I've lost my iPod Mini Well sort of. Karen has decided she rather likes it and wants to use the iPod when she goes running. Of course this means my collection of guitar based popular combo hits has been deleted for music more oriented to the terpsichorean muse. As a consequence I’m on the lookout for a repleacement. I could of course just get another one but the market for portable media players has moved on there might be some useful alternatives worth considering. The larger iPods seem an obvious choice but for me they don’t carry the appeal of their smaller cousin and the kudos they once had is long gone. As long ago as six months ago the iPod Mini has the whole micro hard drive music player market to itself but there’s now some good looking alternatives which address the Mini’s 'Achilles Heel'; battery life. The Rio Carbon, Creative Zen Micro and the new and probable favourite Creative Neeon are all worth a look.