I love my iPod. 2 bad i just got a gen 3 about 2 months ago. When did everyone find out about the new iPod, I had no idea about it comming (besides personally realizing it had been a while since an iPod update) till it was actually released!!
I haven't heard anything about the G4, but there's a new IRiver hard drive player coming out. I think its called the H340 or something like that. It looks like a PDA, i.e. sexy as hell.
The G4 ipod is much better than the previous versions, it has the same scroll wheel as the mini and it has the shuffle feature on the menu. I would go with the ipod becasue of the looks. The battery life is also improved over the G3 versions.