I'm with Bart - all of the current incarnations of DRM are bad. When I buy a CD (or if I ever decide to purchase a track online), I want to be able to listen to that track whenever and however I want. In addition, I'm a HUGE fan of convergent technologies, but I don't need products that assume I'm a complete moron - which is what this latest generation of products (Windows Vista, iPods, etc) does. I want to copy, convert and organize my music the way I want it, and I want a CHOICE of software to use, commercial and freeware. I want to try them all and then decide which one works best for ME.

I have an SD card that holds 4GB, and it cost me about $60 on sale. I think the Rio Cali may be limited to 1GB cards, or at least it was when I bought mine a couple of years ago. Newer models or similar models may no longer have that limit but I don't know for sure.

I haven't ever messed with the iPod or Zune or any of these newer devices for the reasons stated above. Every inexpensive MP3 player I've ever played with would operate the way you need it to - if you don't install the software that comes with it, the device will STILL be recognized by Windows XP as a "generic usb drive" and it will be given a drive letter just like a thumbdrive. That's why I say you should just look for one with the features you want - SD slot, long battery life, desired formats (MP3, WMA, ACC, OGG, etc), equalizer, etc. Once you find one you like you can always go down to best buy or circuit city or whatever and have them plug it into a computer right in front of you without installing any software to prove that it will work that way.