How much are you wanting to spend? How much do you want it to hold?

As it's going to be his main Christmas present, I'm not setting a cap on the price. Price-for-functionality will be the determining factor of what I spend.

And of course, the more the better for what it holds, but not less than 1000 songs (what's that, about 512K?).

Cnet didn't give really good reviews to any, but I think the small form factor is just going to mean a difficult interface. Their top two included one that looks like an egg-shaped vibrator.

And of course, the more the better for what it holds, but not less than 1000 songs (what's that, about 512K?).

Heh. At about 4 mins per song and 1 MB/minute if you encode at 128Kbps, you'd want at least 4GB. More, if you want to be able to encode at a better quality. I'd look for at least 6GB.

See, this is exactly the kind of stuff I need to know. Thanks, Jon! (Back to searching, with new criteria)

Yeah, when they say 1000 songs, they're really talking about shit quality.

Does it have to be flash-based, or would a hard drive one work?

He specifically asked for flash rather than a hard drive one, I think because the tiny form factor is the main thing (he wants it to be very unnoticeable that he's listening to music)

And song quality is a factor, since he's kind of an audiophile.

You may want to have a little talk with him about that apple problem of his.

Right now, Apple kind of has a lock on the market for flash chips, so if you want to get a player with the kind of capacity you're talking about, you have to go with a Nano.

Yeah, no one else has a flash player with anywhere near the capacity of the Nano. I'm not really sure, but I think the max for a non-Nano flash player might be 1 Gig.

Netflix to delay launch of online download service.

The search for the perfect Flash MP3 player is winding to a close...but now that I've seen this, I'm sorely tempted: [link]