Sony NWZ-W260 Sports Walkman gets wet as you work out

You look like you work out -- what do you bench? When you're in the gym and you want to get your tunes on, the new water-resistant Sony NWZ-W260 Sports Walkman can spot you.

It's 25 per cent lighter than previous entries to the W series, wireless sporty Walkmans that clip round your ears then clip together when not in use. It lasts for eight hours when fully charged, which seems a bit unneccesary: the only time we've ever spent eight hours in a gym was when we got locked in the tanning booth overnight.

The newly-christened Sport Walkman is water-resistant so can cope with the sweat pouring from your forehead as you pound the treadmill or shock your guns. Sony reckons you can keep it on when you hit the showers, but warns that it's not suited to high pressure showers, continuous contact with water or contact with shampoo, face wash or soap. Which is fine by us, as our post-workout clean-up consists of a three-second flannelling in the nether regions, a pinch of talc front and back and four hours in the pub.

The Walkman syncs with iTunes, the PlayStation 3, or loads up tunes by dragging and dropping from your computer. It includes Zappin song searching, which plays you a bit of each song as you browse for a tune to pump you up and propel you through the pain barrier.

Sony has also announced two new music centres in the G series of mini hi-fis, the G2BNiP and G1BiP. Both include a DAB radio, and G2BNiP has Wi-Fi and AirPlay built-in so it will play back music from your iPad, iPod, iPhone or iTunes without wires or docking. It can even be controlled by an iPhone app.

Oh, and Sony has moved the volume control a millimetre to the right. Cheers for that.

Details of the G series haven't been confirmed yet. The NWZ-W260 Sports Walkman hits the gym in black or white, and begins its workout at the end of this month.