SanDisk SDMX4-8192 Sansa e280 8 GB MP3 Player (Black)

Features: Sleek design includes a with advanced features and an user friendly interface, Enjoy superior sound playback when you take advantage of the digital FM tuner, on-the-fly FM recording, and voice recording options, Runs on a replaceable and rechargeable Lithium ion battery for up to 20 hours of battery life, Weighs 7.2 ounces, Flash-based player supports subscription music stores and provides everything you need for music, photo, and video clip playback

The ideal MP3 player has not yet been created, and while the Sansa e2xx series is very good for many of the things, the software is poor for podcasts. Also, it should be possible to put the sofware into a reduced eyesight mode (for someone with less than perfect vision; i.e., anyone over 50). Reduced eyesight mode would eliminate all the fancy screen graphics and provide the largest text possible so that it can be read without glasses by the average 50 year-old or under less than ideal lighting conditions. The size of the screen is large enough to provide terrific readability -- if the software supported it. In addition, there should be a mode that alters the display to show as much metadata as possible, including the full title. This would allow the user to have as much information as possible about an individual file, without actually listening to it.

The Sansa e2xx series is not good for podcasts. The reason is that the tagging scheme for podcasts is not uniform. Therefore, it is difficult to navigate among many podcasts and podcasts are organized haphazardly. Sansa should provide an alternative operating system that allow Windows-style navigation, with automatic display of full metadata. Rockbox (an open source operating system that works with Sansa e2xx) is a pretty good alternative solution. However, it is still in beta and it is flawed. Sansa should provide a fully operational operating system that is fully functional for podcast users.