New Sony walkman players

Sony today launched a new series of as well as new music jukebox software designed to challenge the dominance of the iPod and iTunes. Only a day after the launch of the iPod nano, Sony debuted three flash-memory-based models with capacities of 512MB, 1GB and 2GB, and two hard-disk drive-based models with capacities of 6GB and 20GB--all of which are expected to be available in Japan in October (however, international launch plans have not yet been set), according to Digit Magazine. Taking a cue from Apple's Shuffle and it's revamped iTunes 5 software, "Sony is emphasizing the user interface of the new players rather than just the technical specifications. Among the functions on the hard-disk drive-based models is an "artist link." Clicking the link button while a song is playing highlights stored music from similar musicians and genres. There are also several shuffle modes in all the players, including a "time shuffle," which will play all the stored songs from a selected year, and a mode that randomly plays songs from the top-100 most listened-to tracks."

by MacNN Staff