When looking for new electronics, most teens want to have something instantly recognizable. They want to have something that screams "look at me!". For most, it should also be just flashy enough, but still remain navigable. It should be trendy and have plenty of room for developing music tastes, as well as some features that make their player stand out

So if the above article sounds like you(or more likely your the parent, so your teen child)then an Apple iPod should suffice. If this does not sound like your child then skip down to part two of this article. The iPod is the hottest mp3 player on the market, virtually every teen with a digital media player has one. They are flashy, very well supported, and basically everybody can navigate it using the famous scroll wheel. When thinking about the iPod, one should compare it to the trendy motorola RAZR that dominated the mobile phone market a few years back.

There are some things to keep in mind as you buy the iPod;

1st-These players being as trendy as they are, as well as the fact that they are made by the boutique company Apple, come with quite a hefty price tag. Although the Shuffle, the cheapest iPod in the line, only starts at $49, they are not good enough for most. The popular nano starts at $149 and only comes in silver at that lower price. The high capacity Classic starts at$249, whilst the iTouch, the latest and greatest, starts at $299.

2nd-iPods require Apples media player and download center, iTunes, to sync music. This program is a bit of a resource hog, meaning it slows your computers performance. iTunes also requires that one must buy all the music, videos, and television shows. Songs start at .99 a track an movies go up to $20. Although these songs and videos work on your computer and iPod, if one ever decides to switch players, the new player unless made by Apple, will most likely not support the content. This is becoming a bit less of a problem though with more and more mp3 players integrating Apples AAC format onto their players. On the flip side, iTunes has a lot of mainstream media content that your teen is sure to enjoy and is regularly updated.

3rd-It is a good idea to discuss with your teen what they want in their iPods. there are several different players that will appeal to different people. For instance, the Shuffle only has 1-2GB of memory for songs and no screen for videos. The nano(3rd generation) now supports video as its bigger brother the classic. However it is a flash

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