I didn't mean offense by the way I stated that, sorry. But my point is that you can get around some of the issues about the iPod. iTunes can be completely bypassed. For some people the cost isn't as much of a factor. The battery was a concern for me, but I decided in a year or two, or whenever it gets bad, there are ways to replace it yourself if you are adventurous, or you can have it replaced for $60 shipping included. Voice recording doesn't matter to me, and I realized that with all 150+ of the albums I now have on my iPod, I would probably never listen to the radio. I do believe that Apple is as bad as Microsoft in most ways, but you can look for mods and hacks to get around their corporate tyranny.