@jk98 wrote:
One could carry some spare batteries and never run out of power. True, but then that’s one more thing you have to remember to carry with you; extra batteries. And how many times have you found yourself more than 12 - 15 continuous hours away from a computer or AC outlet to re-charge?
“The existing batterries are ecologically-friendly.”
Are they? Is throwing away a player with a worn out built in battery eco friendly? Yes, I believe that a battery that can be re-charged over & over again for years (whether it be the Li-Ion, Li-Poly, or the NiMH style that you mention) before it has to be disposed of is ecologically-friendly. I’m also confident that we will be seeing more & more e-recyclers in the future and more access to them by the general public. Of much more concern than the tiny mp3 player being dumped in the landfill is the gov’t. forced transition to the ‘digital-only’ signal after Feb. 9th next year, making millions of existing CRT TV’s obsolete, unless you buy yet another piece of technology, the digital-to-analog converter box (which by the way, has been deemed a POS by most reviewers) and results in a further-reduced quality picture than what people are enjoying now! Talk about taking 1 step forward and 2 steps back!
“I’m also interested in hearing your reasons behind wanting a full-size card slot instead of the Micro card slot they have now”
Full sized SD cards come in capacities up to 32 gigs. This may or may not be an advantage if the current Sansa line of players do indeed have a problem with identifying and recognizing song counts over 4000. Hopefully they will work this out, but the Micro card technology is quickly approaching the same capacity threshold, and ‘smaller’ is and has alwys been the way of the future.
They also fit in a PC SD card slot without an adapter. An inconvenience maybe, but certainly not a deal-breaker. A lot of the micro cards come with an adaptor included.
“AM radio? I’m with you on that one, in theory. I very seldom, if ever listen to the FM radio on my Sansa. My musical library is a helluva lot better, and there’s no commercials. But I would listen to various ‘talk’ radio discussions, news, etc. on AM ir it were available. the problem is the AM antennae and size. The player would have to be much larger and heavier than it is now, and with the marketplace and the competition going smaller & lighter, I doubt that SanDisk is going to reverse course 180 degrees and buck the tide! I sure wouldn’t if I were at the helm!”
I didn’t say for all models, just for one model. Some would prefer having AM radio even if the player is a bit larger. It doesn’t have to be huge though, just a bit larger. I agree on the AM radio thing, and maybe it will happen. The CEO of SanDisk has said he supports the idea, but whether it can, physically or economically, be created and marketed (in other words, will enough people buy it to make it worth while) is still up in the air.
