As I’ve mentioned before, I am (eventually) canceling my XM Satellite Radio, which means I need something for the car…something that can play music and downloaded podcasts, particularly news and talk shows like The Bob Edwards Show. I’ve already found the V-Touch VL-875 sorely lacking, so I stepped up, or over, to the Sandisk Sansa Fuze to see if that will fit the bill. Short answer…don’t think so, and I think you’ll agree with me in a little while…

First off, this is a great looking little player…I bought the 2G version on-sale to start, figuring I could easily upgrade to the 8G version later. Since the device has a microSDHC slot which will handle up to 16G, the on-board memory didn’t seem to be quite as important (although I was a little wrong there, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves). Pulling this thing out of the way-too-much packing material was a challenge, but well worth it, since like I said, it’s really a pretty little machine. It’s about the size of a credit card, and while a bit thicker, not as much as you’d think. The screen is is a bit small for someone of my advanced years, but I think I can live with it. The thumbwheel is comfortable, although it takes a little bit of getting used to, and as I discovered the interface is a little inconsistent, making it more difficult to master than is really necessary.

But the first step is to charge the thing…dig out the proprietary charging cable (you knew that was coming), plug it into the Belkin powered hub and…uh-oh…the settings are such that it requires Windows Media Player 10 or higher, and I avoid putting that on any of my machines. What’s bothersome is that the device won’t charge if it’s connected to a computer and it doesn’t have a solid mount; an unnecessary complication, in my humble opinion. It was easily fixed by using what little battery power was in the device to fumble through the menus until I could find and change the USB setting to connect via MSC (like a flash drive) instead of via MTP (a Microsoft-created system to “manage” devices and make sure someone pays a commission on purchased DRM-laden music). Once that was accomplished, the device began to charge, since the “drives” could mount to the Explorer. Like I said, unnecessarily difficult just for an initial charge…I suppose I should have connected it to a standard USB charging brick, but there isn’t one included, and most folks aren’t like me and have a bunch sitting in their office, so I didn’t.
(more…)