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IRL: Nexus One, Sansa Clip Zip, DeLorme PN-60 and the HP TouchPad
Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment. Welcome back to IRL, a new column where we dissect, defend and gripe about the gadgets we're using in real life. This week, Dante gets a firesale TouchPad, Dana ditches her Shuffle for a Sansa Clip Zip, Tim's on a boat with the DeLorme PN-60 and Darren explains why, exactly, he's still clinging to his Nexus One.
SanDisk launches $50 Sansa Clip Zip MP3 player, makes for a cheap workout date
If you've been working out with help from tunes on your Sansa Clip MP3 player or Sansa Clip+, chances are you've gotten a bit trimmer -- and you're not the only one. SanDisk's launched a thinner and upgraded version of its song slinger, the Sansa Clip Zip MP3 player. The newest incarnation plays all standard major music formats, comes in red, blue, black, orange, white, grey and purple, and has 4GB or 8GB worth of storage with room for more via microSD. It's launching in Europe next month, but is currently available in both the US and Canada for $50 and $70 depending upon how many jams you want it to hold. Thanks to its massive 1.1-inch display, the Clip claims 15 hours of battery life, which should be just enough time to keep up with your daily workouts, right? Jog on over to the full PR after the break.
SanDisk's Sansa Clip upgrades to 8GB, stays tiny
Going jogging for more than a hundred consecutive hours? Then the old models of SanDisk's teensy-tiny Sansa Clip audio player won't satisfy you, but this week a new variant hits with a capacious 8GB of storage -- a plenty-fair amount for the $99 price, and downright triumphant for a clip-on. That kind of storage wouldn't make sense in a Shuffle-like device with no display for song browsing, of course, but it's welcome in the Clip 'cause it actually has such a screen (it's OLED, if you were wondering). Like the other Clip models, it's got 15 hours of battery life, though, so it still won't make it with you on your daily jog from Boston to Pittsburgh. Full PR after the break.
Upcoming Sony Walkman to butt heads with Apple's iPod nano?
The word from "credible sources" is that Sony isn't just keeping itself busy making brash claims about PS3 availability, building iPod docks and churning out aesthetically-challenged home integration gear. Nope, Sony's got a biggie in the oven, a flash player of 2, 4 and 8GB capacities ostensibly designed to kick it with the iPod nano and SanDisk Sansa in mini flash DAP land. What's supposed to make this challenger any more formidable than Sony's previous attempts? The player will retain much of the stylings of Sony's NW-A3000 / NW-A1000 players (pictured), but will take some flat and rectangular cues from Apple, while managing to be smaller than Apple's player. This new Walkman's claim to fame is 8 to 10 hours of video playback, and with battery life being a historically strong point for Sony, and Apple's nano lacking video playback altogether, Sony could very well win some points with this one. The screen will be designed for landscape viewing and will be larger than the nano's. Buttons and interface should be similar to the A3000 series and Sony will have violet, black, blue and pink flavors at launch. Prices should be fairly competitive and the launch is expected to take place in March. That gives us about a month to figure out if this report is pure baloney, but along with ATRACLife's trust in the source, most of these specs are pretty much do-or-die for Sony in the cutthroat PMP space, so we're going to go with "cautiously optimistic" for the moment.
Rhapsody hits the big 4.0
Along with all that SanDisk and Best Buy fraternizing that Real announced this morning, they've released the new 4.0 version of their Rhapsody music service. Perhaps the biggest change is under the hood: they're basing the player on the new "Rhapsody DNA," which is a technology platform that combines Real's Helix DRM, custom firmware for players (like the Sansa), and a web service API that allows for Sonos integration and other capabilities. What this means for the consumer is that Rhapsody 4.0 operates with the Sansa player in a much more integrated fashion than your average PlaysForSure syncing scheme. The new Rhapsody allows you to subscribe to genre or artist "Channels" which are automatically refreshed on your Sansa; drag and drop tracks into your library or onto the player; and create dynamic playlists that are, again, synced to your player automatically. There are other minor enhancements, mostly based around music recommendations, along with a decent facelift and a library import feature that can pull in stored music files, including files from "other services" -- which we're guessing refers to PlaysForSure files only. Prices are the same as ever: $9.99 for "Unlimited," and $14.99 for "Rhapsody To Go." Real is also promising week-early access to certain "hot new albums," and while all Rhapsody features will be available in the Best Buy Digital Music Store, there's going to be some exclusive content there as well. Real also announced today that they'll be pre-loading 30 hours of Rhapsody music onto all Sansa Rhapsody players sold.
Altec Lansing to launch inMotion iM510 speaker dock for SanDisk Sansa
If you've settled on picking up a SanDisk Sansa e200 or c200 but feel a bit left in the cold in terms of specialized accessories, Altec Lansing is rushing in to heat things up. In what appears to be a spinoff of the "Made for iPod" agenda, Altec Lansing has partnered with SanDisk to create a lineup of accessories geared specifically towards the Sansa music players. The flagship device -- dubbed the inMotion iM510 -- is a black docking speaker station that doesn't veer too far from the company's iPod-friendly versions, save for its Sansa compatibility, of course. While details thus far are a bit slim, we do know the portable system will dock, sync, and charge the e200 and c200 series DAPs, and will play nice with the (optional) BB2001 subwoofer. Although no word on pricing nor availability has been given, the coinage should be a tad lower (we'd guess, um, 10 percent or so) than the iPod-conforming units when it hits the street. [Via MobileWhack]
Creative Zen V Plus reviewed
Looks like CNET managed to get a Zen V Plus from Creative a while ago, and have already put the thing through its paces and posted their glowing review of the device. First, and fairly notable: for sheer value, the Zen V and V Plus really have the iPod nano beat, since not only do Creative's new players feature similar capacity for a good bit less, but the players also have the quite convenient line-in capability, and V Plus adds in FM and video playback for a bit of extra nano smackdown. As for design, CNET seems to be a fan; noting its cute, Tamagotchi-like feel and form factor as a definite asset. They also felt more confident with the sturdier design of the player in comparison to the nano, which is thinner but taller than the Zen V, and didn't complain about the "bulk" in regards to pocketability. Unfortunately, the joystick is a bit small and cheap feeling, and the player lacks two of the face buttons of its big brother, the Zen Vision:M. We're also concerned about the lack of scrolling capability which does show up in the Sansa and nano, but we're just worriers like that. Apparently, the 1.5-inch OLED screen is looking good, with a bit of an visible pixel grid, and some bright sunlight problems, but overall "vivid" performance. We can't say that changes our mind about the actual functionality of video playback on this thing, but if you need to know, the V Plus supports MPEG-4, WMV, DivX and more, and comes with the ToolBox software to convert files for playback. The device of course supports MP3, WAV, PlaysForSure WMA and Audible audio, and you can nab podcasts with Creative's ZenCast software. Other than USB host capability, or WiFi, the Zen V Plus has about every feature you could ask for, even PIM functionality with Outlook syncing. As for what really matters, Zen V shines with 20 hours of batter life (5 more than Creative's 15 hour rating), and solid audio quality and volume. Sounds like Creative could have a winner on their hands, and CNET's Editors' Choice award can't hurt, but we're still not sure we've seen something that can actually manage to beat the nano at its own game in this market.
