I'd reccomend against getting an ipod, you are basically paying for a brand name, and you can get a better deal. The market is going to be very competitive this x-mas, many "clones" are coming onto the market directly to compete with Apple. Also, these "clones" are more willing to give you more features for less money.
Here is a
5 part series from mp3newswire.com that will show you that you have a choice this x-mas.
Article 1
Article 2
Article 3
Article 4
Article 5
-PHiZ
and if you need any convincing:
Apple to iPod owners: "Eat shit and die" -- UPDATED
If you're an iPod user, you would have done well to have availed yourself of iPod Download, an OS X app that made it easy to move your music from your iPod to your Mac. Of course, Apple hated that poor little app, so it was sometimes hard to find, as Apple devoted expensive laywer-hours to shutting down all the sites that were hosting copies of it. Of course, there's more dough where that came from -- they'll just pass the cost on to you in your next iPod.
As it turns out, you're shit-outta-luck even if you managed to snag a copy. That's because Apple just devoted some expensive engineering hours to updating iTunes to version 4.7, with the "improvement" of breaking iPod Download. That's right -- Apple's spending money seeing to it that features are removed from your iPod. Thanks a whole lot, Apple.