[BC] Digital Walkman?

[Barry Mishkind]

At 06:41 PM 1/8/2006, Xmitters at aol.com wrote
>So my question to the group is, is that Walkman by chance an IBOC capable
>Walkman or is it, Gasp!, Sirius/XM only? We were 
>discussing portability here not
>long ago, and I thought the consensus was that 
>an IBOC receiver draws too much
>power to be portable. Have things changed for the better in this regard for
>IBOC, I hope, I hope?
>
>Maybe Barry saw this Walkman at the recent CES and maybe could comment.

         Jeff,

         I did wander the Sony booth a bit, but really wasn't
         impressed.  Sure, the Sony Walkman NW-A1000 is a
         6 GB HD based digital machine.  (One wonders what
         copy protection schemes lurk!)  However, there are
         literally hundreds of other MP3 players and ipod clones
         and clonettes shown this week, of all sizes shapes and
         price levels.  What to start a business?  Import and
         sell MP3 players that fit in your ear, your pocket, or
         using Wifi, any other place you wish to put it.

         But this is a digital MUSIC PLAYER.  No radio in the
         unit I saw.


         When you get down to it, most of these units are
         too small to have any useful antenna (except,
         maybe, the earbud wires). Hence radio is not
         a strong feature, and most of these units don't
         work real well unless you are right by a
         station.

"The Walkman is, unsurprisingly, at its best 
playing Sony?s own music compression format, 
ATRAC3Plus, but will happily play MP3 files too ? 
they just don't sound quite as good. WMA files 
are dealt with by the Connect music management 
software, which converts them as it transfers 
them from your PC to the Walkman. Ask it to play 
DRM files, though, and you?ll be in for a big 
disappointment. It will only play rights-managed 
files downloaded from its own music service which 
will be a show-stopper for anyone who has a 
library of paid-for copy-restricted downloads. "

         FWIW - the previous Digital Walkman, SRF-M37V was
         AM/FM/WX/TV

         Oddly enough, and I think I posted it a few weeks
         back but no one seemed interested enough to
         comment on it, a man who lives in Brazil (German,
         I think) was the man who actually came up with the
         Walkman, and Sony fought him for decades before
         finally settling and paying him for his idea.


>Thanks,
>
>Jeff Glass
>
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_______________________________________________________________________
Barry Mishkind     -       Tucson, AZ    -   520-296-3797