Loading mp3's onto sansa fuze

I gotta admit, as much as I dislike iTunes for its sluggishness and lack of control, it is the most reliable way of loading mp3 onto a player I have seen so far. It is only too bad that iTunes cannot be used with other devices. I have been thus far unable to find a good way of putting mp3 files onto Sansa players. Rhapsody used to crash all the time, the Yahoo player crashed as well plus had some quirky behaviors when using it with Sansa e280. At some point I discovered that unlike the iPods, Sansa players allow one to copy mp3 files straight into its folders. The problem is that as a result the device sometimes would freeze. When I was loading music onto a couple of new Fuzes that I got as gifts I decided against installing the new software that came with the devices and loaded the files manually, so to speak, by copying them through Windows Explorer. The results so far were just fine. Maybe things have improved? I much prefer bypassing silly software solutions if files can be copied directly.

Sansa Fuze vs. Sansa e280

Just because you already have a Sansa mp3 player with 8 gb of memory it does not mean that you cannot have a better one with just as much memory! There have really been some improvements introduced in Sansa Fuze. Just a few quick notes:

• Sansa Fuze has a better feel to it. It's thinner and has a nice back on it.
• The on is also a switch instead of a button. I like that.
• There's a "home" button. Awesome. I have to hit my Sansa e280 on button once but if you hold it too long it turns off.
• The USB cable for Sansa Fuze is the same as for e280. Makes the transition to the new player a little bit easier, as well as loading music onto the player you are giving to someone as a gift.
  

Sansa e280 microSD issue

So, Sansa e280, an 8gb mp3 player with FM and video really really was only $80 at Costco for a few days! There is only one major inconvenience, as in the previous versions. When you start the device with the microSD card inserted, it has to "refresh the database" which takes up to a minute. Apparently, this problem is difficult to solve. Also, a few mp3s failed to transfer to the new Sansa, although they worked fine on the old one and still work fine on the new one from the memory card.

Sansa e280 and High Capacity SD cards

My MDA smartphone refuses to see 4gb memory cards. Apparently, I am lucky to be able to se 2gb cards... Is Sansa e280capable of using 2gb, 4gb and 8 gb micro SD cards in its expansion slots? I hope to find out soon enough!

Sansa e280, Sansa and Rhapsody, Sansa and SD

Apparently, Costco has a pretty sweet deal on Sansa e280... I really like this line even though I had a few problems with e200. Rhapsody, shipped with Sansa devices, is not the most reliable piece of software out there. I eventually switched to MusicMatch, recently rebranded by Yahoo. Even this one refused to deal with legitimately purchased songs. I still prefer having CDs and ripping them. Another annoyance is in the way Sansa works with SD cards. I don't know yet if this got fixed in e280, but the one I have takes forever to start each time under the pretext of refreshing the database - it has to read all the data on the SD card before proceeding. It is somewhat understandable, but annoying nonetheless. With 8 gb or memory using an SD card will not be such a necessity, I hope... Regardless, these Sansa devices leave the competition (read: Nano) in the dust.