Sandisk has added a new model to their Sansa Clip line of MP3 players. This new addition features 8GB of storage and will have a MSRP of $99.99. It joins existing models with 2GB and 4GB capacity which retail for $39.99 and $59.99 respectively.
The Sansa Clip is a line of small flash-based music portable music players. It’s small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. It weights less than an ounce and is designed to be clipped to clothing, a backpack, or a purse.
Audio formats supported include MP3, WMA, and WAV. They also feature a built in voice recorder and FM tuner.
Result for: music player
According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, Dell Inc. will not bring a mini MP3 player to the market this year tied to online entertainment software before the holidays. The company has reportedly been testing a prototype of a mini-MP3 player that is based on the company’s Zing software. The MP3 player had been expected to show up sometime during the fall of 2008.
The Zing software is designed solely for entertainment content that is acquired over the Internet. It downloads and organized movie and music content. The Wall Street Journal cites a source familiar with the matter as saying the company has decided to hold off on releasing the music player indefinitely, but to continue to develop and push its Zing software project.
Result for: music player
Norway’s Consumer Ombudsman Bjoern Erik Thon is keeping his pledge to put more pressure on Apple to cut the DRM tie between its iPod models and music downloads from the iTunes download store. The consumer mediator gave Apple a November 3rd deadline back in September this year, and now that the deadline has passed without Apple making enough effort (in the Ombudsman’s opinion), it may face being brought before a government agency.
“iTunes has shown a lacking will to comply with our demand and we are now preparing to try this case in the Market Council,” Consumer Ombudsman Bjoern Erik Thon said in a statement. Back in 2006, Norway was among the world’s first countries to take issue with Apple’s FairPlay DRM, which while protecting music, also created a tie between hardware made by Apple and digital downloads it sells.
Apple responded to the pressure by providing certain information to its customers including a workaround that includes burning copy protected music to a CD with iTunes and then ripping to standard unprotected digital audio, which will work with pretty much all MP3 players on the market.
“iTunes maintains its previous views in its response to the Consumer Ombudsman. The company is in other words unwilling to make changes to make music in the iTunes Store available to all music players,” the agency said in its statement. Whether or not Apple will cave to the pressure remains to be seen.
