[Gllug] OT MP3 players and tape adaptors.

[will]

Completely OT, but you people know a lot and will probably be able to 
advise :)

I want to buy my dad an MP3 player for Christmas but I don't know which 
one, having had no experience of them since the Rio500 sometime in 2001. 
  Can members of Gllug recommend players that conform to the following 
criteria:

- Plays MP3s (Duh!), Ogg would be a bonus, but is not required.
- Works with these OSes in order of relevance: XP, OSX, Linux. Only XP 
is required though[0].
- At least 1/2 Gig storage space, the more the better.
- Less than £80, preferably closer to £40.  I could be tempted to pay 
more and split it with my sister.
- Decent battery life (5+ hours)

I can look at the archives as I am sure this question has come up 
before, but I am asking for two reasons.  First, recommendations may 
have changed as new models are released, and second I need advice on 
tape adaptors.

The player is for his car, but there is no line in to the audio system, 
so I was thinking about getting him one of those tape adaptors that go 
into the tape deck of the stereo.  My question is, do they actually 
work?  If so, do they work with 15 year old tape drives?  They always 
seemed to me (for no rational reason) to be unlikely to work well.  Are 
there any things I should look out for?

TIA
Will.


[0] He has an XP desktop and that is the only one it really needs to 
work with, but I would feel bad handing over money for something with 
such a proprietary protocol that it was unusable on anything else.
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