Mp3 player to play Podcasts

[moboking]

"Podcasts" seem to be the rage these days, being offered by some tech sites. I plan to upload these saved MP3 files into a mobile MP3 player to be played offline. I have not bought this player yet, but I will as a Christmas present to myself. So before I buy this MP3 player to listen to these "Podcast" mp3 files, is there any gotchas that I need to know? Can all mobile mp3 players play these files? With DRM technologies running amok these days, I would hate to shell out cash to get an MP3 player only to find out that it cannot play these mp3 files of tech shows I save. I really don't care about music, just want to listen to these shows while I am on the bus or walking in the park.

Can any of you geeks recommend an MP3 player that uses these USB thumbdrives as the storage medium? I already have a SanDisk Mini Cruzer 512MB stick and would like to use it as the storage medium for this MP3 player.

 

[mpjesse]

The answer to your first question is yes, all MP3 players can play podcasts. Podcasts are just MP3's. Beware that some podcasts are AAC encoded and most MP3 players (besides Apple) do not play AAC.

The answer to your second question is no. I haven't seen an MP3 player that allows you to use a USB jump drive as the storage medium. I think the reason for this is power requirements. Jump drives use 5V if I'm not mistaken; too high for a small MP3 device to handle. There are however plenty of MP3 players out there that are nothing more than jump drives w/ an MP3 decoder chip. Additionally, there are also MP3 players that use SD cards and memory stick cards as a storage medium for MP3's.

-mpjesse

 

[moboking]

How can I find out that my favorite Podcast MP3 are encoded with ACC?

 

[mpjesse]

the file extension will be .aac