Is there anything that has that flexibility without the $200 price tag? I mean, one with less storage or something... I was going to get an 2 to 4 gig MP3 player + SD slot for expansion, but they only have a limited format compatibility. (MP3, WMA, not OGG or WAV... any of them play FLAC?) I don't need a mini PC, just an MP3 player. (Although a mini PC + Linux would be kewl!)
The flexibility comes from what kind of software you load onto it. Currently, to my knowledge, there's two good pieces of software that play a myriad of filetypes. The Axim X50 specifically has two storage slots, Secure Digital and Compact Flash. With a card reader, a cheap one that is, you can read/write your music files much faster than directly to PPC. Really, there's no portable media player that I know that allows for such flexibility. With a Pocket PC, you can do everything, plus so much more than media players. The prices are variable though between models, and I honestly wouldn't buy one from Dell as most manufacturers are giving up the PDA scene. It beats what I paid for mine though!
- GSPlayer, Freeware, plays OGG, MP3, WAV, MIDI files, along with other formats. If you're interested in MIDI playback, this is the only portable solution that I've seen which can play back MIDI files.
- TCPMP, Freeware, Open Source, which allows for Divx movie playback, FLAC audio playback (with a plugin), here's a good rundown with what's included. Head on over to the download page to see what's available for playback. http://tcpmp.corecodec.org/about
Comparing the TCPMP-loaded PPC to a media player that plays back video and such, if you were looking for such a beast, the PPC will play Divx movies that you can easily create. It can also play back Windows Media video and audio with the preloaded Windows Media Player on it. This may or may not interest you, but at least it's a feature. TCPMP plays back MP3/OGG files, but GSPlayer is much more lightweight and easier to use.
Depending on usage, the Pocket PC is limited by it's battery life, but you can buy higher-capacity batteries for the unit for pretty cheap. That's one limited downfall, but at least you can control how fast your processor runs on most Windows Mobile platforms, saving juice. The other problem is the touch-screen. You'll have to use the stylus to do most of your functions, but once you have GSplayer set up, all you really have to do is press a few hardware buttons and you're jammin to the tunes in no time.
But honestly, if you're just looking for a mobile player of sorts, Creative's lineup IMO better than Apple's by far. Instead of being locked down by ITunes, you can choose pretty much any music service provider (like you'd want to anyway.... lol) that divies out WMA files. (IIRC, Creative plays back WMA 9 files...)
