I would never buy a big iPod, it's too big, iPod nano is very small (my friend has it), really very small. It has nice screen, you can watch photo's on it. 4 gig is enough for me, otherwise i just wouldn't know what to listen. I'm not so up to harddrives, but i would take nano.
The mini is also out of production, so it's more difficult to let it repair (my friend says they just can't anymore)....

My advice for you would to get a PlayStationPortable. PSPs are cheaper than iPods. With an iPod, you can only listen to music. However, with a PSP, you can listen to music, watch movies, play games that are comparable to today's top notch consoles and with a wireless connection (sometimes found in school, work, universities, etc.), you can browse the Internet! Yes, you actually can with a handheld system.

PSPs are currently selling for $250 each.

id suggest waiting b/c the video ipod is just around the corner........

i think i will wait for ipod photos to become nano too... at that time, sure i will buy it for whatever price apple put for it....haha

Neither. For the same price as a 2 gigabyte iPod Nano, you can get a 6-gig Creative Labs Zen Micro, which isn't nearly as small, but comes in a bunch of different colors.

im thinking of buying psp too but for psp, it is hard to view a movie or video clips because we have to buy first the movie in umd disk, which is more pricey than original one. And if we already got the videoclip in our computer, the only way to view it is to trasfer it to memorystick which is expensive and limited. i i heard (correct me if im wrong)ipod video display quality is better than psp,(though it's smaller than psp).

but psp have a lot more function like, wifi, internet browsing, games(of course).. but the real drawback is the umd disk, it is not self-burnable. i wonder, if they use mini dvd instead of umd, more than ten-folds of people will buy it..

and for creative, it doesnt give 'i have an ipod' satisfaction feeling, creative product doesnt have the same effect. ' i have a creative'-so lame... . u get what i mean?

further more, some phycologist say make people love ipod is it addictive clickwheel. yeah, i love twiggling my thumb searching for soing, or play with its volume, besides that, it have nice clicking sound...some people say, the clicking sound is improving for each generation, meaining every new generation have a better satisfactory clickng sound... haha thats what i heard

If that's what you think, then go for it!

If you're willing to sacrifice that few gigs for a difference of $50, iPod nano will certainly satisfy your needs but iPod video should also be nice despite its screen size. And it should be more cost efficient in the long term. Like you said, money isn't an issue.

But the new Creative Zen Vision is worth checking out. My best friend just got it to replace his "old" first generation Creative Portable Media Centre. Looks like they learnt something about "fashion" icon from iPods. Just like the new Xbox 360.

I really don't understand the craze for something that holds 10,000 tracks. If I had the time and money to spend, filling up an MP3 player with that many tracks, I wouldn't.

If I were to buy one of them, it would be the Nano. The mini is suseptible to more damage, with it being a hard disk. Although, as pointed out, the memory can only be written to so many times, however, with room for so many tracks, who needs to overwrite any tracks?

wow, i dunno why you're even considering buying a mini, they're out of date now... I'm buying a Nano next month, i was considering a Creative Zen but a 4 Gig flash memory just bewildered me... so get the Nano!

The Ipod Nano is the way to go because it is overall good and for the scratches, just get a case that can easily protect the Ipod without the need of taking it off everytinme you want to change a song or play a game. The Color screen also makes it alot easier to read in the dark. The games are a little hard to play on an Ipod but still are good. As i said the Ipod Nano is the way to go...its small sleek and has good features