Sony's
Walkman series of media players has done its best to keep stride, stuffing in new features and design refinements over the years, but touchscreen-dominated players are
clearly in vogue, and it looks like the company is finally ready to break down and get touchable. According to the Sony stalkers over at Sony Insider, there will be 16 and 32GB touchscreen Walkman players at CES 2009 this coming January. The literal and figurative centerpiece is to be a 3-inch OLED display (possibly that 3.3-inch panel making the rounds, or something more Sony specific), running a touch interface with many similarities to the current Walkman players. Also slated for inclusion is WiFi, enabling a YouTube app, over the air podcast downloads, built-in access to
Amazon's MP3 store and an unspecified web browser. The shots of the player above are obviously mockups, and the real hardware is supposed to have physical music control buttons -- and hopefully hold to some sort of reality-based conception of scale. All this info is exclusive to the Sony Insider ninjas, so we can't vouch for its veracity, but it's an obvious and welcome move from Sony, so we won't look a gift rumor in the mouth.
posted Dec 12th 2008 12:36PM
that looks really small based on the lower hand.
All this proves is that APPLE is the standard. Apple has been the standard since the launch of the first IPODS and is not setting the standards for computers. Sony in my opinion will create a product that will be comparable to Apple, but It wont hurt IPOD Tounch sales at all.
http://www.rockandreview.com
Blah blah blah Apple blah blah blah Microsoft blah blah innovation blah blah evil corporation blah blah blah iPhone blah blah blah fanboys.
There, I did it for you all. Now you all don't have to.
So Apple set the standard on rectangular screens that have touch capability?
What about every other device that has an LCD screen, or the plethora of other touchscreen PDAs that came out years before Apple shat out the iphone/ipod touch.
Get a clue seriously.
I REALLY want a good Walkman and something small, sleek and with 32GB is more than I expected (but what I dream of)!
While I use and love the iPod for it's ease of use and interface (on both the player and iTunes), I really miss the audio fidelity and quality Sony's Walkmans (and MiniDisc mans for those of you 4 others who used them) had. The iPod, especially when you use the EQs, leaves much to be desired in terms of audio fidelity and quality.
@Charles:
No, Apple is not the standard. It's just a marketing hype. I am an audio/recording engineer and I use Apple products too. I just returned my iPod for a Sony Walkman despite I have purchased a lot of music from iTunes Store. The reason? AUDIO QUALITY.
Ever noticed that when you crank up the volume on an iPod the audio gets all distorted even though the source never hit 0db to begin with? And no matter HOW you adjust the EQ it's not going to help.
Let's face it, Apple has failed in terms of audio quality and signal processing. Crank the volume (gain) up high and it starts the distortion; totally useless and pointless equalizer that will cause the distortion at first place, let along the customization.
It simply sickens me when I walk by and get blasted with completely distorted waveform they call "music" that comes out of the crappy headphones they wear. Sony includes a high quality set of in-ear buds that produces great audio, compare to the standard ear buds Apple included in their products, Sony's earbuds simply out performs Apple's "trash" if you will.
On the other hand, Sony's signal processing is way superior. Dynamic normalizer (compressor/limiter/expender, or the "Dynamic Trio"); fully customizable equalizer that will not produce a SINGLE distortion no matter how high you crank the gain up with the same source file compare to iPod; among with many other audio signal processing. It is simply superior.
If Apple fixes and enhances the audio quality and signal processing with their iPod and includes at least better headphones, then I will go back to iPod so I don't have to strip the DRMs off the tracks I bought.
I like the form factor. But I hope they kept the XMB interface. I love that more than any other interface I've used. I'd rather have XMB and no touch, over touch with no XMB... though both together would be win. Can't stand the iPhone-style, Windows-inspired interface (just a desktop with icons). I freakin' hate that setup. Give me a nicely organized categorical list.
Yeh, it is small. Small to match it's future total sales and the brains of those that buy it. If it's not an Apple iPod, what's the point. It might as well be a Zune. Only some anti-iPod dork would buy it just BECAUSE it's not an iPod. Rather buy sh*t, than be called a sheep. Am I right? I recommend you buy the Walkman and keep it for yourself, because if you give it as a gift next Christmas, someone is going to be mighty disappointed it isn't a real iPod, but instead a pseudo, knock-off wannabe music player with a name that used to be popular in the 1980's.
Best on the market? Even in Japan, they'd rather carry an iPod than a Walkman. OMFGWTFROFL. A Walkman, puhleeeese and photoshopped, at that. No wonder Sony sales are dropping. Walkman =ごみ
Ha Ha Ha! Yet another dream of iPod killing?!! Another trash, another toy and another scandal? WHEN WILL YOU UNDERSTAND YOU CAN NOT COMPETE WITH APPLE? DO NOT FOLLOW APPLE LIKE A LITTLE PIG sony. Go and fix your battery problems, BD player problems and big trouble of falling PS3 and tens of other f**king rubbish products.
This is what I always wished the iPod Touch would look like, so I won't rip on the design, but the feature list is a total copy of the Touch's.
Just replace "Amazon's Mp3" with "iTunes' AAC" and that list would be word for word what was available on the Touch exactly over one year ago. Is that a bad thing? I don't think so, but it could use a touch of originality (forgive the pun).
CJ, your just obsolete.
your comments are just stupid and not needed.
why don't you go join that traveling homo circus?
i guess it's because your neither gay nor hos enough to do it.
your a loser.
as for the sony product, i know from actually using it at a demo it is a solid piece of gear.
that being said, it will indeed forever be a me-too product with a couple of new features.
everyone knows iPod set the standard for MP3 players, just as iPhone set the standard for smart-ish, touch-screen phones.
that's does not mean others can't or wont follow suit, but does indeed prove Charles' point.
so, CJ go suck on yourself or do you need a teet to cry on?
Looks small.
thats what she said
It maybe small, but it's very user-friendly.
"It maybe small, but it's very user-friendly."
That's was she also said.
That's because it's fake. Photoshopped. Clearly.
That's what she said too? O.o
Goatee man you are an obnoxious pratt
Kilgore, I have no absolutely idea who you are or what you're on about, but you may want to re-read your comment and the only other one I left on this page. You have me confused with someone else, perhaps? So it goes, I suppose.
I really doubt she had that much to say.
maybe a giant is holding it.
How ironic that you failed to spell Pâté.
please build a walkman that i can pirate media on through the wifi
bittorrent, gnutella, and other p2p
who needs itunes store when you have everything-free store
MUSIC POLICE NOTIFIED:
IP and home address logged. A patty wagon will soon arrive are your residence, please do not leave while we attempt to arrest you. Thank you.
DRM free- pleeeeease
Wait. Patty-wagon? When it gets to your place, can you grab me a bouble burger with cheese, no onion?
Mobile beef service, now that's the wave of the future.
Why in the hell didn't anyone tell me there were patty-wagons? now i never have to leave my cubicle!!
Wow those things are really small plus a touch screen. I'm not big on mp3 players but that actually looks intresting enough to buy. But I'm sure the price will make consumers mad.
I'm happy to see something new like this for once. If only iRiver or Cowon went at it with DAPs again like in 2003 then that'd be even sweeter.
Um, Cowon S9?
Sony can really make this a winner though, unless the price is much higher than the ipod touch.
"The literal and figurative centerpiece is to be a 3-inch OLED display (possibly that 3.3-inch panel making the rounds, or something more Sony specific), running a touch interface with many similarities to the current Walkman players. Also slated for inclusion is WiFi, enabling a YouTube app, over the air podcast downloads, built-in access to Amazon's MP3 store and an unspecified web browser."
I bought a Cowon D2 recently after using a Sony S series for a while because I wanted to try out the touch interface. I still miss the Sony interface a lot though. It just had so many useful design features that made it such an awesome UI. I just hope they implement the web browser well. I've been looking for an ipod alternative in terms of a good media player with wifi, and this just might be the answer.
Talking about DAPs that people actually *care* about.
Please Sony Ericsson, add a phone to it and make it just a little bit bigger.
Do Sony mp3 players still use horrible software, or do they now support drag and drop?
They are now drag and drop. But still tied to SonicStage in Japan!
Ouch. SonicStage was the reason I stopped buying Sony. Good to see they have (mainly) moved on.
Has been drag & drop for two generations now (S61x, A81x and now A82x, E4xx and S63x)
in the us, their latest players dropped sonicstage and are compatible with windows media player
Isn't the term Walkman a little dated? When I hear that phrase I think of my big stack of ace of base casett tapes and cheap sony headphones.
Yes, changing the name to iWalk or something would totally make the name awesome.
/sarcasm
These days, Walkman is just used as a brand name. I had a Sony Walkman CD player about 6 years ago, and a Walkman HD-based mp3 player a couple of years ago.
The MP3 player was great, actually. It had a feature like Genius long before Apple had it, and it looked nicer than any iPod. It's just the iTunes-equivalent software (known as CONNECT Player), really sucked big time. From what I hear, Sony have dumped it and gone to just drag-and-drop.
So does everybody, I think that's one of the many reasons why Sony's MP3 players have such a small market. They need to give up on the Walkman branding, it is permanently burned onto the public's subconscious as a synonym for "Cassette Tape Player"
If they're making the above device as a direct iPod Touch competitor, which is what it sounds like from the description, the timing is ripe to invent a new product name.
Yeah, Walkman is Sony's brand name for portable music players. They started with the casette players and managed to transfer the brand to CD players, but so far haven't done a very good job getting people to recognize their MP3 players as part of the Walkman brand. As with so many other Sony products *cough* PS3 *cough* Sony fails to really advertise their MP3 players.
Its too bad too, because their MP3 players are some of the best on the market IMO. Now that they've ditched SonicStage and lowered their prices, they should be doing a lot better than they are. However, per Sony's usual MO, the touch screen Walkman will probably be awesome, but double the price of an iPod touch, guaranteeing that no one but die-hard Sony fans will buy it.
What I want to see from sony is the Walkman 20th Anniversary Edition; A fully capable touchscreen player, with all the latest technology, just really thick and with big clunky playback buttons!
Aren't the names Windows, Mac, Mustang, Challenger, Camaro etc a little dated then? When I hear Walkman I do think of cassettes etc but also in general just music on the go, which is a good image to invoke.
@Nugent,
Why do you think this will cost double the price of their competitor. I have a S639 16GB which is easily the most value for money DAP. £88 for 16GB S639. On the other hand the iPod Nano 16GB costs £145 here.
"Aren't the names Windows, Mac, Mustang, Challenger, Camaro etc a little dated then?"
Those names have all been in continuous use with regular product updates every year or so since they came out. Sony ditched the Walkman brand in the 90's in favor of "Discman," which immediately made everybody think of Walkman as outdated technology. It feels old because it skipped a generation.
Touchscreen, YouTube, AmazonMP3, and an unnamed Web Browser? Could this be Sony's first Android device?
Slap a sim card slot in there. I'd use that as a phone in a heartbeat. A touchscreen phone that doesn't take up my entire pocket? Sold!
You know, you might be on something here. With the inclusion of a web browser, Amazon MP3 store, etc, it's like the prefect description of Android. However, it could be Sony's own web browser that they use in PSP/mylo/
How do you put your casettes in it though? This is an imposter Walkman.
Based on the size of the thing, I reckon you can only use the answer machine cassettes.
Dont worry so much. It's a SONY. They will invent a new format (digital answering machine tapes with atrac files on them) and then no one will use it. I think it should be called the UMC or universal mini cassette.
I guess it will use the netfront browser like the ps3,psp does
Who needs an aliminum manufacturing process when you can have something made with ms paint?
That thing looks like it's drawn in MS Paint. Especially the side profile.
It does look like a bad photoshop! I call fake...
Was just about to call it The MS Paint DAP.
I would've at least used the same hand in both pictures...
thank you hunter. i was loosing faith in humanity reading the comments "it looks so small." for christ's sake, the top image is just a RECTANGLE. i thought it was immediately obvious.
Yeah and a very old version of paint...
System Requirements:
User must be a cartoon character.
Wait, you mean Sony's going to produce a device that lets us listen to music without converting to some worthless proprietary format?
Looks like there's a cold front moving in over Hell...
What's especially funny about your comment is iTunes insistence that you should move your entire collection over to .aac, a proprietary Apple format that many players don't support because they have to pay Apple for the 'privilege' of using their low quality file type.
Just put Android on it, develop a really nice music player interface for it, and then be the first device to seriously compete with the iPod Touch.
Yes, it's the lack of a touchscreen that's preventing the Walkman from not sucking.
You realise that the current Sony players are amongst the best on the market? Sounding better than iPods, looking better than iPods, and having better format support than iPods...
http://www.anythingbutipod.com/archives/2008/12/top-5-mp3-players-of-2008.php
Jake,
There are no problems with the way the iPod sounds, the way it looks, or the formats it supports.
There are, however, serious problems with Sony's software if you have anything but a trivially small music collection. The link you provided doesn't mention a thing about software, which shows just how clueless the anything-but-ipod community is.
Darren: That's because all the new Walkmans support Drag-and-drop.
I'm not suprised that you've never heard of it, it's a relatively new system, and it's not very popular at the moment. But it's gaining in popularity and- OH WAIT.
You can use drag-and-drop and Songbird (Open-source iTunes alternative) and the new Sonicstage isn't that bad after Sony moved to MP3
There are a lot of people that don't want to be a sheep and have an iPod. Zune, Walkman, etc are good alternatives, and no they don't 'suck', Apple's DRM does.
CJ, if you think drag-and-drop is a reasonable way to manage a large music collection you're in no position to make recommendations on music software.
Temple, it's not about being a sheep, it's about using the best software for the job. It's only music! How many concessions you've made in your quest to not be a sheep? iTunes plays and organizes *your* music. If *your* music doesn't have DRM then iTunes doesn't have DRM. And it's getting harder and harder to buy music that isn't DRM-free.
I migrated my music collection from a custom Linux jukebox solution into iTunes 4 years ago because it was absolutely the best software for managing a large music collection. Since then I've seen nothing but a long parade of iTunes clones of various bugginess. And since then Apple have released a number of rather compelling devices that just so happen to sync perfectly with my music collection.
Like I said, don't like drag-n-drop or a normal filesystem, you can use Songbird. Its actually better then iTunes. You can even add add different stores other then iTunes to the interface (you actually have a choice of where you want to buy music from) - plus its built off Firefox and runs on any OS.
Even Sony, that Sony, is moving to DRM-free Amazon MP3. What does that say to you about Apple?
If you like iPods, then great, but there are a lot of people that would prefer something else. Really, there are NO concessions, you would know that if you actually had any experience on the products you are trolling on.
Temple,
Just by saying you're not want to be a "sheep" means you're more interested in optics than in software quality, so please spare me your advice on music software. You're just not qualified.
I've used Songbird. It's a buggy iTunes clone. There is absolutely no compelling reason to waste your time with it unless you're trapped in Linux.
@Darren: You buy your music?!?
How 1980's..
@ Darren
Perhaps 'sheep' is a poor choice of words when a 'troll' is more adequate. Its somewhat rich you call me not 'qualified' when clearly you know nothing about what you are talking about. First off, Songbird is far from buggy since 1.0, and not only can you use drag-n-drop, sonicstage, or songbird, plus others, but you Walkmans have been compatible with Windows Media Player as well; same as the Zune. In fact, you have you your choice of any music software you want to use.
Darren is just an idiot. He ignorantly implied that you had to use Sony software with their media players, when this hasn't been true in the past few years. Now he's back-pedalling so he doesn't look stupid, but in fact it's having the opposite effect.
"There are no problems with the way the iPod sounds"
Listen to a Cowon player through a decent sound system then come back here and honestly say there's nothing wrong with iPods... you can even listen to the iPod through the same system and there is a world of difference. SanDisk, iRiver, Cowon, Samsung, Sony, Meizu, Creative and Trekstor beat iPods sound quality hands down, no contest whatsoever.
"the way it looks"
Very, VERY subjective but personally I just don't get along wtih iPods styling, to me it's the epitome of bland and generic styling.
", or the formats it supports."
Unless you actually want good quality sound of course... even cheap players from Sandisk come with .FLAC and .OGG support yet Apple still can't integrate these free open source, better alternatives?
Hey Darren:
Guess what, if you have a drag-and-drop player, you can use WMP11, 10, and 9 (if you're feeling nostalgic) to create and maintain music libraries, similar to iTunes, but without the whole 'you need to keep it on this computer. ONLY THIS COMPUTER' thing.
Hell, use Winamp, or Songbird, or a half dozen other music archiving programs.
I'll stick with the superior touch, kthx.
ripod rucks
lol.
real clever, trevor.
i pray that didnt rhyme on purpose...
I think they're hanging on to the "Walkman" name because everyone's heard of it and associates it with music.
They can build off that when marketing it. All they have to do is slightly change the public perception of what a walkman is.
If they dont screw this up it could give the ipod touch a run for its money.
Looks like a LG Prada with the branding removed and then badly photoshopped into a hand.
Where does the Memory Stick go?
I'm not sure, but the box says there's a video tutorial on the included memory stick.
Hey, I don't see a slot for the MiniDisc....
We need touch screen players that exceed 32gb! c'mon
Aw crap. Double burger, not bouble. The bouble burger will blow my diet.
double-crap for this not threading to my original smartass remark. Down-mod as you see fit.
This design with Android on it and I would definitely buy it.
I really like the size from a portability/pocketabilty perspective, yet I’m worried about the touch screen. Even someone with normal sized fingers might have a hard time navigating. I guess it would be hard to have both :/
Dear Sony/Other PMP makers:
How about some frickin' bluetooth.
Sincerely,
The Customer
Dear Xanatos451:
We already have bluetooth, spend less time complaining and actually researching our products.
Sincerely
Sony/ A bunch of other audio players.
The Walkman brand name has been around forever. Here's a quick history of the Pressman/Walkman
In 1978, Masaru Ibuka requested that Kozo Ohsone, general manager of the Tape Recorder Business Division, begin work on a stereo version of the Pressman, the small, monaural tape recorder that Sony had launched in 1977
On June 22 1979, the Sony Walkman was launched in Tokyo. Journalists were treated to an unusual press conference. They were taken to Yoyogi (a major park in Tokyo) and given a Walkman to wear. According to Sony, "The journalists listened to an explanation of the Walkman in stereo, while Sony staff members carried out various demonstrations of the product. The tape the journalists were listening to asked them to look at certain demonstrations, including a young man and woman listening to a Walkman while riding on a tandem bicycle."
By 1995, total production of Walkman units reached 150 million and over 300 different Walkman models have been produced to date.
Anyway, my Walkmans, in all their various forms throughout the years have never failed me. From my first one, a yellow brick, Sony Sports Walkman in '92, to the full logic Walkman, to my MD player, and CD Walkman, to finally what I have now, my Sony Walkman MP3 Player. I still have all of them, and they all still work.
Well done Agent 25; your check is in the mail.
wow.,wonder if this the itouch killer.,if i buy this will i be considered a sony fanboy.,???
I'll bet Sony execs are still kicking themselves over going with the craptacular Connect and SonicStage software pushed by the outside development team they hired, which succeeded in killing off the Connect Store and the ATRAC format, both of which had real potential and an Apple competitor, at least on technical merits, branding, and early entry into the marketplace.
Include a FM tuner and I'll be in line to pick this up.
Seriously. Portable radios are still awesome.
16 and 32GB only, in 2009? When are these going to be actually released? All Apple needs to do is cut their Touch prices, and bam, nobody will care about Sony anymore (except the fanboys). Not saying Sony walkman are bad, but Sony always late in the market, always a step or two behind the capacity range, and their announcement to actual release date sometimes is too long for people to actually care. Oh, and I bet there is going to something that is Japan only. This another cr@p about Sony, no uniform hardware lineup, every country seems to be getting different devices, with Japan usually getting the special treatment.