http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/ Engadget Comments for http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/Feb 16th 2006 5:54PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/
"I got an iPod!"
"I got Nomad Zen!"
"I got a Bean..."]]>Feb 16th 2006 5:58PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/
I actually bought one for my girlfriend instead of a Shuffle.(And I still haven't gotten my birthday present after two weeks, but I digress)

1.) It's got a display therefore...
2.) you can navigate your playlist.
3.) The thing holds a ton of songs and has a long battery life.

The horror.

All the grips about sony's software is a little overblown IMO. Sometimes it helps to read the instructions so one knows exactly how to work a device....but maybe that's just me.]]>Feb 16th 2006 5:59PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/Feb 16th 2006 6:05PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/Feb 16th 2006 6:08PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/
I'd really like to see some sort of study to see what percent of iPod owners are actually playing DRMed files and what percent of people with PlaysForSure players are actually using DRMed files. I think the results might be a bit surprising to certain companies. ]]>Feb 16th 2006 6:09PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/Feb 16th 2006 6:16PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/
i went through 2 of these, first one didn't stay on after the charge, would only be on to charge and sync

second one the radio got stuck on a channel! wtf!!!

and then i kille dth ebattery from use and it WOULD NOT recharge

i'm so sorry i didn't read your review of this before e_e so very sorry, please help me, i now gotta get a third one, maybe, what a waste]]>Feb 16th 2006 6:36PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/Feb 16th 2006 6:45PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/Consumers are increasily avoiding proprietary formats, and Sony is the icon of such.]]>Feb 16th 2006 6:53PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/Feb 16th 2006 7:00PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/
1."Newsflash: UMD isnt Selling well."- Engadget
2.A "childrens" underpowered electronic toy beating (DS) their multi-media PSP (i myself like DS).
3.Their SonicStage sofware is garbage.
4. Their minidiscs are dead, along with jellybeans and walkmans.
5. PS3 is over hyped and will not deliver (in that size at least).

I used to be a big fan of sony and their cutting edge technology, heck i almost bought a $5000 television, a shelf system, and a minidisc player from them a two years back. I ende up with an ipod, no new tv, and a home theatre system for my tv. Theyre not looking too good economically and if their ps3 blu ray deal doesnt go down well, theyre toast. Plus, why didnt they just make it 8 or 6 controllers, they had to go with 7...]]>Feb 16th 2006 7:15PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/
Hope they will not understand and disappear forever.]]>Feb 16th 2006 7:18PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/Feb 16th 2006 7:19PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/
Here's a simple formula to compete with the iPod:

1. At least match capacity, sound quality, and price (Rio Carbon).
2. Match or have better batter life (Rio Carbon).
3. Have a logical interface (Rio Carbon).
4. Clean, simple design (Rio Carbon).
5. Mass storage compliant (Rio Carbon).
6. Play mp3 and window media audio files at least (Rio Carbon).
7. Forget about video and concentrate on the above for now, just like apple did for years.

To offer better value add any of the following:

1. Good FM tuner (some of the new SonyEricsson phones are good examples)
2. Play FLAC and/or other types of audio files.
3. Gapless playback between songs (Rio Karma).
4. Bluetooth 2.0 streaming audio (see forthcoming SonyEricsson unit for phones)

I realize I'm not a DAP engineer but you could literally put a new drive in the Rio Carbon and have about the most credible iPod alternative as is. Add a few of the other things and as far as an audio player goes is would likely be the best on the market. Too bad Rio's gone.

Jason]]>Feb 16th 2006 7:28PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/Feb 16th 2006 7:47PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/
The MiniDisc is HUGE in asia. There are just as many MiniDisc players STILL selling like hotcakes as there are MP3 players.

Get some knowledge of reality outside your bedroom, then you can mouth off with your degrees is pretend product analysys and shoddy business theories.]]>Feb 16th 2006 7:52PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/ It's not seven "controllers." It has seven Bluetooth slots. Therefore, you could have four controllers, a mouse, a keyboard, and something else connected. You can also use USB controllers. So not to worry, if you'd like to use more or less than seven controllers, you'll be able to.

Also, I bought my mom a Bean for Christmas, and she likes it very much. The battery life is superb, and the sounds isn't all that bad either. Really, SonicStage isn't that bad. It's only downside is that it converts songs to ATRAC a little slowly for my taste (which you don't have to do, but it helps with fitting more songs on the player). I myself own a PSP, and use the software to put songs on it very often. It's not nearly as buggy as it was two years ago.

Someone also said that you have to use a 3rd party application to put videos on the PSP, which isn't true at all. Sony has software that will convert pretty much any format of video you have and place it on the PSP. It's called PSP Media Manager, and it works very nicely. There ARE third party applications that do the job (and do it extremely well - PSP Video 9), but you don't have to go that route.]]>Feb 16th 2006 7:57PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/
Not that Sony is devoid of good products. Some of their TVs (especially the SXRD models) are great. A few people I know have the HC1 HD camera and love it. And the PSP is a technically excellent product, just not what the market wants at the moment.]]>Feb 16th 2006 7:58PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/Feb 16th 2006 8:04PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/
I'd rather my MP3 player have an attached USB than have to deal with yet another cord/dock cluttering up my life.

Also, I'm waiting for someone to figure out a way to build retractable headphones into their player.]]>Feb 16th 2006 8:15PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/
More important is that this is from a company that was making rootkit attacks on our computers with their DRMed "CDs" ... a total Sony boycott is a good way to voice your opinion on DRM.

Sony once made quite a bit of nice kit. They have fallen behind in many categories and choosing something else is very easy these days.]]>Feb 16th 2006 8:17PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/Jake: I thought Bluetooth can handle several devices at once, no?]]>Feb 16th 2006 8:21PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/
Secondly, why not make the device either mass storage compliant or write some simple software to integrate with the directories of an organised iTunes library? If you already use iTunes but don't want an iPod, wouldn't it be great to be able to use the directory structure that iTunes _automatically_ generates (hence no new 'updating' sofware or hours of manual labour required) as the navigational structure for your mass-storage compliant DAP?]]>Feb 16th 2006 8:30PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/Feb 16th 2006 8:31PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/Feb 16th 2006 8:42PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/
First UMD
Then The Bean
Next...PS3]]>Feb 16th 2006 9:17PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/you can takes all your rootkits prepryitry software and hardware - good ridance - poor customer service online MMO too]]>Feb 16th 2006 10:44PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/Feb 17th 2006 12:35AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/Feb 17th 2006 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/fckr,
The Bluetooth for the PS3 can handle 7 different devices. ]]>Feb 17th 2006 1:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/
Screw sonicstage!]]>Feb 17th 2006 4:18AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/
Sony i loved u for the MD, but now ur no use to me, ur MD sits on my shelf gathering dust! GET BACK ON TRACK, cos i ain't buying overpriced TVs, just DAPs!

*I hope they read this*]]>Feb 17th 2006 4:24AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/Feb 17th 2006 10:40AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/
What happened Sony? You're so different now... that sort of consumer-friendly product is exactly opposite of what you're doing now. Stop trying to force the market to do what YOU want... you're just not powerful enough anymore! With the exception of the Playstation, you killed your OWN brand names through shoddy products! And hell, my PS2 broke THREE damn times! I'm not the biggest fan of THAT brand either!]]>Feb 17th 2006 11:06AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/Feb 17th 2006 11:28AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/Feb 17th 2006 1:48PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/Feb 17th 2006 3:15PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/Feb 17th 2006 3:44PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/MD players where probably the last thing that Sony did well. Then they shot themselves in the foot trying to follow Apple.

NW-HD1 was a pile of cr*p. You'd think that they would have learned from their mistakes. Oh no, they followed this up with the equally bad NW-HD2. They must have thought they were on a roll, because they even went as far as the NW-HD3.

Sony used to be the big king of tech stuff. Thank god that era is over. Apple burn't them, Motorola will bury Sony Ericsson and Samsung are going to put the final boot into them, that is unless their own stupidity gets them first.

I used to buy nothin' but Sony. Now they are the last port of call.

Oh I nearly forgot, Sonicstage and Connect. GIVE IT UP ALREADY!!!!]]>Feb 17th 2006 4:27PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/
SONY U BETTER B READING THESE POSTS!]]>Feb 18th 2006 1:52AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/-------------
So is MP3. Only more popular proprietary. http://www.mp3licensing.com/royalty/
A quick glance there will leave u with no doubts.

For what it's worth, for Hi-MD (ie. the updated MiniDisc so few talk about), Sony allows you to record and play back in (lossless) linear PCM. Apple doesn't. Apple has their own proprietary format and aren't really recording devices.

DVD is proprietary too. And so is virtually every other format out there, including CD.

People seem to love widely-supported proprietary stuff. They don't really care if it's proprietary or not, or who's paying what fees. As long as they have support. Companies love to collect royalties on their proprietary IP. The companies behind superior open-source lossy codecs like Ogg Vorbis and superior lossless codec FLAC actually don't charge any per-unit royalties for implementing their formats in devices and software. Just making that distinction.

Of course we'd all love Sony to drop the embarrassing SonicStage. But the same can be said for iTunes. Apple doesn't let you copy files from the unit to your computer. Only computer to unit. Third-party freeware has to do what Apple doesn't let you.

At least with SonicStage 3.4, you can do that (if using Hi-MD).]]>Feb 18th 2006 4:09AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/
But call me lazy if you must. I can't find any official confirmation about this hot potato.

Best to all,
Ken Jones]]>Feb 19th 2006 5:01PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/ "Secondly, why not make the device either mass storage compliant"
Please take time to read up or use a product before baselessly slandering it. The bean is mass storage compliant. I use it for my MP3's as well as my work backups.
In fact I bought the Bean as a replacement for my Apple iPod. I had owned my 3G iPod for almost 2 years and now it's toast, yellow, and the backlight bleaches the screen to an unreadable state, not to mention it's now-5-minute battery life.
I've had my Bean for 3 months now and it's as great as it was when I first bought it. I don't have to carry around any spare cables, plus there is no delay when navigating through the simple menu system to play my music.
Also i'd like to add:
1) Purchase music from iTunes
2) Burn to CD
3) Import as MP3's via iTunes or Sonicstage.
4) Copy to device.
...and don't start on "it's a waste of cd-r's" as i'm more than happy to burn a cd of 10-12 tracks that I have paid money to download, i'm sure other people are too.
The Bean may be dead, but I love it.]]>Feb 26th 2006 3:42PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/Now, a few years after its release mines broke and I was searching for the exact replacement. Shame they quit with the Bean.

-DP]]>Apr 8th 2008 7:04AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/
No, this is not an isolated event, just do some research like I have, you will find that they are horrible products. My advice.... buy something that isnt made by sony. ]]>Mar 18th 2006 9:03PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/
you* (end of month) : OH SHAT! i spent 200! on music!

Me* (end of month) : ok time to pay for internet fees!]]>May 19th 2006 6:09PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/My Sony Bean has a flimsy USB door that doesn't click shut very well....does anyone else have this problem?? I heard it might be a flaw, so just checking...]]>Jun 12th 2006 7:34AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/Jun 12th 2006 3:34PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/16/sony-kills-walkman-bean-after-failure-to-sprout/Jun 16th 2006 5:34PM