[Tahoe]

I am contrary to ipods simply because they don't show up as removable storage and don't have an easy solution for pluggin my digital camera into them -
Thanks.

Not to try to change your mind or anything, but they do show up as a HD. My IPOD shows up as a portable firewire drive on the desktop whenever I plug it in and there are quite a few attachments to download photo files to the IPOD on the fly. Good luck with your I-River purchase. Post some pics if you install it.

 

[Tahoe]

On a Mac. But I don't see why a PC would be any different. They are not set by default to operate this way. In ITunes you must select the ipod and "enable firewire disk use". Then the IPod appears on my desktop along with my other drives. Good for backup or transfering large files from computer to computer.

 

[Tahoe]

That could be the case. There are however quite a few third party programs that allow you to access the hidden audio files on the IPOD. They allow you to drag and drop new music files onto the IPOD. Never the less ITunes is one the easiest and well designed audio players I have used.

 

[Tahoe]

Regarding the better "battery life", the IPOD automatically recharges when plugged into the firewire port. I am not sure that that IRiver will do the same. It is nice to not have a seperate charger to worry about, just the firewire cable.