I saw an ipod first when it was gifted to me !
The looks and the reliability are the same as a mac machine - white, clean and efficient. Mine is a 20 GB ipod which holds about 6000 songs. Following are the plus points of the ipod.
1.The navigation is simple.The click wheel feels great.
2.The sound is clear and the ipod headphones are good.
3.Songs are classified based on artist, album, genre etc
4.An exhaustive list of equalizer settings are present.
5.Playlists can be created.
6.Songs can be rated.
7.Outlook contacts can be transferred to the ipod.
8.Reminder function is supported
9.The ipod backs up as a portable hard drive to transfer files between computers
10.Works on mac and Windows platforms.
11.Music and audiobooks can be purchased online and played.
12.Podcasts can be downloaded and played on the move.
13.Games are present.
14.Comes with itunes software for PC/Mac integration
However there are a few drawbacks:
1.The sound depends on the quality of songs transferred to the ipod. Not all Mp3 songs sound good. The best way is to transfer songs from an audio cd to the ipod.
2.The outer case is prone to scratches.
3.Music cannot be copied from the ipod to the computer using Itunes though the other way round works fine.
I have a solution to this (Windows users)
Set the option in Itunes to recognize the ipod as an external drive. Then set the folder options to view invisible files. The songs on the ipod are present in the invisible folder on the ipod.
For windows users I recommend Anapod explorer (trial version available) to transfer files from an PC to the ipod and vice versa.
To sum up, the ipod is the ultimate device to store all the songs you remember from childhood and more(minus the space).During that long, tiring flight you have a companion - the ipod.