1st help)
itunes is totally restricted to apple's own products (by law)
2nd help)
have a closer look on
Samsung's YP MT 6 Z (aka YP-MT-6-Z or similar)
)has plug and play,
)powered by an AA Cell,
)metal case
)prize around 150 Euro)(USD)/1gb not sure of canada
)fm tuner (average)
)recorder (well there is one)
)not sure what u call ugly ...
with the AA Cell comes weight and it's a lil bit thicker then AAA powered ones - makes it more useable as trouser-pocket player then as a hang-from-neck one
feels uncomfortable in a shirtpocket too
screen is small and u can either see the file-name displayed ot the singer+name from id3 tag.1
displayspeed is rather small
a friend of me got an m-joy (some sort of no-name stick)
99 Euro for 1 gb! - not useable for sound-freaks, but far more
useability then anything the big companies offer
I have done alot of research and thought i might as well post something here in hope for some good suggestions.
Neccesities:
-1 gig
-plug and play capabilites OR ability to work with itunes for music.
-ability to store documents etc. and have them opened on all computers even if they do not have certain programs installed.
-About 200 USD or less.
-Rechargable batteries unless the mp3 player is perfect except for that it does not have rechargable battiers.
-Call me superficial but cosmetics are important, i dont want to carry around an ugly thing
Appreciated add-ons:
-fm tuner and recorder would be nice but probably won't get used that much.
Some of tne players ive been thinking about:
-ipod shuffle: im still not so sure about the no screen/lack of features but its so small and simple to use that it still seems great. I am probably going to get a hard drive player that is feature loaded in a few years anyways so i dont really need much right now. What do you guys think? its price per megabyte is so low, good battery, simple interface and well designed.
Cowon u2 seems really good except for the high price and the fact that it does not seem to be available in Canada so i cannot try it out. I am not sure i am only going by pictures, reviews, descriptions on teh internet.
-I have also been thinking about the ipod mini but it is pretty expensive and i am not sure i need it right now. It wont be able to hold alll my music pretty soon anyways and its not like i will even listen to 1 gig of music all the way through anyways.
I am comfortable with using itunes and really enjoy the simple drag and drop system, and the smart playlists but plug and play would also be comfortable. I do not want other software to deal with because it is usually pretty bad and annoying to use.
Please help and feel free to ask more questions as i understand that my post is not very clear,
-carmel

Chowhound
Comic Vine
GameFAQs
GameSpot
Giant Bomb
TechRepublic