About time for new sansa player?

[joe_larson]

Originally Posted by lestatar

But until/unless there is concrete, verifiable, official evidence of new players/models/upgrades, everything is indeed simply wishful thinking on our parts as WalkGood observed...

Sandisk never has much fanfare on their releases. Nothing official is really ever mentioned until the player comes out, or maybe like a week previous at most

[CrowdAds]

[lestatar]

those stinkers... :-)

[FreeZ5]

Originally Posted by joe_larson

It had better not be slotmusic. NO ONE uses it or finds it a good idea in any way. Sandisk should know to up their mp3 players and stop messing around with a glorified cd player.

slotMusic or slotRadio?

The slotMusic player was actually a good idea (IMHO). No internal memory, no screen, used AAA batteries (no I'm not JK98), and accepted any microSD/SDHC card. I thought then, and I think now, that there is a place for such a player in the market. I would like to see better quality and a screen, but I think that there would be customers for a AAA player that accepted micro cards, and had a Clip size screen. The biggest problem (IMHO) for the existing player is that they linked it to slotMusic cards which were a dud.

Steve

[glove4]

It could well be the case that there is little planned on the Sansa front, and it may very well be wishful thinking, indeed it is. Nevertheless, the Sony A series will be more easily obtainable a month or so from now in at least 32gb, even if only available in EU. That likely trumps anything Sandisk will release anyway, and I'd rather spend the money on the A series, or even their follow up to the now discontinued X series. Sandisk will have to put out something remarkable to steer me from the latter potentialities.

[rickysio]

Lack of expandable storage is something that puts sony off my list.

[joe_larson]

Originally Posted by rickysio

Lack of expandable storage is something that puts sony off my list.

I would agree. But could I get more details on the sony a series? This is news to me

[joe_larson]

Originally Posted by FreeZ5

slotMusic or slotRadio?

The slotMusic player was actually a good idea (IMHO). No internal memory, no screen, used AAA batteries (no I'm not JK98), and accepted any microSD/SDHC card. I thought then, and I think now, that there is a place for such a player in the market. I would like to see better quality and a screen, but I think that there would be customers for a AAA player that accepted micro cards, and had a Clip size screen. The biggest problem (IMHO) for the existing player is that they linked it to slotMusic cards which were a dud.

Steve

Just noticed this was your 1000th post. Gratz!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I think anything without a screen is a horrible idea. if it had a screen and could accept any microsdhc, then it would just be like a clip without base memory.
Slot music was a very bad idea, however. The only people it would appeal to are those who are too lazy to pick their own music collection or those who still haven't mastered the concept of mp3 =D

[SheepCake]

Originally Posted by joe_larson

Just noticed this was your 1000th post. Gratz!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I think anything without a screen is a horrible idea. if it had a screen and could accept any microsdhc, then it would just be like a clip without base memory.
Slot music was a very bad idea, however. The only people it would appeal to are those who are too lazy to pick their own music collection or those who still haven't mastered the concept of mp3 =D

so, most people, and most apple device users should love it.

[FreeZ5]

Originally Posted by joe_larson

Just noticed this was your 1000th post. Gratz!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I think anything without a screen is a horrible idea. if it had a screen and could accept any microsdhc, then it would just be like a clip without base memory.
Slot music was a very bad idea, however. The only people it would appeal to are those who are too lazy to pick their own music collection or those who still haven't mastered the concept of mp3 =D

I hadn't noticed my post count, thanks for mentioning it. I wonder how many of those posts still have value.

You may be mixing slotMusic and slotRadio. Slotmusic is one album on a microSD card. Slotradio is 1000 songs on a microSDHC card. The names are too close, and prone to confusion.

I'm not convinced that slotmusic was a terribly bad idea. Albums progressed from LPs to cassettes to CDs (not to mention 8-tracks), and will someday progess to memory cards. Perhaps an album on a micro SD card was too early for it's time. I know some people complained about the low bit rate, but I never got a chance to buy one to check it out. They weren't sold in Canada, and I never found one that I wanted in the only US store that I saw them in. Plus I think they cost more than CDs.

Slotradio cards I don't know about. 1000 songs for $40 (or whatever) sounds like a good deal. I still think that I'll buy a slotRadio card one of these days.

Steve

[JK98]

If you calculate Sandisk's market share in dollars it is much lower than that, since the price of a typical ipod is so much more than the price of a Clip+ or Fuze. Sometimes market share is reported in units, but sometimes it is reported in dollars.

[joe_larson]

ok a little off topic, but does anyone have a prediction of what THEY think sansa will release, and when?

[JK98]

Originally Posted by joe_larson

It had better not be slotmusic. NO ONE uses it or finds it a good idea in any way. Sandisk should know to up their mp3 players and stop messing around with a glorified cd player.

I disagree. I think Slotmusic and Slotradio are great concepts, however the implementation has so far been very flawed. Imo the first major mistake is making players without a display. The second major mistake is making players with much lower sound quality than the Clip+ and Fuze. Why do the Slotmusic and Slotradio To Go player only get 13 hours of battery life even though they don't have a display, when Sandisk's m200 series with a display gets 19 hours? They all use a single AAA battery.

As for the Slotradio and Slotmusic players being glorified CD players, that imo is not the case. Imo for a player to be a true replacement for a CD player, it needs to use a AA or AAA battery, have a display, be usable without reading the instructions, not be connectable to a pc(to calm those who are pc phobic) and be foolproof. Ideally it should also have both AM and FM radio(even better if it has HD radio). I wish I could find a player that is a good replacement for a CD player. Perhaps I might use one of these myself, however I want to give these to some people I know who are technologically challenged.

[glove4]

Originally Posted by joe_larson

ok a little off topic, but does anyone have a prediction of what THEY think sansa will release, and when?

I don't see any reason NOT to expect Sandisk to put out an upgraded Fuze at least. I can't imagine them not putting something new out more than two years after the Fuze was released. Given its success as an ipod (nano) competitor, there isn't any reason for Sandisk to sideline the mp3 player part of their manufacturing capacity unless they intend to cease production completely, which there has been no evidence to suggest they are doing the latter. The logic of capitalism is profit, profit, profit and more profit, at the overall expense of the planet and the billions of us "small" people who perform the labor that keeps a tiny minority afloat. In other words, so long as Sandisk intends to compete in the mp3 player market, they will probably put something out for the upcoming holiday "season," like they did with the Clip+ last year. That is my prediction. I love the Fuze and the Clip, so I hope they have something better up their sleeve this time around.

[joe_larson]

Originally Posted by glove4

I don't see any reason NOT to expect Sandisk to put out an upgraded Fuze at least. I can't imagine them not putting something new out more than two years after the Fuze was released..... I love the Fuze and the Clip, so I hope they have something better up their sleeve this time around.

I sure hope you're right, and you make sense. Sansa is apparently bigger than I thought, even bigger than Zune as far as 2009? What do you mean by "something better" exactly? Both those players are renowned for their value and quality. Maybe you mean something upgraded? Any possibility of a Sansa View+? It seems like they pulled the plug on the View years ago

[glove4]

Indeed. I used to have a View, but the Fuze, which came out less than a year after, turned out to be far superior, even though I only bought a Fuze for the first time back in January. Previously I had an E280. As far as something better? The Fuze is great, but there seems little chance that Sandisk would be willing to put out something that only marginally improves on the Fuze, though this is entirely possible in any event. Until something is announced, I will remain endlessly curious about the patent they tried to get a year ago with the so-called Sansa Tap. I am hoping this is a touch screen Fuze of sorts, but again, there's no way to know. They could totally disappoint and release nothing. But August/September is when a lot of new stuff comes out. Who knows, maybe there'll be a third generation Clip, with support for video, a 50 megapixel camera, an easy bake oven and a coffee maker.

[rickysio]

I find it hard to think of ways the Clip+ is lacking, much less for the Fuze.

Can't really believe that there is much left to improve (to warrant a much improved new player) before one starts using a touchscreen based player.

[lestatar]

Originally Posted by rickysio

I find it hard to think of ways the Clip+ is lacking, much less for the Fuze.

Can't really believe that there is much left to improve (to warrant a much improved new player) before one starts using a touchscreen based player.

Well, capacity for one thing.

How many of us would gladly jump on a reasonably priced [100-150USD] Fuze with 16-32GB main mem in addition to uSDHC support?

Throw a higher capacity battery in that sucker and provided that Rockbox still works on it, I would be there in a heartbeat.

[rickysio]

Higher capacity battery = larger size.

[lestatar]

True that Rickysio, but the Fuze for instance is pretty small already. An incremental and reasonable size increase to accomodate double or quadruple the present max native capacity would be welcome!

For instance, the Sony A series devices are all the same size [I believe] but go up to 64GB.

I have some faith in Sandisk [cause I am kinda new to them - haven't had time to get cynical yet...] :-)

[joe_larson]

Originally Posted by lestatar

Well, capacity for one thing.

How many of us would gladly jump on a reasonably priced [100-150USD] Fuze with 16-32GB main mem in addition to uSDHC support?

Throw a higher capacity battery in that sucker and provided that Rockbox still works on it, I would be there in a heartbeat.

Ditto that, lestastar. I would buy it as soon as it came out. How about a revamped View? Sansa doesn't even have a good excuse for a movie acceptable mp3 player anymore