Sony adds wearable and high-res music players to its Walkman line
Still use a dedicated music player for listening on the go? Sony has two new options in its Walkman line that'll do just that, and the NWZ-WS613 takes the wearable player and has it double as a Bluetooth headset. Connecting to your smartphone lets you beam tracks or listen to tunes loaded directly on the device with a ring-like controller for controls and calls that won't break your stride. A smartphone app is also capable of tweaks and skipping around -- should you want to limit the number of items in that gym bag. As you might expect, the unit is indeed waterproof to keep the sweat at bay and connects to fitness apps to further enhance those workouts. Does the wraparound look sound like a solid addition to your exercise attire? Parting with $160 in October will secure one of your very own, but for those who'd rather keep the music player and headphones separate, there's an option for that, too.
High-resolution audio has been talked about a great deal lately in regards to new gadgets, and Sony's new Walkman music player continues to take aim there as well. The company claims its NWZ-A17 is the "world's smallest and lightest" device to sort such files, with support for WAV, AIFF, ALAC, FLAC and more baked in. For regular ol' MP3 and WMA files, DSEE HX upscales the tunes for higher-quality listening. There's 64GB of storage on board that's expandable via a microSD slot, and the gadget allows for up to 50 hours of regular and 30 hours of high-res listening. Bluetooth and NFC connectivity are included too, and the whole lot is accessed via a 2.25-inch QVGA LCD display. So what about loading the thing with music? It appears to be quite easy as drag-and-drop functions play nicely with iTunes on both Mac and Windows. Interested parties can grab one later this month for $300, and to tide you over, there's a closer look in the gallery that follows.
