Cry me iRiver (and let rip the Doge of Venice)

My trusty iRiver iFP-190TC (or iRiver iFP-190T as I call him for short) is becoming less and less trusty. He's now I think nearly 4 years old, which in electronic consumer durables is actually pretty durable, translating as "it was taken to the vet to 'go and live on a farm' two years back, why are you still dragging its sorry carcase 'round on a lead?" in dog years.

As listening to stuff on it is my outboard stamina generator when I run, and I've just started running again, I need a new one or I'll end up too obese to be let out of doors (even really wide ones) unless its for some BBC Three/five/ITV1 piece of fat voyeurism, you know the things- those entertainment 'documentaries', like freak shows only a touch tawdry.

I've found from experience that you can't always run near old ladies or school girls who you can't let see you wheezing to a halt, so an electronic device that you can use to help cajole yourself into keeping on 'just 'til the end of the next track' or until you've done more than 30 minutes is really handy, and, when used in conjunction with a pedometer, can help you pass for someone with real backbone and discipline if viewed from a distance, and not someone with an unhealthy need to measure out everything with gadgets and compete against himself to actually get a sweat on.

I've decided to gamble on another iRiver because I irrationally dislike iPods (they're so darn popular and the lack of replaceable batteries is immoral etc.), I have already given Sony and Creative Labs quite enough of my money and because I could get the iRiver H10 20GB quite cheaply by virtue of it being a hideously untrendy bit of kit now it's over a year old, and because it seems to have a bit of a bad rep.

I suspect (and hope) this is because it was initially released with horrendously bad firmware, reports vary, but it seems to have had its teething problems mixed-metaphored out. Hopefully it'll be fine for my needs and as the last known user of a Psion REVO I'm used to finding things folk disparage nowadays more than adequate for my needs.
You shall of course hear me whinge if I have bought a pup, half-suspecting it to be one, just because it was cheap. Still if it I have, there should be a touch of schadenfreude to be wrung from reading about it, so fingers crossed, eh?

This new device is costing less than the old one and has about 40 times the storage capacity, which must clearly be wrong and a sign that the end days are upon us. I'm going to have to run marathons to bloody run the thing dry, and given the apparent proximity of the end days, I'm not sure I'll have time.