Unfortunately, you can’t utilize the drag-and-drop concept for mp3s. After all, this is Sony we are talking about. But it is really not that bad.

I read some article somwhere which claimed that Sony was releasing a smaller application to transfer files onto flash based players.  So no more crappy SonicStage, or atleast one that isn’t so bloated

I hate Sonicstage.  That’s why I have stayed away from sony music players.  The only thing going for them is their looks.  I like how the lettering comes out on it.  I’ve been looking to buy a flash based player and wouldn’t mind having this one.  I guess I will get the ipod shuffle though since I keep all my music on itunes.

That’s true and FWIW, you can’t simply drag-and-drop files onto iPods either and play them.

While in concept it sounds like it should be a no-brainer idea, it does make some sense especially with larger storage media players. Since you have so much data on the device, you’ll want to be able to find songs quickly and having the data pre-indexed by the transfer software allows the device to find songs quickly (thus using less battery power). That said, on some Sony MP3/ATRAC3 players, you get VAIO Music Transfer (aka Music Move) which is a little applet that lets you drag and drop music onto a device (it re-indexes the files in the background).

Speaking of the VAIO Music Move, I wonder if these new flash based device will be able to use Music Move. I heard that users of HD1 and HD3 could use the Music Move utility that came with our VAIO Pocket.