Chuck Gould wrote in
ups.com:

3. What are the pros and cons of memory cards, mp3 CD's, CD changers,
separate iPod's etc? There's a real smorgasbord og choices now
available.


Ask it ONE important question......

Can I use Windows Explorer to simply copy a whole directory of MP3 music
files to the player, or its external memory card, and play it WITHOUT
using some hobbled up, record company approved, filtering software that
makes you do them one-at-a-time. God some of 'em suck moving music to
the player.

The computer should treat the player as just an external hard drive
copying files to....not filtering the files looking for illegal file
sharing which sucks even if you're not downloading like mad from
alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.(your favorite genre here) newsgroups.....

Copy the files onto a massive portable hard drive you can plug into your
laptop on the boat in MP3 format. I just bought a Western Digital MyBook
USB hard drive, a whopping 750GB, for $179 on sale at Best Buy. This
book-sized hard drive will store movies and music for a whole year in
one, small package.....not 250 fragile CDs all scratched up and
unplayable in a car stereo player that's gonna crap, soon, on a boat.

Plug the hard drive into the laptop and the memory card or memory MP3
player in, too. Copy what you want to listen to on this watch to the
player and tuck it in your pocket. Mine is a 2GB Sansa the size of a
woman's lipstick case with color LCD screen, FM Radio, voice recorder...
$80 on sale:
http://www.sandisk.com/Products/Cata...sa_Express_MP3
_Players.aspx
500 songs fit on its INTERNAL memory (2GB) and you can ADD another 2GB
with the external MicroSD very tiny memory module for $20 more from
Newegg.com. (I'm using Kingston memory now, lifetime warranty and they
replaced a bad one with no problem for free!)

You won't have to reload 1000 songs often. That's 64 hours without
hearing the same song twice. It also has random mode to shuffle the
deck.

The Sansa Express IS a USB plug...which runs 15 hours of continuous play
before you simply plug it into the computer for an hour to rapidly
recharge its lithium-polymer advanced battery pack.....all for $79!

(c; A condom would make a great waterproof carrying case in bad
weather...(c; Just put the open end with the headphone wire coming out
of it DOWN in your pocket.

To play through the boat's stereo is easy....use an FM stereo transmitter
like:
http://tinyurl.com/3axoru
I particularly like this model, though have never owned one, because the
whole transmitter is built right into a common 12V plug already in the
boats. If you want to play to the whole boat, not just yourself, plug
this cheap transmitter into the headphone jack on the tiny Sansa player
for days of unrepeated music you can also carry ashore, in your car,
listen privately in bed without disturbing HER...a real feature...(c;
(NOTE - The $150 FM transmitters sound EXACTLY like the $15 ones on any
radio.)

Larry
--
Paying for XM is just stupid.....