Check the Fresh Alternatives to the iPod, Then Remember Ease of Use

Digital music players have been hot gifts for a few years but until now, it's been a category mostly dominated by Apple Computer and its line of iPod players.

This holiday season, the iPod gets fresh competition: Microsoft's Zune player, priced at $249, and Real Networks' Sansa, at prices ranging from $139 to $249.

The Zune's main selling point is the ability to wirelessly share music with other Zune owners; the Sansa's pitch is that it is designed to let subscribers of Real's music service, called Rhapsody, carry around an always-fresh mix of tunes that they can download from a library of more than 2.5 million tracks.

Cool, yes. But those two new players are challenging a famously easy-to-use product that most users seem to like. For gift-givers who want to stick with the iPod world, there are more choices than ever.

The most expensive iPod, the kind with the video playback and 80 gigabytes of storage space, costs $349; the smaller Nano starts at $149; the tiny Shuffle, which doesn't even have a screen, is down to $79.

Hard-disk players such as the iPod and Zune have the highest capacities, but are easily damaged with a lot of shaking. Flash players, such as the Zen Nano Plus from Creative Technology and the iRiver T30, don't have the same sort of moving parts inside. That makes them a better buy for exercise nuts -- and kids.

Flash players won't hold thousands of songs. But in some cases, erasing tracks and adding new ones is easy because the player appears on your computer as a separate drive. Simply delete them from the player, click-and-drag the new tracks to it and off you go.

One of the coolest flash players we've seen is the Oakley Thump 2, which doubles as an MP3 player and pair of sunglasses ($300, http://www.oakley.com). The earbuds fold down from the glasses to either go in to the ears or hover over them. The control buttons (as well as a very small USB port for connecting to a PC) are also on the glasses.

Sticking earbuds in your ear while driving may not be the best idea, but it's a unique gift for an someone who likes to fish or hike.

Most flash players tend to have longer battery lives over hard drive players. Some of them also come with FM radio tuners.

Speaking of radio, the satellite radio companies -- XM and Sirius -- have also gone portable, allowing users to also store MP3s on their portable players.

Sirius just released the Stiletto 100, a radio with a hard drive for storing MP3s and recorded radio programming ($350, http://www.sirius.com). XM offers the Samsung Nexus radio ($150, http://www.xmradio.com), which also offers record-and-playback features. Critics have noted that these aren't portable radios, though. To get them to work at home or in the car, you'll need an add-on kit.

That means you won't be listening to Oprah or Howard Stern while out for a run.

For the music fan who already has a player, there are plenty of ways to move the playlists from your portable device to your home stereo system.

Roku SoundBridge M1001 ($200, http://www.rokulabs.com) is a stereo component that plucks your home's wireless music signals out of the air -- playlists from your desktop computer upstairs, say, or Internet radio stations. The $200 device displays the artist name and song title, and can be controlled from the living room couch with a remote control.

For portability, Apple's Airport Express with AirTunes ($129, http://www.apple.com) doesn't look like anything more than a white brick sticking out of an electrical outlet. But as a home network extender, it also has a plug for external speakers that will broadcast your iTunes playlists.

Aside from sound quality and looks, there isn't a lot to learn when it comes to buying speakers. Creative ( http://www.creative.com) and Logitech ( http://www.logitech.com), for example, offer a long line of speakers with a range of sound qualities that will plug into an AirTunes device.

But, here's a tip: Check to see whether the speakers that grab your eye as a potential stocking stuffer will take standard batteries or contain rechargeable batteries, such as Altec Lansing's inMotion ($250, http://www.alteclansing.com) line. If your music fan wants to rock out on a boat, for example, he or she will need a set of battery-powered speakers -- or a very long extension cord.