So many have expressed a wish for Sandisk players to be able to navigate by a choice of folders or tags, and to be able to disable tag navigation so that cards can be swapped without having to wait several minutes for the directory to be rebuilt.Why has Sandisk ignored this? I would think having this would encourage more people to buy multiple cards for their player. With the wait to rebuild the directory when a card is swapped, most people don’t want to swap cards frequently.
I thought it would be obvious by now that they’re not going to add it. Every time I’ve seen anyone from SD talk about it, they play it down or mention that it probably won’t happen. The time spent complaining about a lack of folder view could be put toward using ID3 tags like the rest of the people in this decade are doing - with that said, here’s a player that might do what you’re asking: Kelkoo Group - The intelligent e-commerce marketing platform
I am not expecting the Fuze to support folder browsing(although that would be nice). It might be too hard to do. What I am hoping for though is that Sandisk incorporates browsing by folders into future players. Is the lack of folder browsing in the Fuze a sign that Sandisk wants to make its players as similar to ipods as possible? At first one might think yes, although the card slot and FM radio in the Fuze makes one think that Sandisk does want to stand apart from what Apple offers and not just compete on price or sound quality. On the other hand, a proprietary connector and built in battery that is not user replaceable are negative attributes that the Fuze shares with ipods. I am tired of spinning the wheel on my Fuze, and hate having to edit and correct tags. My old mp3 player navigates by folders, and I often use it rather than my Fuze since I greatly prefer navigating by folders. The old player has only a gig of storage though, and no card slot. It does use a AAA battery though. When will I be able to get a AAA battery based player that navigates by folders, has a card slot, a display, and sound quality equal to the Fuze(that exclude the Slotmusic player due to its lack of a display and lower sound quality).
Message Edited by JK98 on 12-16-2008 10:20 AM
Message Edited by JK98 on 12-16-2008 01:26 PM
Why not just use playlists and ID3 tags, or buy a product that has the features you want?
JK, I don’t think any new players will go back to use AAA battery. The trend is to make the unit as thin as possible, so the only way to do it is with built-in battery. I think if Sandisk is trying to capture the market like what the ipod did, they will miss it. There are tons of competition out there, and many of them already offer file browsing capabilities, so I don’t think this function is difficult to implement. I also wondering how a product specification is being made, probably by a few people who does not know what the market wants and have not done any market research. It is good to Sandisk now as people are still complaining. But consumer will eventually walk away silently.
"Why not just use playlists and ID3 tags, or buy a product that has the features you want? "
None exist that have all the features I want. So few players even have a card slot. Finding one that browses by folders, has a user replaceable battery with inexpensive spare batteries(AA or AAA battery preferred), that plays 16 kbps mp3 and WMA files, and has bookmarks seems to be almost impossible. i also want both AM and FM radio, although I could carry a separate radio for that. Another thing I want is a microphone jack and advanced recording features(mp3 recording, record level setting, etc.).
I am tired of editing and correcting tags. Even after wasting so much time doing this, it is hard to be sure that all the podcasts are where I want them, and that I listened to all the podcasts in a certain series. With folder browsing, I can just put them all in a folder and play the entire folder. Tagging all the files in a folder with the same album name isn’t exactly the same thing, and sometimes there are unexpected results and not all the files sort as predicted. Setting up playlists seems very annoying.
Message Edited by JK98 on 12-16-2008 10:00 AM
Message Edited by JK98 on 12-16-2008 10:02 AM
“JK, I don’t think any new players will go back to use AAA battery. The trend is to make the unit as thin as possible, so the only way to do it is with built-in battery. I think if Sandisk is trying to capture the market like what the ipod did, they will miss it. There are tons of competition out there, and many of them already offer file browsing capabilities, so I don’t think this function is difficult to implement”
Many? Actually very few, especially when those without a card slot are excluded. There are so many mp3 player models, however most are so similar. While the trend might be to have a thin player that plays videos, not everyone wants that. Having some models like that is okay, but other models shouldn’t be so thin, should exclude video, and should use a AA or AAA battery. The Sandisk Slotmusic player uses a AAA battery, however it lacks a display, and the sound quality is lower than that of the Fuze or Clip. Why couldn’t they have added a basic display, and had sound quality equal to the Clip?
I know what to give JK98 for Christmas! Some AA or AAA batteries!!
Bob 
I am tired of editing and correcting tags. Even after wasting so much time doing this, it is hard to be sure that all the podcasts are where I want them, and that I listened to all the podcasts in a certain series. With folder browsing, I can just put them all in a folder and play the entire folder.
Oh, podcasts. Some I subscribe to just can’t seem to manage consistant tagging from week to week. Another repeats file names so the podcast program keeps downloading multiple episodes of the same filename that overwrite each other. Somehow the current episode never survives the process and I end up with one that came out the same day of the month but from 6 months or a year ago. THe beauty of the concept is it’s supposed to be automatic, but somehow so often requires manual work.
“I know what to give JK98 for Christmas! Some AA or AAA batteries!!”
LOL! I still have some AA alkaline batteries that I paid around 11 cents each for over two years ago. They are Maxell alkaline batteries in packages of 48. The store sold them for $10 a pack, but then had a 2 for 1 sale and I loaded up on them. Only around 10% of them are left. The AAA alkalines cost me around 25 cents each, or more than 5 times the price per watt hour of power. Before you criticize me for not using rechargeables, I also have nimh rechargeables which I use in my digital camera. The AA batteries are mostly given to homeless people, although I do use some myself, and give some to friends.
@jk98 wrote:
None exist that have all the features I want. So few players even have a card slot. Finding one that browses by folders, has a user replaceable battery with inexpensive spare batteries(AA or AAA battery preferred), that plays 16 kbps mp3 and WMA files, and has bookmarks seems to be almost impossible. i also want both AM and FM radio, although I could carry a separate radio for that. Another thing I want is a microphone jack and advanced recording features(mp3 recording, record level setting, etc.).
I think what you are looking for is the digital equivelant to this:
As you have obviously done your homework and researched what is available in the marketplace, you surely must’ve come to the conclusion that nobody is making what you deem to be the perfect mp3 player. Shouldn’t that tell you something? Like maybe you need to lower your expectations? Or realize that if nobody is incorporating these features or functions that you consider so vital or necessary maybe they really aren’t?
There’s got to be a reason why at least some of these companies are not building your ‘dream machine’. As discussed in another thread recently, the technology field, especially electronic technology may abandon current or ‘standard’ products that work very well in favor of what’s newest, smallest, cutting-edge stuff whether it’s superior or not. That’s just the way it is.
I think the only way you are going to find what you are looking for is to build it yourself. Let us know when you’ve got it complete and we’ll see how many you sell.
The fact that the Fuze sorts WMA files separately from mp3 files within an album is so annoying. I wish the player could mark podcasts as read after each is listened to completely, and have an option of just listing unread podcasts. It would be nice if the Fuze would have a resume feature for albums, and not just a resume feature for each track. It is hard to remember which track one was listening to previously before they listened to some music. A return to podcast or return to audiobook feature would be nice, which would let someone listen to a podcast for a while, listen to some music, then return to the podcast they were in the middle of, without having to remember its name, what album it is in, or how to navigate to it.
@jk98 wrote:
None exist that have all the features I want. So few players even have a card slot. Finding one that browses by folders, has a user replaceable battery with inexpensive spare batteries(AA or AAA battery preferred), that plays 16 kbps mp3 and WMA files, and has bookmarks seems to be almost impossible. i also want both AM and FM radio, although I could carry a separate radio for that. Another thing I want is a microphone jack and advanced recording features(mp3 recording, record level setting, etc.).
I think what you are looking for is the digital equivelant to this:
As you have obviously done your homework and researched what is available in the marketplace, you surely must’ve come to the conclusion that nobody is making what you deem to be the perfect mp3 player. Shouldn’t that tell you something? Like maybe you need to lower your expectations or shorten your ‘wish’ list? Or realize that if nobody is incorporating these features or functions that you consider so vital or necessary maybe they really aren’t?
There’s got to be a reason why at least some of these companies are not building your ‘dream machine’. As discussed in another thread recently, the technology field, especially electronic technology may abandon current or ‘standard’ products that work very well in favor of what’s newest, smallest, cutting-edge stuff whether it’s superior or not. That’s just the way it is.
I think the only way you are going to find what you are looking for is to build it yourself. Let us know when you’ve got it complete and we’ll see how many you sell.
@jk98 wrote:
None exist that have all the features I want. So few players even have a card slot. Finding one that browses by folders, has a user replaceable battery with inexpensive spare batteries(AA or AAA battery preferred), that plays 16 kbps mp3 and WMA files, and has bookmarks seems to be almost impossible. i also want both AM and FM radio, although I could carry a separate radio for that. Another thing I want is a microphone jack and advanced recording features(mp3 recording, record level setting, etc.).
I think what you are looking for is the digital equivalent to this:
As you have obviously done your homework and researched what is available in the marketplace, you surely must’ve come to the conclusion that nobody is making what you deem to be the perfect mp3 player. Shouldn’t that tell you something? Like maybe you need to lower your expectations or shorten your ‘wish’ list? Or realize that if nobody is incorporating these features or functions that you consider so vital or necessary maybe they really aren’t?
There’s got to be a reason why at least some of these companies are not building your ‘dream machine’. As discussed in another thread recently, the technology field, especially electronic technology may abandon current or ‘standard’ products that work very well in favor of what’s newest, smallest, cutting-edge stuff whether it’s superior or not. That’s just the way it is.
I think the only way you are going to find what you are looking for is to build it yourself. Let us know when you’ve got it complete and we’ll see how many you sell.
I love my Fuze. I just went on vacation, and it performed and sounded beautifully. However, I have to put a vote in for folder navigation too after all of the trouble I’ve had with song and track sorting on the Fuze’s external memory. It seems that this wouldn’t be a problem with folders, but I may be wrong. Whatever the case, I’m still sticking with the Fuze until the bitter end.
All the best.
Folder navigation is high on our list for enhancements next year.
-SansaFix
"Folder navigation is high on our list for enhancements next year.
-SansaFix "
Wow! Thanks Sansafix! Any chance we could see a premium Slotmusic player with a display and sound quality at least equal to the Fuze? Any chance we could see other AA or AAA battery based players from Sandisk next year? Any chance Sandisk could abandon the proprietary connector on future players, and use a standard mini USB connector like on the Clip? I hate having to disconnect the earphones on my Fuze to press the release on the USB cable’s connector to disconnect the USB cable from the player. I would like to leave the earphones connected to the player all the time, but can’t do this on the Fuze.
@jk98 wrote:
"Folder navigation is high on our list for enhancements next year.
-SansaFix "
Wow! Thanks Sansafix! Any chance we could see a premium Slotmusic player with a display and sound quality at least equal to the Fuze? Any chance we could see other AA or AAA battery based players from Sandisk next year? Any chance Sandisk could abandon the proprietary connector on future players, and use a standard mini USB connector like on the Clip? I hate having to disconnect the earphones on my Fuze to press the release on the USB cable’s connector to disconnect the USB cable from the player. I would like to leave the earphones connected to the player all the time, but can’t do this on the Fuze.
Personally, I’m happy with the Fuze hardware, and since its what I’ve got, I’m not to eager to see something totally better come out anytime soon. I’m just happy that folder navigation seems to be a priority. Just like ogg/flac support, sleep timer, file limit, etc, SanDisk really seems to be keen on picking up the most popular and desired features, and working hard to implement them in both the past and the future, so I really appreciate that they have included folder navigation in their list of goals, instead of ignoring everything and just giving us a few games or something, as many other companies seem to do.
@jk98 wrote:
Any chance Sandisk could abandon the proprietary connector on future players, and use a standard mini USB connector like on the Clip? I hate having to disconnect the earphones on my Fuze to press the release on the USB cable’s connector to disconnect the USB cable from the player. I would like to leave the earphones connected to the player all the time, but can’t do this on the Fuze.
As long as there are Docks that use the existing connector, that probably outweighs the advantage of changing to miniUSB + a second for AV out and remote control. That’s not to say they couldn’t move the earphone jack.
The connector may be proprietary, but they don’t seem to be gouging on the price of spare cables either compared to a standard USB.
@sansafix wrote:
Folder navigation is high on our list for enhancements next year.
-SansaFix
That’s wonderful to hear; thank you fo rletting us know.
