Am I the only podcaster who doesn't own an iPod?!

No, I'm sure I'm not. An iPod isn't needed to listen to podcasts. I've burning CDs with the downloaded MP3 files. More recently I've figured how to play them on my existing handheld, my Treo (Palm+phone). I can even output the Treo right to my car stereo through a $20 cassette adaptor.

So should I still get an iPod? Normally I'd think not, but my wife is ready to buy me one as a gift! Hard to turn that down. Even if I get one, though, should it be a real iPod, or some other MP3 player (iRiver, etc)? The features that matter most to me are

* Storage of a 512MB (or more, but that's all I need)
* Easy data sync (esp. to multiple computers)
* Ease of operation in my car (ffwd, repeat the conversation I just missed, etc)
* Speaker output, not just headphones

My existing Treo does all of these adequately except perhaps the operation in my car. (Sound is fine, but navigation is tricky.) A better software MP3 player than the freebie Realplayer might be all I need, actually.

I love my iPod, so of course I'd recommed that you get one too! Everyone should buy an iPod!

Realistically, going by your criteria, an iPod may not be the best deal for you. I only sync with a single computer, but I've heard there can be problems syncing an iPod with more than one computer. This mostly effects audio files purchased from the iTunes Music Store and most problems can be avoid by configuring the iPod for manual update. But further research on this issue might be warranted.

Other MP3 players, like the Nomad Zen or iRiver are just as good as an iPod. Not as cool, but just as good.

Another possibility is the Apple Shuffle which a solid state memory device (up to 1 GB).

I love my iPod and I won't give it up for anything but there are other MP3 players out there.

iPod

Candy thinks the iPod Shuffle can ONLY shuffle-play. Not true? I'm wondering if just getting Pocket Tunes Deluxe for the Treo would work fine. I like its auto-bookmarking feature. I've already got recording capability through PAR-Pro on the Treo.

Does any MP3 player have the ability to cue back 5 seconds or so with one click? That's to easily pick up something you missed. One click is the key. My office voicemail does that--why not an MP3 player?

I have the big 40 GB iPod, and if your computer hard drive is large enough to hold all of your music, I recommend the iPod Shuffle. The small size is unbeatable.

I have a 20 gig Rio Karma and I have been very happy with it. I cannot tell you how the interface compares with an iPod, but it seems to work pretty well. Here are some of the things I like about it:

1) 20 gigs is *alot* of music. I cannot hold all my music, but I can hold a boatload. I rarely have to shuffle music on and off the player, and am usually happy with what's already on it. 5 Gigs would be enough to hold my favorite music, but not enough to hold the more unusual stuff that makes listening to music so interesting.

2) It has an analog wheel, like a mouse wheel, for scrolling. After using it for a while, I would be reluctant to get a high capacity MP3 player without some sort of analog selection. Even when organized by first letter, I have too many files to easily navigate without a fairly precise selector.

3) It had several different ways to shuffle music. Of course, I can listen to albums, and queue up multiple albums. It can queue up favorite selections, but one of my favorite options is to cycle through music I haven't listened to in a certain amount of time. Basically, I can tell it to only select music that I haven't listened to in the last month.

4) It comes with a very cradle. I keep this on my cradle, and when I am using it at home, I just set it in the cradle, and it is connected to my computer, the charger, and my stereo. This happens to work well for me, and I bought a second one for work, but it might not matter to you.

5) It was relatively cheap. I got it for about $200 after a $50 rebate. That was about $80 to $100 less than the 20 gig iPod at that time.

6) I picked this over the iPod for price, supposed audio quality, and support for a variety of file formats. I have some decent headphones and it sounds very good, but I cannot personally claim it is better than an iPod, because I have never compared them. It is nice that it supports OGG and FLAK, but so far it hasn't really mattered. The one thing that I know it has over an iPod is that I can bookmark my position in any file. It is my understanding that for some reason the iPod only lets you bookmark audio books.

Unless the audio quality on iPods is a problem, I would probably have been as happy with one of those.