MP3 player with WiFi done right: Sandisk's Sansa connect

I may have to run out and take a good look at the Sandisk Sansa Connect. Cheryl from Late to the Party just added one to her mobile device repertoire and it has a compelling feature-set that combines the best of other DAP devices. Aside from the standard playback of audio files, the Connect has WiFi capability that's used for content like LAUNCHcast Internet radio, unlike the Zune which has WiFi that I've never used since it can only send or receive content from peer Zunes.

There's a wee bit of downside here with the Connect however: while the WiFi allows for music downloads and on-line photo browsing, it's "married" to Yahoo! services. Tunes are from the Yahoo! Music Unlimited subscription service at $6 a month, and you view photos from Flickr, which is now part of Yahoo! If you want to maintain an agnostic view for digital content, these features might not appeal. Still, we're in the early stages here, so I'm looking forward to Cheryl's continuing experience.

Comments

[Dave Haupert]

Forgot where it was, but somewhere I read that it's only Yahoo for the subscription but someone tried it with Urge and it worked fine. The question I wonder about is whether it will play AAC files- now that iTunes has EMI without Fairplay, I'd say the success of any new platform is going to be dependant on ability to play AAC files.