Hello everyone: To respond to Chips inquiry about what flavor of player, simple or advanced: You may want to contact reader services in Daytona to let them know what machine you prefer. Don't just sit there and see what shows up in your mailbox, be proactive. Below is the link to the descriptions for the new players if you haven't read about them before. http://www.loc.gov/nls/businessplan/playerdescription.html I have copied the information below from emails I have received about the test and players. I believe it to be accurate. The test of the new NLS digital players has begun. It seems eight states will be testing the player; Florida, Texas, California. This is from David Andrews; (David monitors several NFB mailing list) There are 8 pre-launch states that are getting 500 machines each, just to make sure there are no show stoppers. I can't remember them all, I know Iowa, Missouri, Florida, Texas I think, Maine I think, and I can't remember the rest. The test goes through mid July, and it is expected that Libraries will start getting machines by late July, early/mid august as long as no problems or hold ups. Dave About the cartridges: (From Lloyd Rasmussen an NLS employee) Initially we thought that cartridges might be 128, 256 or 512 MB in size. The ANSI/NISO standard provides a mechanism for splitting a book onto more than one disc or cartridge, and our player supports this mechanism. But now our cartridges are going to be 1 GB in size at first, and when we come upon any books more than about 93 hours long, we plan to use higher-capacity cartridges. So the rule will hold: One ZIP file extracted to the root directory of one cartridge. For information on the pre-launch test and other current happenings, go to http://www.loc.gov/nls/newsletters/flash/ and read the current issue of our Flash newsletter. Strictly my editorial opinion on the simple player: Keep in mind as you read this, I have been reading one book for about 15 hours of use. To compare the two new NLS digital players to anything on the market today is well, simply not a fair comparison. Please keep in mind the players are for library patrons with a wide range of skill levels and abilities. Patrons may have arthritic hands or no hands at all wile using a mouth stick. I have used both simple and advanced players. They are both simple to use with good sound quality coming from the on board speaker. Books will be on cartridges. As stated earlier one cartridge per book. The cartridge is the size of an audio cassette with the Braille and ext label on the top... The cartridge only fits in the player one way. When the power is on: Plugging the cartridge into the player will provide the following information about the book; book title, position in the book that includes chapter number and title, time remaining in the book and battery life. When the book cartridge is in the player and power is turned on the user gets the same information as above. For the advanced user of both simple and advanced players I have been told by email that a thumb drive with a book in the root of the drive (not in a folder) can be played by plugging the thumb drive into the USB port of the player. A card reader with book on the flash card can be read the same way. I would like to make myself available to answer your questions on or off list, phone or smoke signal. Ok no smoke signals. All I ask is that you read the description of the players at the link above. I just don't want to get any questions like is it bigger than a bread box. No it isn't. It is about half the size of the four track cassette player and not as thick. Thank you for your time in reading this. Lynn Email evans-lynn@xxxxxxxxxxx Ip voice mailbox: 850 364 8211