(Not So) New iPod Shopping

My 5-year-old iPod 20GB died recently, and my 6-year-old iPod is getting creaky and unreliable, so I figure it's time for me to get a new iPod. Problem is, my iMac G4 and Powerbook G4 are old enough that neither has USB 2.0, which all the newer iPods for the past few years require in order to sync up your music and other media. I've done some research and it seems I have three options:

(1) Apple Service. According to Apple's support website I can send them my iPod and they will basically send me a replacement, for $249 plus a few dollars shipping fee. The plus side would be I could probably trust that the "new" iPod would work great. The minus side is it's a lot to pay for old technology.

(2) Buy a used or refurbished iPod with firewire. The last iPod Apple made that uses firewire (which my computers DO have) was the iPod Photo. I've searched on the web and can find a couple of sites selling 20GB iPods like mine that died, or a 40GB slightly nice iPod for a bit more. This option would cost me under $200, which seems reasonable enough. The downside is that my chance of getting a lemon that doesn't work seems a bit higher than going through Apple.

(3) Buy a new current generation iPod and put up with the syncing being very painful. My partner has an iPod Nano from a couple of years ago, so I'm going to try out syncing his iPod on my computer to see whether it works and how long it takes to fill it up to its 4GB capacity. If that seems good enough, I might just spring for a new iPod Nano or maybe a classic. The downside is that it may be painful, having to leave the thing running overnight to sync up, or it may not even work that well. The upside would be to have a nice new iPod and when I upgrade my computers in a year or two I'll still have a newish iPod rather than something out of the digital stone age.

All in all, I love my iPods, and I especially love that they've totally changed the way I listen to music. Music is much more a part of my life now, and that's exciting. I just don't have the money to upgrade my computers to USB 2.0. It is a shame to be getting stuck on something that seems so basic, but that is the way technology seems to work a lot of the time.