The new Sansa Clip+ is one of several players that come with support for microSDHC cards. While smaller than SDHC cards, the capacity is also lower at 16GB max - although 32GB is coming. This means that while SDHC players like the Cowon D2 can get up to 32GB of extra storage, the microSDHC players are limited to 16GB for now. Or are they?

A few weeks ago I ran across an SDHC to microSDHC adapter on DealExtreme. Unlike most adapters between the two card types, this one actually gives you a microSDHC card from a bigger SDHC card instead of the other way around. Since the SDHC standard is the same regardless of size and the adapter simply takes the pins from the SDHC card and transfers it through a ribbon cable to a dummy microSDHC card, you can use any full size SDHC card as long as the player you use it with supports the SDHC standard (microSDHC counts). This means you can get 32GB of extra storage on your Sansa Clip+, Sansa Fuze or any other microSDHC player.

Still not convinced it works? Our forum moderator no9 ordered one of these and now have it fully working with a 32GB SDHC card in his 4GB Clip+. 4GB shy of the 40GB maximum you get with a 8GB Clip+ and this thing, that's still a LOT of storage on a small player like that. The downside? The adapter sticks out, and refreshing the media library with a full card takes close to 15 minutes. If you use this with a bigger player like the Sansa Fuze you should be able to fit the adapter on the back and tape over it or whatever, and the slow refresh is only after you put the card in for the first time or after you've connected it to manage your music. Regardless of the downsides, the capacity we're reaching with players this small is quite astonishing and make for very attractive players for people with large music collections. Hit the jump for a couple more pics.

The Sansa Clip has been a favorite among many as a quick and cheap way to listen to digital music. It has been a player for beginners and enthusiasts alike with a straight forward user interface along with top notch sound quality many times being paired with headphones and amps 10 times its price. For these reasons we made the Clip the number one MP3 player for 2008.

Since the Sansa Clips was release we immediately started screaming for a Clip with a microSD card slot, sure the Fuze had the same sound quality and features but it didn’t have the compact size that many users appreciated about the Clip. SanDisk has responded to our requests in the second generation Clip dubbed the Sansa Clip+. In addition to adding the microSD card slot SanDisk has taking the time to improve the player all around rightfully giving it its second generation badge.

Everyone loves to peek inside and see what makes these players tick and its always helpful to see them pulled apart for future repair or swapping out parts for customization.

The Clip+ resembles the original clip insides but with some upgraded silicone. Disassembling was easier than the original and fairly straight forward with the right tools. All you will need is a slim piece of plastic to pry the two half apart and a small screw driver. You can take apart and put back together the Clip+ without damaging the plastic housing if you are careful. Before your start, take a look at the pictures and mind where the latches are that hold the two pieces together. Then carefully pry at those locations. Good luck!

I have had a slotRadio well before it was released to the public and over these last 6 months tried to wrap my head around where this product fits into the way people consume music. I’ve used it myself at the gym and in the car, let friends and relatives borrow it, discussed with other tech bloggers, and prodded lots of sales floor reps for customer reactions.

With all this anecdotal evidence I’m going to bet against it. However, it may be a risky bet on my part since it may be applicable to a market or demographic I don’t at all understand. For the last three or four years I have been reading and writing about digital media players as a full time job. This may have created a myopic point of view now allowing me to see that fringe demographic of music consumers that is still a substantial enough of a market to sustain a profitable product line.

SanDisk’s latest update for the Sansa Fuze fixes a bunch of bugs and adds further improvements and features. One of the more notable features is the addition of File/Folder browsing, something many Fuze fans have been campaigning for since its release. Additionally they have added a normalization feature called “Replay Gain” which basically keeps the sound normalized (same volume) throughout the song or album.

Finally, the biggest update is the addition of slotRadio support. Below are a few screenshots of the implementation and a quick overview.

Our favorite little player got crammed into a once live grenade. The project creator Matt said that this genuine “decommissioned training grenade” was indeed a legal purchase in the state of New York, but stressed the purchase a bit. He used a 2GB Sansa Clip, but I think a Sansa slotPlayer may have been a bit of a better choice. The MP3 grenade is something that will surely turn some heads or alert the authorities walking around in any city. Just don’t scream “detonating!” when pressing the big red button used to change tracks. Getting though airport security should be a bit of a challenge as well.

[NYC Resistor | Make | Flickr via Gizmodo]

Remember the SlotMusic Player? Similar idea and concept, SanDisk announces the slotRadio. This whole idea of very easy to use / ready to go digital music is what the “slot” genre players are all about. The slotRadio is $100 and comes with 1,000 Billboard Chart songs hand selected separated into various genres. The user will simply select the type of music on the player’s 1.5” OLED screen.

The catch is you will not be able to move the songs off the player, so it’s not like getting 1,000 songs at 10 cents each, though these cards will work in other mSD card players like the Sansa Fuze. Additional cards can be purchased for around $40 each with 1000 songs of a specific genre.

I’m still quite bearish on this new type of music format on a memory card. Possibly because I have yet to meet someone that would fall into this purchasing demographic. Or it could be that I’m working on no sleep for the last two days. I will opine further after I have had a chance to check it out first hand tomorrow. Press release after the jump.

Earlier this year SanDisk introduced a new format to deliver music called slotMusic. This is simply a 1GB microSD card with DRM-free digital files on it. This format is backed by some of the major record labels such as EMI, Sony BMG, Universal, and Warner.

To go along with this new format SanDisk has introduced the slotMusic player. This memory-less and screen-less player relies solely on microSD for music playback. The idea is that non-tech savvy users will be able to swap out their purchased slot music albums.

I don’t believe that slotMusic will revolutionize the music industry, but may do well in certain niche markets. Aside from the new music format, the player itself is an interesting story.

After we learned about the 8GB Sansa Clip a few days ago the crave for a new firmware and FLAC support has grown even stronger. Well people you can stop hoping, FLAC support is now available along with other updates through the 01.01.30FW.

Along with FLAC support the update brings general upgrades like better M3U playlist support and faster database updates. There are also a lot of bug fixes which alone should be worth the update. Along with the 01.01.30 firmware theres a 2.01.16 update apparently linked to "hardware revision 2". No one really knows what this is at the moment but it might be the 8GB Clip. Hit the jump for a changelog on 01.01.30.

[ABi Forum Download Page|SanDisk Forum Official Release Thread]

While there has been a discussion on our forum about this card popping up on a British site a few days ago, it's now official; microSD cards have been bumped to 16GB along with Memory Stick Micro. The cards will follow the microSDHC standard and should be compatible with the players that support 4GB and 8GB cards.

This capacity boost will mean that the Sansa Fuze will now go up to 24GB and the Sansa View will go up to 48GB which isn't bad especially in combination with the fact the Clip is coming in 8GB. Other devices and cellphones especially will also be able to use this new 16GB card. According to the press release the new card will be out in October at Best Buy Mobile stores and November at Verizon Wireless stores - the only two major retailers in the US that will be selling this card this year. Whether or not the card will be available online is unsure, but let's hope so. The MSRP is $99.99 so unless you really need the extra storage in one card the $24 8GB cards on Amazon might be a better deal for now, but as we all know prices will drop.

[Press Release via jkOnTheRun]

The Sansa Clip has sold beyond all expectations and SanDisk's willingness to listen to users when it comes to adding features have made it a really good choice for an MP3 player. The one gripe people have had with it is lack of storage as even though it has a bigger brother (the Fuze) capable of both 8GB capacities and microSD expansion, the Clip itself has maxed out at 4GB...until now.

A French store selling all versions of the Clip has a posting of a 8GB clip available in both black and silver like the 4GB version. It's currently listed as a pre-order with unknown release date for the black version and a September 30th release date for the silver version, which happens to be tomorrow. While it's unlikely it will come out tomorrow it does appear to be legit; the price of about 90 Euro is far higher than that of the 65 Euro 4GB version and so it's doubtful it's a typo. If it turns out to be true this should make a lot of people happy, me included.

[Materiel.net] (thanks Benoit for the tip!)

SanDisk as the world's leading manufacturer of flash memory cards is of course always out to sell more cards. This summer they have been running a campaign called "wake up your phone" to get people to invest in memory cards for their cellphones and now they're at it again with a new idea involving microSD cards and music distribution.

The "new" physical music media is dubbed SlotMusic and is basically just MicroSD cards with MP3 files on them. Sony BMG, Universal, Warner and EMI are in on this deal and it's an accomplishment in itself to get music companies to offer such content as MP3 files and not some DRM'ed atrocity. The idea is that people can buy a SlotMusic card, slide it into a player with a microSD slot and listen to the music without any more tinkering.

While this might seem like an inferior method of getting music for some people, it does address two aspects of MP3 players that a lot of people have issues with; having a physical copy, and ease of use. A lot of people, especially the older generation, don't understand how to download music and get it onto their player. With this system they could buy their music like CDs and listen that way. Nothing is simpler than having a card which you put into a slot and it's ready to play. Then you have the music collectors who like to have a physical copy of their music. Granted, MP3 files won't satisfy everyone, but it does allow people to have a cover to look at (if they are going to include such a thing), a booklet and maybe the cards could even include extras like music videos and FLAC files. It's certainly easier having a memory card that you can plug into a computer and transfer music off of than having to rip the music from a CD. The pricing isn't official but is expected to be around $7-$10, which isn't bad at all.

[CNET via ABi Forums | Press Release]

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)

Congratulations to Kim. It looks like her search is over and she will be a proud new owner of a Silver Fuze and a high speed microSD card. Thank you all for joining the fun and making one killer comment thread. I actually read though them all and many were quite amusing. Stay tuned for more giveaways and more of the best mp3 player reviews on the net. Accept no substitutes! ;)

Win a SanDisk Sansa Fuze + 4GB Mobile Ultra microSD Card Sharing the same great sound quality as the Sansa Clip, the Sansa Fuze has one big advantage with an included microSD memory slot. This is a nice way to upgrade your to a higher capacity since the microSD card seamlessly integrates into the main memory.

MicroSD has become a standard in expandable memory for cell phones. Another nice use for the memory card would be to swap it between your player and you mobile phone. When I’m away from a computer one thing I do for instance is use my Nokia e71 to download podcasts and music, then swap the memory card to my Fuze. Sure I could use the phone to listen to but it needs a headphone adapter and sound terrible compared to the Fuze.

It’s also a cheap add on. Last I checked SanDisk’s microSD in 8GB was around $30 on Amzaon. Note that we are giving away the Mobile Ultra version which I tested to be about twice as fast as the regular version of SanDisk’s microSD. This works a bit better if you are going to use it in a phone.

Enough chit chat, how do I win this lovely pair?

Just comment once below (multiple entries will be disqualified) and we will pick a comment at random at the end of the day Wednesday. Good luck!

For those who remember, Music Gremlin was the first MP3 player to offer wi-fi connectivity. It was tied into a music service that allowed for the automatic download of content much like the Ibiza Rhapsody and SanDisk’s own Sansa Connect. While I don’t know about the acquisition terms and what their plans are for the integration of MG into SanDisk, but this is rather troubling to me and I question the good that will come out of this acquisition for a few reasons.