ipod is crap, i don't understand why people would buy one, it's expensive and the dang thing don't even have FM (talk about shitty gear)... they look nice but so are alot of the new players, not sure if you're gonna be watching movies on these thing, it takes conversion and that tend to be troublesome with the preping process.
I like creative, they have a good range of players, if you want something that plays video, go for a mutimedia handheld, and not an mp3 player. something like this
http://www.walgreens.com/store/produ...2855107#review
only 4GB...
the iriver is about the same but it takes SD cards, so you can add another 4GB... for a regular mp3 players i would get around 2GB, for something that plays video, i would get about 8-10GB..
PSP and DS can also plays mp3, but when i pick up any of those i rather play games than listen to music. it don't work like that lol. phones i think that's an iffy issue, i don't think they work well as mp3 players either.
iriver is one of the 1st company that made portable mp3 players (dating back to the date of the CD/mp3 players)... actually they were a part of a bigger company that splits soon after mp3 was introduce, they are regarded as the top dog in the mp3 world with some very popular players among the geeks for a long time, chicks and dumbasses just buy ipod instead....
i wouldn't worry about waranty, electronic breaks when people are being dumb when they use them, there's a certain way to rough them up without breaking them, you just have to deal with them alot to get the idea
ex: mp3 players HDD base, don't have that crap on and start running like you're on crack, it'll gonna *** up the HDD. other than that if it's relatively still, you can sit on it and nothing would happen
mp3 player flash base: these are tougher, don't throw it in water or drop it down the stairs you'll be fine
motherboards: try to ground yourself out before touching one, these thing get short out real easy
ect... ect...
the point is that the warranty is a waste of money, i have had over 15 different mp3 players, i just get tired of them and buy new ones once in a while, sometimes just for fun i boot all of them up, still works lol, they range from HDD base to flash base. the only one i broke is the one i drop from stone stairs in school (rolled about 20 feet down) still works but i turned it off and it never get back on again.