[conspire] MP3 players

[Edmund J. Biow]

 > Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2006 09:30:12 -0800
 > From: Bill Moseley <moseley at hank.org>
 > Subject: [conspire] MP3 players
 > To: conspire at linuxmafia.com
 > Message-ID: <20061129173011.GB21854 at hank.org> Content-Type: 
text/plain; charset=us-ascii

> I'm looking for a small MP3 player for use by my son. Before I set off 
> shopping I'm wondering if anyone has suggestions on good units. I'm 
> looking in the < $100 range (really less than that because of the 
> likely chance of it being lost, dropped, stepped on...). I assume most 
> of the smaller players just look like USB drives and I can mount and 
> copy directly to it. Doesn't seem like any of the inexpensive players 
> support Ogg Vorbis.
> -- Bill Moseley moseley at hank.org
Here's what's on sale at the big box stores this week; I'd call to check 
for availability before going down there:

http://www.salescircular.com/ca/audio/mp3plp.shtml

I've got the $40 Office Despot Sansa (or rather, an older 512 MB 
version).  It works well, but for some reason and I can manipulate the 
files from Linux, but for some reason it doesn't order the songs in the 
correct alpha-numeric sequence, maybe mine is screwed up?  Anyway, that 
makes it less than ideal for listening to audio-books, though it works 
fine for music and podcasts.  I like the FM radio feature and it also 
has a built in recorder feature that I haven't used.  It seems pretty 
durable.  It gets about 20 hours out of a AAA battery.

Office Depot    SanDisk
Sansa M240    Sansa M240 1GB MP3 Player. Digital FM Tuner, USB 2.0 
interface    $39.99    11/26/2006 -
12/2/2006    Price after $30 mail in rebate.
http://www.sandisk.com/Products/Item(1205)-SDMX3-1024-Sansa_m240_1GB_MP3_Player.aspx
http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Sansa-M240-Player-Silver/dp/B000BP50AY

It runs about $56.50 at Amazon, no MIR. 

There is a 1 GB Philips model at Circus City, but it got a lousy review 
at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Philips-SA1110-GB-MP3-Player/dp/B000H24M4Q

Four hour battery life is inadequate.

There is a 2 GB Centon at CompUSSR for $50 after $25 MIR. 
http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?ref=cj&product_code=343039&pfp=cat1

What I like about the design is that it is basically a USB stick so it 
won't be rendered useless if your kid loses the proprietary connector.  
And it has a FM receiver.  Plus you can use it as a flash drive.  It 
gets 10 hours of life on a AAA. 
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2509784&Sku=C10-1044

2 GB is enough space to remaster a Slax system with his bookmarks and 
email settings and still have plenty of room for music.  That way he can 
boot Linux on his friends' computer and play the music with XMMS.
http://www.slax.org/

If your kid is likely to lose the thing or trash it fairly quickly you 
might want to go for the 256 MB model for only $22 after $8 MIR:
http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?ref=cj&pfp=SEARCH&Ntt=centon+mp3+player&N=0&Dx=mode+matchall&Nty=1&D=centon+mp3+player&Ntk=All&product_code=331970&Pn=C256M_MP3_Digital_Media_Player

It doesn't appear to have a FM receiver.

-Ed