MP3 player with the longest battery life.

I went with one from these guys a few years ago specifically for the AA batteries and CF card.
AA's are easy to find the world over, and not really a pain to drag a few with you on the flight. I keep a collection of NiMh batteries at home, anyway.
The battery life is much enhanced when using a straight CF card instead of the Microdrive- and they're dirt cheap these days, too.
If I were to do it today, I'd get the bare player and a couple gig or half-gig CF cards.
It's no iPod, but not bad. At the time, a microdrive cost as much as the mp3 player, so it was like buying a microdrive and getting the player for free.
Hmm- their 'Lucking Fovely' Flash site doesn't seem to be working properly. Nevertheless you can google for NexBlack and read about the newest version of the AA/CF player.

Interesting devices. The Nex 3+ and similar ones look kinda cool and have kick ass battery life (about 15 hours). I don't have much CF memory, so that's kind of a bummer. Would prefer SD card support, which the Nex 3+ use.

So you liked the Nexblack because of the CF usage and AA battery support?

- Jon

I'd go looking a little harder at the NexBlack vs NexIA if I were to do it again today. NexIA was superceded by NexIA+ and (apparently) now is replaced by the NexBlack (which has just come on market and might be hard to find). Yah, the CF and AA batteries were the major points for me. I didn't like being limited by built-in memory size or battery style. The upgrade-able firmware was a good thing- seems like it was used as a way to get the product to market faster, though- fixing bugs after launch.
The Nex3 series looks cool, too, though. As a CF user, I am swung toward the others.
I bought my NexIA a couple of years ago, now, so I'm out of touch with what's what in the latest personal mp3 players.
Tell you what, Jon, if you want to try it out I'll lend it to you with a blank 256MB card in it. I don't fly much these days, so it just sits.

edit:
found this link to the Frontier Labs store.

My search has led me to look at the Creative Labs stuff. The Zen has a replaceable battery and a long battery life... Though I still think a AA or AAA would be better...

iRiver doesn't have the capacity I want...

Thanks for the offer, but I am thinking that buying a buncha memory cards that I don't already have an investment in is something I don't want to do...

I remember seeing a battery that has all the dongles you might want to charge all of your stuff in "the field..." I can't find it now. You could buy that and then recharge your toys on the fly... Anyone have one and like it?

- Jon

This site sells an external battery pack for the Karma and just about any other MP3 player. They also sell power cables Car, AC or USB each of these are different cables.

I know the local Compusa has this IPod accessories stand and it had quite a few different types of external battery packs.

If you have a PDA you might want to try putting a few books on the PDA to read. I know my roommate did this when he went to Japan and he said it helped a lot.