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SanDisk Releases New iPod rival
codemachine writes "SanDisk has released its new iPod rival: the new Sansa e280 music player. It has twice the capacity of the iPod nano at a similar price. Even better, it can be expanded through its mini-SD slot, and comes with an FM tuner. The device is said to work well with both Windows and Linux, without adding any drivers. Some work on reverse engineering this product line has already begun. Might this be a great alternative MP3 player for Linux users?"
hmm. let's look at the manual.
The documentation claims that you need the software, but... I doubt it. They're not Apple :) SanDisk is a (the?) leading manufacturer of consumer-targeted flash products. I think they're unlikely to make that mistake.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
...expansion slot. Less capacity and more expensive at the moment.
The Sansa e200 is MSC compliant it will work with any OS. There are plenty of users using it on Ubuntu and OSX! Here is an example of a Ubuntu user posted in the ABi Sansa Forums. So maybe you need to educate yourlesf before posting.
iTunes doesn't DRM ripped music. You can take an iTunes ripped AAC and play it on anything that supports the industry standard AAC. The ONLY files that are DRMed are the ones from the iTunes music store.
I went to the additonal information and downloaded the user guide..
The player has two modes. One mode is like an external USB drive and supports MP3's. That should work just fine for Linux. Two drives will show. One is the internal memory and the other is the SD card.
The other mode the player supports if for subscription services and uses Windows DRM. For Linux users this is a useless feature along with the Windows requirement and anything secure WMA files.
Thought you should know.
The section in the manual covers some FAQ's including why some DRM WMA files won't play and some stuff of expiration of files by the copyright holders.. Funny these are features of the Microsoft Plays for Sure stuff.
I think I'll stick to MP3's as they play for sure.
I'm not so sure about the Microsoft's Plays for Sure content. It sounds like it might not play for sure.
The truth shall set you free!
I have had a 6GB Sansa e260 for a month+ and really really like it.
i ew.aspx
I think it blows the ipod away
Here is a short review I wrote up last month:
http://www.chrismay.org/2006/07/15/MySansaE200Rev
George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic? Are you off your rocker? Parliament and Funkadelic are two seperate bands, both of whom George Clinton was frontman for. George Clinton's current band is called "George Clinton and the P-Funk Allstars". "George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic" is every bit as wrong as saying "Jack White and the White Striped Raconteurs".
- Frans.
I've got one as well, but a word of warning to other's considering the T30. Models sold in America and Europe (generally) do not "function like a USB device" - i.e. as a UMS - USB Mass Storage device, though the version sold elsewhere in the world apparently does. Instead, they use MTP (Microsoft's Terrible Protocol ;) making it generally a pig to get working with Linux. (I'm sure google or wikipedia will give you the real definition ;-)
Models sold elsewhere (Asia, etc.) apparently are shipped as proper UMS devices.
It's possible to flash it's firmware to "fix" this, and making it a proper UMS device, but in doing so, I believe you lose the ability to play DRMd music. (That's what I've done with mine.) Google will give you a link.
I've also got a T20 - same issues, though not tried flashing it yet.
Supports Vorbis and flacc, mounts as mass storage, Fm tuner, built in enconder, man just buy one now.
I own a Sansa e250, which is the 2GB version of this player. The only major problem I have with it is that I didn't get the 4gb or 6gb version that were out at the time!
I can mount it as a drive in Linux, drag and drop music to it, viola!
The video playback may be a gimmick, but it isn't bad. Also, the FM reception leaves much to be desired... the sound is decent, but the range isn't very good.
All in all, this is a great line of players. The design was well thought out, menus are very attractive, the wheel is somewhat clunky but I think it is easier to use than the "touch" wheel that everyone goes ga-ga over (including my fiance, she loves her iPod). It's mechanical, and I feel like I have more control over it.
Hope my own testimonial can help someone decide if they like this player.
Starmen.net
Yes, there is a Rockbox port. Daniel is the one working on it. In fact, Sandisk has contacted Rockbox developers about the port, and even mailed them a "development" version of the player, with a JTAG flashing cable attached. It's pretty cool- hopefully it will work well. The sandisk player is based on the PortalPlayer chip, which is very similar to iPod.. this is a slightly upgraded chip, and I believe it has two ARM cores. So effectively you have a dual-core MP3 player.
That's not my primary reason for preferring OGG over MP3. It's the sound quality for the same sized file. That's it.
The sound quality is the reason I'm slowly re-ripping my entire music collection and converting to OGG instead of the original MP3.
The fact that it's non-proprietary and free is just a bonus.
Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius. -- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Boot RockBox, press the menu button while plugging in your power/USB cable, and your iPod will not boot into disk mode. Then you can play and charge all you want.
1- All the iPods have dual ARM cores.
2- Sandisk has been milking rockbox for good press. They haven't delivered half of what they promised to the developers. Reverse engineering the bootloader (for starters) would not be needed if Sandisk wanted anything more than good press from rockbox.
From Daniel Stenberg's own site:
"We didn't get anything to help us actually make Rockbox to these players. We got two players, yes, but we got no info, no docs. No help at all."
I dub thee... Sir Phobos, Knight of Mars, Beater of Ass.