Ars Technica reviews some inexpensive flash based MP3 players, all holding around 512MB.  Don’t worry about killing a 40GB iPod at the beach, bring one of these fairly easy to replace players for those trips into human friendly environments that have hazards for electronics.
“In the spirit of affordability and high functionality, we selected a number of flash memory based Digital Audio Players (aka. Flash DAPs) with 512MB of memory, all under $135US. We tested them, noted their construction and sound qualities. Then we conclude with a “compare and contrast” to see which player offers the best bang for your buck (and yes, we included the iPod Shuffle…)”

Here is some more Audio Tech News from around the web:

Tech Talk