I have an ipod mini and I like it. There are only a few annoyances. The first and worst one is that you must use itunes to transfer music to your ipod or it won't play. That sucks because I had a few years worth of playlists in realjukebox that are worthless now. It's not that I don't like itunes, but I hate being forced to abandon software that works just fine for no other reason than some damned marketing scheme. Apple is notorious for pulling this crap, but it's all part of their iLife scheme to turn us all into teletubbie-like morons.
The second thing is that I have the itrip transmitter for the ipod mini, and it's just a bit weak. Just a tiny bit more transmitter power would be great. It's sufficient, but not great.
The third thing is that their travel power adaptor can't be plugged in while the ipod mini is wearing it's little protective skin, even though the regular charger adaptor plugs in just fine. The travel adaptor is a bit more rugged I think so it'll survive being in a car, but it's bigger plug housing interferes with the skin so it doesn't seat properly. I'm sure there is a travel accessory from another company that would fit, but there is a 50% price premium on these suckers above what you'd expect to pay, so buying another adaptor isn't an attractive choice. You'd expect to pay $20-$30 for a car adaptor for something like a cellphone, but the darn things can cost over $50 for an ipod just because they can put a stylized "i" inside an apple logo on the casing.
The last thing is the battery issue. If you get an ipod or ipod mini, get the extended applecare (or whatever it's called) warranty because your battery is almost guaranteed to wear out halfway between when the standard 1 year warranty expires and when the extended 2 year warranty expires. Since a new battery is between $100 and $200 and you can't replace it yourself, that $50-$80 warranty upgrade will pay for itself as soon as the battery dies.
Oh yes... Since certain ipod and ipod mini products are not approved for sale in the EU (transmitters for example), if you have to ship anything to or from apple directly you gotta have an address in the US. They flat-out refused to sell and ship an ipod to me at my military APO address even though it is in the US Postal Service system and doesn't cost any more. They simply don't sell, ship, or service APO/FPO addresses. An apple saleslady nearly physically attacked my wife for saying it was stupid that we couldn't get stuff shipped to us here, so be careful saying anything negative about apple, it's products, or it's policies when you're around apple salespeople. I thought I was going to have to clock this saleslady because she backed my wife up against a display and looked like she was about to throw a punch
