What will you have on your feet when you listen to this thing?" What Rob Pegoraro, Tech columnist for the Washington Post, says you should ask yourself before you buy an MP3 player. His answer:

If it's running shoes or other athletic footwear, a small lightweight MP3 player that uses flash memory is your best choice - and since few workouts run more than an hour, 128 megabytes of storage, about two hours worth, is enough.

Finally. Someone other than me comes out and says what should be obvious. Hard-drive-based players - i.e., the iPod - freeze and lock up when jolted or jarred. They're not meant to be knocked around. After all, at heart they're computers, and not exactly Panasonic Toughbooks.

My three successive iPods, each of which froze repeatedly while I was out jogging, finally led me to the promised land of flash memory and freeze-free running, the iRock!830. At $89, it's a great addition to the runner's armamentarium, especially on those bitter-cold, windy and dark winter mornings.

Now, before all the brain-dead Mac addicts start their ritual attacks, note again, I say that the iPod is a loser for running, and active sports, NOT for general listening. Won't matter... hee hee. Whale away.

Pegoraro's excellent article in today's Washington Post, reviewing tech gear in many categories, should be required reading for anyone contemplating a purchase of an MP3 player, handheld organizer, digital camera, WiFi network, DVD player, or game console.