Why do so many companies forget that post-sales service is just as important (if not the MOST important) as everything else about making the sale?!? Hello! Repeat customer anyone!?!?

I can't say I agree - I have a 4g and I love it. What I do dislike about apple is the constant new revisions with no upgrade path. 10% to a new ipod is ridiculous - they should be able to do better than that.

I wouldn't get my hope up about the Zune. Right now, all we know is that it has something to do with creepy guys and bunnies.

https://www.comingzune.com/

Really? What is that about?

I had the exact same thing happen with mine, same generation, the hardware died. The only time I can use it is when it is in its cradle plugged into the speakers. However, mine died right before the warranty expired and I was a few hours short on the receipt for the one year deadline when I faxed my proof of purchase to Apple and they wouldn't honor it. But, I still cannot live without my iPod.

Same deal. I love the iPod in general. The UI is great. Sound quality is more than passable. Ability to carry all my music everywhere is lovely. BUT I've had non-stop issues in the last 6 months with the battery. Typically on airplanes - I get on with it fully charged, ready for my regular 5 hour flight to YVR. It either works great for a couple of hours or, more usually, shuts down for no reason and tells me it has no battery life left after the first 2 minutes. Resetting sometimes helps, but it's flaky as hell. Works just found in the Bose SoundDock (which is, in itself, a superb device), and with the car adapter and iTrip. But using it as a portable device is severely compromised if you can't depend on the battery life. Sucks.

Funny, when I bought my iPod nano, the salesperson at futureshop tried to sell me the extended warranty (for a heafty price) with "the warranty is a good deal because the batteries always die just after a year and you have to send it back to apple to get them replaced for more money then the warranty will cost". My nano is still going strong but it is coming up to a year. Maybe it is the one time I should have bought the extended warranty.

Shops like Futureshop always try to push the extended warranty, because the sales people get more comission out of it. But anyway, about the ipod. I have a 3G and it is still kicking. Never had any issues and I use just about every day.

the DRM crap is what gets me, too. Imagine the horror if you do go Zune. All of your music purchased through iTunes becomes very difficult to transfer (not impossible, but difficult)

@Jaysee - I abhor the FutureShop/BestBuy/etc. pushed warranties. I feel like they are preying on people's fear. I did use one of those warranties on a laptop years ago, and it makes sense for more expensive things. But for smaller cost items, FutureShop should be advocating for the customers, not gouging them.

I've had a 3rd generation iPod for 3yrs now. I need to keep it plugged in most of the time, as the battery life is very flakey. Sometimes it will go for 2-3 hours, other times I'd be lucky to get 30mins. But, it is 3yrs old. I've had to replace the LCD once. Apple was NO help with this task. I had to buy the LCD from a separate source and install it myself. Oops...voided my hihgly valuable Apple Warranty. I guess I can't get my 10% off towards new Apple Gear.

Missrogue, try QTFairUse6 2.0. This great little program is simple to use and strips the DRM right off any AAC protected file. It's at the right price, too!

As a frequent iTunes Store customer, the DRM crap was ticking me off, too. The killer for me was a limitation on burning the track to CD (functionality disabled after burning 7 times). Not that I plan on burning every track 8 times -- but this limitation seemed irksome. Try: http://digg.com/apple/QTFairUse6iTunes6DRMCrackupdatedNewversion2_0 or http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Audio/Other-AUDIO-Tools/QTFairUse-for-ITunes.shtml.