As usual I put in a lot of research for MP3 Players and since I was going to gift it to my wife, I paid a bit more attention to aesthetics as well. iPod was the obvious choice, but somehow I have started hating people 
promoting too much of Proprietary software/hardware like Sony and Apple and moreover the iPod was becoming a Cult for MP3 players and its dependency on iTunes will drive my wife mad.
So my search became tedious until I found the Cube from Mobiblu. My first impression was ‘How did they manage?’. It was so small and with so much of functionality.
* The first is ease of use. It comes up as a device (UMS) in My Computer. So you can just drag and drop your MP3 files
* It supports a lot of formats including WMA
* It has a great audio quality, comparable to iPod.
* It is too cool to be not noticed by your friends
* It has minimalistic approach. One port for Audio, Charging and Data transfer
* Charges in com
puter while you transfer data and the battery lasts for a decent time
* The bright blue OLED display (Yes it has a display) is awesome unlike the pale LCDs seen otherwise
* It has so may sound effects like SRS, WoW, custom equalizer etc
* Even at high volume there is no degradation and it is good on your ears
* It supports FM but not quite clear in reception
* It supports Voice Recording and Recording from FM
Price
100$ (Oct 2006) from TigerDirect.com