Sony May Launch Video Walkman With New Line of Media Players
By: Spacelab Research Staff
In attempt to create a buzz without saying much, Sony has announced a new Sony Walkman that will display images. But that's most of what they had to say about it. This of course has created a massive speculation to say that it's a video Walkman, but there's little evidence that it's going to play video as of yet. Sony might have iPod envy.
SonySenior Vice PresidentHiroshi Yoshioka was speaking at a news conference, unveiling the new Sony Walkman lineup, when he said, "We are developing a product that handles images, but I cannot make any comment on specific plans." Hmmmm... squishy.
My guess is that Sony is trying to complete a video Walkman but is running into issues in the final phase of development. That could leave a backup plan of using images to display photos, album art, etc. Or maybe Sony watched Microsoft's well intentioned but soft-impact PR campaign around the Zune this summer, and wants to release news in a piecemeal format... generating momentum. Squishy momentum.
Sony did give the details on a new line of NW-S700 Walkman MP3 players, and they've made some serious improvements, including built-in noise-canceling. Sony has offered this in their headphones before, but this is the first time it's been in the player.
They're also using Flash memory... the best new way to store media on a media player. Without getting super-technical, it means less skipping in accessing files, cheaper costs, and less breaking - all good things.
Other highlights of the new line: 50 hours of battery life, support for Sony's misguided ATRAC format, MP3, AAC (non-DRM), WMA (non-DRM) and Linear PCM music files.
Galaxy Media Player: Watch videos and listen to music 
