Handheld Entertainment, which has produced the ZVUE line of portable media players, is releasing a compact MP3 player for the holiday season. The ZVUE ZP3 is a thumb drive-sized USB device with 512MB of built-in flash memory, drag and drop capability for song transfers, and support for MP3, WMA and WAV files. It will also work as a voice recorder, and will run on a single AA battery for up to eight hours. Pricing hasn't been announced, but the ZP3 will arrive by Thanksgiving.

Hanheld Entertainment's hook is that the device will come preloaded with 30 of the top songs of 2006. From the sound of it, you won't actually to get to choose which songs will be preloaded. So rather than buying a loved one an empty player this holiday season, you can give them a ZP3 with a bunch of songs they might not like instead!