I've had 2 ipods... one 20 and a 30 and I have to say its a pretty great thing to have I don't use itunes to download music I use torrents and no you can connect an ipod to any computer with itunes and take any songs as long as they aren't purchased off of itunes... it plays mp3s and aacs which is great and you'll get a crapload of memory for a reasonable price the downside I have is video takes a while to convert video but you can download free programs to speed it up and tweak quality