Portable audio player (hands down the best one ever)

[Travis Roy]

> Mac/Linux compatible (it shows up as a normal USB drive, SOO MUCH  
> BETTER than some crappy sync software, imho, *cough* itunes)

I just wanted to comment on this quickly.. As an avid podcast  
listener, I must say the way iTunes/iPod deals with this is awesome  
(and in some respects, audiobooks).

You can setup iTunes to download your podcasts and either keep them  
all, or automatically delete the ones you've listened to. When you  
sync you can sync them all, or only unplayed ones. This means you can  
keep your podcast archive and not take up tones of room or have to  
manually manage your portable player.

The other nice thing is that when it syncs it remembers your place.  
This means I can be 1/3rd of the way through a podcast on my way to  
work, sync my iPod with iTunes and when I click play on that podcast  
in iTunes it will be right where I left off in the car.. Listen to  
say another 1/3rd and sync again before I leave and then when I jump  
in the car it's right where I left off.

I -LOVE- this feature.

Also, the ability to do rankings while in the car and have them  
translate over to iTunes is good for sorting. I actually have an  
unrated playlist I listen to in order to weed out stuff I don't like  
that I haven't had a chance to get to yet, or just acquired.

There are some very good advantages to having some good quality media  
management software that ties in well with your portable player.  
iTunes isn't the only one, but some of the other software's names  
escape me at the moment.

--Travis