I originally had an ipod (well, if we're going to go
original, I originally had a Walkman, but there you go...) and what ruined it for me was itunes. Bloated, unintuitive and far too restrictive.
So I went for a Creative Zen Vision M: was never happier
Then, this year, I was made redundant and so instead of listening to my Zen on the way to/from work, I found I was at home a lot more. So I thought, I'll get a dock/player for my Zen, so she can pplay away happily while I use my PC or wash up or whatever.
BAD move!
Virtually EVERY dock or player made now is "for ipod", and although you CAN use other players (like my Zen), you have to "use the tradesman's entrance", ie link via the aux/line-in, so you don't get access to a lot of the cooler features on the more expensive docks, and they usually only charge ipods.
Bah!
So, forced into it, I thought, it's been a few years since I had an ipod. Maybe they've made them better.
So I picked the dock I wanted, bought a nano and was reasonably happy with it till itunes started messing me about.
I have nevr had to fight so much with a program to get it to do what I want it to do, which is essentially let me listen to my music (not duplicates, not cut out tracks because it doesn't see them tagged, not change the volume of some and not others, etc).
So now, having spent about 400 Euro on both, I am gong back to Creative, and ordering the Zen X-Fi!
Down with ipods!
Anyway, as we saw on the Simpsons, eventually in the future they're going to turn against us and enslave us!