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 Fuze manual

The absolute best retail price I was able to find for Sansa Fuze was $60 (Costco). The sale lasted a few days, but it give a good indication of what kind of prices you should expect after Christmas. Anyway, I have snatched two Fuzes! The burden of giving mp3 players as gifts to people who are not technologically sophisticated is that you have to load them up with music. It's not easy, but I will try!

By the way, for people who never used an mp3 player before navigating the Sansa wheel can be a challenge, believe it or not. So, don't throw away the manual. And if you did, here it is:

Sansa Fuze manual