It's a (half) well known fact that SanDisk owns a lot of patents concerning flash memory and that this has been the grounds for a lot of lawsuits, arguments and whatnot over the years. Samsung alone has to pay $351 million USD a year to SanDisk in royalties, Samsung being the biggest NAND flash maker in the world. According to a korean news source and half confirmed by a Samsung spokesperson, Samsung is considering buying SanDisk. The plan is in very early stages at best and nothing has been even remotely decided yet, but considering SanDisk's poor results in the last months it might be someone to look out for.

The question is what this will mean for the Sansa players. If Samsung buys SanDisk, the Sansa line would most likely go with it and I don't see Samsung continuing the line if SanDisk gets fully incorporated into Samsung. Samsung doesn't make memory cards at the time being and so it's likely they will keep the SanDisk brand for this, however MP3 players is a different story. At such an early stage of course everything is beyond pure speculation, but if such a merging is happening it might very well mean the end of the Sansa line as it's unlikely that Samsung will compete with itself. It could of course also mean Samsung players with microSD slots, better sound quality and other Sansa features. Again, only hypothesis' but both a scary and an interesting thought at the same time. What do you think the result of such a merge will be?

[The register|MarketWatch] (thanks advcomp2019)

As with so many players these days the info on Samsung's new player is available before it's actually announced. The new player looks like some sort of futuristic T9 and the selling points here are decent capacity and codec support.

The Q1 will have a 2.4" screen and a UI that looks like that of the P2. It will of course do video in form of WMV and some sort of MPEG4. Audio wise it's above average with support for both FLAC and Ogg Vorbis and it will also come with Samsungs DNSe 3.0 sound enhancement technology. One piece of good news for radio fans is that it also features an RDS radio. it will come in 4, 8 and 16GB capacities and be available in pink, silver, white and black. Pricing and release date is still unknown.

[GenerationMP3]

A couple of months ago I did a review of the Samsung U3. Rumors of it's successor has been going around the net for a while now but we now got the first official sign that the player is coming.

That being said, we really don't know anything. A picture of the player has appeared on Samsung's Korean site - yepp.co.kr - but there is still no specs or details. When I first saw the picture I must admit I thought it was another universal remote from Logitech as the design is slightly peculiar. From the looks of it the awful touch buttons that I hated with the U3 are still there though in a new form and the screen seems too small, possible meaning the player is a bit bigger than the U3. We'll see what kinds of specs this thing has when it's all "officially official", but too be honest I'm not too excited about this one.

[GenerationMP3]

Admittedly I’m not a big fan of MP3 Players without screens since I like to be able to browse what is one my player, but I do see their appeal. Samsung is the third major brand to release a screenless player right after the Shuffle and the Zen Stone. While players lacking screen lack overall functionality the do their best and make up for it in style. Samsung has done a good job with the S2’s design making it more of a wearable accessory with the lanyard style headphones.

If I had to choose one of these faceless players, the S2 may be it since I get a kick out of the glossy finish and extended on the go playlist functions. If you are looking for something simple, please read on.

On May 30 th Samsung will launch a new portal and software called Emodio. This software seems to be just another media player but centered around Samsungs products offering features specific to their MP3 players. Users will be able to share UCI’s (User Creative Interfaces) with what I'm assuming to be a new UIC generation tool. There is also additional support for Datacasts or basically RSS feeds and the interesting edition of “Text To Speech” features that will allow you to convert txt files to MP3.

The site is rather confusing on its true goals and features since it was obviously written by someone whose first language is not English. Buy the whole aim of the site seems to be targeted at “The Digital Privilege for the Emotional Generation” (I kid you not that’s what the site says), yes as in Emo. This is a definite cultural ignorance on Samsung’s part seeing how bright fun and happy the site has been made, then trying to associate it with the Emo subculture. Regardless, the software looks like it could bring some cool functions to the P2.

It is available but extremely slow on Samsung's site, so we uploaded it as a Torrent you can download here.

Update: Bluewave 4 Beta is also out.

Samsung now has version 1.5 available to download on their Korean site as GenMP3 reports. What is special about this update is the addition of FLAC, which is a rather rarely supported lossless codec these days. In assuming the codebase is the same through the recent Samsung product line, it’s a safe bet that we will see this in the next Bluewave updates on the P2 and possibly even the T10.

On a side note, few days ago SanDisk added OGG to the Clip and I would soon expect to see FLAC added in the near future. So could this be a response from the manufactures due to a demand push from consumers? It’s nice to see more of them jumping on board the open source codecs.

The Samsung U3 has been on the market for a while now, but like other small players like that it's not as easily outdated as bigger players that fight for the newest features. With the exception of adding OLED screens, players like the U3 have more or less been stagnating feature wise for the last 3 years. This means the U3 is still a very good candidate. It's pretty well equipped with an FM radio, touch buttons, recording, and integrated USB connector. Read on to see how well it does in real life

The third BlueWave update has been out for a while, but only as a beta. A few days ago the final version was finally released to the masses and like it's predecessors it adds a lot of new features.

The new features include new themes, a calculator, a full screen mode for music playback and brightness and speed controls for video playback. As we wrap up the third BlueWave release the countdown for the fourth has already been going on for a while. It's said to bring new games, subway maps and voice recording and will hopefully see daylight in about a month.

[Samsung Download Center via ABi>> Forums]

A little over a month ago we saw the first pictures of Samsung's new players - the S2 and S3. At the time all info we had was provided by a few youtube videos taken at a Samsung product showcase and since then we haven't heard anything more about them - until now.

Both the new players focus on design, as Samsung states in the press release. The S2 is as expected very close to the first generation Zen Stone, but also features OGG support, playlists, FM radio and EQ. Since the player has no screen some of these features are handled through various variations of LED colors and patterns. To be honest I'm not sure how well this will work in real life, but at least with the extra features it has something new to offer compared to it's mentioned Creative brother. It will come in four different colors, 1GB only, and be available in June.

The S3 is basically the new version of the K3. Specs wise it's very close to Sony's S610 featuring a 240x320 1.8" display, 4/8GB, compact design and video playback. Battery life is a little behind the Sony with 25 hours for audio and 4 hours for video. Bluetooth is not included like on many other Samsung players, but you will get text support, flash games, a clock, and a FM radio with recording. Like the S2 it will come in four different colors and be available in June. Hit the link below for more pictures.

[Engadget | Press Release]

The Samsung YP-P2 is one of the most popular players these days, with a wide range of features including touch screen, an excellent widescreen, and Bluetooth. The only thing that has been holding it down is the capacity, as so far it's only been available in 2, 4 and 8GB. Until now.

True to their word, the 16GB Samsung P2 is now on it's way. That should be welcomed news for those who couldn't make due with 8GB. The 16GB version will launch in Korea in a few weeks and hopefully the rest of the world will follow shortly. No word yet if there will be a 32GB, but knowing Samsung that is still way into the future.

Update: A member of Dapreview found the 16GB P2 on BestBuy Canada

[ GenerationMP3 ]

Following yesterday's YP-S2 spotting, Shinyshiny once again brings us news from the ongoing Samsung showcase event. This time it's the YP-S3 they've gotten their hands on, a new player which follows an old recipe.

The Samsung K5 was just replaced by the S5, so it's not surprising that the old K3 will be replaced too. The S3 is to the S5 what the K3 was to the K5 - essentially the same player but without the speaker. The S3 will come in capacities of 2, 4 and 8GB, and in a variety of colors. It's a simple player, just like the K3 was, so expect it to be fairly priced when it hits the stores. No official word yet on when that will be. Video after the jump.

Tiny players are in these days. Both the Sansa Clip and the Zen Stone (Plus) have had great success with small form factor, and it seems more manufacturers want a market share - in this case Samsung.

The YP-S2 was spotted at a Samsung showcase event last night, and seem to fit right in with the rest of the gang. From the looks of it it's screen less, so features will be limited. It will be available in 1GB capacity, and have a expected battery life of about 10 hours, putting it in direct competition to the first generation Zen Stone. Several colors will be available when it launches in May. Video after the jump.

[ Shiny Shiny via Gizmodo ]

WiBro is a technology far into the future for most countries, but in Korea this isn't far off. Samsungs new SWT-W100K Portable Media Player uses this technology for internet access, along with having pretty much anything you could ask in a PMP.

The WiBro feature will provide internet speeds up to 13Mbps, and both VoIP and video chat is supported. The 4.3" 800x480 touchscreen can be used for MP4, XviD, WMV, and H.264 video, photos or DMB (TV), which even supports picture in picture. The device also sports a 2 mega pixel camera, GPS, and USB host. It comes with 8GB of internal memory, priced at about $520. It's doubtful this will ever hit the US.

[ Akihabara News ]

When I went to CES I carried a bag filled with the latest MP3 players. At various dinners and events I would pull out this magical bag of MP3 players for show and tell. It is one thing to read users’ reactions to MP3 player, but to be able to put one in their hands is when you really get quality feedback. Out of all the players the one that never ceased to impress was the P2, especially when I showed them how I could dial their phone without my Treo in sight.

I like all of them, am still impressed (review) and even more so with the second firmware updated dubbed “BlueWave 2” which adds improved functionality, features, and games. It’s not over yet, there is still a BlueWave 3 on Samsung’s roadmap. Even though the firmware is “unfinished” it is still extremely stable, much like how Microsoft handles the Zune firmware updates- adding stable updates on top of stable firmwares.

We have a growing P2 community, so if you would like to get real consumer feedback, hacks, and latest info on the BlueWave updates; check out our very helpful Samsung P2 forum. Also compare the P2 to the Touch, it can definitely hold its own.

Samsung had nothing new to show in terms of MP3 players, but I did find out from a Samsung rep that they will be releasing a 16GB version of the P2 sometime in Q1 of 08.

I did get a chance to check out the S5 which will replace the K5. It sounded just as good but slims down and gets a color screen and Bluetooth. This will actually make an interesting accessory for Bluetooth mobile phones being that it will give you a nice and loud speaker phone conferencing set up. The S5 is available now in the US in 4GB versions and can be picked up for around $180.

The other interesting portable audio accessory was the portable Bluetooth speakers, the BS300. It sounded a bit better than the speakers in the S5 and K5 from what I could tell over all the noise. It will tie into your Bluetooth MP3 player or operate as a speakerphone with its built in mic for your cellphone. It retails for $130.

I snapped a few pics at the booth- a bit blurry but still fun to look at.