I haven't seen anything in the announcements regarding integration with Rhapsody, so it doesn't look like they're positioning View to directly take place of their Rhapsody line. Perhaps in time we'll see a View model tied in with Rhapsody, and perhaps another version tied in with Yahoo! like their Sansa Connect. What do you think they're going to do?

Mind Over Matt'er - Technology musings, opinion, and more straight from TechLore's head geek.

How much space are you thinking you need? Sansa is all about flash players, not much to choose from if you need the size of a hard drive.

Mind Over Matt'er - Technology musings, opinion, and more straight from TechLore's head geek.

Hmmm... if you're willing to forego the Rhapsody integration, the 16GB View looks like a pretty sweet player, and with an 8GB MicroSD card, that's some pretty serious flash storage. You should be able to load a ton of music there without having to take stuff off. Also, you could try the Sansa Connect. It comes in an 8GB flavor, and also has an MicroSD slot.

If you need more space and need to go hard drive based, I'd look at the Vision M, but it's getting replaced by a flash lineup, and I personally think the hard drive version was a bit past its prime. MS is probably going to show off some new ZUNE models for holiday, and may be worth a look if they've improved on the current offering. There's your iPod group, which if you own a Sansa means you're probably not interested in Apple's Kool-Aid, but the 80GB iPod Classic is worth a look for a ton of drive space. You should also seriously think about the Gigabeat S, and even though new models are rumored, it's a pretty nice player as is for 60GB (and not a terrible price either).

What do you think? Any of those ideas strike your fancy? 

Mind Over Matt'er - Technology musings, opinion, and more straight from TechLore's head geek.

feefo33 said: Do you really think hard drives are going the way of the dinosaur?  I think I'm leaning toward the new Sansa View-16gb.  It will still work with Rhapsody (which I'm very attached to), right?  It just won't be integrated, which I think I'm willing to accept.  I love my little Sansa so much and this new cone just looks too fabulous to not get.  That new scroll wheel looks sweet. 

I don't think hard drives are going away in general, I just think the old hard-drive based Vision M was getting a little dated. It's like 1.8 years old, and that's dino age for MP3 players. ;-)

On the view, I hate to say anything too specific until it's actually in the hands of users, but I would assume it will still work with Rhapsody, just without the level of integration the e200R series provides. I'm not the biggest Rhapsody fan personally, but I'm seriously looking at the View for my next player. My C-150 could use an update, and I know I'll love the View's MicroSD slot when 16GB doesn't feel roomy enough. :-) 

Tell you what. If you get your View, we could work with you to write your own product review that we could publish right here on the site. We encourage everyone to get involved and help make the new SansaCommunity the best place to go for Sansa reviews, news, and discussion on players and music.

Also, have you checked out the profile page where you can add an avatar and a short bio? Having a pic that represents you is a lot better than the faceless default. :-)

Mind Over Matt'er - Technology musings, opinion, and more straight from TechLore's head geek.

Great avatar!

The best I've heard is from the initial press release, which says its coming in October. Naturally, we'll be keeping our eyes open for anything more specific. We're not very patient either. :-)

Mind Over Matt'er - Technology musings, opinion, and more straight from TechLore's head geek.