the recipient will only use it minimally & most of that use would be in car, so i'm looking for the least expensive solution - i have ipod nano w/a decent sized music collection on my computer. is there a 'generic' brand of mp3 player that would be compatible, so that he can put music selections from my computer onto this new mp3 ? do they all work with itunes music library?thank you for any suggestions!

You can put songs from itunes on other mp3 players but it's not as easy as just plugging it in and syncing. You would have to burn the songs to a cd, then you would have to open a different program, ie. real player, windows media player, etc.. rip the songs into that library, (and probably have to name each song), then you could move them onto the other mp3 player. Kind of a pain! The easiest solution is to buy the 4gb nano (the new one has video and a larger screen) for $149. --or you could buy one refurbished from apple.com. They have the same warranty. You can get the shuffle for as cheap as $49. Holds 240 songs, just no display.

There's a reason that iPods are so popular. The way they work with iTunes is easy and seamless. Other players do not have that type of integration.You can get a lot of music onto a $79 Shuffle.