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Walkman posts

Ears-on with Sony Ericsson MH907 Motion Activated Headphones

by Richard Lai posted Nov 4th 2009 at 11:25AM

What we have here today isn't just another pair of ordinary headphones: Sony Ericsson's MH907s are button-free, minimalistic headphones that activate upon the magical touch of your skin. Well, your ears to be precise. You must bear in mind that the MH907s are exclusive to Fast port-equipped Sony Ericsson phones thus excluding the forthcoming XPERIA X10 -- so chances are you're already not interested. That said, we shall see if Sony Ericsson is really going to change things forever with these gleaming buds featuring SE's SensMe Control technology, or by just stopping everyone from using their 3.5mm headphone jacks. Read on to find out how these €39 ($57) headphones fared.

Gallery: Ears-on with Sony Ericsson MH907 Motion Activated Headphones

Continue reading Ears-on with Sony Ericsson MH907 Motion Activated Headphones

Video: Sony NW-A840 packs OLED, noise cancellation, and 64GB of flash heat, still thinnest Walkman ever

by Thomas Ricker posted Sep 16th 2009 at 1:59AM

Sony's keeping the pressure on the dedicated portable media player market with the launch of its latest OLED Walkman. The NW-A840 series is the thinnest Walkman ever at 7.2mm and comes packing a 2.8-inch OLED display and up to 64GB of flash storage. The players also feature Sony's digital noise cancellation, premium MDR-EX300SL earbuds right in the box, and the ability to pump 720x480 pixel video out to your TV. Sony rates the battery at 29-hours of continuous music or 9-hours of video. The A-series ships in three models -- 16GB NW-A845 (¥24,000/$263), N32GB W-A846 (¥30,000/$329), and 64GB NW-A847 (¥40,000/$439) -- starting October 31st. Also available in black for those who detest downtown hipster-brown. Video preview after the break.

[Via Sony Insider]

Continue reading Video: Sony NW-A840 packs OLED, noise cancellation, and 64GB of flash heat, still thinnest Walkman ever

Sony Walkman S740 spied in Japan

by Thomas Ricker posted Sep 11th 2009 at 1:18AM

Sony has a new Walkman S-series device in the chute as demonstrated by this S740 model seen hanging out at the Sony Dealer Convention in Japan. Hard data is scarce but visually we can see a slightly tweaked industrial design with beefier earbuds and a lack of stereo speakers -- at least on the front. Otherwise, we're told that these will ship in 8GB and 16GB capacities.

Update: Looks like a few more images have leaked out -- it must be true, right? Thanks, Glenn!

Video hands-on: Sony's Walkman S-series is no Mickey Mouse audio player

by Thomas Ricker posted Sep 4th 2009 at 7:25AM

If you're in the market for a dedicated, easy-to-pocket audio player that can handle the occasional video then it's hard to beat Sony's new Walkman S-series of players. The latest Walkmans, priced at $110 (8GB) or $130 (16GB), are the first from Sony with integrated speakers and include a plastic kickstand in the box. As usual, the sound was excellent but Sony cheated a bit at its IFA stand by equipping the demo units with high-end Sony over-the-skull cans. Hey, whatever it takes, right? Nevertheless, Sony always bundles good-quality earbuds (MDR-E804Y in this case) with their gear unlike some other manufacturers who shall not be named. Switching between the stereo-speakers and headphones is as simple as throwing the physical slider along the right-side of the unit -- speakers that sounded pretty decent as long as your expectations are set appropriate to the unit's physical size. Video playback was fine but it's hard to be enthusiastic about watching anything other than very-brief clips on the S-series' tiny 2.4-inch QVGA display. But in a pinch, no problem. Plenty of pics in the gallery and a quickie video walk-around after the break.

Gallery: Video hands-on: Sony's Walkman S-series is no Mickey Mouse audio player

Continue reading Video hands-on: Sony's Walkman S-series is no Mickey Mouse audio player

Sony Walkman S Series puts on its game face for video promo

by Ross Miller posted Sep 4th 2009 at 2:13AM

It's not a hard-hitting impressions piece, but if you're seriously jonesing for some good ol' fashioned moving picture technology, here's your first taste of the Sony S Series Walkman in promotional video form, care of Sony Europe's marketing department. We learn it has speakers, it's thin, there's a long battery life, and you can record FM radio... but the things we really want to see, like the stand and its video playback prowess. Bummer, but hey, maybe we'll get our own hands on it later and find out then. Video after the break.

[Via Player Bites]

Continue reading Sony Walkman S Series puts on its game face for video promo

Walkman outsells iPod in Japan for first time in four years... but iPhone sales don't count

by Ross Miller posted Sep 3rd 2009 at 2:02PM

As with most accomplishments these days, we can't help but place a rather large asterisk next to Sony's award for managing to outsell the iPod lineup with its Walkman. According to Tokyo-based research firm BCN Inc., for the week ending August 30th, the Walkman series had a 43 percent share of the personal music player market versus 42.1 percent for iPods, marking the first time in four years that Sony's managed to get the upper hand. Got that? Good, now for a major caveat. For whatever reason, iPhones aren't considered part of the iPod line, meaning people who want the luxuries of the iPod touch and a wireless data plan aren't included in the survey. That's quite an omission -- the iPhone 3GS is currently the best-selling phone in Japan, after all -- and we gotta imagine it'd be more than enough to tilt the data in Apple's favor, even if you threw in Sony Ericsson's Walkman phones for good measure. But hey, it's still a feat in its own right, and Sony might as well celebrate while it lasts -- something tells us the gang in Cupertino has something up their sleeve soon.

Sony S and E Series Walkman players start officially rocking the tunes next month

by Tim Stevens posted Aug 25th 2009 at 6:51AM

We've been seeing Sony's S Series Walkman around the town since July, and Sony's finally seen fit to make it official, also introducing the slightly lower-rent E Series. Specs on the former are completely in-line with expectations, including a 2.4-inch QVGA LCD, FM tuning and recording, along with support for a suite of formats including MP3, protected WMA, AAC, H.264, and WMV. Again as expected it offers battery life of 42 hour hours when playing music through headphones and 6.5 hours of video, but what we didn't know was that when you're rocking it out boom box style through the integrated speakers that drops to 17 hours and five hours oh so respectively. A palette of colorful options including black, pink, violet, and red will be available, with an 8GB model going for $110 and 16GB for $130. If that's a bit too rich for you there's the 2-inch E Series, sporting a slightly smaller chassis, slightly lower battery life (30 hours music and 4 hours video), and a slightly lower price of $80 for 8GB and $100 for 16. Both ship next month.

Gallery: Sony S-Series Walkman

Sony S-Series Walkman lists itself on French retail site, just wants to be noticed

by Ross Miller posted Aug 7th 2009 at 7:17PM

That Sony S-Series Walkman we spotted a couple of weeks ago has reared its speaker grill-laden head once more, only this time in what looks like an accidental unveiling on French retailer Materiel's website. According to the specs list -- accompanied by some new official press shots that give us little reason to doubt its validity -- the 8GB NWZ-S544 and 16GB NWZ-S545 feature a 2.4-inch QVGA widescreen display, stereo speakers, a microphone, FM tuner, a Li-ion battery for a reported 42 hours of audio / 6.5 hours of video, and what appears to be a built-in stand for convenient video watching. Codec support includes MP3, non-DRM AAC, WMA, H.254, MPEG4, and WMV. No fanciful colors like in the first pic, we've only got black listed for now, to the tune of 129€ ($182) for the 8GB model and 149€ ($211) for 16GB. We're still waiting on Sony to fess up to the device, but really, it can't get much more official. A price and release date for US would be nice, though.

[Via Sony Insider]

Read - 8GB NWZ-S544
Read - 16GB NWZ-S545

Logitec introduces cross-eyed XY stereo microphones for your Walkman or iPod recording pleasures

by Tim Stevens posted Jul 30th 2009 at 1:54PM

The XY technique of placing two mics together, pointing in contrasting directions, gives excellent field separation while eliminating phase problems -- and it also looks pretty cool. Exactly which of those benefits Logitec had in mind when developing the LIC-WMREC03P (for Sony's Walkman) and LIC-iREC03P (for the iPod/iPhone) microphone attachments is unknown to us, but it certainly looks a fair bit more impressive than last year's LIC-iREC01. The devices have a frequency response of 20Hz to 16kHz, sport a pair of simple toggles for adjusting sound levels, offer 3.5mm and USB inputs, and come with a pair of wind socks if things get breezy -- or if they just don't look pudgy enough for you. Both are expected to hit Japan in January, each at an expected price of ¥7,980 (or about $84).

[Via Akihabara News]

Read - LIC-WMREC03P for Sony Walkman
Read - LIC-iREC03P for Apple iPod/iPhone

US Sony Walkman X-series unboxing and hands-on

by Nilay Patel posted Jul 27th 2009 at 2:56PM

After waiting what's seemed like an eternity, we've finally got our very own US-spec Sony Walkman NWZ-X1051. Just like the Japanese unit we toyed with a few months ago, there's no denying the sexiness of the hardware here -- the OLED screen is gorgeous, and the faux-granite shell is quite nice in person, lending the whole experience a nice solid feel. We just wish the gigantic FCC sticker on the back wasn't so nasty -- it's strangely cheap compared to everything else about the device. We're putting this thing through its paces and we'll have some more impressions in a bit, but for now check the unboxing and a quick head-to-head with the iPod touch in the gallery!

Gallery: US Walkman X-series unboxing and hands-on

8-track Walkman makes the 70's portable, more funky

by Vladislav Savov posted Jul 24th 2009 at 8:18AM

The evolution of portable music players toward greater storage in physically smaller dimensions is well known. Cassette tapes are now seen as a quaint anachronism from an era gone by, but what about the history that didn't happen? What about, specifically, the 8-track-playing Sony Walkman? Such are the questions that plagued the mind of one XenonJohn, who has spliced together the chunky beast you see above. Looking like something Maggie Thatcher might have used in her private moments, the portable (compared to, say, a fridge) device is composed of an audio amplifier from an old cassette tape Walkman and a dismantled car 8-track player. Another snap of the exposed components after the break, but if you must know how to recreate this great feat, or are just curious about the lengths people will go to in the pursuit of retro-glorious ideas, hit up the read link.

[Via Make]

Continue reading 8-track Walkman makes the 70's portable, more funky

Revamped Sony S-Series Walkman pops up in leaked press photos

by Ross Miller posted Jul 22nd 2009 at 3:24PM

The well-connected chaps at Sony Insider have it on very good word that the above press shot is showing what'll be a new addition to Sony's Walkman lineup, likely a revision to its popular S Series. Hard to tell scale, but looks like either the screen's gotten bigger or the device smaller. In addition to the four color options -- red, blue, pink, and just peeking in on the right, black -- there's also that perforated grill on the front, which we figure is a good sign of some speaker. Excited? Hold that thought -- according to the mysterious source, this PMP isn't scheduled for arrival anytime soon.

Sony Ericsson's 8.1MP C905a and W518a Walkman on sale at AT&T

by Darren Murph posted Jul 19th 2009 at 1:18PM

Don't act surprised -- AT&T already told you that these two would go on sale this fine Sunday in July, and lo and behold, the carrier looks to have kept its promise. Starting today (officially, anyway), customers looking for a camera that doubles as a cellphone or a Walkman that occasionally makes calls can bring home the C905a or W518a, respectively. As expected, the C905a (which is available in silver only) will run you $179.99 after rebate and two-year agreement, while the W518a (which arrives in any color you like, so long as it's black) goes for $49.99 under the same conditions. Any takers? Or are all you SE fanboys waiting to court Rachael?

[Thanks, Jazzdoc]

Keepin' it real fake, part CCXXVI: Soniphone C908 takes a little o' this, a little o' that

by Laura June posted Jul 16th 2009 at 11:32AM

Well, what do we have here? The Soniphone C908 is just a confused mishmash of branded signals -- Sony Ericsson is plainly visible across the top of the LCD, but a little Walkman branding was thrown in under it just for added fun. And, just in case you needed another, completely different reason to have your interest piqued, they threw in a wheel that is suspiciously iPod-like. This classy baby is undoubtedly worth every penny (it'll run you about $117 to grab one), if you decide you can't live without one. One more shot after the break.

[Via PMP Today]

Continue reading Keepin' it real fake, part CCXXVI: Soniphone C908 takes a little o' this, a little o' that

Sony Ericsson hand delivers 8.1MP C905a and W518a Walkman to AT&T

by Darren Murph posted Jul 15th 2009 at 10:42AM

While one could argue that Sony Ericsson should really be focusing its efforts on getting a Rachael / Android-based handset out on the double, it's evidently content with digging up a year-old phone, slapping an "a" on the end of it and passing it along to AT&T. The 8.1 megapixel C905 that we were so jazzed about in June of 2008 has indeed been certified for AT&T as the C905a Cyber-shot (left and center), offering the same 8.1 megapixel sensor, face detection, AutoFocus, Xenon flash, GPS tagging and 3G support. In related news, SE is also offering up the 518a Walkman (shown right) on the same carrier, which features a 3.2 megapixel camera, an obsession with Facebook, Shake Control and OTA music downloads from Napster and eMusic via AT&T Music. Both sets will be available on July 19th for $179.99 and $49.99 (respectively) after mail-in rebate and a two-year agreement, which sounds "way too high" and "too high" to us (also respectively).