On Sat, 25 Oct 2008 15:32:01 -0500, BillW50 wrote:

> Take for example of my MP3 player. Many of them use proprietary batteries,
> but some do not. That is why I fell in love with my four iRiver T10 players.
> They run 45 plus hours on a single AA battery. It has a great FM radio to
> boot and can record from FM and sports a timer as well. So set it to record
> something and then do what you need to do and come back and everything is
> recorded (I hear tell European models this feature is disabled for legal
> reasons). Plays files from many different formats too. It has everything I
> need and want to do. All from one AA battery to boot.

The iAudio G3 also used a single AA battery (50 hours playback)
and judging from a comparison with my iRiver T60 which uses a single
AAA cell, was probably a better mp3 player than the iRiver T10.
Among its features was that bookmarks could be set for a large
number of mp3 files, a really useful feature for audiobooks. The
problem with these players is that they're disappearing. Where is
the T10 or G3 still sold? They don't seem to be available anymore.
J&R and B&H both sell many iRiver mp3 players, but the only model
that they carry that doesn't use a Li-Ion battery is the T60, and
neither store carries the 4GB version any longer. J&R only has the
1GB model and B&H has the 1GB and 2GB versions. A problem with the
G3 and T60 is that they have very small displays which (for me, at
least) are difficult to use without reading glasses.

I'd love to be able to find a good mp3 player that uses either AA
or AAA cells, has good battery life and a larger display but as I
haven't been able to do that, I recently got an iAudio (aka Cowon)
D2 that uses a Li-Ion battery. It has a large screen that is much
more readable and navigable, has the G3's flexible bookmarks (up to
256), has good battery life (52 hours/charge), can be bought with
4GB, 8GB or 16GB of built-in memory, and can also access mp3 and
other format audio and video files saved on SDHC memory cards.