I WOULD reccomend an ipod, just not a shuffle. I got one in march and now I have about 150 songs on it and I can't keep the whole order of the playlist straight so I have to put it on shuffle and just skip till I find the song I like. Now I am seriously regretting getting it. I'm asking for Apple store gift cards for christmas so I can get a nano. So far I have had no problems what-so-ever with any apple product, but I have had lots of PCs seriously skrew up so I'm sticking to Apple when it comes to mp3s.