On April 11, 2010: Sansa Connect Wifi Works or not

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1

Hi, folks. I’m an old guy who likes to play some music of Hank Ballard, Webb Pierce and even some Mario Lanza music once in a while. I bought several players including a Sansa Connect. On April 11, 2010, can a Sansa Connect really connect to online radio? It appears some steps are needed to get it to work. If I fail in the effort( to set up to wifi radio), is it hard to get back to where it will play my music?  (Don’t laugh at my music, my friend likes Hugo Winterhalter!! even I think that is funny).

I hope Sansa got something in a plain white envelope for the apparent boobdagle of the connect wifi.

2

Is your music on your computer’s disk, or do you expect to find it only online?

The Sansa Connect has always been tied only to Yahoo Launchcast music.  It’s never been a generic WiFi device, able to connect to any streaming source of music you can name.

Here’s the history of the Sansa Connect’s ability to get music from the Internet, in a nutshell:

  1. Sansa Connect is released, is able to stream Yahoo Launchcast music off the Internet, and also let you download songs you hear.

  2. Ability to download songs is removed, streaming ability remains.

  3. “No WiFi” versions of Sansa Connect released via various outlets with version of firmware which removes Launchcast streaming function.  Users can still manually install different version of firmware which has Launchcast streaming.

  4. As of about a week (?) ago, users report inability to stream Launchcast, even with appropriate firmware - streaming most likely shut down at the source.

Message Edited by PromisedPlanet on 04-12-2010 07:38 AM

3

Thanks for the help. It would be handy to connect to my music on my network computers to transfer music to the Connect. I guess the wifi part of the Connect is just in the way now. Is it possible (and practical) to write (hack?) a new program for the Connect?

4

The folks over at Rockbox.org began an investigation into the Connect’s firmware … how it’s cryptographically protected, etc.  Last time I checked, no progress was made, and I don’t really expect there to be any as I don’t think the Rockbox folks are interested in the Connect’s unique-ish feature, which is the antenna.