Earlier this week, although we did not write about it in this space, rumors started trickling in about a new Sansa media player from Sandisk.  In fact, it wasn’t long before Amazon confirmed these early reports of a new media player, posting for pre-order sales.

Well, today, Sandisk made it official, releasing the Fuze, an extremely attractive mid-range media player, which should fill the void between the high end View and the ultra-portable Clip.  The most attractive feature of the Fuze is the player itself, which comes in a veritable rainbow of new colors.  Not only that, but it is among the most affordable media players, with all of the models coming in under $130.

Like the View, the Fuze will play  music, video, photos, FM radio and audiobooks.  Other features include:

• a microSD card slot;
• a voice recorder; and
• a 1.9 inch color screen.

The Sansa Fuze will also allow users to access a myriad of subscription download services from numerous sources, including: Rhapsody To Go, Napster, eMusic and others. In addition, it supports playback of a wide range of popular music formats such as MP3, WAV, Audible (for audio books) and Windows Media Audio (WMA) in both unprotected and protected files. It also plays MPEG-4 video and JPEG photos.

The Sansa Fuze is expected to be available in early April in the United States, with a release in Canada and Europe later in the Spring. Expected Pricing, Colors and Availability

• The 2GB player  (holds 500 MP3 songs3) will have an MSRP of $79.99
• The 4GB player (holds 1,000 MP3 songs) will have an MSRP of $99.99
• The 8GB player (holds 2,000 MP3 songs) will have an MSRP of $129.99.

The 2GB Sansa Fuze is available in black; the 4GB Sansa Fuze is available in black, red, pink or blue, and the 8GB is available in silver. For more information visit http://www.sandisk.com/sansafuze/.

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