How SanDisk’s slotRadio Turned a Good Idea Into a Horrible Product

SanDisk ’s slotRadioplays super flashy 1,000 song packs on microSD cards , something that should be awesome . But a series of disastrous design choices have turned it into one of the sorry products I ’ve ever seen .

https://gizmodo.com/sansa-slotradio-comes-with-1-000-songs-preloaded-5125055

In possibility , being able to buy 1,000 good songs on a microSD card for $ 40 is heavy . You ’d be capable to pop it into various headphone and MP3 participant and you would n’t have to deal with any of the hassle of download or rive or any of that stuff . It would be arrant for people who are n’t tech - savvy or huge euphony buff .

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But in practice , the total thing has been so crippled that it ’s essentially worthless . Yeah , you get 1,000 songs , but there ’s no way to actually screen through them . There ’s no back button . If you hear a song you like , the only way to hear it again is to pip the skip release 999 sentence . badly , who ’s idea was it to not include a back release ? Can you think of a more disastrous interface selection on any portable music participant ever ?

There are more machine conception fault : There ’s no turn / interruption push either , so you have to turn the thing off to stop it . BUT , if you turn it off , the 1,000 - Sung playback starts at the beginning . At least , at the beginning of the genre ( articulatio coxae - hop , country , alt rock , classic rock , etc . ) . So you had well like the birdcall at the beginning of the fixed - society waiting line a lot . ( Yep , no shuffling either . ) If you utilise your own DRM - free music , you still have to obey these airheaded playback formula .

In addition , if you want to play the song on any other twist , you ca n’t . There are architectural plan to bring firmware updates to Sansas and some Windows Mobile devices in the futurity , but you ca n’t use them in your figurer and it definitely is n’t a simple cognitive operation to start it out and put it in other machine . You ca n’t pull the songs off , you ca n’t make your own playlists , you ca n’t add your own strain . You ca n’t really do anything .

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Obviously most of these restriction are demands from the major record labels , all of which contribute songs to the $ 40 , 1,000 Sung packs . That ’s why these Sung are so cheesy : you do n’t really own them . Sure , there are no subscription and you technically “ own ” the songs forever , but SanDisk showed its hand at its press conference with a screenshot of a Windows Mobile phone go slotRadio . Under each call was a “ Buy Song ” option . hold back , did n’t you already buy the song ? You want masses to buy it again so they can , you know , really habituate it how they desire ? That ’s a passably shitty move , SanDisk .

sure enough , some people may be conned into corrupt this thinking that it ’s a simple way to adopt a lot of music . But you ’ve got to think that mass will need to have more control over songs they hear to than this , even when they are n’t too particular about their music .

Maybe finally the major labels will loose up a bit and sell birdsong packs like this without the insane , gimmick - murdering restrictions attached , but until then we ’re break to keep seeing garbage like the slotRadio coming out . And nothing elevate music piracy like being tricked into pay for songs that you do n’t really own .

Lesdilley