Although I bought an ipod for my girlfriend, my criteria for a mp3player for myself were quite different (non-apperance dependant):

* It must connect with my linux laptop simply and easily
* It must have radio 
* It must be small
* It must be <= 1Gb
* It should preferrably be cheap (not -ish!), as I used most of my gadget budget on buying my girlfriend an ipod...

I ended up with the creative zen nano plus, which have served my just fine, fulfilling all the above criteria,

regards,
Steen