I bet virgin don’t engrave the ipod for free when you buy it? (how much is the 4th generation ipod at your virgin then? …not the photo ipod, just the 4th generation one) …and unless you can name me an mp3 player that plays .ogg and .flac files, has at least 50GB storage, supports either USB2.0 or Firewire for file transfers, and has an intuitive interface with good playlist sorting and id3 or id3v2 tag support, then it’s gotta be the ipod.

And as for accessories, why would i want any?? I don’t need a stand for something that goes in my pocket (altough…i would probably buy a black case to protect it…and cover up the whiteness of it). also…didn’t i say ‘remind me to replace the headphones’ …by all accounts the ipod headphones have poor audio quality anyway (so that’s 2 reasons to replace them).

As for the sony mp3 player: “Sony NW-HD5″ (i think that’s their latest one). Ok, so it’s got a far better battery life, but i don’t live in africa, i’m not likely to go 40 hours without passing a power supply, so i think the ipod’s 10 hours is fine. But the rest of it is poor… 20GB is too small (for me anyway), and it doesn’t support as many file formats as the ipod, which totally sucks, and you can only transfer files from a windows pc…so, there’s no chance of me buying this. At least Apple realise there’s other operating systems that aren’t windows (there are ways to make the ipod work with linux…but the sony one definatley doesn’t work with linux).

Ok Mr. “ipod expert” answer me this… which music formats does the ipod support, are any of them lossless, if so, which ones? What DRM formats can be played on the ipod? Does it support variable bit rate mp3′s? What is the range of bit rate’s that it does support? What speed data transfer can i expect between my ipod and pc? Do the included earphones come with the in-line remote? Is there any chance that my choice of headphone might affect the battery life? What picture formats does the ipod photo support? Does the ipod support id3v2 tags, if so are they editable from within the ipod itself (ie. do i have to edit them on my computer before i put them onto my ipod, or can it be done from within the ipod aswell)? What is the maximum and minimum operating temperature of the ipod (in K)? What voltage frequency is required by the power adapter?

Ok…so the last two were a bit obscure, but i’d appreciate some answers to those questions please? (you don’t have to answer the last two if you don’t want )