what's better - an ipod or mp3?

kind of depends on your own personal preferences...the ipod is usually a bit more expensive for the same storage capacity but it might be worth it to some people as it is an "apple ipod"...if you get the rift. i wouldn't personally recommend an ipod shuffle over a normal mp3 as there's nothing too spectacular about it...

iPod is deffinetely better.. i had an mp3 but now i have an iPod nano n i love it.. but i guess it depends on howmuch music u wanna store + there are many different mp3's some are even better than iPods

I prefer good 'ole MP3 players. Ipod's are a very, very clever, cute little toy, and they will also play MP3's, but I don't like the Apple way of thinking, when it comes to copyright protection.With an Ipod, music uploaded to the Ipod, cannot be downloaded back to the PC/MAC - you have to elect to flatten(erase) all music currently on the ipod, if the library information on the Ipod, does not match the library information on the PC you are trying to upload from.This is because of Apple's attempt at copyright protection - kinda ahead of their time, cos Microshaft are now trying to do exactly the same thing with video media on Windows Vista.With respect to the Apple Ipod, this is just a plain pain in the posterior, in my opinion, and has ensured that I will never buy an Ipod, although I have fixed several of them...A bog-standard MP3 player will play any MP3 you throw at it, and you can upload and download to it as you please, from any PC/MAC with a USB port.I can take my MP3 player to my friends house, and upload some of his music, and he can download some of my music directly from the MP3 player - you CANNOT do this with the Ipod, due to the copyright protection they force on you.Generic MP3 players also tend to be cheaper then the Apple Ipod's too...

it really depends what you like but from my point of view an ipod is better, because eventhough an ipod is usually more expensive the quality and the clarity of the of the music or video or pictures or anything is much better. but all in all it really depends on what you prefer.

ipods definitely look a lot better than most mp3's but if you want a more practical player choose an mp3. They're usually a lot cheaper than ipods and you can change your music easier as you can choose songs individually then send to your mp3 immediately unlike ipods that you must first put songs into itunes then the ipod. plus, you need to put every song in itunes into your ipod

I personally recommend Creative's Zen Player line. They CAN work without driver software (OS permitting), act as an external hard/flash drive, they can record voice and have a line-in for recording songs directly to it, have an FM tuner and costs less than your much more restrictive, anal iPod.

Well I personally think everyone is just in the Ipod hype and that's why they THINK it's better. They are many other mp3 players out there that have more features than an ipod like radio and a voice recorder. I've also heard a lot of people complain about the ipod's software. I have an creative zen vision m 30 GB. It's about the same price as an ipod but I got because it had those extra features and installing the software was hassle-free. I don't know if this matters to you or not but it is much thicker than the current video ipod. I don't think it's a big deal but if you're just looking for something trendy go for the ipod. Also do some research on other mp3 players at http://reviews.cnet.com/Music/2001-6450_...cnetfd.dir