Thanks Jonathon & everyone else that chipped in their 2 cents. As I am not based in North America (currently) I shall not be buying Hid’s phone combo, Monk’s fm mp3 or the XM radio unit. It seems that the other Rios have reliability issues based on your experiences, are not too easy to download music onto and have a limited selection of accessories suitable for our lifestyles with this in mind I declare the ipod mini the winner. Also where is the best deal in my current locale (I have seen $339 cdn)?
Now who can tell me if I will experience download problems from my existing Cd/Mds or from my pc as I am not rich enough to have a mac!
Julian in Vancouver.