So… Has anyone figured out if the days of sansa connect internet radio are finally, permanently, over??
yes, it is permanently over
Well, at least flickr still works.
For now.
Ah, the joys of lawyers, rights, royalties, proprieties, and niceties…
Well, most of that, anyway. Being able to stream internet radio, and download portable content via WiFi, is a fantastic idea. As each song streams, the album art displays, and one can purchase a copy via one simple click. You’d think that somebody would like that business model.
Having to look up and download individual tunes is a stumbling block for many users. The wee Connect leaped those hurdles. I feel that the model can work, if marketed right. There are “hot spots” popping up everywhere as of late, so the argument that WiFi is inconvenient is vaporizing.
You do need the ability to log in via the GUI, which is tricky: an establishment (restaurant or cafe) offers Wifi free, yet there’s a “terms of service” page that needs to be acknowledged, and this is HTML, kind of hard to format for the portable device’s screen unless there’s a dedicated page.
Dedicated pages are possible, if you look at Skype when going “untethered”. The Skype client figures out that there’s a third party block on internet access. Okay, I will call it what it is, a terrible parasitic venture that charges more per minute than simlpy flipping on your Iridium satellite link (remember Iridium?). Yes, your SkypeOut service is reasonable, but someone else wants to pop a toll booth on your “reasonable” access.
Here’s an Iridium phone in a “cellular unfriendly” environment.
Sorry, I digress. The Sansa Connect is a wonderful machine, as is the Xing firmware. I would engineer a dedicated client for home use, that interfaces with Napster or Rhapsody. The Channels feature could stream through the device, and downloads are possible just like with the Rhapsody / RhapPFS design that SanDisk has implemented. Napster could work in a similar fashion.
Ah, in a perfect world…
I would venture that connectivity issues could have been a real headache for the Support staff, as users fought with their home WiFi devices. Still, I like the little machine too.
Bob :smileyvery-happy:
