iPods are fail. I really don't understand how such a substandard product got to be so popular. (Wait, yes I do; marketing and a stupid general public that doesn't shop around and only gets what is popular.)
Creative players are where it's at if you want a dedicated mp3 player. Other wise get a Blackberry or iPhone (shitty battery life).
I personally have the 16 gb flash memory Zen. It's the size of a credit card, has an SD card slot, microphone, radio, has more compatibility with music and video files than any other player, has an amazing 24-30 hour (music) battery life with unoptimized settings(those are my usage numbers not some number pulled from a creative site or something), has a better quality screen than any iPod, can sync with my computer wirelessly, charges from empty to full battery in 20-40 minutes and was $200.
Oh and higher sound quality.
I don't know if you can do it on the newer iPods, but I can change my backround to any picture I want to something that you couldn't do on the older pods.