I'd always avoided hard cases for my devices because I tend to think that a hard case won't really protect the thing inside if I drop it and also because I expect them to be heavy. But I find that some soft cases (the skins especially) collect dog hairs and other debris, or tend to get worn-looking very fast.

CoreCases just sent us a selection of their aluminum iPod cases, including new cases for both the 30gb and 60gb video iPods. Despite the fact that they're made of aluminum, they turn out to be extremely lightweight so that you can actually wear your device around your neck, using the neck lanyard that comes with it. All of the metallic colors are quite nice (silver, black, pink, green, blue and orange). And the insides are lined with shock-absorbent neoprene. I tried one of the cases with my daughter's shiny, brand new 5G iPod, and threw it around (just a bit), and now we're both sold on it.

It also comes with a screen protector and a removable dual position clip. The 5G case sells for $24.95. CoreCases also makes cases for the Nano, the Shuffle, Nindento DS, and Sony PSP.