Which Dig Cam with sound without wasting space on video?

I'd like to upgrade my Canon S10, and am looking for a digital camera
with the following features:

1) 4 megapixel +
2) must be sharp in the corners, overal good sharpness, and not leave
the impression that the camera reall is a lower megapixel one with the
pixels magnified.
3) no fake sharpness filter like Agfa used to do.
4) takes AA batteries
5) Compact Flash (so I can use the ones I have)
6) Aggresively low priced (300 US ish?)
7) ability to record 15 fps movies in 320x240 with sound
8) ability to record sound, without a movie, so I can annotate my high
quality still shots, great for making slideshows with sound.
9) No time bomb. I have the impression that some cameras are
intentionally engineered to have a limited lifespan. I'm not that hot
on analog zoom, because it can break. My S10 broke twice, once in the
warranty, and once outside the warranty. The battery went limb
(proprietary battery, balk), have to keep resetting the clock (with
good mini battery).

Chances are that some cheapo camera with no moving parts has
everything I want. Or else, a better than 1 year factory warranty
(not some special store warranty, which costs extra).

I'm really big on number 8. I really want to be able to record a good
amount of sound, without wasting storage space on the current going
rate crappy movie quality, which I'll likely use very little.

Older Kodak cameras had a programmable chip in it, so programmers
could write their own software for it, allowing you to do anything
under the sun.
I don't think the industry would like us to have this kind of control,
so I don't think this is an option any more, or is it?

Could anyone give me a few cameras to consider?

 

Sounds like you're describing my new Olympus C-750!
M

 

I use my Nextel I90C for recording temporary audio

 

Canon Powershot SD10 does not have analog zoom, is 4mp, and small.
However it does not meet items 4-6.

I suggest you plug your requirements into:
http://dpreview.com/reviews/compare.asp
and see what you find.

 

These two requirements contradict each other if you want to rely on digital
zoom.

Mark

 

I ment how some cameras aren't sharp in the corners while the center
is, like the Pentax Option S4, which is slightly blurry in the
corners.

 

From what I can find on http://www.imaging-resource.com, and other
websites found through google,
the C750 is a tad too costly, slightly bulky, does not use CF cards,
and it isn't clear that you can record sound *without* recording
movies.

I *really* don't like getting stuck on xD or any other proprietary
format.

So far, because of this, Sony and Olympus is out for me.