walkman

Jasmine stifles yawns as Donald tries to convince her that, yes, there are worthwhile things to talk about today, such as Sony dropping the price of the 32GB X-Series Walkman to a level that it should have been at to begin with (yawn), and Microsoft announcing two new subdued colors for the Zune HD (yawwwwwn). Also this week, Donald reviews the Zoom Q3, a video recorder that's much more impressive for audio, and we answer some listener email about MP3 player life spans. Plus, some hard facts on wood enclosures.

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When we first heard about the MP3-playing Soundwave Transformer toy, our heads nearly exploded. We searched the Web for a place to buy it, we told everyone we knew about it, we hopped from foot to foot with excitement about it. We bounded out of bed to meet the postman first thing every morning until our Japanese import finally arrived. Then we played with it for about a day before it went in a drawer, never to be seen again.

Sadly, this sort of thing happens all too often. A new technology is talked up in swells of hype, anticipation, … Read more

The music may be horrible, but if you rub a tape head over these ties you can actually hear jumbled sound collages recorded from the NYC metro system. This is possible because the ties are 50 percent audio cassette tape.

If you have $90 to spend on one of the ties, and you are willing to sacrifice an old Walkman for the project, you can make this a fixture of your formal wardrobe. Of course, walking around with a broken Walkman asking every one to rub you with it is not recommended.

This story originally appeared on Gizmodo.

It was a sad day when I reviewed the second-gen Sony S-Series Walkman. We expected a worthy successor to this fantastic MP3 player and instead were met with a mere shadow of the device and its former glory. True, you still get top-notch sound quality, impressive battery life, and even the added bonus of external speakers, but what happened to my podcast support, upgraded headphones, expanded sound enhancement options, interface personalization, SensMe Channels, and Rhapsody DNA?

Well, most of those things got funneled into the "expanded" S-Series, the S640 and S740 lines, which--naturally--Sony has no intention of offering … Read more

The Sony Walkman outsold Apple's iPod in Japan last week, the first time in more than four years, according to a study by Japanese electronics research company BCN.

Sony's slice of the market for digital music players in Japan rose to 43 percent for the week ending August 30, narrowly beating Apple's 42.1 share. The survey didn't include sales results for the iPhone because that device also serves as a cell phone.

Sony achieved its victory through pure sales volume and number of players, said BCN. Apple's 8GB iPod Nano hit the top of … Read more

Sony had a major success with the launch of the S-Series Walkman in the fall of 2008. The company stepped up with a sleek and compact device that offered a bounty of useful features along with stellar sound quality and a fantastic battery life. As might be expected, when it came time for a second-gen model, we waited with bated breath, expecting something equally impressive or perhaps even somewhat improved.

Unfortunately, the exhalation of said breath has emerged as a disappointed sigh. Although the second-generation S-Series Walkman still offers top-notch audio and excellent rated battery life, Sony has hobbled the … Read more

Once again, Donald and Jasmine promise a "short one" and fail to deliver. How is it that just us talking about two devices manage to stretch on for the standard 30 minutes? We'll tell you: one of them inspires a lovefest that's saccharine enough to make your teeth throb, while the other throws Jasmine into a tizzy dripping with disappointment. This discussion on two new players--the Sansa Clip+ and the S-Series Walkman--is not to be missed. Also, the MP3 Insiders touch once again on the possibility of subscription music on the iPhone and iPod Touch.

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Yes, it's true: I've managed to get my grubby little mitts on Sony's new E- and S-Series Walkman MP3 players. How, you ask? I will never share my secrets...NEVER! OK, dramatics aside, it has been an exciting end of the week here at CNET, and one of many reasons for that will become apparent to you next week, so make sure you keep an eye on MP3 Insider.

In the meantime, I have a little something to titillate you: hands-on photos of the new Walkmans (Walkmen?). Also, a bit of information for you. You've probably … Read more

This week, Donald and Jasmine can't resist taunting the naysayers with yet more Zune and iPod talk, but we think you'll be interested to know that the Zune HD popped up with an app submenu during weekend demos at Best Buys across the country. And what does Microsoft have to say about that? We'll give you one guess. Also, Rhapsody gets down with the iPhone with a brand-new app that is yet-to-be-approved by Apple. Plus, we take a look at the upcoming E- and S-Series Walkmans from Sony and ponder the slow death of the Bluetooth MP3 player.

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