Sony Brands

On Wednesday Sony celebrated 30 years of the Walkman, as did many consumers. First released in 1979, the tape playing music player cost £120 in the UK and originally named Stowaway. In Australia it was known as FreeStyle and as Soundabout in the US. Japan had the name of Walkman which caught on around the world and become the known name for the device. Within the first two months 30,000 were sold and over a decade 50 million were purchased.

30 years on and Sony are still producing music players taking advantage of today’s technology. But also taking advantage of today’s technology and learning from the past, Apple are dominating the portable music market. With over 210 million iPods sold over the last eight years, Sony has strong competition. The Walkman brand can be found on many devices though, from the original tape playing Walkman through to digital MP3 players and even using the Walkman brand on Sony Ericsson phones. Over the 30 years, 385 million Walkman devices have been sold.

To celebrate 30 years of the Walkman, Sony are releasing the Walkman X today, July 3rd. The portable music player is available in 16GB and 32GB versions. TheWalkman X will also include built in WiFi as well as a 3″ touch screen display. Unlike other MP3 players with touch screens, Sony will be taking advantage of the OLED technology and using that for the touch display. Pricing will start at $299.99 (£169.99).

Source

After the recent announcement from Sony Ericsson about the Idou, Ubergizmo – who shared the news -  have had a chance to snap some photos of the upcoming device.

The Idou, as it’s currently called, may when it’s released go by a different name according to the screenshots. Further information about the Idou has also been released, including information about the shipping date. It is expected to be released within the second half of 2009. As well as it’s impressive screen size, it’s also confirmed that the screen is actually a touch screen, allowing ease of use when it comes to the multimedia features.

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Sony Ericsson have announced at Mobile World Congress that they are to release a phone combining both the Cybershot and Walkman features into one device, the Idou. The Idou will feature the next leap in the Cybershot category and have an impressive 12.1 megapixel camera. The phone will feature a 3.5 inch display with a 16:9 resolution, giving you a great viewing experience of your photos and videos. As well as the great camera upgrade, it will feature all the capabilities of the Walkman range. Idou also falls into the smartphone range as it’s powered by Symbian Foundation.

It was also hinted that this device could be very good with mobile gaming, with reference to their “legacy”, which UberGizmo take as a reference to the Sony PS3 and Playstation Portable. The device will also be able to connect to other devices with it’s DLNA connectivity. DLNA is found on PCs, network storage, set top boxes, as well as the PS3 and PSP.