portable digital music players

[Tom Buskey]

> Since recently I have some extra money in my pocket, I'm interested in
> buying some sort of portable music player.  My criteria are these:

I have a Nex II from Frontier Labs

> 1) MUST play both MP3 and OGG formats, since I have a substantial
>    amount of both, and no current physical access to my source
>    material in order to re-rip to one or the other...

MP3 and wma.  No Ogg that I know of.  Frontier now has a newer model.

>
> 2) Should be small and lightweight -- my main use will be to enhance
>    my jogging experiences

Smaller then a pack of cards

>
> 3) 128MB of RAM is ideal.  I can live with 64MB.  More than 128MB is
>    not necessary, and probably a waste of my money.

Put in any compact flash card you want.

> 4) Ideally, it should interface easily with Linux.  I have USB,
>    ieee1394, and smart-card interfaces available.  Unfortunately the USB
> is only USB1, but the device should ideally do USB2 for when I
> upgrade.

USB1.  Shows up as a disk drive.  There's some windows drivers that might
do more, but I've never loaded them.

I have a USB2 multicard reader that I use for my camera CF.  It works
great and I always have it out.  I never use the USB in my MP3 or cameras
at home, but I might pack the cable for use elsewhere.

> 5) Price and battery life are considerations.

I forget what I paid but it was reasonable.  I have lots of CF for my
camera (s) already.  When I need another card for pictures, I can always
take the CF out of the MP3 player.

I'd use the player when I commuted on the train to Cambridge about 3 hours
a day.  I'd get maybe a week on 2 NiMH AA (AAA?).  I had an extra charger
I left at work.