Sansa Community - It's All About The Music

Sansa View: Now You See It...

Eric Brandt — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 23:14:04 GMT

What ever happened to the Sansa View? Sandisk rolled out their Sansa View in January 2007. There was a lot of interest in this portable video player – which promised to put movies and TV shows onto a 4-inch screen that fits in your pocket. It is a device for playing music, displaying photos and playing videos. Who can't imagine enjoying one on plane flights and long commutes? t was the only large screen pocket viewer that relied on flash memory – which made it lighter and thinner that the competition. It had a removable battery – which I always consider a big plus. This PMP (portable media player) looked like it had gotten it right. The View was scheduled for release in May 2007. And lots of folks were looking forward to it. That month of May came and went. Then Sandisk announced they were not going to actually put the Sansa View on sale. Sandisk's public explanation was straightforward: “The market is changing fast and furious and we want to shift our efforts to develop a PMP that will meet the needs of the market versus pushing out the wrong product. So we're taking another look." The Sansa ...

New Writers on Our Community

Eric Brandt — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 21:58:46 GMT

I want to welcome several new writers who have recently added articles here at Sansa Community. There is much more to come.

iPhone -- the Techo-Bling of Our Times? iWish!

Eric Brandt — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 20:27:24 GMT

There is one (only one!) downside to being an iSkeptic: I can't report on the iPhone from direct PERSONAL experience. What I wrote in my blog a week ago is STILL true: "I haven't touched the iPhone yet. I haven't sniffed it, stroked it, slipped it in my pocket, or tried to download anything over its very slow Internet connection. I also haven't tried to thumb-type yet on its slippery little glass face." Why? Because, unlike all the iPhone faddists, I haven't plunked down hundreds of dollars for an untested unproven iDevice. I'm not drinking spiked Koolaid either. Luckily for us, all those who bought the iPhone, like my buddy Steve Jones , can now answer our questions. Here are my Top Ten: 1) What about, uh, just making a simple phone call? Is it true that the iPhone takes six steps to make a phone call? How long will that take to get on your nerves? Two days? Three? Is it true that the required AT&T partnership forces you to use one of the most notoriously bad networks in the country? Do makeup and fingerprints smear all over the device screen? 2) How about typing in a phone number ...

iPhone: The Roar of Static

Eric Brandt — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 16:39:02 GMT

“Don’t believe the hype!” Public Enemy 1988 “Hic Rhodus, hic salta” Geog W. F. Hegel, 1821 (meaning: “Enough hot air, show us now.”) The iPhone hype is obvious and everywhere. And the results are predictable: far too many people are lining up to buy a device that very few have seen. (See the picture, right, of a line forming in New York City four days before the product went on sale.) It’s a buy-wave for a phone whose troubling issues and real costs were kept secret to almost the last moment. Now, some self-disclosure: I haven’t touched the iPhone yet. I haven’t sniffed it, stroked it, slipped it in my pocket, or tried to download anything over its very slow Internet connection. I also haven’t tried to thumb-type yet on its slippery little glass face. But that is precisely my point. Call me a skeptic or a realist: but I don’t intend to get swept along by any stampede or by the false logic that “lightening will strike twice.” The iPod (it is said) remade the mobile music world (by advanced design and by transforming how music is bought). And so -- it is predicted -- the iPhone will do ...

Sansa Connect: It's All About the Music

Eric Brandt — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 01:08:00 GMT

Steve walked over to show me his new Sansa Connect. That special grin on his face said this isn’t just another MP3 player. The Sansa Connect does all the usual stuff. But it then does a whole new thing: This device uses WiFi to connect you to NEW music all day long. It is a constant introduction to hot new music that is personalized to match your tastes – automatically offering you mixes built around your previous favorites. A few hours spent with Steve's Sansa Connect and I was enchanted. "It's all about the music!" And the Sansa Connect promises to give me an exciting new connection with unfamiliar music. And so my first article on our new Sansa Community is dedicated to the Sansa Connect. And I hope to kick off a larger discussion among us... over all the ways we can use this device to feel the beat.

What's a Sansa Anyway?

Eric Brandt — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 01:02:04 GMT

So I was sitting around wondering…. What exactly is a Sansa? Where does the word come from? Here’s what I found: First of all, Sansa is the name of a African thumb piano – a pre-computer handheld that plunks out the tunes. My guess would be that might be where SanDisk’s product line got its name. But here are some other possibilities that I thought were less likely (make up your own mind!): • There is Hon'inbō Sansa (1559 - 1623) who was a Buddhist priest who from his hermit’s hut became known as an undisputed champion of the strategic game Go. Among his students were the Japanese warlords Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. • Sansa is also the word for glowing coals in Quechua (the Inca-derived language of the rural majority in Peru). • Servicios Aereos Nacionales SA , a Costa Rica-based airline. • Finally, Sansa is a French town in the eastern Pyrénées mountains. The inhabitants call themselves the “ Sansanais ” (which, I assume, is what you call the members of a Sansa community). So my fellow Sansanais, anyone know other meanings for Sansa?