Yes, definately don't buy an apple mp3 device. My ipod just died, which I got for christmas (not last christmas, but the one before that). The battery on it shows empty no matter how long I charge it, and it lasts for like 30 minutes before it goes out again.
Dude... all rechargable batteries die after steady use.
You just go down to the apple store, or e-bay, and get a new battery or get a new battery installed.
It's certainly cheaper in terms of batteries used and recharged to use the iPod over any other player.As far as iPod Shuffle; it is not permanenetly random. It has a continuaous play as well as shuffle feature. You can switch to continuous play and press next to stay with in a certain body of music, from what I understand.
You should check out the apple website:
http://www.apple.com/itunes/I would get the iPod mini or shuffle myself, except that I don't listen to portable type music anyway.
You seem to be quite in to photo taking/storing. For 350$ you could get an iPod Photo which has a huge capacity for strorage, color screen, etc... and can be hooked up to a TV. Kinda cool, and about 200$ less than when it first came out.
Anyway... the shuffle is not a bad deal if;
you only use 512 MB of songs,
want a player smaller than any other,
don't want to pay a malarkeyload.