Hey man, long time fan...

As far as I know, most MP3 players are also USB Storage devices, including iPods. (I'm not 100% sure about the iPod)

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Yes, the iPod can do that job as well. (Although, were I to get one that wasn't the iPod Shuffle, it wouldn't: I'd get the Firewire version for use with the Mac.) There are lots of small MP3 players that can double as USB storage keys, but that's not what I'm looking for. I've got the storage; I just need the player.

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I know my iRiver H340 has USB on the go. But I have the feeling that would be serious overkill for your intended usage.

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It doesn't seem like there's anything that does this, and even if it did, it wouldn't be guaranteed that it'd work with what memory you do have.

There is a prototype mp3 player that one flash-memory company designed and showed off over a year ago called SmartCaps (scroll down), but they only claim compatibility with their own brand of USB flash memory.

And that alone is going to be what you run into a problem, compatibility within USB flash drives; not only because a manufacturer might intentionally design it to only recognize their own brand, but because some USB flash drives might not work even if they tried to make it "compatible" (we know how well "compatibility" works in the PC world), and this is besides the fact that USB flash drives come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and even though there's a USB port on there, your memory card might not physically fit within the player's case.

If you have a digital camera that uses SD cards, you can find mp3 players that will take those; however, they're often more expensive than traditional integrated-memory players (you have to pay more for functionality with these things).

However, for a "do I need an mp3 player?" type thing, I'd recommend going to a CompUSA or OfficeMax or somewhere that's gonna have one of the clearance bins that I've been seeing lately, stacked full of 128MB mp3 players for $19. You could get one of those, fill it with an hour or two of music, and if you like it enough to want something better, then you spend the money for something better.

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Actually, Lexar makes the kind of thing I was thinking about, but it's intended for their Jump Drive Sport sticks, and the shape is such that I'm not sure that any other drive would necessarily fit.

That said, I've solved the problem in another way...see next entry.

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