Cool Tech Reviews

SanDisk’s attempt to crack the Internet video market with their TakeTV hardware and Fanfare download service has ended:

A terse note on the Fanfare Web site indicates that the “Fanfare beta has come to a conclusion, and the Fanfare application will be disabled as of 5/15/08.” As for the TakeTV hardware, a representative for SanDisk has confirmed to CNET that the TakeTV is no longer being sold. However, she went on to point out that existing users still will be able to use the product’s drag-and-drop feature for watching a variety of (non-Fanfare) digital videos on their TV. In other words, unlike those stuck with oversized paperweights when the Akimbo and MovieBeam services shut down, the TakeTV, at least, is still a usable product.

The problem was simple - customers were just not buying into the concept and in fact the Fanfare shutdown on May 15th was not noticed until June 6:

… had two things going against it:

1.) It was kludgey. You had to plug a USB device into your PC, download content, then put that USB device into another device that hooked up to your TV. Yeah, that’s easy.

2.) Lack of content. If you want people to buy a device that downloads TV content, you’d better offer lots of TV content. TakeTV’s Fanfare portal had deals with CBS, Jaman, Showtime, the Smithsonian, The Weather Channel and TV Guide Broadband. No ABC, no FOX — not even The CW. TakeTV had announced a deal with NBC, but it looks as though that never got implemented.

Not to mention the fact that SanDisk was facing heavy competition from better-known companies like Apple, TiVo and Xbox — all of which provided more content and an easier solution for downloading shows to your TV.

Sigh - all of the current alternatives for bridging the PC to TV gap are proprietary and/or kludgey and/or have limited content choices. Anyhow, strike Sansa’s TakeTV off the list.

One video download theme I keep repeating is that despite the best efforts of the PC manufacturers in selling “multimedia PCs,” most people don’t have a PC hooked to the television in the location where they do most of their video watching. Moreover, it is too complicated to transfer downloaded video content from the PC (wherever it is) to the TV using just about any of the various schemes for doing so. That’s why I liked the idea of the Amazon Unbox to TiVo connection mentioned in the referenced article, but now SanDisk may have a more general solution with the Sansa TakeTV.

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I guess there are a few tricks left for manufacturers pursuing the micro sized MP3 player market as evidenced by the Sansa Clip pictured above. Yes, it is matchbox sized, but it also sports a a four-line color OLED screen and an iPod-like wheel for simplified navigation. The Sansa Clip will be available in September, in black, red, blue and pink and as for the other specs:

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Ever since the Microsoft Zune MP3 player botched its Wi-Fi implementation by using it only for very restricted sharing with the scarce group of other Zune users, it has been inevitable that someone would get Wi-Fi right. Last week, SanDisk raised the bar considerably with the announcement of the Sansa Connect, even if it isn’t perfect.

Spec-wise the Sansa Connect is a 4GB flash-based MP3 player with a 2.2 inch TFT LCD screen, internal speaker, microSD card slot for additional capacity, and supports PlaysForSure music as well as photos. All that is fairly standard except for the speaker (and perhaps the lack of video support), but where the Sansa Connect really gets different is that it can connect to any open Wi-Fi network allowing the user to:

• Receive Internet radio stations from Yahoo! Music’s LAUNCHcast
• Get Yahoo! Music Unlimited To Go songs directly without an intervening PC
• Discover new music and get personal song recommendations on Yahoo! Music Unlimited without an intervening PC using Yahoo! Messenger
• View Flickr (owned by Yahoo!) photos and explore interesting photos on the go without an intervening PC

The Yahoo! theme is intentional - you won’t get real value from the Wi-Fi feature without using the Yahoo! Internet services mentioned above. While LAUNCHcast, Messenger, and Flickr are free, Yahoo! Music Unlimited is a $12/month subscription service and frankly the Sansa Connect isn’t worth the $249.99 list price without it.

Some review snippets:

Gadgetaholic:

Sandisk has another winner here; I have no doubt. I am thoroughly impressed with the features available on this little device. Once you hooked this player up to your wifi network, it is almost impossible to put it down. This is what the Zune should have been.

Engadget:

The Connect is tied to Yahoo! Music Unlimited for its subscription download model and streaming radio, and we’ve gotta say, a WiFi DAP really brings the model into its own.
…
We’re disappointed that the Connect isn’t a little more open than it is; we’d like to be able to stream whatever the heck we want for starters, but Yahoo! Music Unlimited and LAUNCHcast aren’t bad starts. Now the trick is to keep up the WiFi momentum for these things — Apple, Creative, iRiver, Archos, we’re looking straight at you!

PC Magazine:

If you can stomach the $12 monthly charge for Yahoo! Music Unlimited To Go, the Sansa Connect is a fantastic device.

Bottom line: If you have frequent proximity to Wi-Fi networks and don’t mind the subscription fee, the Sansa Connect is one nifty gadget. The Wi-Fi connection to the Yahoo! Music Unlimited library obviates the need for larger capacity in the device.

That seems like what is going on according to Ed Oswald at BetaNews - SanDisk Unveils Low Cost MP3 Player:

SanDisk on Tuesday unveiled its m200 series of flash-based MP3 players, the first higher capacity players to break the $100 USD price barrier while ensuring PlaysForSure compatibility. The SanDisk players will range in capacity from 512MB to 4GB.

The company’s aggressive price structure could force other Windows-based audio player manufacturers to again lower prices. Many are already hurting financially due to price pressure from market leader Apple.

With a retail price of $79.99 USD for its 512MB model, SanDisk has priced the devices about a third less than competing players.

Of course, most of the pressure is on the PlaysForSure crowd.