Sony hopes to set history with Walkman, again

Grok Headline matches for Sony hopes to set history with Walkman, again

Sony XDR-M1 DAB FM WALKMAN

Sony XDR-M1 DAB FM WALKMAN 06/22/2005 01:58 AM

People are saying that terrestrial radio is dead, but don't believe them. They're crazy and they smell. DAB&md ash;a digital radio standard popular with people "in other countries," if we're to believe the media—is very cool and could possibly improve our general listening experience. However, it is not readily available here yet. That said, Sony has introduced a line of portable DAB players including the XDR-M1.

This digital radio has 40 preset stations and an FM tuner in areas that don't have DAB reception. Now, if they could give us DAB over here instead of non-stop commercials for Trimspa, perhaps I'd turn on my radio every once in a while.

Sony launches range of DAB players [Pocket-Lint]

Sony NW-HD5 Network Walkman

Sony NW-HD5 Network Walkman 04/05/2005 07:43 PM

Sony has just taken the wraps off their new NW-HD5 hard disk-based music player, a tiny little thing with 20GB of storage. It weighes just 125 grams, which I'm told is less than the weight of a heavily-iced cupcake (I'm not very good with weights, you might have noticed). Sony is also promising an ample 40 hours of bettery life and an easily removable battery. The NW-HD5 will be available in silver, red, and black and will go on sale in the UK next month for £200 (no word of a US release yet, but I'd say we'll get it soon enough).

The coolest trick is probably its new 'Follow Turn Display,' which orients the interface screen depending on which way the NW-HD5 is held. If I know Sony, I'll bet the controls rotate, too, like the Sony Vaio U-Series.

Sony announce the NW-HD5 [Pocket-LintUK]

Sony unveils HDD Walkman

Sony unveils HDD Walkman 07/01/2004 05:24 AM
Reg Kit Watch Watch out, iPod

Sony Launches MP3 Walkman

Sony Launches MP3 Walkman 07/01/2004 07:09 PM

Sony unveils its new WALKMAN

Sony unveils its new WALKMAN 04/06/2005 12:33 PM
Sony has unveiled its new WALKMAN, a 20GB HDD player with an aluminium body and credit-card-size dimensions that can hold up to 13,000 songs or 900 CDs worth of music. The NW-HD5 offers a 40 hour replaceable battery. It also features a large and easy-to-navigate 7-line LED screen. The display is synchronised to hand movements, flipping from horizontal to vertical depending on moves, eliminating the need for “right side up”. The NW-HD5’s specially designed sensor kicks in when dropped, providing immediate and effective shock protection. The NW-HD5 comes supplied with SonicStage3.1 software that plays both MP3 and ATRAC formats. The player is available in a choice of black, silver or red and is expected to be in UK shops next month. There is no announcement on a North American launch.

Sony Network Walkman NW-HD3 Reviewed

Sony Network Walkman NW-HD3 Reviewed 02/05/2005 10:17 PM

Gizmo Girl has a healthy review of Sony's relatively new NW-HD3 MP3 Player. (And it plays real MP3, instead of "converts to our proprietary format while you wai MP3", which had been the case with all of Sony's previous "MP3" players.) Sony kindly calls it a "Network Walkman", but don't let those words invoke in you dreams of sugarplum IP fairies, streaming audio from one device to another, with rainbow wireless interfaces and candy packets of audio sharing. No, the NW wraps your MP3s so that effectively once they check in to your device, they don't check out. Still, sans file-conversion, the transfer process isn't quite as awful as their earlier players. And it comes in pretty (and familiar) colors. Battery life is apparently quite stellar, and its small stature but high capacity has them swooning.

Gizmo Girl Review [Pocket-Lint]

Real "Walkman" settles with Sony

Real "Walkman" settles with Sony 06/07/2004 01:42 PM
Sony is apparently kicking down several million Euros to Andreas Pavel, a German inventor who in 1977 patented and prototyped a wearable stereo called the "Stereobelt." Of course, the Stereobelt sounds a lot like the Sony Walkman, launched two years later. Flush with cash, Pavel now plans to go after Apple and other makers of, er, digital Stereobelts. Link (via my journal at The Feature)

Sony hypes "next-generation Walkman"

Sony hypes "next-generation Walkman" 11/05/2003 12:05 PM

New Sony Walkman to Rival Apple Player
(AP)

New Sony Walkman to Rival Apple Player
(AP) 06/30/2004 10:29 PM
AP - The iPod may finally have a serious competitor. The company that brought us the Walkman is entering the hard disk music player arena now dominated by its trendsetting-rival Apple Computer Inc.

Has Sony finally gotten a Clue with the
Network Walkman

Has Sony finally gotten a Clue with the
Network Walkman 07/01/2004 05:32 PM

I'll be honest I don't think so. I love Sony products I am typing this article on a Sony Vaio and I have a lot of Sony products in my home. I always like Sony products and being my wife is from Japan she is a fan of Sony too. I draw the line though when it comes to buying vehicles as I am a die hard Chevrolet man. Anyway this Network Walkman that may or may not play the MP3 format and supposedly has a 30 hour battery life but only 20 gigs of storage priced at about the same as a Apple 40 gig iPod.

Give me a break Sony if you would have not been so scared that those ripping music was going to hurt your music division. I think they better wake up and smell the roses ripping of music is not going to stop and I bet their entire library is available on the P2P networks. [Engad get]

New Sony Walkman to Rival Apple Player

New Sony Walkman to Rival Apple Player 06/30/2004 10:50 PM
AP via Los Angeles Times Jul 1 2004 3:10AM GMT

Sony plans Walkman to rival iPod

Sony plans Walkman to rival iPod 07/01/2004 07:03 AM
Sony is to revamp its famous Walkman by launching a digital music player to rival Apple's iPod.

Sony Refreshes Its Network Walkman (PC
World)

Sony Refreshes Its Network Walkman (PC
World) 04/06/2005 09:21 AM
PC World - Hard drive-based device features a new design that more closely resembles the IPod.

Sony settles with German inventor of
Walkman

Sony settles with German inventor of
Walkman 06/07/2004 04:30 AM
Silicon.com Jun 7 2004 7:59AM GMT

News: Sony refreshes HDD Walkman design

News: Sony refreshes HDD Walkman design 04/06/2005 09:01 AM
Sony Corp. will soon launch a new member in its hard-disk drive-based Network Walkman family, its fourth so far, and this time the new player is more than an update to the previous model.

Sony settles Walkman patent case

Sony settles Walkman patent case 06/01/2004 05:40 AM
German awarded 'a few million euro'

Sony Building Smothered In Network
Walkman

Sony Building Smothered In Network
Walkman 04/07/2005 12:44 PM

It was only yesterday that Sony's NW-HD5 was officially announced in Japan, and it seems the company has already managed to convert the Sony Building into a giant promotion for the Network Walkman line, called "Walkman Records." This marks a first for Sony, as their domestic (Japanese) Walkman campaigns typically revolved around MiniDisc (and for good reason). The first floor is divided into three sections: "TOUCH," "LISTEN," and "BUY," where I presume you can do each activity. Don't expect to see this at your local Sony store any time soon — as of this writing, Sony hasn't even announced the NW-HD5 for stateside release.

Netwo rk Walkman in Sony Building [AV Watch]

Sony takes aim at iPod with new
hard-disk Walkman

Sony takes aim at iPod with new
hard-disk Walkman 07/01/2004 08:50 AM
Sony Corp. has unveiled its first hard-disk drive-based digital music player to bear the Walkman name. The device was launched on Thursday as the Walkman brand marked its 25th anniversary. The NW-HD1 features a 20GB hard-disk drive and is, according to the company, the smallest music player at this capacity. It measures 89 millimeters by 62.1 millimeters by 13.8 millimeters and weighs 110 grams. The capacity is half that of Apple Computer Inc.'s highest capacity iPod, but Sony says its player trumps Apple's in terms of the number of songs it can store: 13,000 on the Walkman versus 10,000 on the iPod.

Sony NW-HD1: A New Walkman-Branded Hard
Disk Player?

Sony NW-HD1: A New Walkman-Branded Hard
Disk Player? 06/23/2004 10:52 AM

Item! I have it on good word that Sony is planning on launching another hard drive-based music player, called the Sony NW-HD1. It's all rumor at this point, of course, but according to my source it will be branded under the Walkman name and has "far better styling than the Vaio offer." Sony is apparently shopping it around to various outlets now to see what people think in preparation of an autumn launch. If anyone can grab me a picture of this mythical new unit, I would bake you the most delicious cupcake man has ever baked. Developing!

Related
Sony VAIO Pocket Review, iPod Comparison [Gizmodo]
Sony's HMP-A1 VAIO Video Pocket [Gizmodo]

Japanese Swap The Sony Walkman For The
Apple iPod

Japanese Swap The Sony Walkman For The
Apple iPod 04/10/2005 05:54 AM

Tokyo's so-called 'gadget city' of Akihabara, where Sony's walkmans once reigned supreme, the most prized gadget is now Apple's iPod. It was perhaps some indication of how Japan's self confidence has faltered along with its economy. By Peter Cave, ABC News

Sony Debuts 20 Gigabyte Walkman to
Silence IPod

Sony Debuts 20 Gigabyte Walkman to
Silence IPod 07/01/2004 07:10 AM
Boston Globe Jul 1 2004 11:35AM GMT

Live from CeBIT: Sony Walkman W800 First
Impressions

Live from CeBIT: Sony Walkman W800 First
Impressions 03/14/2005 06:03 PM

Sony Ericsson continues to make nice looking phones that I have no desire to own. The W800 Walkman Phone is nice enough looking, but the music application didn't seem very advanced at all. Now I just played with it for a couple of minutes, but I was expecting something more polished. Pressing the music button takes you to the media player, but pressing it again doesn't play the song. Neither does pushing in on the joystick. Instead, you have push the stick to the right (at least I think; I had to rely on visual feedback, which was sparse).

I'm happy to give it another shot in the future, but I was hoping to get something that seemed more advanced than the average media player application you can find on almost any modern phone.

Sony pays millions to inventor in
Walkman dispute

Sony pays millions to inventor in
Walkman dispute 06/04/2004 02:04 PM

Sony Debuts 20 Gigabyte Walkman to
Silence IPod (Reuters)

Sony Debuts 20 Gigabyte Walkman to
Silence IPod (Reuters) 07/01/2004 12:11 AM
Reuters - Sony Corp. unveiled plans on Thursday to launch a Walkman digital music player capable of storing 13,000 songs, aiming to reclaim the top spot in a market now dominated by Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod.

Apple Hits Back At Sony 'Misleading'
Walkman Marketing

Apple Hits Back At Sony 'Misleading'
Walkman Marketing 07/07/2004 06:09 PM
Sny's 13,000 song measurement is based on it ATRAC3 compression system at the relatively low rate of 48Kbps while Apple's measurement is based on the AAC compression system at 128Kbps. "ATRAC3 at 48Kbps is nowhere near CD quality." By Jim Darlymple, MacCentral (via MyAppleMenu)

Sony takes aim at iPod with new
hard-disk Walkman (MacCentral)

Sony takes aim at iPod with new
hard-disk Walkman (MacCentral) 07/01/2004 08:53 AM
MacCentral - Sony Corp. has unveiled its first hard-disk drive-based digital music player to bear the Walkman name. The device was launched on Thursday as the Walkman brand marked its 25th anniversary.

HOWTO de-obfuscate proprietary Sony
Network Walkman files

HOWTO de-obfuscate proprietary Sony
Network Walkman files 04/10/2005 02:56 PM
Cory Doctorow: Waider sez, "I've spent some time over the past fortnight unravelling Sony's obfuscated MP3 file format as used on the Network Walkman device I have, and probably others in the same product range. The URL has a full writeup that should allow folk to roll their own code - I've already got command-line tools to load, list and unload the device under Linux, and I've made a first pass at a plugin for XMMS to allow you to play files straight off the device. Note, this isn't ATRAC - it's obfuscated MP3."

* The file starts with a 4-byte signature, "WMMP"

* Next is a 4-byte longword giving the total file-size in bytes. This includes the file header, i.e. it's exactly what you'd see displayed in a directory listing of the file.

* Next is the duration of the track in milliseconds, again in a 4-byte longword.

* The third 4-byte longword gives the number of frames in the file. If you're trying to write a file to the device using your own code, I recommend ripping bits out of XMMS or mp3info to get this number, as I had difficulty locating a library that would calculate it without actually decoding the entire file.

* There are 16 bytes of magic: there's the 0x08 0x9f 0x9e 0xff sequence that occurs in the PBLIST file, followed by 0x01, and padded out to 16 bytes with 0x00. I've no idea what any of this is but it seems unchanging.

* The rest of the file is the obfuscated MP3 data, with no ID3 frames - strip those out before you encode or your file will not play in the device.

See, this is why DRM is doomed: some guy spends a couple weeks' spare time picking apart a file-format for the intellectual challenge, and then your system is irrevocably, totally, permanently b0rked. Sucks to be a DRM engineer: how do they sleep nights, anyway? Link (Thanks, Waider!)

New Sony online music service ties to
Walkman, airline miles (AFP)

New Sony online music service ties to
Walkman, airline miles (AFP) 05/05/2004 11:22 AM
AFP - Electronics giant Sony has jumped into the online music fray with a new download service similar to those from Apple Computer and others, but linked to its Walkman music players.

Sony’s Network Walkman NW-HD1 - the
world’s smallest 20GB ATRAC3 player.

Sony’s Network Walkman NW-HD1 - the
world’s smallest 20GB ATRAC3 player. 07/01/2004 08:41 PM
Engadget: Sony’s Network Walkman NW-HD1 - the world’s smallest 20GB ATRAC3 player. "The Network Walkman is supposed to be able to get an astounding thirty hours of battery life on a single charge." Dell has been advertising "twice the battery life of iPod" on the radio lately, but the fast talk at the end of the commercial says they assume 64kbps files. Most people probably have 128kbps files on their iPods, so the Dell DJ probably accesses the hard disk half as often -- voila, twice the battery life. And if you use 48kbps audio, like Sony does, then you get three times the iPod's battery life -- around 30 hours. When everybody's using the same parts, the only way to get a 2x or 3x advantage is to cheat.

German Walkman Inventor Wins Battle
Against Sony, Fixes Gaze on Apple

German Walkman Inventor Wins Battle
Against Sony, Fixes Gaze on Apple 06/07/2004 12:09 PM

German inventor Andreas Pavel has just settled a 20 year court battle with Sony over the origins of the Walkman, a device Pavel claimed to have patented in 1977. While Sony has spent the better part of two decades trying to ignore his claims of invention (despite the fact they paid him royalty fees for the first few years of the device's life), Pavel's near bankruptcy after a 3.7 million dollar court battle was finally rewarded by a confidential agreement in which Pavel was reportedly paid off to the tune of several million euros. Pavel, cock of the walk, is now planning to take a swipe at Apple, whose iPod has become the Walkman of this generation. Even better, Pavel has another patent in the wings: a 1989 US filing for a technology that combines the features of a portable audio player and a mobile phone. That patent will be decided on 'soon.'
Read [Management.Silicon via Blues]

Related
Sony VAIO Pocket Review [Gizmodo]
Old School Sony Walkmans (Walkmen?) [Gizmodo]

Retropod: iPod case made from a vintage
Sony Sports Walkman shell.

Retropod: iPod case made from a vintage
Sony Sports Walkman shell. 07/07/2004 04:43 AM
yellow Sony Walkman .. RetroPod

retropod.com
track this site | 5 links

Sony hopes to strike chord in online
music

Sony hopes to strike chord in online
music 05/03/2004 10:12 PM
USA Today May 4 2004 2:52AM GMT

Meet the New Walkman

Meet the New Walkman 07/01/2004 10:40 AM
Meet the new Walkman. 20GB HD, 25 minutes of cache for skip-free playing. Works with Sony's Connect music service. Sharp-looking little player.

Walkman vs iPod

Walkman vs iPod 08/06/2004 10:22 PM
Sunday Times South Africa Aug 7 2004 2:21AM GMT

Walkman? That's So 1980s

Walkman? That's So 1980s 08/09/2004 11:15 AM
I am not sure why Sony -- and a lot of other people -- thinks that the Walkman is such a great brand name. To me, the brand Walkman means casette-tape player. Big, bulky, and sequential access to my tunes. In fact, if I am not wrong, Sony's portable CD-player was marketed under the name Discman.
So, I am not entire sure there's wisdom in re-using the brand Walkman in Sony's latest MP3... er, well, digital music player.

How The iPod Ran Circles Around The
Walkman

How The iPod Ran Circles Around The
Walkman 03/14/2005 05:50 PM

The reach of a company with the optimal mix of assets can extend in all directions -- and right through the front door of its competitors. By Rnadall Stross, New York Times

Teaching an old Walkman new steps

Teaching an old Walkman new steps 04/19/2004 09:37 AM
CNET Apr 19 2004 2:15PM GMT

Teaching an Old Walkman Some New Steps

Teaching an Old Walkman Some New Steps 04/19/2004 01:29 AM
New York Times Apr 19 2004 5:53AM GMT

Walkman spawned a revolution

Walkman spawned a revolution 07/16/2004 08:16 AM
Chicago Tribune Jul 16 2004 12:30PM GMT
Grok Description matches for Sony hopes to set history with Walkman, again
GrokA matches for Sony hopes to set history with Walkman, again

Sony hopes to set history with Walkman, again

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