Hate Apple all you want but their click wheel still beats the competition

[vi edit]

Originally posted by: loup garou

Originally posted by: vi_edit

Originally posted by: loup garou
I like that the buttons are kind of hard to press...means I rarely hit them accidentally (except for the stupid recorder button). Since I use it for running 80% of the time, I'm not skipping around tracks very often.

That said, you get used to it. I've heard the newer revisions of the e200 series have imprved the buttons. Does yours have a clicky-rotating wheel with spaced out nubs on it, or a smoother-rotating wheel with nubs all around it (new revision)?

Mine has spaced out nubbins. Very defined detents when scrolling. So it must be an older revision (probably why it was on sale).

Have you found any 3rd party wall chargers for it? Or are there any hacks to make your own?

I haven't really looked for one as the battery lasts so damn long, I usually have new music to load on it anyways once it's drained. Quick google leads to about a zillion chargers on amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&search-...andisk%20sansa%20wall%20charger&page=1

EDIT: It looks like all of those supply 1A, so it looks like you can use just about any generic USB AC adapter that supplies 1A if you happen to have one around with your sync cable.

Thanks for the link! I just looked around Best Buy last night (where I bought it) and couldn't find one short of the docking station. I also hit up Sandisks site to see if they had any "offical" adapters under the accessory section. No dice. Good to see there are some out there.

 

[SpanishFry]

Originally posted by: Chunkee
Sansa rules,

sorry you jeeber heads are a challenged so much that you find it difficult to use. Thing is great, simplistic, not proprietary, and battery lasts long time...and oh, I saved a bunch of money and dont have to used ITUNES.

you droogs complaining probably say the same when eating corn on the cob... whiney voice "i cant spin the corn, the butter makes it too slippery...I want my frozen jiblets back...wahhhhhhhhh"

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: DivideBYZero

Originally posted by: Kaido
I you thought about the NEW iPod Shuffle? It clips on and has a mechanical click-wheel:

http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle/

1 gig of music, multiple colors, click-wheel, built-in clip, $79. I love mine for working out, I can wear a regular t-shirt with no pockets and just clip it right on without the hassle of an armband or having to wear clothes with pockets.

Click wheel? It's just four effing buttons under a plastic ring. 'Click wheel' my arse.

That's why I said "mechanical click-wheel". It's a wheel...you click on it...

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: vi_edit

Originally posted by: Kaido
I you thought about the NEW iPod Shuffle? It clips on and has a mechanical click-wheel:

http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle/

1 gig of music, multiple colors, click-wheel, built-in clip, $79. I love mine for working out, I can wear a regular t-shirt with no pockets and just clip it right on without the hassle of an armband or having to wear clothes with pockets.

I really considered the shuffle, but I wanted a little more space, a drag and drop interface, and an easily replaced battery.

Another kind of annoying thing about buying anything non-Apple is the abscense of accessories. You can't even get a wall charger for this thing short of the docking station that is $70.

Yeah, I really wish they had offer the Shuffles in 2gb capacities. As far as the battery goes, they're so cheap it's probably less expensive to simply buy a new one when the battery dies. There are tons of aftermarket iPod programs out there for doing a drag-and-drop interface - Anapod Explorer and so on all support what you want.

 

[KingGheedora]

I have an Ipod video, and I hate the controls on the ipod.

 

[loup garou]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: DivideBYZero

Originally posted by: Kaido
I you thought about the NEW iPod Shuffle? It clips on and has a mechanical click-wheel:

http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle/

1 gig of music, multiple colors, click-wheel, built-in clip, $79. I love mine for working out, I can wear a regular t-shirt with no pockets and just clip it right on without the hassle of an armband or having to wear clothes with pockets.

Click wheel? It's just four effing buttons under a plastic ring. 'Click wheel' my arse.

That's why I said "mechanical click-wheel". It's a wheel...you click on it...

Um, no.

 

[Parrotheader]

Originally posted by: loup garou
I like that the buttons are kind of hard to press...means I rarely hit them accidentally (except for the stupid recorder button). Since I use it for running 80% of the time, I'm not skipping around tracks very often.

That said, you get used to it. I've heard the newer revisions of the e200 series have imprved the buttons. Does yours have a clicky-rotating wheel with spaced out nubs on it, or a smoother-rotating wheel with nubs all around it (new revision)?

Same here. I've got the older Sansa E270 as well and I actually like the fact that the buttons are small so I'm not accidentally hitting them (although I usually lock it when it's in my pocket or hand.)

I use mine for a fairly even mix of in the car and outside while working in the yard (mostly listening to podcasts these days.) It's a great little player. I've got a Shuffle as well, but that's only good for music, not podcasts since you can't navigate the files. I'm not anti-Ipod as they're good players, albeit overpriced for the features. I don't care much for Itunes though. And the podcasting support on Itunes is actually pretty limited if you listen to a lot of podcasts and start comparing its functionality to more advanced podcasting clients like Juice or Doppler.

 

[DivideBYZero]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: DivideBYZero

Originally posted by: Kaido
I you thought about the NEW iPod Shuffle? It clips on and has a mechanical click-wheel:

http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle/

1 gig of music, multiple colors, click-wheel, built-in clip, $79. I love mine for working out, I can wear a regular t-shirt with no pockets and just clip it right on without the hassle of an armband or having to wear clothes with pockets.

Click wheel? It's just four effing buttons under a plastic ring. 'Click wheel' my arse.

That's why I said "mechanical click-wheel". It's a wheel...you click on it...

I'm sorry I was chewing on a Mechanical Click Wheel, I mean Lifesaver.

You cannot roll your finger around it like the full blown 'pods.

 

[DaWhim]

that's funny. I am totally opposite. I need to adjust the sound all the time and never skip a single track.

I use mine for audiobooks and only audiobooks

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

I don't think anyone else can really compete with the nano/Nike+ setup for running. I use mine with a Marware Sportsuit Relay, a nice wrist strap which also comes with a pouch to use the Nike transmitted with non-Nike shoes (I run in Asics), and it's awesome.

 

[jemcam]

Originally posted by: DonVito
I don't think anyone else can really compete with the nano/Nike+ setup for running. I use mine with a Marware Sportsuit Relay, a nice wrist strap which also comes with a pouch to use the Nike transmitted with non-Nike shoes (I run in Asics), and it's awesome.

I also have the Nike+ and I love it.

 

[destrekor]

Originally posted by: mobobuff

Originally posted by: destrekor

i find my sansa e260 to pose no problem at all. and the whole jog wheel thing... its main use for me is to move about the menus. I actually find the whole UI to be pretty good and I'm glad I bought my sansa. sadly, price skyrocketed downward since my purchase.

boo your technicalities

and besides, rockets can shoot downward... albeit through mishaps, but it does and has happened. regardless, it was merely phrasing to describe how much prices fell. I paid nearly $200 for the 4gb model. The 8gb model can now basically be had for what I paid. and that upsets me because I desperately want the 8gb model now since 4gb does not hold my varied musical tastes. I like so much music and randomly like to listen to different music on some days and find I don't have it on there.
regardless, such is the nature of the industry. its a good thing though because with what Sandisk charges, they are becoming the main competitor to Apple's flash-based devices. Very good for the market. Sadly competition has never forced Apple to lower prices.

 

[abaez]

I bought an e280 at costco before I went on a week and a half trip to cancun. It was a good deal at $140 - I eventually returned it because of some really annoying things:

Pros:
Navigation is nearly the same as an ipod
I'd never use the fm tuner, but it's nice to have
Scroll wheel is just as good scrolling.
Drag and drop was fantastic
Good EQ
Battery lasted quite a bit (I never had to recharge it once while on vacation)

Cons:
Buttons are hard to click, they're very close to the scroll wheel and I click on the forward button alot to skip songs since I play all mp3's on random.

You can either keep the lcd on or have it turn off after a certain amount of time - if it's off, nothing is shown on the screen (so you can't quickly glance at the song playing). Keeping the lcd on just drains the battery - there should be some sort of middle ground where just the song title is shown.

If the lcd is off and you click a button, say if you want to skip a song, you click forward, this makes the LCD turn ON, then you have to click forward AGAIN to skip the song. This was EXTREMELY annoying and probably the biggest factor to return it.

When you pause and the unit turns off after a set amount of time, the next time you turn it on the volume setting is reset to the middle. More than once a loud song came blasting to my ears when I turned it on.

When you clicked forward or back very quickly, the unit sometimes froze up for a second or two, and then "caught up" to your clicks.

Not an issue for me, but the bootup time was very long, like 7-8 seconds.

 

[RaiderJ]

Get a silicone skin for it. It adds some height to the buttons and makes them usable! $10 is worth it.

 

[Fingolfin269]

I used to love my iPod but now I keep having some 'library' type file corruption. I guess it is the file that links all of the songs so that they are accessible via the iPod menu because once it goes I have to pull everything over to the device again. Thanks to their DRM I cannot simply scan my iPod and pull in all of the songs that exist on the device and create a new 'libraryesque' file.

Anyway it sucks because I have a 60GB iPod with a ton of stuff on it and I do NOT keep it all on my HD as well for sync purposes.

Does anyone know if this is a common problem? It is annoying enough that I am ready to just sell the thing and find something else that isn't so restrictive.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: loup garou

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: DivideBYZero

Originally posted by: Kaido
I you thought about the NEW iPod Shuffle? It clips on and has a mechanical click-wheel:

http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle/

1 gig of music, multiple colors, click-wheel, built-in clip, $79. I love mine for working out, I can wear a regular t-shirt with no pockets and just clip it right on without the hassle of an armband or having to wear clothes with pockets.

Click wheel? It's just four effing buttons under a plastic ring. 'Click wheel' my arse.

That's why I said "mechanical click-wheel". It's a wheel...you click on it...

Um, no.

I see a Wheel!

 

[loup garou]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: loup garou

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: DivideBYZero

Originally posted by: Kaido
I you thought about the NEW iPod Shuffle? It clips on and has a mechanical click-wheel:

http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle/

1 gig of music, multiple colors, click-wheel, built-in clip, $79. I love mine for working out, I can wear a regular t-shirt with no pockets and just clip it right on without the hassle of an armband or having to wear clothes with pockets.

Click wheel? It's just four effing buttons under a plastic ring. 'Click wheel' my arse.

That's why I said "mechanical click-wheel". It's a wheel...you click on it...

Um, no.

I see a Wheel!

If cars had wheels like the Shuffle's "wheel," none of us would be driving very far.

 

[alyssa]

I love my e250, and I don't really know where you're coming from-I have no problem pressing the buttons. The only thing that bothers me is when I accidentaly press the record bitton. I HATE it when that happens.

But you know, now that I think about it, I usually use my fingernail to press the button, so much so that I rubbed a little bit of the writing stuff off my buttons.

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: Fingolfin269
I used to love my iPod but now I keep having some 'library' type file corruption. I guess it is the file that links all of the songs so that they are accessible via the iPod menu because once it goes I have to pull everything over to the device again. Thanks to their DRM I cannot simply scan my iPod and pull in all of the songs that exist on the device and create a new 'libraryesque' file.

Anyway it sucks because I have a 60GB iPod with a ton of stuff on it and I do NOT keep it all on my HD as well for sync purposes.

Does anyone know if this is a common problem? It is annoying enough that I am ready to just sell the thing and find something else that isn't so restrictive.

bad hardware..ipod or computer...

 

[DivideBYZero]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: loup garou

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: DivideBYZero

Originally posted by: Kaido
I you thought about the NEW iPod Shuffle? It clips on and has a mechanical click-wheel:

http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle/

1 gig of music, multiple colors, click-wheel, built-in clip, $79. I love mine for working out, I can wear a regular t-shirt with no pockets and just clip it right on without the hassle of an armband or having to wear clothes with pockets.

Click wheel? It's just four effing buttons under a plastic ring. 'Click wheel' my arse.

That's why I said "mechanical click-wheel". It's a wheel...you click on it...

Um, no.

I see a Wheel!

Incorrect. That is four buttons, hidden under one round button.

 

[vi edit]

The DLO action jacket (way too much$$) helped the "skip" button issue, but now makes the jog dial hard to use *sigh*.

The issue abaez mentioned is annoying as hell. When the screen times out you have to hit the buttons twice to skip a track or pause the unit.

I will say though, the battery life appears to be excellent. I used this all day yesterday at work and barely made a dent in the battery indicator. Sound quality is also much improved over my Ipod Mini. Even with the included cheapie earbuds.

I also have to give a thumbs up to the Rhapsody service from Best Buy. Yeh it's DRM, but I downloaded about 500 songs last night in about 2 hours time. It's a 2 month trial so it's free. When the trial is up it's $11 or $14 a month depending on what you want to do. That's cheaper than buying a CD a month. Plus the playlist sharing is very cool. Saves a lot of time and gives you endless variety.