OK, I'm in the market for a relatively low cost, say <= $100, mp3 player. The main use of this player will likely end up being for listening to podcasts, although I certainly am not ruling out listening to music too.
Today, I have a Sony PSP that I use in my car to listen to podcasts on the road. It's a little clunky to use in the car because the controls are setup as a game device. I have a car charger for it and I use a standard stereo analog audio cable to connect to the LINE IN on my car. With the PSP, when I'm listening to an audio file, if I back out of it and go to a different one, or if I turn it off and turn it back on, it remembers where I am in the file and I can pick up where I left off. Not a big deal with music, but if you want to get back to where you were in a 2 hour podcast it's handy.
With the PSP, I put my .mp3 podcast files onto it by just taking the memory stick and plugging into my PC and dragging and dropping the files from the folder I download the podcasts to. This is easy, fast and doesn't require any additional software.
I'm not a big fan of iTunes and am not looking to spend the money for an Apple iPod. Plus, I would prefer controls on the player that I can feel better while not looking at it, say while driving, if I wanted to jump to the next podcast.
I've been considering some of the Sony models. Other, non-Apple, brands I should be considering?
Summary: line-out/headphone jack, decent sound quality, 4GB-8GB internal and/or takes an SD card/memory stick, USB connection to PC to look like a drive/folders, decent battery life and/or can run off of USB, sturdy construction.
Thanks!
L