Filed under: Portable Audio

SanDisk just released a firmware update for the Sansa Fuze — pretty minor, except it adds in support for FLAC and Ogg, which should make fans of jam bands and lossless music encoding extremely happy. Nothing much else of note here apart from some UI tweaks and big fixes, but Fuze owners will be appreciative, we’re sure.

[Via DAPreview]

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Filed under: Portable Audio

Well it took three years, but Rockbox 3.0 has finally made it on the scene, with a major overhaul in the sound decoding department and support for several new players. This open source firmware replacement is chock full of tasty new features, including codec support for over 15 formats like FLAC and Ogg, 5-band parametric EQ, MPEG video, multilingual interface, Doom and a pile of other games, not to mention freedom from iTunes. Oh yeah, and it can talk to you via a spoken interface — which comes in handy for not driving off bridges and what not. iPod, iriver, Sansa, iAudio, Gigabeat and Archos models are all supported, though Archos didn’t get many of the major 3.0 improvements like expanded codecs.

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Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Just like that obscure Burt Bacharach album, some DAPs just need a little time to grow on you. Now that SanDisk’s comparatively inexpensive Sansa Fuze has been out and about for a couple of months, we’re imploring you dear readers to cast out your opinions on the minuscule device. Are you satisfied with the interface? Have you been disappointed by the sound quality? Was this thing just one feature away from being perfect? ‘Tis a shame SanDisk didn’t phone you up before mashing the green button and sending these on their way, but here’s your shot to tell all who will listen what could be done better in revision two.

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Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

So we’ve had a SanDisk Sansa Fuze hanging around the office for a few days and already we can tell you that fans of the Sansa line will find it a welcome addition to the line. The interface feels pretty snappy and it’s got all the geeky things you’re after (FM radio, microSDHC, 1.9-inch display) at a price $70 cheaper than the nano at the 8GB level. Plus, we know it sounds old school, but we’re really into the tactile scroll / click wheel, and the Fuze has the best one we’ve used in a long time. Check out the photos below, including a couple side by sides with a you-know-what.

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Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Check it — HandStands isn’t just making kit for items not yet conceived. Oh no, SanDisk’s Sansa Fuze is indeed more than a figment of someone’s clever imagination. Judging by a product listing at Amazon, this media player is set to ship “within one to three months” and features a 1.9-inch display, FM tuner, built-in microphone for voice recording, a battery good for 24 hours (audio) / 5 hours (video) and a microSD / microSDHC expansion slot for good measure. As of now, we know that the 4GB unit in red, pink or black will sell for $99.99, but there’s no word on whether more (or less, for that matter) capacious / colorful models will eventually emerge.

[Via DAPreview, thanks Nick]

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Filed under: CES, Portable Audio, Portable Video

We already saw the Sansa View get unboxed, but there’s just something special about catching a gadget up under the hot, hot lights here in Vegas. Pictured below is a gaggle of shots of the aforementioned media player, but you’ll have to settle for images of the 16GB iteration. ‘Course, the folks at the booth swore up and down that the just-announced (and curiously absent) 32-gigger looks exactly the same, so yeah, you shouldn’t be missing out on anything.

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Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

The Sansa View might have just hit, but it looks like SanDisk’s already looking ahead — the specs link on the View page lists 8, 16, and 32GB capacities with a top-end price of $330. Of course, there’s no indication when this bad boy might come out, but those of you who had just gotten comfortable waiting for the right View probably don’t mind waiting a little longer.

[Via DAPreview, thanks Vizion]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Barely a month after getting reintroduced, the 16GB SanDisk Sansa View has been acquired, unboxed and lovingly photographed for your viewing pleasure. No real surprises here (well, aside from the Best Buy logos scattered about), but inside you’ll apparently find a stash of paperwork, the player itself, a USB cable, earbuds and an Installation CD. For a closer look at what’s waiting within, be sure and hit the read link.

[Thanks, Randall B.]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Features, Home Entertainment, Peripherals, Portable Video, Storage

Ok, our new TakeTV arrived, and this time it works perfectly. (The first one we got was a pre-production unit with a bum remote.) Here are a few more things we noticed about the TakeTV and its accompanying Fanfare video download service:

• The TakeTV interface still has a very unpolished, raw look and feel to it. It’s also just the bare essentials, with only a few options for video settings (just aspect ratio, NTSC / PAL, and which video type you prefer: letterbox, pan and scan, fill, etc.).
• On the upshot, being flash-based and light weight, the system boots near instantly and videos take just a couple of seconds to load.
• It properly recognized our XviD and DivX files, but didn’t like AVC1 encoded movies, and surprisingly enough, didn’t like our standard encoded MPEG-4 Handbrake-ripped DVD. (It’s supposed to play back MPEG-4 files, maybe we did something funny, who knows.)
• On the other hand Fanfare looks very slick, but the interface — done in Flash — is way too busy, making it sometimes difficult to tell what’s going on. It’s definitely in need of some simplification and polish.
• Downloaded DRMed videos are, surprisingly enough, in XviD. But they’re wrapped SanDisk’s proprietary TrustedFlash rights protection. Files are .smbt.
• Downloaded videos are about 350MB per 30 minutes. That’s 1.6Mbps (200KBps); given that high a bitrate you’d think these videos would look friggin’ great, but the sad fact is they look more like 600-800Kbps, tops, so don’t be too disappointed when your Fanfare downloads don’t look all that amazing.

So our day one thoughts on TakeTV + Fanfare? Well, $99 or $150 for a device that plays all our favorite video formats is kind of a no brainer, especially considering the cost of entry for a lot of other devices in the same category is significantly higher (the $300 / $400 Apple TV comes to mind). We’re not sure this whole system is ready for prime time just yet — but neither is SanDisk, which is why Fanfare is launching in “beta”. Maybe with the right hardware and software tweaks this could be a very compelling cheap-or-free download service paired with a very easy to use hardware solution, but for right now we think there are quite a few kinks to iron out.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Peripherals, Portable Video, Storage

Well, after about a day and a half of anticipation, we’ve got a TakeTV of our own to fool around with. First thing that struck us: this ain’t your mom’s USB flash drive — unless your mom carries around a Zachmorrisphone, because the TakeTV is big. (But it’s not really intended for taking out of the house and using on the daily, so it’s not like that’s really any big deal.) The remote is thin and blister-buttoned (meh) but the play button is unusually, satisfyingly large. The video dock the TakeTV plugs into doesn’t have any rubber grips though, so the thick cable is liable to push it around (or over). Other than that, we haven’t much else to say since our unit (which was possibly pre-release hardware) is having some trouble getting up and running. Check back soon, we’ll let you know how Fanfare and the rest works out.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Peripherals, Portable Video, Storage

That SanDisk Sansa TakeTV we saw over the weekend? Well, it’s officially announced: the USBTV is now the TakeTV, and will take advantage of a new video platform called Fanfare. The details:

Sansa TakeTV

• 4GB and 8GB sizes, $100 and $150 respectively
• Supports DivX (including Home Theater profile), XVID, and MPEG-4
• Up to 720 x 576 resolution
• On sale immediately
• Intended for use in downloading shows from one’s computer to the TakeTV (which is then physically moved to the TV)

Fanfare online video service

• Launching with content from CBS, Jaman, Showtime, Smithsonian Networks, The Weather Channel and TV Guide Broadband, including shows such as CSI, Survivor China, Dexter, and Sleeper Cell
• Video downloads will be both ad-supported (free) and paid (not sure how much yet), depending on the wishes of the content creators
• Fanfare video will also be playable on Sansa portable media devices
• Yes, it’s DRMed, and yes, it’s proprietary: TrustedFlash, developed by SanDisk
• Launching in beta today, officially launching in 2008

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Peripherals, Robots

Vanilla USB flash drives are so passé, so for those who want a little more flavor more from their generic sticks of memory, might we point you to the SanDisk Sansa TakeTV, apparently freshly leaked by way of buy.com? (It also briefly appeared on PC Mag’s site and SanDisk’s forums among other sites.) Sure, the TakeTV an 8GB flash drive, but it’s also intended to plug into a USB dock with TV outs (and remote), which is capable of reading and decoding the DivX, XviD, and MPEG-4 video files up to 720 x 576 and 7Mbps for playback on your TV. All the old school simplicity of home sneakernet combined with the one-stop-shop convenience of a USB flash drive. Unfortunately buy.com won’t tell us when it’s out or how much it’ll cost, so no one gets to take home TakeTV just yet.

[Thanks, Matt]

Continue reading SanDisk Sansa TakeTV 8GB video player leaked

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Not that covering this industry is ever exactly boring, but when key players like SanDisk spokesperson Carm Lyman offer to put something valuable on the line — in this case, her flowing locks — in preparation for the holiday sales figures, well, we can’t help but get drawn in. The last time we saw two high profile figures engaged in an entertaining wager Microsoft’s J Alllard had to sport N’Gai Croal-esque dreadlocks, and now Lyman is matching ZDnet columnist David Berlind’s pledge to go bald if Zune is able to overtake Sansa in domestic sales. Berlind originally made the proposal in response to a Robbie Bach claim that Microsoft would snatch the coveted number two position from SanDisk after the upcoming holiday season, which would require a daunting 7% improvement in market share and leapfrogging over Creative. So far Bach hasn’t responded to the challenge — he has until October 31st — which makes us think that he isn’t really all that confident in his assertion, or perhaps just preoccupied with more, um, important matters.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Portable Audio

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!