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Even though Sony probably had the technology lined up fifteen years ago, they’ve just announced that hard drives will be added in an update to their NETJUKE product line (Japan only). Running $529, $705 and $1,058 the D55HD, M75HD, and M95HD will support MP3 ripping to a hard drive starting ranging from 80-250GB. Each model supports ethernet and DLNA streaming, along with full downloadable album art that should look gorgeous on the 4.3-inch LCD display. But Sony has also given a nod to their older technologies in their new lineup.

For instance, their M75HD and M95HD will both support minidiscs. And all three players will continue to support their now phased-out ATRAC service. It’s a move to support backwards compatibility that companies like Microsoft ignore (just look at Plays4Sure and the Zune).

Of course, the systems also support the new Walkman players, along with the ability to sync music tracks. While the verdict is still out on how these low wattage systems will actually sound, I’m digging the open platform and decent-looking design. I just wish they were around a few years before iWent so iCrazy with my music collection. [electonista]

Original post by Mark Wilson

So, Sony’s dancing Rolly is finally out today, after all that crazy hype. And I looked at it from all angles, sat through an arse-numbingly too-cool-for-school video &mdash feel free to indulge yourselves below &mdash and thought, do you know what? The egg-shaped dancing MP3 and ATRAC player looks like a small clone of the Miuro robot speaker.

galleryPost(’sonyrolly’, 8, ‘Sony Rolly’);

The Rolly is motion-controlled, having sensors that know which way is up. You can fiddle with the volume by turning the player clockwise or anti-clockwise, and you can skip or repeat tracks by either rolling the player forwards or backwards, or shaking it. You can download dance moves to the Rolly, but there will also be software available to allow you to make up your own Rolly moves on your computer.

At $351, the Rolly is around three times cheaper than the Miuro, and it gives you the lumière to go with the son, but there’s something a bit pedestrian about Sony’s design, IMHO. Other “Mmmmmm… No!” features include a titchy 1GB memory, although you can hook it up via Bluetooth to play tunes from your computer. Incidentally, you get five hours of battery time using the internal memory, and four and a half if you use Bluetooth.

To add insult to injury, Sony is selling the carrying case and charging cradle separately, for $17.50 and $35 respectively. I can’t decide whether I think that Sony will roll this product out worldwide or not, but I would have thought it would sell well everywhere. [Impress through Google Translate]

Original post by Addy Dugdale

ATRAC is on the fast track for extinction. Sony’s closing its Sony’s music store and it’s been dumped from their two newest video Walkmen, the NWZ-A810 and NWZ-S610, which are all about an “open platform.” They support secure WMA, non-secure AAC and MP3, JPEG, AVC (H.264/AVC) Baseline Profile and MPEG-4 video codecs. They’re also PlaysForSure certified. Woohoo. Full rundown of both players post-jump. galleryPost(’newvideowalkmen’, 4, ‘Sony Walkman NWZ-A810 and NWZS610′);
We’ve already seen the 8GB model of the NWZ-A810. It’s available in 2 ($140), 4 ($180) and 8GB ($230) sizes with black, white, pink and silver paintjobs, though silver’s only available at the Sony Style store.

Like its higher-end brother, Sony’s touting 33 hours of music playback, though it gets 90 more minutes of video playback—9.5 hours. Its screen is a bit tinier as well (1.8-inch QVGA vs 2 inches) but it’s similarly capable of 30 fps video. It comes in 2 ($120), 4 ($160) and 8GB ($210) capacities and four colors: black, sliver, pink and red. Both are available at Sony Style online today and will hit retailers in September. [Sony]

Original post by Matt Buchanan

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

While the rest of the world makes due with the 2-inch, QVGA display on their NW-A800 Walkman, China just nabbed a pair of biggie Sony Walkman branded flash video players under the PMX-M70 (pictured) and PMX-U50 monikers. The M70 series brings a 4.3-inch, 480 x 272 pixel display for viewing MPEG-4 video stored in up to 8GB of flash memory or Memory Stick expansion. It also records audio or video when jacked-in appropriately or plays back MP3, WMA, and AAC audio over the unit’s integrated stereo speakers. The PMX-U50 then, is a throw-back to the ol’ GigaPocket PCVA-HVP20 design with a refreshed spec sheet touting a 2.4-inch TFT LCD, FM tuner, drag-n-drop support (no SonicStage!), voice recorder and more in capacities up to 4GB. Notable by its absence from the press release is ATRAC, again. While two ATRAC-less, SonicStage-less products released in the last 4 weeks certainly does not constitute a trend, it’s tantalizing nonetheless. See the U50 pictured after the break.

[Via I4U]

Continue reading Sony’s PMX-U50 and PMX-M70 China-only media players

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Original post by Thomas Ricker

Filed under: GPS, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Oh how we wish it were all just a horrific dream, but somehow, the engineers behind Clarion’s flashy new MAX9700DT in-car navigation unit still felt it necessary to include support for a format that just refuses to die. Granted, the system is loaded to the hilt with features and supported formats, but we have a hard time believing that even the Japanese really still find MiniDisc and ATRAC all that attractive. Nevertheless, the unit also boasts a seven-inch touchscreen display, built-in 1Seg TV tuner, DVD player, a 40GB hard drive, iPod compatibility, 50-watt x 4 amplifier, AM / FM radio, and support for a whole host of audio formats including WMA and MP3. Getting around shouldn’t be too difficult given the expansive screen and “3D maps,” and just in case that 40GB of internal storage isn’t quite enough, you can cram an SD card or Memory Stick into it for a bit more space. As nice as all this sounds, few from crowds other than the elite will be pondering a purchase, as ¥341,250 ($2,868) isn’t exactly bargain basement (or even “good deal”) territory.

[Via NaviGadget]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Original post by Darren Murph

They may be late to the game, but Sony is finally ditching SonicStage, its annoying (and required) software for transferring music. According to ATRAC Life, the new B100 will be Sony’s first drag-and-drop MP3 player supporting MP3s, non-DRM’d WMAs, and even AAC (the latter hasn’t been confirmed yet). And if that didn’t shock you enough, Sony’s also thinking of dropping its ATRAC format for this player. Nice to see these changes, but personally I think this is one of those “too little, too late” deals. – Louis Ramirez

Sony to Release B100 Series Drag and Drop Walkman [ATRAC Life via Electronista]

Original post by Outblush

Filed under: Portable Audio

An interesting bit of news from the kids over at ATRACLife this morning. According to “trustworthy insiders,” Sony is set to introduce another Walkman stick — the B100 series — which supports drag ‘n drop music transfer… no SonicStage required. Perhaps oxymoronic considering the source, the player will not support Sony’s MiniDisc era codec, ATRAC; a milestone in and of itself. Instead, the player touts MP3, non-DRM’d WMA, and presumably AAC like we’ve seen in the recent lineup of dedicated Walkman players and phones. The latter necessary to get your DRM-free EMI on (at least initially). The B100 series will ship sometime before May has sprung in 1, 2, and 4GB capacities with or without FM radios. Nice, now where’s that nano killer?

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Original post by Thomas Ricker

Ring the church bells, for the Sony NW-A800 portable media player (Walkman) is now official. It’s Europe-only for now (and expensive, too, at around $392), but you know what? You probably won’t miss it. It does everything that every other two-bit knockoff portable media player does, except that it’ll also play ATRAC files. So, by my calculations, that affects about eight of you out there in Radioland. It’s available in four totally in-your-face colors and three storage capacities: 2, 4 and 8GB. Let’s see, multi-colored, multiple capacities… nope, never heard of that before. Sony innovates.

Walkman fans will point to its 2.0-inch screen with 240×320 resolution screen as a bit of a saving grace, but my eyes very quickly tire of watching watching tiny video. No word on when it’ll come out here, but I can’t wait to walk right by it by it the store. – Nicholas Deleon

Product Page [Sony UK via dapreview.net]

Original post by Outblush