SanDisk Invents another new MP3 category, The Sansa slotRadio.
August 4, 2009 Comments Off Wednesday, August 5th, 2009, Netcast 888
The Sansa slotRadio is a strange concept, that you just might like. It’s an MP3 player that ships preloaded with 1,000 songs! And there’s an onboard radio, all housed in a tiny techie clip-on package. This could be just the thing for the person who is too lazy to upload new music, or doesn’t have the time to download music to their computer & then upload it to their player. Or maybe they don’t know how. Or how about, they don’t even have a computer! Well adding new music to slotRadio couldn’t be easier. Take out one micro SD card and put in another, and you’ve added 1,000 new songs! Of course this sometimes takes a bit of time because those micro SD cards are ridiculously small, so don't lose it! One 1,000 song slotRadio cards (about 50 hours of music) comes with the player. New slotRadio cards are $40 each for 1,000 songs. Right now there’s a small selection, but SanDisk says more albums are on the way. Categories include Rock, Hip-Hop, Country, 80s/90s music, etc. Something else you should know. SlotRadio cards have their own proprietary digital rights management system which means you can’t copy them. If you lose the slotRadio music card, you won’t have a back up. But again, look at the per-song cost. 1,000 songs $40 – that’s 4 cents a song! Other things to be aware of. You can’t go back to repeat a song. You have to wait until it comes around again 999 songs later! You can however, skip forward. The title shows on the player’s screen, along with the title of the next song in the cue. I found the headphones had pretty good sound considering they’re included in the price. Also some of the older songs sounded a bit distorted if you crank up the volume, but hey they weren’t made in the digital age. If you like the 1,000 songs for $40 idea and you own a Sansa Fuze, you’re in luck! If you download the latest software at the SanDisk website, your Fuze will be able to play slotRadio cards. So you won’t have to buy the $99.99 slotRadio to be able to buy and play those 4 cents a song albums.
Hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw888
Reader Comments (3)
I think that Leo posted the wrong audio for today's "SanDisk slotRadio" podcast. It starts out the same as Tuesday's "The Eos Wireless iPod Player" podcast. The odd thing is that the two days have different audio time and file sizes. Oh well, some day in Leo's and Dick's "Best of" podcasts, maybe you could actually tell us about the SanDisk slotRadio.
Okay, it is only messed up on iTunes. The file available for download on the TWIT website contains the correct audio stream. I still don't know what is different between the two itunes files for the two days.
Thanks for the fix guys, iTunes is now streaming the correct file for episode 888.