SanDisk, Yahoo! Music Partner on Sansa Connect WiFi-Enabled MP3 Player Experience
By NEWS RELEASE |
April 9th, 2007
(0) Comments
SanDisk® Corporation the second largest seller of MP3 players in the United States, today announced a partnership with Yahoo! Music, Yahoo, Inc.’s music division, the number one online music destination, that involves the implementation of unique music services for SanDisk’s new Sansa® Connect™, a WiFi®-enabled MP3 player. The partnership pairs SanDisk’s new wireless MP3 player with both free and subscription-based services from Yahoo!, allowing consumers to stay constantly connected to their music, photos and friends via WiFi, with no PC required[1].
The flash-based Sansa Connect MP3 player boasts several Yahoo! features that can be accessed with the simple click of a button and an open WiFi connection[2]. Owners with a Yahoo! ID can listen to LAUNCHcast Internet radio, browse Flickr sets and photos, and see what their Yahoo! Messenger friends and other Sansa Connect owners nearby are listening to. Sansa Connect users with a Yahoo! Music Unlimited To Go subscription are also able to discover and download music, as well as listen to or download tracks their friends are listening to or have recommended1.
When the Sansa Connect is not connected to a WiFi network, the player behaves like a traditional Flash MP3 player and can be connected to a PC. Users can play music and view photos stored either on the player or on an optional microSD™ card.
“The Sansa Connect is a new breed of music player,” said Daniel Schreiber, senior vice president and general manager for SanDisk’s Audio Video Business Unit. “It untethers consumers from their computers, and allows them to get new music and share their recommendations anytime, anywhere—over an open wireless Internet network.”
“The Sansa Connect utilizes a powerful combination of Yahoo! and Yahoo! Music services to both broaden and unshackle the music discovery experience,” said Ian Rogers, general manager for Yahoo! Music. “The Sansa Connect not only keeps consumers connected to their world of music, photos and friends, but also opens them up to new music experiences in a way that is greatly enhanced by its WiFi capabilities.”
The 4-gigabyte (GB)[3] Sansa Connect features a sleek, attractive profile with large 2.2-inch TFT color screen, a microSD™ slot for music and photo capacity expansion, and an internal speaker.
The announcement coincides with the retail availability of the Sansa Connect, which is now available in the United States at a suggested retail price of $249.99. The device is expected to be available in Canada in the latter part of 2007.
The Sansa Connect player is designed to work seamlessly with a wide range of popular music formats such as MP3 and Windows Media Audio (WMA) in both unprotected and protected files. While optimized to work wirelessly with Yahoo! Music Unlimited To Go, the player supports all Microsoft PlaysForSure subscription music via a PC connection.
SanDisk teamed with ZING, a new mobile entertainment technology and services company, to develop the product. ZING’s Mobile Entertainment Engine provides technology, software and services for building next generation digital media players and experiences.
About SanDisk
SanDisk (NASDAQ:SNDK) is the original inventor of flash storage cards and is the world’s largest supplier of flash data storage card products, using its patented, high-density flash memory and controller technology. SanDisk is headquartered in Milpitas, California, and has operations worldwide, with more than half its sales outside the U.S.
SanDisk, the SanDisk logo and Sansa are trademarks of SanDisk Corporation, registered in the United States and other countries. Sansa Connect, TrustedFlash and gruvi are trademarks of SanDisk Corporation. microSD, is a trademark. Other brand names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and may be the trademarks of their respective holder(s).
About Yahoo! Music
Yahoo! Music (http://music.yahoo.com) is the #1 online music destination. Yahoo! Music offers more than 2 million songs for download as well as the tools to manage, explore and share music. Yahoo! Music provides a wide selection of streaming video and audio, the Web’s largest collection of music videos, Internet radio, original content, exclusive features, artist information and news covering all genres of music to Yahoo! users.
About Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) is a leading global Internet brand and one of the most trafficked Internet destinations worldwide. Yahoo!’s mission is to connect people to their passions, their communities, and the world’s knowledge. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.
[1] Requires a valid Yahoo! ID, a subscription to Yahoo! Music Unlimited To Go and an open WiFi® network. Yahoo! Music does not permit copying or transferring music files to other users. Recommend function requires that both users have Yahoo! Music Unlimited To Go subscriptions to enable file downloading.
[2] Requires a Yahoo! ID and an open WiFi® network. The Connect supports standard WiFi® WAP/WEP encryption conventions.
[3] 1 megabyte (MB) equals 1 million bytes; 1 gigabyte (GB) equals 1 billion bytes
Filed in: Portable Media Players