For podcasts and audio books, the iPods do save the position, and retain it during syncs. The handy thing is that it even syncs the positional data back to the computer, so I can start a podcast on my iPhone, sync to the Mac when I get home, then resume listening at my desk via the computer. If I want to go mobile again, another sync will send the time info back to the iPhone and resume when I select it to play.

While I have never been as impressed with the iPods for general music playback compared to the Karma or empeg, the podcast support is why I bought an iPod nano, and then part of the reason for the iPhone later.