Friday, March 03, 2006

Got an MP3 Player?

I always thought I already had an MP3 Player. Since the Sony CLIE NX60, just about every handheld I've owned has a stereo headphone jack and can play MP3s. Even the Treo 600 comes with a basic version of the Pocket Tunes music software which has playlists and an equalizer. Since I usually have a handheld with me, its just a case of carrying headphones too and I have an MP3 Player.

The only problem is space. MP3 files take up space on expansion cards (SecureDigital Cards mostly). Since SecureDigital Cards which are 1 Gigabyte and larger are relatively costly (anything from $50 to $120), I mainly have 512 MB SD Cards. Being cautious (some would say paranoid), each handheld has its own memory card, and I keep multiple backups on a card. On my Treo where internal memory is low, I store and run software from the card. On the cards for the Tapwave Zodiac I have video files. All of these compete for space with MP3 files. I have a Sony Minidisc player, but a Minidisc can only hold just over 2 CDs worth of songs. It fits in my shirt pocket but is a bit bulky.

So maybe I need a real MP3 player...

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