In my quest to get fit, I needed a device that would distract me from the pain and anger I generally feel when exercising.

For a while I have been dancing between an iPod nano, Philips and iRiver (not literally dancing, merely sat on my arse browsing impartial, independent review sites :/ ). And I can finally say that the iRiver won.

My reason? Simply because it amounts to external storage with a music folder which allows me to simple copy paste music to and from WITHOUT the need for a proprietary music manager. Not to mention the bloody good sound quality you get with their shipped headphones. Has its own graphic equalizer, play options (random all, random one, random one then all, random some then maybe a few more, random none then one and then maybe a few more then none then some) and the sound recorder.

I attend many meetings, as you can imagine, I pay full attention and make copious amounts of notes BUT in case I miss details (which is highly unlikely since I pay full attention and make copious amounts of notes) then I can record meetings for playback later. Sweeeeeet.

Other reasons were the widely respected iRiver brand and the USB socket which is a standard one meaning I can reuse my digital camera’s dangling USB cable.

Generally, well worth the money.

Full review here: http://www.pocketables.net/2007/05/review_iriver_t.html