I have a Toshiba Gigbeat & it's great. At the time I bought it, it was $100 cheaper than the latest Ipod but had better features! Photo viewer etc. I had 3 separate people tell me they thought it was better than their Ipods. It can use a range of software. If you don't like the program that it comes with, it works with Windows Media Player. With Ipods, you're really paying for the brand, not necessarily a better machine.