SanDisk has launched a Wi-Fi-enabled MP3 player, Sansa Connect, and a central player in its creation is Zing, a company co-founded by former Apple executive Tim Bucher.
Using built-in Wi-Fi, the Sansa Connect can stream Internet radio from Launchcast stations, browse Flickr photo streams, and download any tracks or albums via Yahoo! Music Unlimited To Go subscription service. The software that allows it to connect to Yahoo!’s various Internet services was developed by Zing, according to the Wall Street Journal.
As described on Zing’s web site, Bucher previously “headed up Macintosh Engineering, where, among many other things such as creating Mac mini, he managed the core technology groups of Apple’s iPod.” Other hardware products he was involved with include WebTV, UltimateTV and the Xbox.
Bucher took over Apple’s Macintosh hardware engineering division in 2004 after Jon Rubinstein was put in charge of the brand-new iPod division. But only six months later he was mysteriously fired. He then sued Apple for wrongful termination contending there was no cause and that he was denied compensation.
Because of the Sansa Connect’s integration with Yahoo!, the $250 device is being promoted by Yahoo! Music’s Ian Rogers, who justifies the monthly subscription price by attacking iPod users as thieves:
For those of you about to complain about the $12/month to get unlimited tracks (like, um, Steve Jobs), check yourself before you riggity wreck yourself. Labels and artists get paid for every radio play and every Yahoo! Music download to the Sansa Connect, whereas we all know iPods are mostly full of not-paid-for MP3s.
If you think Rogers’ use of the ‘check yourself before you wreck yourself’ phrase was an isolated instance, here’s a list of other hip phrases he uses in the blog post: “It’s pretty fresh, Hells yeah, homey, yo, Word up”
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