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08 Sep 2005
As Steve Jobs was launching Apple's latest music products, and the critics were having a field day, Sony has relaunched its classic Walkman brand for the digital age.
Sony's new digital music player is named simply 'Walkman' and comes with 20GB and 6GB hard drives, and has two new shuffle functions very similar to the iPod operating system.
By selecting 'My Favorite Shuffle' the device automatically selects the 100 most listened to songs and plays them at random.
The 'Time Machine Shuffle' function randomly selects a year and plays all of the songs from that year currently held on the device.
It also features an 'Artist Link' function that searches every artist, album and song stored on the device, and offers suggestions of artists and bands closely linked to the genre of music being played at the time.
The devices have OLED displays (2in on the 20GB version and 1.5in on the 6GB model) and a four-way directional button. The 20GB Walkman can store around 5,000 tracks.
Smaller models will offer 2GB, 1GB and 512MB storage on flash memory cards.
Sony is in talks to offer songs on Apple's iTunes online store in Japan and currently offers access to its own Connect catalogue of one million tracks.
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Do you agree?
what????!!!!
no way is da sony bttr dan da ipod, dnt chat like dat, it aint got as much as my ipod video nd it lks like a pbble. u used literally, im using nevr!!!!
Posted by: steve 20 Dec 2005
Literally?
"Yes, literally" it will be an iPod killer? Do you know what literally means? It means as stated, actual fact. So, you mean that literally, the new Walkmans will jump out and attack iPods they pass on the street? Or will there be some kind of electronic signal from a Walkman that erases the hard disk of iPods within 100 feet? I was hoping this trend of misusing "literally" when you actually mean just the opposite was over!
Posted by: grammar geek 09 Sep 2005
What about the Creative Zen Touch
The creative player should on paper walk all over the Ipod, but it doesn't because despite being aurally superior it hasn't had the marketing that Ipod has. Ipod has become a fashion statement and even Sony are going to struggle to overcome that.
Posted by: Nelly 09 Sep 2005
Oooo...aaaah
Wow. How revolutionary. Always on the bleeding edge, that Sony. iPod killer, indeed. Give me a break.
Posted by: S O Sad 09 Sep 2005
iPod killer? Oh please... we are in 2005!
It must be the 10th time that Sony relaunches the Walkman series as mp3 players, pretending it will be an iPod killer. (Yes literally) What is different this time? Essentially nothing. It doesn't matter that some critics slams the iTunes phone. It's obvious that Apple wants to sell iPods, not phones made by another company. The phone is "just in case". The iPod nano is like 1/3 of the volume of these Sony players, and got a high resolution LCD color screen. Couple that with the iPod phenomenon, and the nano will eat Sony's so called "iPod killers" for breakfast (and still retain its slim shape). I'm not saying that these are not good or cool looking Sony players, but please stop using "iPod killer" to describe these. Ken, you'll have to accept that the iPod phenomenon is greater than the sum of its parts, like it or not.
Posted by: Moon Lander 09 Sep 2005
Sony, the Microsoft of music devices
what, another proprietary device from sony, if I bought a digital music player, I would buy an ipod but I dont listen to that much music to justify the purchase.
Posted by: tom 09 Sep 2005
I'm tired of that title
Every time someone comes up with a product to compete with an Appple product, iPod/Mac or what ever, they call it an xxx-Killer. Oh BS! How about calling Linux a Windows Killer. How about calling a Sun Spark system an IBM killer. How about calling a new sandwich at BK a MacDonalds killer... Give it up. iPod is on top and is made by the best company. No one has ever "killed" Apple.
Posted by: Kort 08 Sep 2005