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Sony, Walkmans And The iPod

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the tunes-on-the-go dept.

yootje writes "A long story about Sony, and how Sony developed: from the first walkman, until the latest competition against the iPod. "

12 of 269 comments (clear)

  1. Atrac3 by DecadeSol · · Score: 4, Informative

    Adaptive TRansform Acoustic Coding originated with the minidisc. A nice little description.

  2. Encoding limitations? by nayigeta · · Score: 5, Informative
    From the article: "... can play songs encoded in the popular MP3 and Windows Media formats on the computer. However, the program has to convert songs to Sony's proprietary Atrac3 format, the only file type the portable players will support."

    I think this is will be a challenge for this device to pick up speed.

    The additional effort and time needed to convert MP3 to Atrac3 format might not be a popular.

    "The problem is they are a company at war with itself. So because they want to own everything, they end up owning nothing."

    --
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    1. Re:Encoding limitations? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative
      [Atrac's] sound quality is better than most -- if not all -- of the MP3s that I've heard.

      Then you are listening to poorly encoded MP3s. In fact, according to the Hydrogen Audio listening tests, Atrac is probably the worst modern, lossy audio compression format.
  3. Misses something important. by user+no.+590291 · · Score: 5, Informative
    In particular, it fails to mention their efforts to hobble consumer devices, including but not limited to ATRAC and Magic Gate. And no article about Sony's interaction with technology is complete or accurate without a mention of one of their senior executive's Churchillesque rant against peer to peer networks:
    "The [music] industry will take whatever steps it needs to protect itself and protect its revenue streams," Heckler said. "It will not lose that revenue stream, no matter what."
    We will develop technology that transcends the individual user. We will firewall Napster at source - we will block it at your cable company, we will block it at your phone company, we will block it at your [ISP]. We will firewall it at your PC.

    Remember that when you buy Sony, you support the people whose management said these things.

  4. Sony didn't invent the "portable HiFi" by Lars+T. · · Score: 3, Informative

    A German did, and Sony finaly admited it.

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    Lars T.

    To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck

  5. Re:Retail outlets? by Ced_Ex · · Score: 5, Informative

    Man.. how old is this article? We've had the "Sony Store" here in Canada for years! All they sell is Sony stuff, and they even have a Sony credit card.

    The unfortunate thing about the store is that the prices are way higher than another electronics store selling the same product. Then again... what other electronic store actually showcases bleeding edge products found no where else? Good and bad.

    --
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  6. Re:Retail outlets? by weffey · · Score: 3, Informative

    Opening retail outlets isn't a new tactic for Sony. Here where I live, I can think of two Sony Stores - one of which has been open for at least two years and I think the other one even longer. In the mall I work in part-time, I'm constantly giving people directions to the Sony Store. Now, if only they taught their sales associates to help customers *before* they're at the cash ...

  7. Re:Retail outlets? by jm92956n · · Score: 5, Informative

    There's a Sony store here in Manhattan, around 50th and 5th Ave., if I remember correctly. It's a very exclusive area: Brooks Brothers, Bergdorf Goodman, Tiffany's, and several high end retailers are close by.

    I walked into the Sony store and it was nowhere near as nice as the Apple store in SOHO. The store was physically split into two sections each with its own entrance; merchandise was cluttered; there weren't as many product demos as I expected; and the sales staff, I thought, might be more at home at a rural used car dealer lot.

    I remember the old Gateway Stores. They weren't nearly as bad as the Sony store.

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  8. Re:Problem is those non-Sony artists. by LostCluster · · Score: 3, Informative

    ITMS does in fact allow the Indies to get involved... It's just a matter of them signing up.

  9. sony portables debunked by FlunkedFlank · · Score: 3, Informative
    iPodlounge has a pretty good article about Sony's new offerings: How Sony Cemented iPod's Supremacy

    a biased source? yes. but a fair analysis? yes, IMO, including full bias disclosure at the end of the article.

  10. Re:Sony is ignoring their real market by Dogtanian · · Score: 3, Informative

    Sony (whose name comes from a combination of the words - 'Sound Nippon')

    That's not where I understood it was derived from:-
    Here it says that it (basically) comes from the latin Sonus and 'Sonny boy'

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  11. minidisc woes by xpulsar87x · · Score: 3, Informative

    I owned a Sony NetMD walkman for a few years (I now own a 40gb iPod :). Their software to get songs on the device was absolute garbage, but there was some weird method in which it would convert your mp3s to ATRAC and put the DRM stuff on it, but you could just convert that mp3 again and then it would lose the "transfer count" on it. Seemed kinda dumb. I hated using it anyway.

    In order to get MP3s on the device, I'd use a combination of things. I'd burn a cd with Nero's Image Writer, and then mount it using Nero's image mounter. Then, I'd use the NetMD SimpleBurner, which was a well designed program imho. Rip to the MD, umount and delete the image, and there you go. Still, takes a number of steps to get done.

    I'll take my iPod over that any day.