I just got a nifty new gadget this week. It's an MP3 player, so it's mostly for entertainment, but it has a few goodies thrown in that make it useful for writers. This is going to sound a lot a commercial for the manufacturer, but I'm having a lot of fun with this thing.

The toy in question is Samsung's Yepp YP-55V player. It sells for around $180 but I got it for free from an incentive program at my day job. It's very small, about the size of a cigarette lighter, but it packs an amazing number of features into its tiny size. I also own a Rio Volt (a CD-based MP3 player) that I like a lot, but it's a bit bulky and not the sort of thing I want to walk around with strapped to my belt, so I got the Yepp to use when I'm out of the house.

The Yepp's main raison d'être is to play MP3 files (well, duh). It does this rather well, with some interesting surround sound processing and equalization options thrown in. Although I generally hate ear bud headphones, the ones supplied with the unit are actually not too bad, but it has enough power to drive your favorite headphones, too. The unit has 256 megabytes of storage, which holds about four hours of music files sampled at 128 kbps or lots longer if (like me) you listen to audio books and old radio programs which can be sampled at much lower resolution. Bottom line: it sounds great.

It also encodes MP3's, so you can plug in any analog input, like a TV or CD player, and record audio directly to MP3 files.

It's also an FM radio, with 20 station presets. The MP3 encoder mentioned above will record directly from the radio, so it's a neat and portable way to save radio programs when you hear something you want to listen to at a later time.

OK, I said this has some applications for writers. The first is that it's a 256 megabyte USB flash drive. I've been carrying my writing work around on a 64 meg keychain drive for some time now, as a backup and a means to move my work around between several computers I regularly use. I've recently been thinking of getting another larger capacity one, but the Yepp does double duty. Like my keychain drive, it just looks like another drive letter when you plug it into a PC, and the 256 megabytes can store any sort of file, not just MP3's.

The other writer-friendly feature is that it's also a voice recorder. It has a built in microphone, and can record and store hours of voice notes. I still carry around a 3x5" pad to jot down story ideas as they occur, but the voice recorder is another neat option -- I can dictate whole sections of work when I'm out, and then transcribe it when I get back home. This feature alone may make the Yepp deductible as a business expense if you claim writing income on your tax return.

A few more nice features: It runs for about 15 hours on a single standard AAA battery. It has both a neck strap if you want to wear it like a pendant, and a fabric & velcro carrying case if you want to strap it to your belt, hand, or purse strap. Its firmware is upgradeable, so the manufacturer can add more features (and I found a very useful one on the Internet already). It's got a small (by necessity) backlit display to see song titles and navigate through the myriad settings you can control. It's warrantied for a year (plus three extra months if you send in the registration card). And it looks cool.

Recommended. Even if you're not a writer.