MP3 Player

Struth, am I behind the times!  This year sees me finally getting a mobile phone, and thanks to an Aldi special I just got an mp3 player.  It's quite strange how people jump to conclusions about me, as I've had a computer since age 15 (now 30 years ago), so they expect me to adopt technology quickly.  I took ages before getting a CD player and DVD player.  I was a lot quicker getting a video recorder as at the time I was living in Newcastle and working shiftwork.  Both NBN and the ABC used to close transmissions at about 1am, so I'd come home from work at maybe 3-4am and not have a thing to watch.  A lot of people in Newcastle used to put up 100 foot TV masts to get the prized Sydney TV reception, and I know exactly why they did so!

The not having a mobile concept has been interesting.  Everyone asks me for the mobile number and I used to simply reply "I haven't got one" and watch the jaws drop in disbelief!  Now I have to answer that question.  Fortunately my mobile number is pretty easy to remember.

And thanks to an Aldi special a couple of weeks ago, I picked up an mp3 player for $19.95.  What's more I've actually been using it and it has chewed up 2 AAA batteries already (although they were cheap ones that had been on top of the fridge for a fair few months).  Yesterday we bought a couple of rechargeables, as it appears this thing is a reasonably heavy load on the batteries.  I can at least have one in the charger, and one on the go.

Is my experience correct?  Are mp3 players really a battery hog?