Sandisk recently acquired MusicGremin, a company who makes wi-fi enabled MP3 players.
For those that ask “Does that mean you can share music between players wirelessly?” Yes. Microsoft has had this feature available on their Zune model.
And for those that ask “Isn’t sharing stealing?” Not in the way this is done. The music is delivered via a subscription service, so all the bases are covered.
What we will see from Sandisk is (hopefully) some portable MP3 players on the lower-cost end of the spectrum in a price range more people can afford.
Wireless goes right along with portable. A portable electronic device today that doesn’t have some kind of wireless option, be it Bluetooth or otherwise, is more or less worthless because you’re still chained to wires in order to bring digital content on the device.
As early as ‘09 we should be seeing several MP3 player choices - all with wireless options - in the sub-$150 range.
For those keeping score with Apple, the iPod touch is the only portable media-specific (this excludes the iPhone) model that has any wi-fi option at all. And it costs $299.
Rich Menga is PCMech's video guy, an author and part-time host of PCMech LIVE.
Fishy said:
6/11/2008 6:18 am
“A portable electronic device today that doesn’t have some kind of wireless option, be it Bluetooth or otherwise, is more or less worthless because you’re still chained to wires in order to bring digital content on the device.”
You can’t be serious about this? Just because you need to connect it to your computer for several minutes to get your music on the device makes it worthless?
Hell, even if it has wi-fi, you’ll still need to charge the battery, so any portable electronic device which doesn’t have a replacable battery is worthless since you’re still chained to wires to bring electricity in the device?
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Rich Menga reply on June 11, 2008 8:31 am:
I am serious. There is absolutely no reason Bluetooth shouldn’t be in all portable MP3 players considering how cheap the technology is. My laptop has Bluetooth. My Garmin StreetPilot has Bluetooth. My cell phone has Bluetooth (that I pair with the StreetPilot). Why can’t I have a low-cost MP3 player with Bluetooth? Is it really *that* hard to put in there?
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Fishy reply on June 11, 2008 3:10 pm:
Alright, I do doubt using bluetooth to put music on your MP3 player, I must agree it could be handy if you’re away from home and want to put some music on it, but forgot your cable. At home I have my doubts about how useful it is, since you’re still bound to wires to charge the batteries. I must agree it could be very handy to connect your music to all kinds of speakers and stereos.
But I still disagree that an MP3 player without bluetooth is worthless, since the only advantage I can think of is not having to remember to bring your wires with you everywhere. Then again, that’s not even a problem for me, since my MP3-player has a USB port.
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