tagged w/ walkman
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Any music fan will have been somewhat heartbroken by this week’s news that Sony will no longer produce the cassette Walkman. Although most of us haven’t used a cassette player in years it was a defining piece of electronics that paved the way for the multimedia and multi-functional music players of today. It was undoubtedly the iPod of its generation. Take a trip down memory lane below to examine the evolution of music players over the last 50-odd years.
1954: The portable transistor radio
Back in 1954 the American company I.D.E.A. released the world’s very first portable transistor radio. The Regency TR-1 radio measured 3″ x 5″ x 1.25″ and featured an analog AM tuner. In a strange prediction of things to come (we are talking to you iPod), the Regency came out in a variety of colours over the years, ranging from a simple bone white to pearlescent lavender and lime. The TR-1 tuned stations by a simple gold dial and played through a low-fidelity monophonic speaker. It retailed for £32 ($49.95) back in the day, which would make it cost around £205 ($325) today.
1962: First ever portable stereo
The legendary Henry Kloss developed the very first portable stereo back in 1962 when he released the KLH Model 11, and has since created some of the most stunning and best sounding stereos in the world. The KLH Model 11 was the first transistorized stereo system, and featured a record player, amplifier and two speakers which all folded neatly into a “suitcase” for easy transportation. While the stereo only ran on A/C power, not batteries, it was still a milestone in the development of portable music players.
1964-1975: The 8-track portable stereo
8-track or Stereo 8 as it is also called was created in 1964 by a consortium led by Bill Lear of Lear Jet Corporation, along with Ampex, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Motorola and RCA Victor Records. Within a few years 8-tracks were commonly used in cars, home stereo systems and as portable style boomboxes but by the late 1970s the 8-track had been more or less killed off by cassettes.
1965-1980s: The portable cassette tape player
In 1965, Philips released the first ever compact cassette tape. Originally designed for recording dictations and other boring stuff, the cassette recorded up 45 minutes of sound on single 1/8-inch tape. To compliment Philps’ innovation in recording media, they released the battery-powered Carry-Corder 150 cassette recorder. It ran on 5 flashlight batteries and weighed in at over 3 pounds (fully loaded). Later, Mercury Records would release a selection of music on Philips cassettes for about $6 a piece. Cassette tapes would dominate the portable music world for the next 20 years.
1979: The Sony Walkman
Back in the 1970’s and 1980’s Sony was the king of miniaturization, and in 1979, they released the first truly self-contained portable music system, the TPS-L2 Walkman cassette player. The Walkman’s real innovation was its size, measuring only slightly larger than a cassette tape itself and unlike other cassette players you listened to it using headphones rather than via small loudspeakers. Operating on AA batteries, it ushered in a new era of portability. The original Walkman retailed for 33,000 Japanese Yen, which would be around £255 today. The Walkman went on to sell millions of units and spawned numerous variations and imitators for many years after its initial release; sadly it will no longer be produced.
1985: Sony Discman D-50
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A year after CDs were introduced Sony produced the first ever portable digital music player, the Sony Discman D-50.
Just slightly larger than a CD case, the player offered all of the great audio quality that digital recordings had to offer.
1992: MiniDisc
MiniDisc was announced by Sony in September 1992 and released that November for sale in Japan and December for the USA and Europe. MiniDiscs ended up being popular in Japan and Asia as a digital upgrade from cassette tapes, but didn't take off as much elsewhere. The actual disc is housed in a cartridge with a sliding door, similar to the casing of a 3.5" floppy disk. MiniDiscs can be recorded and edited very quickly even on portable machines.
1996 - onwards: The MP3 player
The world's first company to announce a portable MP3 player was Audio Highway who announced its Listen Up player on September 23, 1996. In 1998 the Rio PMP300 was launched by Diamond Multimedia and proved to be a huge success and lead to a high-profile lawsuit, but there was no stopping the popularity of the MP3 players from this point onwards and soon brands such as Creative were launching their players.
2001: The iPod
Apple introduced the first-generation iPod on October 23, 2001, with the slogan "1,000 songs in your pocket". The first iPod had a black and white LCD (liquid-crystal display) screen and featured a 5 GB hard drive with a rechargeable battery and was priced at US$399. It didn’t necessarily do that much differently under the hood from other MP3 players, but it had a sleek design, a unique and simple navigational system. Initially, the iPod only supported Macintosh computers, and the only way to get music tracks was to record from your own CDs or from (often illegal) downloads on the Internet. In 2003, Apple released iTunes and opened their iTunes store, which made it easy to purchase legal music downloads for just 99 cents a track. Shortly afterwards, they introduced a Windows-compatible version of their software. The iPod is now on it’s 7th generation and your bog standard iPod Classic has a 160GB harddrive, can hold 40,000 songs, have a battery life of 200 hours, and can play video, and it cost about £193.Any music fan will have been somewhat heartbroken by this week’s news that Sony... more
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http://anuglyamerican.com. This is a spoof, for fun! An Ugly American is proud to be an uninformed, rude, arrogant typical Ugly American, who comments on current events, politics and news. It’s fresh, it’s current and it’s funny! The retiring of the Walkmanhttp://anuglyamerican.com. This is a spoof, for fun! An Ugly American is proud to be... more
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After booting the floppy disk into touch earlier this year, Sony has now decided to retire the long serving cassette Walkman, after the final batch shipped to Japanese retailers in April, according to IT Media.
Once these units are sold, new cassette Walkmans will no longer be available through the manufacturer.
The first Walkman (which was called the Soundabout in the U.S., and the Stowaway in the UK) was released on July 1st, 1979 in Japan and it was the first affordable and truly portable music player.
It wasn’t an overnight hit though, it was largely panned by the media and only sold 3,000 units by the end of July. But Sony kept on pushing, targeting the Walkman toward the younger market and advertising it with younger pop stars.
By the end of August, sales increased 10-fold and later in the early 80′s it became the must-have item for everyone.
http://www.theblogismine.com/2010/10/25/sony-stops-selling-the-cassette-walkman-in-japan-after-30-years/After booting the floppy disk into touch earlier this year, Sony has now decided to... more
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Refurbished technology has come to be important for many reasons–amongst which are ecological and economic concerns–but many have considered the possibilities of utilizing this process for the sake of art. Artists and innovators have taken the old 1980′s technology and gadgets and turned them into something eye-catching and perhaps inspiring. Here are some brief examples of modern spins on outdated technology:
http://www.thebluedot.net/blog/2010/07/07/80s-technology-gets-a-new-look/Refurbished technology has come to be important for many reasons–amongst which... more
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jmsrmy
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added this
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2 years ago
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The Walkman is 30 years old today, but Sony (SNE) isn’t throwing the iconic gadget much of a birthday party. More of a somber memorial, really: There’s a special exhibit at Sony’s archive, but that’s about it.
Why so reserved? Maybe it’s because Sony is struggling through yet another restructuring, so a big party would seem inappropriate.The Walkman is 30 years old today, but Sony (SNE) isn’t throwing the iconic... more
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"When the Sony Walkman was launched, 30 years ago this week, it started a revolution in portable music. But how does it compare with its digital successors? The Magazine invited 13-year-old Scott Campbell to swap his iPod for a Walkman for a week."
The story certainly got me a bit nostalgic, mind you, i grew up in the late 80's early 90's, so my walkman days were quickly replaced with a discman (one that didn't have anti-skip of course).
Still a very interesting look at how kids of today would interact with technology of old."When the Sony Walkman was launched, 30 years ago this week, it started a... more
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It burst into our lives 30 years ago, letting us listen to music on the bus, out jogging and even - in the case of some naughty schoolchildren - under the desk.
But after being eclipsed by sleeker and more innovative competitors, the Sony Walkman is now staging a comeback.
A new model, called the X Series, is threatening to snatch the title of most acclaimed portable media player from Apple's iPod touch. It might look similar to its rival on the outside, but the X Series houses some cutting-edge technology.
It offers sharper pictures and video from its next generation OLED 3inch touchscreen, and incorporates digital noise cancelling technology which eliminates 98 per cent of background sound.
TV sets using OLED - organic light-emitting diode - screens have a contrast rating of 1,000,000 to one, which is ten times sharper than most LCD screens.It burst into our lives 30 years ago, letting us listen to music on the bus, out... more
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First the japanese gave us the Walkman, electronic pets and badly dyed and orange hair on asians... You would think that they could not top these exports but lo and behold....Super Pii Pii Brothers!
Women can now experience what its like to be a man and why men seem to always drip on toilet seats. I forsee greater understanding from the fairer sex coming from this game...thank you Japan.
For a more accurate representation, women should play on a full bladder.
"The play mechanics are simple. Prepare yourself by strapping on the included belt harness and jacking in your Wiimote. A series of toilets are presented on screen and the challenge is to tilt your body to control a never-ending stream of pee. Get as much pee in the toilets as you can while spilling as little on the floor as possible. Sounds easy eh? Well the toilets open and close whack-a-mole style and occasionally the stray cat or other cute critter pops up. Spray a cat for extra points. Get too much pee on the ground and your game is over. With realistic fluid dynamics for the pee and over 100 different bathrooms from bars and palaces to automatic Japanese style toilets you'll be entertained for hours. And wait until your friends see the multi-player mode with dueling pee streams..."First the japanese gave us the Walkman, electronic pets and badly dyed and orange hair... more
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dpark
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added this
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4 years ago
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Nifty new music playing phones from Sony Ericsson. One's super thin, the other is packed to the gills with features. Check out the video.Nifty new music playing phones from Sony Ericsson. One's super thin, the other... more
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nk
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added this
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4 years ago
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