization approach rather than the drag-and-drop approach. This is similar to the way iTunes works, and every bit as much of a pain. Be careful -- I think that some of the newer models of DJ and Zen have switched to WMP.

Like EricJ posted above, there are more and more 3rd party software/firmware packages out there for players these days. In my opinion, the ones that provide a Windows Explorer type interface are the best. Once you've chosen a player, look around to see what kind of software is available first before purchasing the player.

I forgot to mention that i occasionally use my Treo Phone to play mp3's. I downloaded PocketTunes and transferred some songs over from Rhapsody - it's got that microsoft Plays for Sure DRM stuff. Doesn't work so well - for some reason everytime i want to hear one of those songs, there's a couple second pause maybe cuz it's checking the license or something? Really kills the flow. Anyone else have this experience?

I forgot to mention that i occasionally use my Treo Phone to play mp3s. I downloaded PocketTunes and transferred some songs over from Rhapsody - it's got that microsoft Plays for Sure DRM stuff. Doesn't work so well - for some reason everytime i want to hear one of those songs, there's a couple second pause maybe cuz it's checking the license or something? Really kills the flow. Anyone else have this experience?

Truer words have never been spoken :).

While I haven't tried the new version yet, I hear it does improve on some of the previous flaws. I guess you can now upload (DRM'ed) files from your iPod to your PC? I primarily have MP3s on mine, but I can see where someone with a large library of M4A files would appreciate this.

When shopping for a player, usually the package will say "Plays For Sure". Unfortunately it seems most players these days are going to this format using Microsoft's DRM. If you are able to find a player that does not (see my post above), you may still run into issues if you dowload music from iTunes, Napster, etc.

Here's some hard-learned lessons from my own experience... With my Dell DJ, I loved the software/interface that it came with. After I started my Napster subscription, I discovered that in order to transfer and play Napster tracks, I would have to update my player to the PlaysForSure firmware which I did. Then I learned that I would no longer be able to use Dell's software to transfer/organize songs. I would now have to use Windows Media Player. I hated it and it took a little while to get the hang of it. I decided if I wanted to continue using Napster (which I did) I would just have to get use to it.

After a while I just couldn't take it anymore!! So I went in search of a way to convert the DRM protected WMA files to MP3s. After a lot of frustrating trial and error, I finally found something that works! Its a software I found online called Tunebite for only about $20. It is worth every penny!! After I found tunebite, I went through the pain of transferring all 20gigs of music onto my computer, changing back to the original Dell firmware, then transferring my music back to the player. And by the way while I still had the PlaysForSure firmware and using WMP, it was a HUGE pain in the ass to backup my music onto my computer. I almost gave up hope and thought I was going to lose ALL my music. Luckily I finally got it to work. Now that I'm back to the Dell's firmware and using Tunebite, everything is smooth sailin'! I still have my Napster subscription, but having Tunebite means I'm not doomed to using Windows Media Player.

Now a few tips on using Tunebite... There are 2 versions - Premium and Platinum. The Premium (the cheaper of the 2) is only about $20 and works just fine. I don't think spending the extra money on the Platinum version is necessary. The only downside is that it converts in realtime so its a slow process, but trust me - its the only thing that I found that works!! Usually, I'll load up a few hours worth of music and start the conversion process before I go to bed and let it run through the night. TB is very easy to use, its pretty dummy proof. When you open it, you'll see 2 list boxes. Left box - songs que'd to convert, Right box - songs that have been coverted. I found the easiest method is to open TB, then open the folder where your DRM songfiles are located. Highlight the songs you want to covert, then click-and-drag over to the left box in tunebite. Before clicking the button to start converting remember these 2 things:

1) you can't do anything else on the computer while converting. Also because tunebite records directly off your soundcard you can't have anything running that triggers sound (beware of WeatherBug chirps!). I usually shutdown all running programs as well as everything in the system tray.

2) Do NOT use the Digital Dubbing option. Even though it seems digital is better, it doesn't quite work out that way. Using the Digital dubbing setting makes the coversion process faster, but you end up with blurps in the song. I use the analog setting and they always turn out flawless.

You can find Tunebite at http://www.tunebite.com

My brother used to have a Creative ZEN mp3, but then all of his songs on there just dissappeared. He got an Ipod after that.

I'd rather stick to iTunes :] It works perfectly fine for me.

Microsoft's Zune player/platform was just announced today. Anybody got any opinions of that? Apparently a big feature is the ability to share music wirelessly. But people can only listen to songs 3 times over three days before they have to buy it.

Only three times? Thats kind of stupid...you should be able to listen to the song an unlimited amount of times before the three-day trial is up.
But I haven't really heard about this...is it supposed to be any good? It sounds pretty cool, though, being able to share your music and playlists with other people. Although thats basically what THIS site is about, heh.

Check out this player that Samsung recently released, the K5. Its pretty SLICK!! It has slide out speakers. The display also rotates...when its shut the display is vertical and when you slide out the speakers the displays rotates to be horizontal.

http://product.samsung.com/promotions/06/k5/k5.html

Whoa. Pretty cool. I wonder how good the speakers sound though since they're pretty small. Now whenever i read "share music" i think of swapping songs not playing the music for all to hear around me!

Sandisk Sansa e270 6 GB .. and now there is a 8GB aswell shipping. flash storage.

Plays mp3/wma photo and video.

Small and sleek, nice black design, works with most software, no limits like the apple ipod.

Do you actually have this player? I've been reading a whole lot of news about its supposed tight integration with Rhapsody (a la Microsoft's Zune and Apple's Ipod/Itunes schemes). I wonder if it works as advertised?

iPod video 30gb, I love it since I used to have the 20gb black and white version. Great upgrade...glad I waited for a bit to get it. Now we can download movies which will be cool :o)

I have an small Sony one. It's pretty cool with an okay 2GB.

Personally I don't like Ipods, they are delicate and pretty gimicky. They also break within a year of average use.