As regular readers will (both) know, I've been recommending the Sansa e280 as a great alternative to the iPod nano et al.
L recently lost hers, so we got another one, and it turns out that the twonks at Sandisk have seen fit to 'upgrade' them. 'Version 2' (the firmware says version 3, having skipped 2, just to show you how twisted this is) e2x0s have changed internals, so don't run the wonderful RockBox alternate firmware (if you have an mp3 player and can run it, do check it out).
They've also twatted around with the firmware to delete the option of setting the USB mode. Previously you could chose between MTP (used by the evil MS Media Player and not much else) and MSC (used by everyone else, effectively making it a flash disk you could download files to). Now, it's MTP only…
… unless you follow this magic recipe (thank you someone contributing to the RockBox wiki):
- Power on your Sansa e200v2
- Switch ON the hold button
- Press the |<< button and plug in your USB cable
- Keep it pressed until the Sansa is completely recognized by your OS
Which works here, but I suspect needs to be done afresh each time. No mention of this in the manual, bah.