Sony stick Walkman offers '3hr play from 3min charge'

[Bob Crabtree]

Sony's latest Walkman is a multi-format, USB stick player due to arrive at the end of April in three capacities (512MB, 1GB, 2GB) and claimed to offer three hours' battery life from a three-minute quick charge.

The E-series player is offered in six colours (pink, blue, silver, violet, black, and lime green) and in versions with FM radio - but only on 512MB and 1GB models.

As well as playing MP3s, the unit handles non-copy-protected WMAs and files in Sony's own ATRAC format. The Lithium-ion battery's claimed playback time is impressive - around 28 hours for ATRAC and 27 hours for MP3. Players come with the latest version of SonicStage - V3.4 - said to provide easy music management and transfer of tracks.

More in this HEXUS.headline.

[cptwhite_uk]

So basically for all intents and purposes an Ipod shuffle with a few extra features which probably aren't really important anyway.

I've been using my shuffle for a year and have not once had to need to charge it within 5 minutes in an "emergency". It's constantly partially charged and the battery indicator has never gone below green (good baterry life) despite the fact I seem to hardly ever connect it for charging.

FM radio ....does anyone actually use the radio function on an mp3 player?

Sony's own ATRAC format ....does anyone actually use that?!

I can't even be arsed to auto create ACC files when transferring to my shuffle....takes 3 times as long to transfer! ...I just bought the Anapod software so I can drag and drop mp3 files in about 3 minutes flat.

Now what someone really needs to develop is a base mp3 player that'll accept SD/duo memory cards...that could be interesting!

[davidstone28]

No screen......pointless.

Its quite amazing that the company that invented the Walkman, created huge brand value with the likes of Trinitron and a consumer association with high quality products, can drop the ball so badly when it comes to MP3 players.

Their strategy of trying to create proprietory formats such as ATRAC, Blu-Ray etc is a big big mistake in my view. Rootkits and DRM are just the icing on the cake....

[Stoo]

No screen......pointless.

Its quite amazing that the company that invented the Walkman, created huge brand value with the likes of Trinitron and a consumer association with high quality products, can drop the ball so badly when it comes to MP3 players.

Their strategy of trying to create proprietory formats such as ATRAC, Blu-Ray etc is a big big mistake in my view. Rootkits and DRM are just the icing on the cake....

Ahh, more unbased Sony bashing..

Well, given that the ipod shuffle seems to sell without having a screen, I can clearly see why Sony did the same. Most of it's other MP3 players do the job no more or less worse that anything else on the market, and certainly the iPods all have their own faults. Yes, the first generation of digital music players did require you to convert mp3's to ATRAC, but that's not been the case in a very long time now.

Blu-ray is not a proprietory format, it is maintained by the BDA (Blu-Ray Disc Association), which is comprised many different hardware manufacturers (Including: Apple, Dell, Hitachi, HP, JVC, LG, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, TDK and Thomson). It's no more a proprietory format than DVD is/was.

ATRAC was an offshoot from the MiniDisc, which was needed at the time to compress the information on an audio cd due to it's smaller size, Sony just continue to support it (is that such a bad thing?).

Before you even start on MiniDisc, that has it's own place at the time, when there was the need to replace the humble of compact cassette tape, the other format was the DCC, which didn't even enjoy the same success that MiniDisc did (admittedly mostly in Japan/Asia).

DRM is in pretty much everything regardless of manufacturer, and has been for a long time (even back in the VHS days which gave you nothing but snow if you attempted to copy a pre-recorded video using two tape decks).

Sony did not create the rootkit fiasco, that was from a 3rd party supplier, although to be fair, Sony didn't handle it in the best way to start with.

[kempez]

Well these look nice. FM stereo's a good one IMO and as long as the shuffle function does the shuffling right I'd be happy. My ipods on a continual shuffle anyway

These look nice but Sony's pricepoints usually put me off a bit.

And AAC saves a fair amount of space on my ipod plus my PC processes those buggers pretty fast anyway

[Swafe]

Wow amazing, the battery lasts forever

No wonder it has no screen :\ If it had a screen it wouldnt be half as impressive, I know, lets take out the headphone socket and get 4 hours playback from a 3 hour charge, people will deinfutly want that

[Norky]

I still use my iPod Shuffle almost every day for listening to podcasts

[TheAnimus]

I thought this had a screen?

The batterylife is impressive, but without a screen its pointless.

edit: yup has a screen:
Organic EL display with 1-line dot matrix

And yes, i still stand by the fact, that a player without a screen is absolutely stupid, and would be a good addition to my own style of alabama voting test (this time only against stupid people, rather than good old fassion racisim).

second edit:
WTF are people moaning about atrack for, its better than MP3 (which the player supports), some types of music its better than wma (which the player also supports). Heres hoping you don't have to use, sonicstage

[davidstone28]

Stoo

I like Sony products (or should I say, 'liked') and would like to see them get back to past glories but they've badly lost their way in recent years and their market strategies over the last few years leave me cold.

Blu-Ray is a Sony led creation. BDA is a Sony led political, vested commercial interests trade assocation. If they (and their partners) weren't so concerned with their own self-interest, commercial greed and licensing fees, we wouldn't be having a forthcoming formats war. Toshiba was happy to toss DVD to the masses, its a shame Sony can't follow their example. Its all bad for the consumer.

ATRAC/Minidisc, sure this will have its place in history but it merits no more than a footnote. It Sony had really wanted to implement this standard, they should have thrown this format to the masses rather than thinking that it could enforce a proprierty standard on everyone.

Rootkits - Sony made the decision to implement this. Its as simple as that. Their extremely slow response to extremely negative market feedback is another symptom of how they've lost their way.

[5lab]

'without a screen its pointless'

i disagree - my mp3 player has a screen - but i use it for the walk to work, and the walk home, i simply bung it on shuffle repeat and stick it in my pocket. do i need a screen? no. i can recognise the tracks in my library anyways..

[kempez]

'without a screen its pointless'

i disagree - my mp3 player has a screen - but i use it for the walk to work, and the walk home, i simply bung it on shuffle repeat and stick it in my pocket. do i need a screen? no. i can recognise the tracks in my library anyways..

Yep exact same thing here. If I don't fancy listening to a track I simply flick it onto the next one....without looking

[TheAnimus]

uc, i like to have a big mix of songs on my player, and as such i have a wide range of trakcs i'm not in the mood to listen too. Skipping through 1gig/2gig when only 10% of the content i'm in the mood for.

When you remeber that a screen like this costs at most £10, hopefully only £5 more. Its well worth it, even for simple navigation and option setting (ie album repeat).

[kempez]

uc, i like to have a big mix of songs on my player, and as such i have a wide range of trakcs i'm not in the mood to listen too. Skipping through 1gig/2gig when only 10% of the content i'm in the mood for.

When you remeber that a screen like this costs at most £10, hopefully only £5 more. Its well worth it, even for simple navigation and option setting (ie album repeat).

Don't buy it then. Buy something else...with a screen. I've said it before: there's plenty of choice out there for eveyone