This is a great deal considering some USB SD card readers cost almost the same amount of money but don't play MP3. You can use this player as USB SD card reader without a battery. The data transfer rate is good with a high speed SD card.

The music sounds great, though I did notice some noise when i set the EQ to Base mode with volume turned up. I tried with a different headset, but the result is the same.

Manual is indeed very lacking. You'll have to do some figuring out on your own with the controls. Took me a little time to figure out how to turn the thing on/off. I still haven't figure out how the song order is determined. I can also use some more explaination on what some of the icons on the LCD display mean.

The included headset has a special ring that you can use to hook up to a small hole on the corner of the player. There is also a ring on the strape of the headset so you can adjust the wire and wear the headset around your neck. I thought that is a pretty nice touch.

This unit is very light, very small, functional, and dirt cheap. It's also nice that the player uses standard AAA battery. Combined with the $20 PQI 1GB SD card I got from Fry's last week, I got myself a 1GB mini MP3 player that doubles as USB2 SD card reader & flash memory storage for only $40. I say this is a very nice deal.

PS. On Outpost, it says this player plays MP3, WMA, and MPEG. I haven't tried MPEG, but WMA did not work for me. Does any one else have any luck with files that are not MP3?

The speed is likely due to the limit of your SD card write speed. I use the PQI 60x 1GB SD card ($20 AR from Frys) and the file transfer speed is not too bad at all.

Both the PQI SD card and the MP3 player are on sale at So. Cal Fry's ad today again.
http://latimes.p2ionline.com/shoppingchannel/content/index.aspx?webstoryid=10509588&area=rop&type=cat

you can use the mp3 player as SD card reader by using the provided USB cable and connect to your Windows XP directory without having to install any drivers. If you are using older versions of Windows, you might need to isntall drivers first. You won't need the AAA battery under USB mode. The drive should just show up in your Windows Explorer. Just drag and drop and MP3 files into the SD card. I don't think it matters on what the folder and file names/structures are, but you might be required to keep the mp3 file extention.

You can also just use your own SD card reader if you have it. The Outpost site says it supports WMA, etc. But from my test, the only file type that works is MP3. If your copy of MP3 is using any sort of DRM (digital rights management), I don't think this drive will support them.