Users of the TakeTV player can drag video files to the player and then connect it to its TV cradle. The cradle plugs into the audio/video connections of the television and an on screen guide allows users to choose the stored content using a remote control, which is included.

The video player is available in two versions. The SanDisk Sansa TakeTV 4GB for $99 stores up to five hours of video encoded at 1.5 Mbps. The TakeTV 8GB sells for $149 and holds up to 10 hours of video.

Sansa TakeTV is compatible with a number of video formats, including DivX, XVID and MPEG-4. The player connects to a computer through a USB connector and operates with Windows Vista, Windows XP and the most recent versions of Mac and Linux.

SanDisk’s video distribution platform, Fanfare, goes into public beta today. It currently has a modest catalog with around 85 titles. It offers TV shows from CBS, including "CSI" and "Survivor". More titles are being added every week according to SanDisk.

Yahoo & Friends to Challenge iPod

Every few months it seems a new device comes along that carries the hopes and dreams of the anti-iPod camp, only to fizzle shortly after launch. And in the grand scheme of things, the Sansa Connect doesn’t show any signs of deviating from the pattern. Sure, it has WiFi connectivity, but in the end there just isn’t enough there to convince users to ditch their iPods.

If this tune seems familiar, it’s the same refrain that Microsoft was belting out when it was hyping the Zune.

Nick Wingfield of the Wall Street Journal outlines the strategy:

Yahoo and its partners are gambling that they can have an impact in the market by offering a new class of connected devices that are different from iPods but with similarly tight links between hardware and Internet music service.

A key feature included in the Sansa Connect, a black device sized like a small stack of business cards, is wireless technology that’s commonly used to provide Internet access through home networks and countless cafes, hotel lobbies and other public "hot spots." If Sansa Connect users are within range of a Wi-Fi network, they can connect directly to Yahoo’s music services.

There’s a catch, though. You can’t download individual tracks when accessing the store from the device, but can only snag pre-packaged clusters of content. Also, the service is subscription based, so you don’t really own any of the tracks. Lack of choice and music non-ownership aren’t going to help the Sansa Connect’s reputation.

Om Malik gives his take:

The triumvirate believes that a couple of features (wireless connectivity and PC less downloads) can give them a leg up on Apple. If those were must have features, then Microsoft (with Zune), Toshiba and Music Gremlins would have much higher market share. And why hasn’t Apple added similar functionality? Maybe it is just so that consumers are happy with the elegant simplicity of iPod line of music players.

There’s some hype surrounding the Sansa Connect, but in the end it doesn’t appear Apple has anything to worry about. 

Consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton put out the report, and John Potter, a vice president, spoke about its conclusions. “Our research found that most companies can achieve a greater return on their R&D spending if they view innovation as an end-to-end process that begins with a new idea and ends with a satisfied customer,” he said.

Potter noted, however, that “the most effective innovation is often not the most expensive.” Sandisk, which manufactures flash memory, proved his point by making the efficiency list – Sandisk’s pockets are, of course, considerably less deep than those of Google and Apple.

Sandisk, Apple, and eBay number among 91 other companies that, as the San Francisco Chronicle’s Tom Abate describes it, “outperformed the rest of the thousand companies in sales and profit growth while spending less on R&D as a percentage of sales.” Other “high leverage innovators,” as defined by Booz Allen Hamilton, include Dell, eBay, Yahoo, and a personal favorite – Toyota.

Owners of Google’s stock are likely to be especially happy about the study’s results. The company’s frivolous (and/or fun) spending on items like a replica spaceship has raised a few eyebrows, but this report confirms that Google isn’t exactly throwing its money away. It’s also probable that Yahoo is quite pleased with itself right now, having managed to keep up with one of its major competitors. Microsoft did not make Booz Allen Hamilton’s list.

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Motorola will put out a couple of new colors, blue and pink, for its RAZR phones, and has announced the V3i and Ev-DO models should hit the market during the holiday shopping season.

The V3i has been the center of buzz and rumor for some time, but particularly since Motorola debuted the ROKR phone. That long-awaited model arrived with iTunes compatibility, and can store up to 100 songs.

However, chatter about the ROKR has been less than enthusiastic, and Cingular recently dropped the price on it by $100. This negative buzz has contributed in part to more anticipation for a RAZR model to come with iTunes on board.

With expandable memory as one feature announced for the V3i, it appears this model will be able to keep more songs than the ROKR does. Motorola said on its site the V3i will use a hot-swappable TransFlash card for storage. SanDisk makes the tiny (15mm x 11mm x 1mm) TransFlash cards.

Music fans can listen to their stored songs via a stereo headset, and Motorola has included an airplane mode for in-flight use. Downloading will still have to take place when tethered to a PC to get songs from the iTunes software to the V3i.

The storage can be used for images or video as well as music. They have included a 1.23 megapixel camera, with 8x digital zoom along with the use of the full screen as viewfinder.

Motorola has made the V3i a quad-band phone. That’s good news for international travelers; the phone should function wherever the user can find a connection. As Motorola puts it: “Screening calls while lounging in the French Riviera?” Um, sure, we all do that.

Bluetooth is enabled on-board as an additional connectivity option; Motorola said the technology would have printing, imaging, and peer-to-peer gaming profiles.

There is the usual ability to download ringtones, games, and software. The phone runs on a J2ME platform, and that Java support means users can obtain Google Local for mobile and have the maps and satellite images it provides available on the V3i.

The announcement of the Ev-DO compatible CDMA model RAZR V3x likely means Motorola will have its phones available from Verizon, which has been offering the high-speed Ev-DO option for wireless Internet connections.

V3x could bring the promise of two-way video calling to the mainstream. The phone will have a VGA camera to support video calls, combined with a 2 megapixel camera for stills and video capture.

Some image editing will be supported on the V3x, letting users make some tweaks to photos before sending them along via MMS. Like the V3i, the V3x will have Motorola’s Screen3 “zero-touch” technology. The company said this makes news and other content available from the main screen with no buttons to push.

Motorola’s color choices give the image-conscious another reason for begging their doting fathers to pony up $200 and commit to Cingular for two years. Motorola calls the pink and ice blue RAZRs “the first choice for a select group of fashion elite and Hollywood “it” girls.”

Photos and info on the Motorola phones can be found online.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.

SanDisk calls the $39.95 microSD format music cards “grūvi” and will begin selling them later this year. The company announced the new cards at the CTIA Show in San Francisco.

By purchasing the Rolling Stones “A Bigger Bang” in this format, a user will be able to preview and purchase other Stones music via a PC or mobile phone. The cards use SanDisk’s TrustedFlash rights management technology to lock the content.

However, that locking will still allow the card to be played on multiple platforms. SanDisk will provide an adapter with the grūvi card that will be the size of a SD card. This lets the little card be played on laptops and PDAs with existing SD slots.

An executive with the Stones’ label, Virgin Records, said in a statement the company planned to expand the grūvi catalog with more artists next year. Syd Schwartz cited the TrustedFlash protection as a factor in allowing more releases on the grūvi music card format.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.

The 2-Gigabyte SanDisk Cruzer Titanium offers consumers a large amount of storage in the palms of their hands. The device is manufactured using an advanced Titanium alloy from Liquidmetal Technologies, which ensures durability and resistance to corrosion and wear resistance.

According to SanDisk, Cruzer Titanium is preloaded with the full versions of value-added portable software programs. These include CruzerLock 2, a data file encryption program; CruzerSync, which synchronizes with Outlook data; and Cruzer PocketCache, which allows for file backups with minimal memory consumption.

“Consumers are demanding higher capacities to store a diverse range of files and materials including high-resolution digital photos, digital music, video clips, presentations and other data that require large capacities,” said Mike Morganstern, Cruzer product marketing manager at SanDisk. “The 2GB Cruzer Titanium meets these capacity requirements and combines the highest levels of data protection with an award-winning industrial design.”

The Cruzer Titanium 2 gig drive is expected to ship in April and retail for $249.99.

Fingerprint Security

Not only is SanDisk offering a larger capacity flash drive, but they’ve also introduced a more secure USB-based drive, called the Cruzer Profile. The device offers improved security by offering a groundbreaking fingerprint identification process. An image of the users fingerprint is stored on the device, which is compared to users attempting to access Cruzer Profile.

Mike Morganstern, the USB flash drive product marketing manager at SanDisk, said, “The USB flash drive market is attracting new customers every day and many of them want a portable storage device that will add an extra layer of security to protect the data on their device if the flash drive is lost or stolen. SanDisk’s Cruzer Profile authenticates users when a finger is swiped across the device and an embedded identification sensor reads the fingerprint, gives approval and activates the drive. We are taking SanDisk’s Cruzer brand to a new level with the Cruzer Profile, an advanced secure personal storage solution for on-the-go business people, professionals, students and many others.”

The compact Cruzer Profile, about the size of a pack of gum (dimensions: 60mm long, 24mm wide and 14mm in height), will be sold in both 512 MB and 1-gigabyte capacities. The device includes dual LED’s. One LED indicates USB functionality and data transfer and the second one provides authentication of the biometric fingerprint.

The 512MB Cruzer Profile has a suggested retail price of $99.99 while the 1GB model carries a $199.99 pricetag.

SanDisk expects that the devices to ship by mid-April.

Chris Richardson is a search engine writer and editor for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest search news.