>>>Accidentally, this is the 2nd time today that I'm mentioning my recent rant against Sony. The one good thing I said about their stuff is that the mp3 player worked fine - which was true at the time, and is still true about the 2nd one we have, but the first one has gone to happy hunting grounds today. My diagnose is that it's the ball bearing, as there's a palpable wobble at the axle.
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>>>Anyway, it survived two school years, and died on the last day of school, quite an honorable end. Time to buy something else, and if possible without moving parts. I'm looking for something that can take a couple of gigabytes of music, will fit in a pocket, isn't tied to a specific vendor, and, repeat, has no moving parts. Including any hard disks - I'm looking for something with a memory card, or that can host a memory card.
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>>http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2087805,00.asp
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>Close, thanks for the link - I learned a lot there. For one, it doesn't say "no hard disk" or "flash memory" in any manufacturer's specs, it says "skip-free". Why are they hiding the most important peace of technical data behind a faux PC expression is beyond me.

The specs say: Player Type: Flash MP3 Player

The review says: upgradable storage capacity via a microSD expansion slot

If there were a hard drive, the specs would show: Player Type: Hard Disk MP3 Player