Click for a larger image. SanDisk showed off its newest products, slotRadio and its one-touch backup USB drive, at that tiny event known as CES. No one at SanDisk would give information about what compression is used on the slotRadio microSD cards that hold 1000 songs, but they had listening stations so you could hear more »

Click for a larger image.

Can’t get enough of the slotRadio, the microSD music player that even has an AM/FM tuner? We got to play around with the slotRadio and find out what SanDisk thinks about the device. The SanDisk rep preferred to think of it as you get 1000 songs for $100 and a player for free. That’s actually not a crazy statement. Where else can you get that kind of deal?

While most of us think that the slotRadio makes no sense, at least SanDisk knows this. SanDisk said that they were going after the non-technical types and those who don’t have the time to keep an Internet radio or mp3 player up to date. “Geeks hate this product,” said the SanDisk representative. “It’s not for them.” He’s right about that.

Well, apparently SanDisk feels Joe Public likes their music hands on. This thinking may well be what led to their new line of music-filled microSD cards. They managed to pull in all the big record labels like Sony BMG, EMI, Universal and Warner. Although, I’m not sure what the labels were thinking with this one. The songs on the 1 GB cards will be DRM-free MP3s that are encoded at 320 kbps for the record.

The first stores they have in on the deal are Wal-Mart or Best Buy. So, you simply stroll into one of those two stores, nab your rockin’, grooving, bopping-loaded slotMusic, and pop it into your phone, and voila…you’re set. However, if you are one of the millions who would simply rather get your music by downloading it, then this little slotMusic thing is pretty useless.