After the iRiver problems I wrote about earlier, I have been on the look out for a portable mp3/audio player that supports OGG, has an FM radio and has decent battery life. After my brief flirtation with a flash-based player I've decided to go for a hard drive one. I've completely ruled out iRiver - I emailed them to get clarification on whether the white noise problem has been fixed, and they couldn't even be bothered to reply; I'm not willing to buy from a company with that level of customer service.

Well, I think I've found what I'm looking for, one of these chaps, an iAudio M3:



It has everything that I'm looking for, has great reviews, is smaller than an iPod and judging from comments on the iAudio forum, they listen and respond to their customers.

So where's the dilemma? There are now three versions, the standard 20GB & 40GB models with 12 hours battery life, and now also a long play 20GB model, the M3L, with 35 hours. And the 20GB M3L is exactly the same price as the standard 40GB!! Why do they have to make these decisions so difficult!? So do I go with the smaller hard drive, but longer battery life, or vice versa? If anyone has a hard drive MP3 player I'd appreciate it if you could let me know which you'd go for and why, bearing in mind that neither will hold my entire music collection (around 60GB, and almost all of it legal!).