Dan,

I nearly bought the 4gb mini last month but took a pass on it when I realized that the battery wasn't replaceable and needed to be recharged at least every 7 hours.  That may be fine for most but I wanted something a little less needy. 

It all depends on what you're going to use it for.  Me, I use it for working out; running and biking.  I bought the iRiver 512mb flash mp3 player.  It was the same price as the ipod with not nearly the storage but it's quite a bit smaller and uses a single AA battery.  Still, with 512mb of storage you can get loads of music on it if you compress to 64kps which is what I use.  Not great fidelity at that rate but perfect for my needs.

I also wasn't to keen on the dial functions of the ipod.  They seemed difficult to use on the run.  I think it's a great little device but just not quite right for me.

Kevin g