New iPod (Page 2)

I think I know the answer to this, but want confirmation before I inevitably plunk my money down - is the nano a flash memory player like the shuffle or a hard drive player like the mini (and it's big brothers)?

I'm currently on my 3rd iPod mini (Apple care is a good thing) and I believe that it's because I'm too rough on the moving parts of the hard drive.  

So, for a first-time iPod owner, what would be the best suggestion? I have a birthday later this month and the wife & kids are asking for hints, and I'm leaning towards an iPod over and above any new gear.

I wouldn't plan on having thousands of tunes loaded, I don't think, and would use if for training runs and listening to audio books.

I've been looking at the shuffle for the portability factor, but the Nano seems pretty sweet, considering the memory size and the fact that it has a screen.

So, would the Nano be worth the extra $$$ or should I save them some cash and just settle for the shuffle?

This is just too cool!!!!!  If I didn't own an iPod already, this would make me run out and buy one

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/nano.ars/3

make sure you check out the display on page 2 of the article, I wish mine was color.

The iPod (and mp3 players in general) are a fad the way television was a fad in 1955. It's a very useful, functional appliance that allows one to carry a large library of music and organize and access it in a very intuitive manner. 

That appeals to a lot of people, particularly those who are 1- used to storing music on their computers 2 - find older methods of storing music (CD's, tapes, etc) to be bulky and inefficient and 3 - came of age in a time where the concept of carrying personal electronics devices around with you is regarded as being unremarkable.

How can you call Television a fad????!!!  Sure it was new and unusual in the 1950's, but fads tend to have a quick flash of popularity and die out.  TV revolutionized the way the world takes in media and seems to be pretty common now.

I think you're correct in comparing the iPod and other such devises to TV in the 1950's though.  The world is changing yet again....so long CD's, hello digital music.

I didn't say television is a fad, I said that the iPod is like television in it's "fadness". Think SAT.

And for what it's worth, CDs store music in a binary format and were the commercial introduction of digitial music. What's revolutionary here is the use of low cost, miniature rewritable memory such as hard disks and flash memory.

Mark, iTunes will organize the music for you. Like most Apple products, it's very intuitive to use.