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Sony Ericsson Announces First Walkman Phone

jonknee writes "Sony Ericsson has announced the first in a new line of self-described "Walkman phones" that specialize in playing music. The W800i features a 512MB memory card to store tunes and up to 30 hours of playback (if you keep the phone off, otherwise about half that). We should see a Motorola phone with iTunes onboard within the next two weeks, making March the month of music phones."

16 of 204 comments (clear)

  1. Yeah... by Electroly · · Score: 5, Funny

    No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.

    1. Re:Yeah... by Stuart+Gibson · · Score: 4, Funny

      We really need a "+1: Knowledge of the lore of /." modifier.

      Stuart

      --
      It's all fun and games until a 200' robot dinosaur shows up and trashes Neo-Tokyo... Again
    2. Re:Yeah... by bad_fx · · Score: 4, Informative

      Yeah, explaining the joke sucks, but for the one or two folk still scratching their heads:

      http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/23/ 1816257&tid=107

  2. Everyone is getting in the game by moofdaddy · · Score: 4, Informative

    Nokia announced a similar device last month. It had a slight bump in storage, i think it was 768 flash memory. The problem with the nokia version according to early tech specs is it looks like they sacraficed battery capacity more then the other phone companies (moto and ericsson) in order to be able to play music. The coolest feature of that phone though wasn't the music ability but rather the 360 degree rotatable ability of the screen.

    The Nokia phone I think is expected to hit in time for summer, there goal was to have it out by beach time so that people would only have to bring one device with them when they beached it. We'll see how it goes though.

    --
    Be better in bed. Wikiafterdark!
  3. Cell phone meets the Walkman: virtual karma by Virtual+Karma · · Score: 4, Informative
  4. More Phone Stuff! by geomon · · Score: 4, Funny

    Phones that play music.

    Phones that perform facial recognition.

    Phones that take photos.

    Phones that shoot small caliber rounds.

    Phones that can be tracked by GPS.

    Phones that can extend penis lengths.

    Phones that can make water from wine.

    Phones that introduce you to your new spouse.

    Are there any phones that allow you to talk to someone separated by distances greater than you can shout?

    --
    "Rocky Rococo, at your cervix!"
    1. Re:More Phone Stuff! by winkydink · · Score: 5, Funny

      You forgot phones that act as vibrators.

      --

      "I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey

  5. Re:All in one? by gl4ss · · Score: 4, Insightful

    how many?

    1.

    that's the point of all in one.

    that being said, this thing is pretty lame featurewise. phones have had mp3 players for ages.

    --
    world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
  6. Walkman? by Hershmire · · Score: 4, Funny

    But how do you fit the cassette in the phone?

    --
    if(!toilet_paper) roll.replace(new roll); //Stupid roommates.
  7. Re:All in one? by Neil+Blender · · Score: 5, Funny

    How many "all on one" devices do consumers really need?

    The answer is obvious: One.

  8. Nothing new by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 4, Funny

    First walkman phone eh? You can have music on your regular cell phone RIGHT NOW: Call AT&T's customer support line, say to the operator that you're furious and you wish to complain and talk to her manager, wait till she says "yes Sir, please hold" and enjoy endless music for FREE!

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  9. Congratulations Sony... by Humorously_Inept · · Score: 4, Informative

    I've been listening to MP3s on my N-Gage with a 512MB MMC card and stereo headphones for 1.5 years. Granted, I don't have a dedicated start/stop button. On the subject of annoying behavior, yes, I can play songs over the loudspeaker and I can make MP3 files my ringtone should I ever need to annoy you.

    --

    ~Someday, I hope to be an aspiring author.
  10. V800 does this already.. by MrPerfekt · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm mystified by this because my Sony Ericsson V800 already does this. From the pictures, the phone seems to run the same software too. So aside from branding, I fail to see the difference. The V800 also has expandable memory via Memory Stick Pro Duo which cards are available up to 1GB for.

    Granted the V800 is not "available" in America, but one can be snagged from eBay and unlocked/flashed. The same thing you're going to have to do with the W800 though.

    The drawback to the V800 though is that the earphones connect through the T28 connector as there is no mini-headphone jack. :( But with a little enginuity you could make your headphones work too.

    --
    I just wasted your mod points! HA!
  11. Re:All in one? by ackthpt · · Score: 4, Insightful
    How many "all on one" devices do consumers really need?

    'Single Point of Failure' comes to mind. I.e. it does everything for you and either dies or the battery runs out and your alone in the Wilderness of the Non-Conntected. Like those goofy cartoons from years ago that said things like, "The computers all were down today so we had to think." But more like, you do without the luxuries and have to borrow cell phones or find rapidly vanishing (in the UK anyway) public phones.

    Or worse, all your stuff is on the phone and some weasel breaks in and copies it all and leaves you a message like "I'm Sorry Bitch"

    Unconnected and lovin' it.

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  12. Re:All in one? by jacksonj04 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It should be, but my PDA thinks it's a music player and my phone thinks it's my calendar and my iPod thinks it should be my contacts list.

    And none of them do them well.

    I either want a single device which does them all well, or my devices to do one thing and do that well. I would be quite content if my phone didn't try to offer me a bigger penis in between serving up music...

    --
    How many people can read hex if only you and dead people can read hex?
  13. Re:All in one? by nutshell42 · · Score: 4, Interesting
    The thing is not everyone needs the best of everything. Many people need/want a device really good at one thing (be that taking notes, playing music or ringing during a movie) and are happy if it's "good enough" at many other things.

    Now I assume you're at home or at work. Take a look around. Unless you're very rich and have a very sophisticated taste chances are that you have one or two things in your view that are what you'd call excellent. Could be your computer, your display, the hifi-280.1-80MW-Armageddon-stereo or perhaps the $800 armchair you're sitting on. But most things probably fit in the "good enough" category. You're desk is probably nothing special, but it's good enough. The $20 speakers? Good enough. The Ikea lamp? Good enough.

    People always wonder why Apple is at 5% market share. And while there's a myriad of reasons and I don't want to oversimplify it, imho the most important reason is that Steve Jobs is one of those quality freaks I mentioned above who have the money, the time, the inner drive and a good enough (no pun intended =) taste to strive for excellence in everything they own and everything they do. Most of us don't.

    Well seems like I got a bit off topic here. But to make the connection: Sony, Nokia, etc. realized that the iPod is an excellent player and it has a strong entry barrier (its market share and the ITMS) for other players that makes it hard for competitors even if they were superior and even more so if they're just good enough. So they do the next best thing. They take other devices where they have the network effects on their side (phones as in the article, handhelds, see the PSP or PDAs) and add a music player that is good enough. If it's really good enough many people won't bother to cough up another $300 with the exception of about 5%.

    jm2 =)

    --
    Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage