SanDisk Rocks New Audio and Video Players
Tue Jan 9, 2007 10:21AM EST
See Comments (7)
One of my picks for most interesting gadget at CES 2007 is definitely the just-announced SanDisk Sansa Connect, the latest in SanDisk's highly regarded line of flash-based MP3 players.
The Sansa Connect takes the ideas that the Microsoft Zune started toying with and actually turns them into something you might conceivably want to use in real life. First, it's wireless and not some half-baked Wi-Fi like the Zune. The main benefit: The Connect can hook into an Internet music service (which one hasn't been announced) and download songs from it in real time, without a PC. You only need to be near a regular Wi-Fi hotspot. Want to share music? Well, having the Internet music subscription gets around all the DRM issues. You can share music picks with any other friend who has a Connect player through the Connect's sophisticated social networking system. But rather than beam a song directly to another player, the other player just downloads it from online. Makes a lot of sense. The device also gets Internet radio (live). A 4GB player will run $250.
Other new gear was introduced, including the Sansa View, which SanDisk says is the lightest widescreen video player on the market. It's an 8GB, flash-based player with broad support for video formats and an SD card slot for your expansion needs. The video looks good and, at $300, it's much cheaper than some of the hard-drive based solutions out there.
Finally, for the ultra-budget consumer, the $60 Sansa Express is basically a 1GB player the size of a roll of Life Savers. It has an OLED display and a MicroSD card slot, giving you another 2GB of expansion capability. But really, that ultra-cheap price tag is what caught my eye.
Comments on SanDisk Rocks New Audio and Video Players
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2 Posted by rimbauda on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:42PM EDT Report Abuse
Awesome! Stream Internet radio, and songs off your subscription service? Who needs gigabytes of storage? This is the future!
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3 Posted by kco1170 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:48PM EDT Report Abuse
This is way cool...I just bought the c150 model for my teenager...so easy to use and download stuff. Being wireless would make it that much more easy. I was wary about buying Sansa, but I'm glad I didn't waste my money on an iPod...what a joke!
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4 Posted by jairaj on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:27PM EDT Report Abuse
Some questions- Does the streaming internet radio have a monthly fee? Does the Sansaview have the same internet features as the other Sansa?
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5 Posted by aftechie on Thu Sep 3, 2009 2:46PM EDT Report Abuse
Makes alot of sense? Not to me: "Want to share music? Well, having the Internet music subscription gets around all the DRM issues." How so? That means I can't freely copy my songs onto it as I wish. I have to use the online service. That's more DRM and lock-in to a particular company to boot. "You can share music picks with any other friend who has a Connect player through the Connect's sophisticated social networking system. But rather than beam a song directly to another player, the other player just downloads it from online." So...no peer-to-peer sharing? What if I have non-DRM'd tracks? or indie tracks? or tracks of my own, that I produced? If this thing can really only get content from an online service, with no peer-to-peer sharing, it's a step backwards, not forwards. And it's therefore of no use to me.
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6 Posted by jjyoung2@verizon.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:36PM EDT Report Abuse
I am having a problen with the M250 MP3 player. It freezes up after it is powered on. I took the battery out it still doesn't work. Help
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7 Posted by aethunderhawk2010 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 2:46PM EDT Report Abuse
The problem with the fact that it downloads it off the internet is that you cannot listen to the song if you are away from a Wi-Fi hotspot. The player also holds only 4GB, which is nothing, i have over 1,500 songs on my computer right now, and that would easily fill it up (seeing that most are Pink Floyd, and they are long songs). Besides, Microsoft is not in competition with SanDisk, in fact the Zune is just a way to pull customers away from apple and onto the Plays for sure Technology.
1 Posted by chamelean75 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:21PM EDT Report Abuse
Awesome. I have the regular Sansa. It looks like it'll be easier to use the wheel on this gadget though the side buttons are a toss up as to whether they are easier to push or not.