Sandisk's Sansa Connect: What the Zune Should Have Been?

[Damion Chaplin]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.tipsdr.com/?p=871' target='_blank'>http://www.tipsdr.com/?p=871</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>&quot;The Yahoo Music Blog announced the release of the Sandisk Sansa Connect, the Wifi enabled MP3 player that will free you from your USB cables, at least until you need to charge it. You can listen to personalized radio, share music over Yahoo Messenger, view photos from Flickr and download music. They are offering unlimited downloads from Yahoo Music Unlimited for only $12 dollars a month, but I see no mention if they are cutting a similar deal of DRM less MP3&rsquo;s from EMI... I&rsquo;m not buying any more MP3 players, with three different iPods, a Zune and various generic MP3 players, I don&rsquo;t think that me or my kids needs another, but if someone wants to send me one for review, I&rsquo;d sure like to try one out. Maybe someone should send one to Microsoft so they can see what their wireless should look like.&quot;</em></p><p><img alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/zt/2007/dfc-sansa-041207.jpg" /></p><p>Well, Sansa's done it again, beating the competition at their own game.&nbsp; The way they've implemented their Wi-Fi is so superior to Microsoft's they shouldn't even be considered the same type of thing.&nbsp; The Sansa Connect's Wi-Fi is something I might actually use, whereas I've never once turned on the Wi-Fi receiver in my Zune.&nbsp; So what do you think?&nbsp; Is this the Wi-Fi implementation you were hoping for in the Zune, or another example of close but no cigar?</p>

[Janak Parekh]

Is this the Wi-Fi implementation you were hoping for in the Zune, or another example of close but no cigar? This is exactly what I was hoping for in the Zune. Quite frankly, in the WMA ecosystem, there's only a few players I'd consider, and Sandisk is one of them. I've been utterly underwhelmed with Zune's "upgrades" so far. :(
--janak

[David Tucker]

Yeah, this is exactly what I thought the Zune was (and I think to a degree, MS had a lot of these ideas on the table and then didn't follow them through to launch) and I think what it HAS to be. Internet radio? Sharing via messenger? You go from having a device that you can share with the people around you to something that's open to a world of possibilities.

MS has to step up.

[David Tucker]

Now that I've looked over the Sansa...sadly the WiFi connect is the only thing that they seem to have done right :

4 GB? I don't care if it has an expansion slot. With subscription music, you're gonna fill that up. I have about 9 GB of files on my Zune. Some of that is video but I add music all the time.

Which brings me to the video? No video? Forget it.

And here's the dig about the WiFi. The Zune should have this. But on the other hand...at work, where I use my Zune all day I can't access any WiFi networks. They're secured. There is only one place where I have access to an unsecure network. My house. This has to have an open network. Um...yeah, good luck with that. That's about useless as the Zune WiFi.

All of this sounds good but I don't think its going to work well in the wild. As a model though, its a good one that should be improved on.

[ale_ers]

I agree with everyone here, I thought MS was going to add a lot of these features. It seems, however, that they are just fixing things. I know it has had a longer lifespan, but I expected the Zune to be like the 360, every update seems to fix as well as add new features. Everyone said that the WiFi gave them tons of possiblities...I am still waiting to see them.

I'm not bitter though. The Zune is a great music and video player...I'm happy with that. But I also would love to see more.

[Jason Dunn]

Open WiFi? Really? Wow. :confused: Who has/runs open WiFi networks anymore? I thought it would be painful to put in the WEP/PSK key/code for a secure network, but I at least thought it would be possible.

[titaniumtommy]

You can use the scroll wheel to enter WEP and WPA-TKIP keys. It'll save the keys from then on and automatically connect without the user having to type them in again.

You can also login on FON and TMobile (and probably other) paid and free wifi networks.

You can try them out at many Circuit City stores if you have reservations about the whole thing.

Tommy
http://www.dodoskido.com (http://www.dodoskido.com/)

[gasusan2006]

The Sansa Connect doesn't have to have an open wifi. You can key in the code. You can also save multiple wifi network codes on the device as "preferred networks"

Chris Leckness posted a demo video on MobilitySite
http://www.mobilitysite.com/2007/04/sandisk_sansa_connect_demo_video.php

It is strongly "attached" to yahoo music....

Susan

[Jason Dunn]

You can use the scroll wheel to enter WEP and WPA-TKIP keys. It'll save the keys from then on and automatically connect without the user having to type them in again.

Ah, good to know - I was shocked that SanDisk would release something so crippled, but I'm glad to know they didn't. :D

[David Tucker]

I guess what I was referring to was usable networks ;) Open or closed isn't the issue so much as my being able to access a non-open network. Unfortunately I can't get on a single network here at work. On a university this would be great. But otherwise the really cool feature of this device isn't very usable to me (and I imagine many others) :(

[tbird]

4 GB? I don't care if it has an expansion slot. With subscription music, you're gonna fill that up. I have about 9 GB of files on my Zune. Some of that is video but I add music all the time.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

***long quote trimmed by mod JD***