I do think iPods are for the no-brainer crowd. Anyone who couldn\'t be bothered to do a product comparison or weigh the relative features and reliability reviews... that person probably just bought an iPod like everyone else. Maybe not a bad choice for that person, but not for me. I also read reviews of the Creative products indicating they have possibly worse than expected defect and reliability issues.
I bought an
iRiver H340 about 4 months ago, and it\'s been pretty awesome. It has a 40 gig HD, and color display. If you flash it to the most current Korean firmware, you can play very long videos on the tiny screen. Of course it also displays jpeg images, but I\'m not sure why you\'d want to do that. It has a built-in FM tuner, and a line-in jack for recording live stereo audio in mp3 format. It instantly connects to any Win2K or XP machine using USB 2.0 as an external HD for file storage or backup (no special applet required). Supports file formats MP3, WMA, ASF, and OGG.
So far, battery life and reliability have been outstanding. The unit survived a couple shocks with no ill effects, and it appears to be built very sturdy. I\'m hoping for great longevity. The stock earbuds are of course almost worthless, so I did purchase a set of Shure E3C earphones that are a massive improvement. Normally I listen to the iRiver while driving. It connects to my stock headunit through a PIE auxiliary input adapter. I strongly recommend iRiver products, including their cheaper models.
![](https://psx5central.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iriveramerica.com%2Fimages%2Fprod%2Fhd%2Fh340%2Fh340-angle.jpg&hash=994b22d3853b34babfc83b61104877178962b053)