Sansa! The answer to iTunes.

iTunes sucks. Flat out crappy software. iPods, on the other hand, are great pieces of hardware. But iTunes id so bad, that there is an entire community of people desperate for options. (see anythingbutipod.com)

Sandisk may be here to save the day. The Sansas are great devices with better, if not perfect, software. I have both an e280 - which is being phased out - and a new Fuze.

The good:
Sansas can be loaded with tracks through Windows Explorer. I do most of my music work on a new Toshiba laptop, packing a core2duo proc. iTunes runs about as quickly as Photoshop CS3 would on a 486dx. Then, it hacks my albums up into a total mess on any iPod I've ever had. (For the record: I have had, at one point or another, an iTouch, a Nano, and 2 iPods) I like electronic music. Which means that I have many DJ albums, in which each track has a different artist, but it is meant to be a continuous mix by said DJ. iTunes is not smart enough to figure that out. My mixes all end up labeled as 12 or 13 different albums. There goes listening to a full album as it was meant to be listened to. Sansas work (almost) perfectly in this respect.

Sansas work with WMA tracks. Ever rip a CD into Windows, and try to put it on an iPod? iTunes has to reconvert every track into AAC, since iPods don't play nice with WMA. And don't forget that every track you rip now has to live on your HD twice, unless you want to live with the new organization system imposed by iTunes, and you want to do everything with that music in iTunes.

Sansas easily match the iPod in terms of sound quality. Yup, you read right. Most players have crappy sound compared to an iPod. The sansa players are equivalent, and the earbuds that Sandisk ships with them are BETTER than the factory iPod buds. I have been offered $50 aftermarket Sony earbuds as a trade for my Sansa buds, and turned the trade down. Well done on the buds, Sandisk.

The Bad:
I do have to knock Sandisk for the video features on these players. They will not play MP4 video out of the box. That sucks. (Yeah, I know that was supposed to be added to the Fuze, but I've tried to convert videos using many different settings, and the only successful conversions I've done have been in Sansa Media Converter.) Adding generic MP4 support would be a huge bonus.

All said it is a great option for Windows users who are tired of the crap they have to deal with on the iPod.

Ok, enough with Apple already

Look, the devices are really cool and work pretty well most of the time. But until the software catches up, I'm not buying. Yes, MAC lovers - the software looks real pretty, but it is SLOW.

Anybody else have a dual-core processor that torches conversions with Nero, TMPGenc, etc. but takes forever in iTunes? Does iTunes chop your music collection up in odd groups, wrong albums, or just screw everything up? Or what about tracks/albums in MP3 format that refuse to transfer to an iPod, leaving only a cryptic message about unable to play in this device? Yup, iTunes officially sux. And iPods are totally married to that crap.

I'm not a big MS guy either, but Steve - go hire some coders from Seattle. At least Windows Media 11 works. Quickly. Or, even better, go hire the guy who built TMPGEnc. Do something, because until you do there are a bunch of us users out there who are not going to deal with crappy performance just for a pretty interface.

I suck

Yep, no excuses. Just been too damn lazy to actually post anything. I was mad at Google for not indexing this thing for like 3 weeks after I created it. All those servers, you'd think they could be faster than that. Whatever.

In case anyone missed it - the Flobots rock! Handlebars is one of the worst songs on the album. Check it out. Unless, of course, you are a neo-facist, Bush loving, moron. Then you really won't like them. And you should also quit reading this, because you won't like me much either. And I really don't care.

Another note. The Sansa e200 series player is a great replacement for the iPod, for those of us who don't like/trust all the control Apple insists on having over the device even after it has been purchased. Last I checked, when I buy something that means it is mine and I should control it. Hello...is anyone at the iTunes software department listening? Anyway, bought an e270 - great deal at Newegg - added Rockbox, and really like it. The video encoding for the Rockbox mpeg player leaves something to be desired, but at least I don't have to use the proprietary Sansa software and tie up my machine for chunks of time encoding. Online encoder sites do mpeg great. If you try it, use mpeg1 not mpeg2. The sound works better and the files are actually smaller. Go figure.

Quick survey: Does Bush go to war with Russia, or does he look into Putin's eyes again? Rememebr that quote? The former KGB chief clearly is a great guy.

Ok, short post

I was just playing with an iTouch...
Quick thoughts:

1. Light, easy to carry, durable - physically a good device
2. Cool interface - the GUI works as advertised, at least in terms of functionality
3. When is Apple going to work the bugs out of a device before it is released to the public - or at least get the idiotic copyright crap worked out. i.e. I may want to watch videos on a service other than YouTube without jumping through flaming Torrent hoops.
4. Could be great in 2.0 or 3.0
   

I'm joining millions of idiots

Hi - you are one of six people who will read this. Millions and millions of people put their thoughts on blogs like this one, and somehow I'm stupid enough to think that I may stand out from the crowd. Oh, well. I'll give it a shot.

Here's what you can look forward to on this page:

1) I am a hopeless technology addict. PC, electronics, iWhatevers. Love it all. Even if it's total crap, I want to play with it and then tell everyone I know that it is crap. Unfortunatly for my freinds - and you, dear lonely reader - I tend to think that exceptionally complex, but functional, gadgets are the coolest thing since the invention of the iceberg. I like the easy-to-use, but what I consider easy tends to differ from the opinion of others.

2) I'm addicted to music. Unless it is country, I like at least some artists. I have an opinion about all of them. The arguements are the best. When I get inflamatory, please comment so I can tell you why you are wrong. I've done some production work in the past, so I'll be talking about gear too.

3) The vast majority of conservatives are total fools, idiots, morons, and - quite possibly - nazis. If you disagree, I will gladly consider you a conservative. Please see the first sentence of this paragraph for what that label intails.