Nice Linux-Friendly Music Player

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: William O'Higgins Witteman <william.ohiggins-H217xnMUJC0sA/PxXw9srA at public.gmane.org>
| 
| My Creative Zen V died a while back,

Did you find it Linux-friendly?  I ended up hacking Gnomad to access
mine (my fixes were accepted into the tree).  Did you find something
better?

I'm not a fan of MTP (I prefer UMS) but that could be prejudice.

What Linux software do folks use to manage their MP3 players?

| and I recently picked up a new
| music player, a Transcend MP860:

Thanks for the review!

I care about many of the things you seem to care about: I listen
to recorded radio programs (CBC Ideas, BBC In Our Time) and bookmarks
matter.

I don't care about video.

I do want small: I carry my Samsung YP-U2J in my pocket all the time.
Things that do video tend to be bigger.

I'm also a cheap bastard.

We are also on the lookout for a music-oriented MP3 player that is a
little more convenient for desk use (that's what our Zen is doing at
the moment).  Bookmarks don't matter.  Playlists do.  Convenient Linux
management is good.  A nice interface would be good.  A computer
program as MP3 player would apear to be a great choice except we don't
want to require the computer to be on.

>From reading anythingbutipod, the Sansa Clip Plus looks interesting.
It has a microSD slot (unlike the Sansa Clip).
  <http://www.anythingbutipod.com/archives/2009/12/top-5-mp3-players-of-2009.php>
It is not as widely available as I'd like.  The 2G one is $39.99 at Future
Shop today (goes up to $49.99 to tomorrow).
  <http://www.futureshop.ca/EN-CA/product/id/10130200.aspx>
They have ones with larger memory for larger prices.

NCIX has on sale a Sony NWZS636F (4G).  Its firmware is Linux.  I would
like to know if it can be managed from a Linux desktop.  I'd love to
know how hackable it is (probably: not at all).
  <http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=49927&promoid=1044>
  <http://www.sony.net/Products/Linux/Audio/NWZ-S636F.html>
The manual says nothing about bookmarks (it does say that you can
resume a video under certain conditions).  No microSD.  Unlike early
Sony players, this does support MP3 (and AAC-LC without DRM).

Rock Box is a nice idea.  I still haven't gotten around to playing with
it on my Sansa e250.
<http://www.rockbox.org/>

If you are willing to delve into Asian web sites, Deal Extreme, Focal
Price, etc. have MP3 players of unknown qualities.  This one has some
intriguing stuff:
  <http://www.mp4nation.net/catalog/>
The not-cheap SartQ V7 is a 7" touchscreen tablet that is supposed to
run Ubuntu, Android, and WinCE.  It seems to be targetted at
displaying videos.  The site's forums are interesting.

These sites are a great source of earphones.  I just bought (knockoff?
I cannot tell) Sennheiser Cx400-II phones from FocalPrice for less
than Sennheiser was willing to sell me replacement "ear inserts" for
my CX300 phones.  Others swear by the SoundMagic PL-30 or PL-50s.
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