OK, so I'm flush with cash due to generous birthday/Christmas presents from family, and my MP3 player is in dire need of an upgrade (my 2GB Insignia has a nonfunctioning FF button, and you have to stick the blade of a flathead screwdriver into it and touch the contacts to turn up the volume.)

I'm torn between the 8GB SanDisk Sansa and the 4GB iPod Nano--they're both on sale for the same price this week. They both play video, they both have a "jog dial" function that'll save my fast forward button (I listen to talk show podcasts and often skip over big chunks). All else being equal, I'd choose the 8GB model,m but I have two big question categories:

1. Does anyone else have a Sansa? Have you ever hooked it up to a Mac if you do? About once every 3 times I hook up my other players to my iBook, its memory will be wiped when I disconnect it (after dismounting it properly).

2. For you iPod owners, can I drag and drop MP3 files to it? Or is iTunes the only way to get files onto an iPod? Do the new video iPods support DivX? How about Xvid?

Thanks for any insights.