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Why a Shuffle when you can get Sandisk?

One reason (maybe)

How well does the Sandisk work in conjunction with a Mac? A lot of the mp3 players don't have decent Mac interfaces if they bother with Mac software at all.

And the second question is which is more durable?
 
Why not? The device is solid and lightweight. Also the unit does support Macs so I dont think you can go wrong. $131 bucks for a 1GB MP3, FM Player, Voice Recorder and Equalizer its killer..
 
davesipaq said:
Why not? The device is solid and lightweight. Also the unit does support Macs so I dont think you can go wrong. $131 bucks for a 1GB MP3, FM Player, Voice Recorder and Equalizer its killer..
Click to expand...
The question is, does the provided software with the Sandisk unit screw up using iTunes?

Sometimes two pieces of software that have overlapping functions don't get along very well.
 
It does look like a nice player, but what about AAC and protected AAC support? All my music is in AAC, and I do have some purchased music as well. Even if it didn't play the protected AAC files, I wouldn't want to have to re-rip all my music to MP3. AAC compatiblity is a must for me.

Also, if used as a flash drive it requires that you carry around the USB cable as well, which might be an issue for some people.

That said, I'm sure there is a market for this sort of a player, but no AAC support would be the deal breaker for me.
 
It doesn't look that bad. But I think there are some issues which would prevent me from buying the sandisk.
1. The display is pretty much useless. It just says the name of the song. There is no navigation or list of songs. So what's the point of the display? The writer's complaint was that he could not get to his 'peaceful' song by pressing 'next'. So he has to do the same thing on sandisk, only difference being that he can 'see' what song is being played while pressing next. Still, 'next' or 'previous' is the only way of navigation.

2. He did not tell the weight, but since it has an AA battery, it must be significantly heavier.

One more point (which may not be applicable to everyone) is that I don't want the FM radio so that feature doesn't add any more value to me. If I want to listen to radio while working out, its already being played through the gym speakers.

cheers
 
Point taken but why should the end user be forced to AAC? I mean Itunes is nice but why cant the end user have the flexibility and use flat MP3? I think what you are saying is that you would like to be told what player you can only use itunes with. I like choice.
 
davesipaq said:
Point taken but why should the end user be forced to AAC? I mean Itunes is nice but why cant the end user have the flexibility and use flat MP3? I think what you are saying is that you would like to be told what player you can only use itunes with. I like choice.
Click to expand...

Umm... no, not quite. AAC is an open standard (MPEG 4). I have chosen to encode my music in AAC. Yes, my music store purchases are a limitation, but those purchased tracks make up only a small portion of my music library.

I could have chosen to encode my music in MP3, but AAC is a better codec. Sandisk also could have chosen to support AAC playback, but they chose not too.

Really, though, it looks like a fine player. Just not for me.
 
davesipaq said:
Point taken but why should the end user be forced to AAC? I mean Itunes is nice but why cant the end user have the flexibility and use flat MP3? I think what you are saying is that you would like to be told what player you can only use itunes with. I like choice.
Click to expand...

old and busted: mp3... new hotness: aac

sorry mp3's sound washed out and echoy compared to aac ... hence i use aac at 160kbps and they sound just as good if not better than 192kbps mp3s.. also, i like having the ability to buy music in singles not full albums unless the full album is pretty good and worth the investment. iTunes does this for me. You have choices, i just made the choice to use apple's ipod line... my 512mb Shuffle is on the way and should be here monday. I have a 20gig ipod for when i need something bigger with all my music on it. iTunes also rocks for music organization, i have converted many people to using it because it just is that much better than using winamp or whatever else they're using. i chose to use the better product thank you very much. you are free to use the one that suits you best, just so happens that the ipod and itunes fit my needs best
 
davesipaq said:
Point taken but why should the end user be forced to AAC? I mean Itunes is nice but why cant the end user have the flexibility and use flat MP3? I think what you are saying is that you would like to be told what player you can only use itunes with. I like choice.
Click to expand...

Counter-point. Why should the end user be forced to MP3? With the iPod shuffle you can use both.
 
Plus, why is this the third thread I've seen this posting? Are you thinking if you say it enough times, people will start to agree with you?
 
A couple of things that the SanDisk player doesn't have:

- An easy way to switch between shuffle and non-shuffle mode. iPod shuffle actually has a slider for this.

- Easy syncing with your jukebox. The SanDisk requires you to drag-and-drop all your tunes and set up your playlists on the player by hand.
 
There are many more features on the " iPod killers" then the iPod. That just makes the device more complex. Wow, just plug in the sandisk and use IE to put music on it. Wow, even better! Plug in shuffle, iTunes automaticly opens and download the music and it even charges the shuffle for you when plugged in. Do we see the supposed " iPod killers" gain ground with their more features on their player? Nope. Do we see them gaining ground because they are cheaper? Nope. That is why the iPod is dominating the market. It does what it is supposed to do. Play music! The iPod makes it easy and fun to play/listen to your music. This Sandisk is just another iPod shuffle wannabe! Please don't take this personally Dave. Just pointing out facts.
 
The iTunes syncing is the killer feature for all the iPods, imo. It's interface is awesome as well, so that helps of course, but unless an MP3 player is big enough to hold my entire music collection, I need an easy way to transfer music to and from it.

I'll admit that Sandisks player looks like a pretty tough competitor for the Shuffle (although not much competition for the Mini), but the iTunes integration is going to win a lot of people over!

Rob
 
First point

Incorrect. You hold down the center dial for 3 seconds and she shuffles..

Nope it does not. If you want to sync you can use Musicmatch..

Hope that helps your confusion.

dejo said:
A couple of things that the SanDisk player doesn't have:

- An easy way to switch between shuffle and non-shuffle mode. iPod shuffle actually has a slider for this.

- Easy syncing with your jukebox. The SanDisk requires you to drag-and-drop all your tunes and set up your playlists on the player by hand.
Click to expand...
 
Hmmm.. Point taken but the Shuffle came out a week ago and the sandisk came out 4 months ago...


quagmire said:
There are many more features on the " iPod killers" then the iPod. That just makes the device more complex. Wow, just plug in the sandisk and use IE to put music on it. Wow, even better! Plug in shuffle, iTunes automaticly opens and download the music and it even charges the shuffle for you when plugged in. Do we see the supposed " iPod killers" gain ground with their more features on their player? Nope. Do we see them gaining ground because they are cheaper? Nope. That is why the iPod is dominating the market. It does what it is supposed to do. Play music! The iPod makes it easy and fun to play/listen to your music. This Sandisk is just another iPod shuffle wannabe! Please don't take this personally Dave. Just pointing out facts.
Click to expand...
 
davesipaq said:
Hmmm.. Point taken but the Shuffle came out a week ago and the sandisk came out 4 months ago...
Click to expand...

Still a wannabe! :D You have to hold down the center button for it to pick one random song or shuffles all your music around? The shuffle just a flick of the switch and it shuffles all the songs or plays in order. As I said, the sandisk is a shuffle wannabe!
 
davesipaq said:
First point

Incorrect. You hold down the center dial for 3 seconds and she shuffles..

Nope it does not. If you want to sync you can use Musicmatch..

Hope that helps your confusion.
Click to expand...

Well, then they need to update their online user's manual since it doesn't mention holding down the center dial to activate shuffle mode.
 
MusicMatch is quite possible the most overbloated piece of spyware I have ever seen. It's only rivaled by Windows Media Player.


I would never want a device that has to run off it. Apple realized this with the iPod and MusicMatch pair they had, and made iTunes for Windows to fix it.
 
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