Test the Clip+ with the ubiquitous libmtp on Linux (and Mac?) and figure out why the Clip+ doesn’t work with libmtp (and/or Amarok). If the problem is in the firmware, fix it! Lots of Linux users (and Mac users?) are disappointed in the Clip+
Here’s my wish list:
- Fix battery life issues:
-indicator is simply wrong
-ogg vorbis files use way more power than mp3. there were some posts on this board a while ago about a much more efficient decoder library.
-player never appears to finish charging
-if I plug it in my laptop and then my laptop goes to sleep, my player ends up dead. it should sleep too.
- A better “currently playing” management system. This style makes much more sense to me:
Insead of having a separate “Go List”, make the “currently playing” list always be the Go List. When I am listening to an artist (which I selected the standard way via music>artist>) and decide that I want to listen to another artist after this one, I should be able to simply enqueue the other artist to play after the current one. The only way to do this (that I know of) on the Clip is to 1. Clear my Go List. 2. Add both artists to the Go List. 3. Play the Go List and navigate to where I was in the first artist’s tracks.
On my Rio Karma you could simply append or enqueue (after current song) any tracks to the songs now playing, this was far better than the clumsy pseudo-playlist Go List. In most menus the middle and right buttons are redunant. Make them useful: the right button should drill down into the tree and the middle button should be like a context menu.
- On my friend’s Creative Zen he can bind a button to enqueue 100 random tracks. This was very handy and should be a piece of cake to impliment as an option for the menu button.
Deleting a track (I have seen this with long podcasts) during the last few second of play (but definitely before the track ends) causes the NEXT track to be deleted. This needs to be fixed.
- add one replay mode : play track once (1x) = do not go to next track/podcast and doesn’t restart actual track/podcast.
Especially interesting when you’re playing a podcast and you have a lot of podcasts in this folder: actually, clip+ will play ALL the podcats in this directory before to stop and to activate the ‘power saver’ option. (imagine you’re in a train or in your bed and you’re listening a podcast and… you fall asleep, this is not good for you battery life if you have 20 podcats in same folder). This is a common option on other MP3 devices.
and also agree with:
- Easy clock access (on top-level menu)
- Time remaining option
Any chance off adding AAC format - save me converting them…?
who_are_you_uk wrote:
Any chance off adding AAC format - save me converting them…?
Highly doubtful.
I would like to see a way to name to radio station presets, so you can easily identify what you’re listening to. Isnt there some digital information the radio stations send out too, like their names that the clip+ could pick up on? Or perhaps a way for us to use the buttons to write something alphabetically.
Veni
@sirecram wrote:
- add one replay mode : play track once (1x) = do not go to next track/podcast and doesn’t restart actual track/podcast.
Especially interesting when you’re playing a podcast and you have a lot of podcasts in this folder: actually, clip+ will play ALL the podcats in this directory before to stop and to activate the ‘power saver’ option. (imagine you’re in a train or in your bed and you’re listening a podcast and… you fall asleep, this is not good for you battery life if you have 20 podcats in same folder). This is a common option on other MP3 devices.
Agreed.
My last player (a Creative) had a 1x play option. This was my normal operating mode for listening to podcasts. When a track ended, the player stopped and I knew it was time to delete the track. As sirecram notes, this is also very useful when you fall asleep. The sleep mode in the Clip+ is buried deep in the Settings menu.
When in this mode, my last player would power up at the position where it was powered up previously (or if that track was deleted, the start of the track last played). Again, very useful when you play a track intending to fall asleep.
-
FastForward “with sound” instead of muting audio. My old creative mp3-player has such a function (configurable via settings menu).
-
Possibility to disable/enable database update. I have a 16GB SDHC card in my sansa+. And often the player starts to update the database, which takes AGES until its finished (>8min). For me, i don’t need this artist, album, etc. search ■■■■. I navigate using folder&files. So it would be nice to be able to disabled the database stuff if it cant update the database in a couple of seconds.
-
Easy accessible button for “go to next folder”. Maybe as a third option in the “Press and Hold” Menu, so that is it possible to use a long press on the middle button to skip to next folder. So it is possible to skip a folder “blind”, e.g. when the player is in the pocket.
I would suggest:
- Improve estimation of battery charge level.
- FM Radio: allow lower volume levels (I perceive no change below about 45% until I get down to zero)
And since I’ve not seen it mentioned here before:
- Audiobooks: adjust initial delay and repeat-delay when switching to next/prev chapter - I have to hold the button down for a second or so, and then it goes whizzing past 1 or 2 chapters before I can release the button. Would be easier if the initial delay were shorter and the repeat delay a little longer.
@alan_dvb wrote:
- Possibility to disable/enable database update. I have a 16GB SDHC card in my sansa+. And often the player starts to update the database, which takes AGES until its finished (>8min). For me, i don’t need this artist, album, etc. search ■■■■. I navigate using folder&files. So it would be nice to be able to disabled the database stuff if it cant update the database in a couple of seconds.
When folder nav was being requested on the forums last year, avoiding the update delay was a lot of the motivation. I guess Sansa didn’t pick up on that.
Message Edited by donp on 01-11-2010 09:58 AM
njd wrote:
I would suggest:
- Improve estimation of battery charge level.
- FM Radio: allow lower volume levels (I perceive no change below about 45% until I get down to zero)
I’ve noticed this too.
A way to cancel USB model would be nice, so that you could easily listen to music while the thing is recharging.
Would also be nice if Podcasts and Audiobooks would get moved to the main menu, instead of being cramped under Music.
And a way to remove the SlotRadio Menu entry would also be welcome.
There is a bug that when you power up the device and press play to early (i.e. directly after power-on, instead of waiting till the device is fully booted up), the play button will stop functioning properly and it will no longer halt the music. You have to switch song or reset to fix it. Would be nice if that would be fixed.
Message Edited by grumbel on 01-13-2010 09:34 AM
Why can’t we make firmware opensource? 
“for fear of all the issues that users might then create” - What are you talking about?
It will sufficiently increase number of sold devices!
There are to many examples of such behavior to list
But it could be some patents and licenses 
So what stops manufacturer?
Miikerman - are you a manufuctor’s guy?
Message Edited by lyolic on 01-12-2010 10:12 AM
There could be an officially supported (open source) version released by SanDisk next to a development/test community version to be used at your own risk.
Development by users with much more motivation and resources could benefit SanDisk too as they could integrate community-developed enhancements into their official firmware. Things would get tested by a lot more people under a lot more different usage scenarios too.
The argument that open source leads to extra work/support headaches for SanDisk cuts both ways. Retired SanDisk players are still popular because of open source firmware.
Bring on Rockbox. Then I’ll buy a Clip+.
@alan_dvb wrote:
- Possibility to disable/enable database update. I have a 16GB SDHC card in my sansa+. And often the player starts to update the database, which takes AGES until its finished (>8min). For me, i don’t need this artist, album, etc. search ■■■■. I navigate using folder&files. So it would be nice to be able to disabled the database stuff if it cant update the database in a couple of seconds.
Does the Clip+ update the DB every time it turns on like the old E200v1 players? That was one big reason I was so happy to upgrade from my E280 to a Fuze…
@donp wrote:
@alan_dvb wrote:
- Possibility to disable/enable database update. I have a 16GB SDHC card in my sansa+. And often the player starts to update the database, which takes AGES until its finished (>8min). For me, i don’t need this artist, album, etc. search ■■■■. I navigate using folder&files. So it would be nice to be able to disabled the database stuff if it cant update the database in a couple of seconds.
When folder nav was being requested on the forums last year, avoiding the update delay was a lot of the motivation. I guess Sansa didn’t pick up on that.
“Folder navigation” still uses the database on Sansa players. It just stores the file/folder structure in the database and late you navigate using those. It has nothing to do with actual folder/file browsing on the filesystem.
Odd_Bob wrote:
Does the Clip+ update the DB every time it turns on like the old E200v1 players? That was one big reason I was so happy to upgrade from my E280 to a Fuze…
The update on th e200’s only happens if you’ve changed the files. Mostly I’m only changing the microSDHC card which the original firmware doesn’t recognize.
Odd_Bob wrote:
Does the Clip+ update the DB every time it turns on like the old E200v1 players? That was one big reason I was so happy to upgrade from my E280 to a Fuze…
No. This only happened with the e200 v1 model players. This was corrected (or changed) in the v2 followed by the Fuze, Clip and now the Clip+ to where a database refresh only occurs if data has changed since the last power-on or plug-in.
