The battery in my PMP is dying, and as it's not user-servicable, I'm
looking to replace the whole PMP. It was an IBM freebie, so I can't
just buy the same unit again (nor is its USB device ID informative).
I'm after recommendations that will meet the following requirements --
they basically describe my old device.
- can walk into a local store and buy it. IOW not a DIY project and
not "order online from <some gizmo site>".
- MUST play MP3s (yes, opus/speex/flac/tremor would be nice, but I
doubt they're available in commodity hardware).
- MUST have 3.5mm headphone audio out.
- SHOULD charge over USB.
- MUST last at least 2h playback between charges at time of purchase.
SHOULD be a lot more, so that as the battery slowly dies, I don't
care. Once it drops below about 40min playback between charges, it
becomes useless to me.
- SHOULD cost less than A$200.
- SHOULD be small and light -- on the order of a couple of USB keys.
- SHOULD be headless (no screen). All I need is play/pause/off,
next-track, and vol-up/down buttons. If I want to know what I'm
listening to, I'll bolt backannouncing into the audio stream. If I
want to go to a specific track, I'll plug it into a "real"
computer.
SHOULD use mechanical (not touchscreen) buttons, so I can skip
tracks by hitting next-track through my jacket, rather than having
to open it and reach in.
- MUST talk to a computer over USB mass storage (or, I guess, simply
take an SD or microSD card).
I should be able to plug it in, drop a bunch of MP3 files into a
folder, and it should just play them. SHOULD play them in the
order they hit the disk, so that
- streamripper of a radio station into individual MP3s will play
them back in the order recorded, so streamripper's unreliable
track-edge detection becomes a non-issue; and
- a simple cp -a of an album will play it back in track order
(because cp will copy the tracks in lexicographic sort order).
SHOULD NOT need a magical "index" file for the onboard OS to "see"
tracks, as the old gen2 & 4 iPods did. (Anything that needs iTunes
or similar is *right out*).
MAY use a FAT filesystem. NTFS or HFS+ would actually be an
inconvenience for me at present.
- if onboard storage (cf. SD card), SHOULD be at least 2GB.
The key words (in uppercase) are per RFC 2119.
A glance at jbhifi.com turns up a A$52 Sony B-series Walkman which
looks close to what I want. Does anyone have experience with it?
PS: no, I don't have a cellphone, so I can't use that to play music.
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