Walkman vs. iPod
This is just a quick pointer to a hilarious post I ran across this morning: BBC Magazine invited 13-year-old Scott Campbell, to wear a vintage Sony Walkman for a day. He took the challenge seriously, and wrote up his impressions of the Walkman versus the modern equivalent.
Some choice excerpts:
"It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape."
"I managed to create an impromptu shuffle feature simply by holding down 'rewind' and releasing it randomly."
"I'm relieved that the majority of technological advancement happened before I was born, as I can't imagine having to use such basic equipment every day."
The only advantage Campbell found for the Walkman was the fact that it had two headphone jacks, allowing listeners to share their favorite tunes with a friend. He also noted that the battery life was terrible at about 3 hours, but neglected to point out the (perhaps obvious) fact that at least the Walkman lets you get to the batteries to replace them--you don't have to send it back to the manufacturer or risk voiding your warranty. Another point I'd make for Campbell or other intrepid explorers: some Walkmans had a "reverse" switch on them that let you change to the other side of the cassette--that could be another nifty way to create an equivalent to the iPod's shuffle feature.
Now wait until he discovers Minidisc!
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Matt Rosoff is an analyst with Directions on Microsoft, where he covers Microsoft's consumer products and corporate news. He's written about the technology industry since 1995, and reviewed the first Rio MP3 player for CNET.com in 1998. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network. Disclosure.
Hell.. I STILL use my MiniDisc players..
Hmm, some of us actually "charge" our iPod *rechargeable* batteries when they run out of juice - we don't send them back to the manufacturer. ;)
If you don't have a charger of some sort with you and your ipod battery dies, you're pretty much stuck until you can recharge it. Perhaps your on a 4 day camping trip- Do you have your solar or hand-cranked ipod recharger?
"It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape." :-D hilarious ROFL
True, but at least when the Walkman's batteries died, you could just swap them out and keep on listening. With the iPod you have to wait 3-4 hours :-L
kids are so ridiculously oblivious sometimes. i guess we're not counting on this genius to come up with the next great technological marvel.
I'm so glad I was a part of the generation that experienced the wonder of the walkman and saw the coming of age of current gadgets...
I'd love to give this kid a portable 8-track cartridge player and see how long it takes him to find out there are four programs on it....lol...he could "shuffle" by hitting the program button a random number of times....
Another great quote from the article:
"I mistook the metal/normal switch on the Walkman for a genre-specific equaliser, but later I discovered that it was in fact used to switch between two different types of cassette"....LOL
Interesting to see the things that seem essential to kids today, like a shuffle mode....it points out the sorry state of radio today; people still like the thought of hearing a surprise in what's next on the playlist, but not if every other song sucks....
It lasts longer on one charge
It's smaller
In many cases, people buy a new iPod before they have to replace the internal battery
vs.
Having to recharge it when it runs out
Honestly, I think the advantages are overwhelming. Think about it... do you buy a digital camera which uses AA batteries? There are some who do, but the majority doesn't.
Do you own 2 rechargeable batteries for your digital camera, so you can swap them when the first one runs out? You certainly can, but most people don't, because in real life, in most cases it's not necessary.
Not sure why people keep complaining about this. It's almost that they want to swap the batteries just because they know it's not possibly to easily do it.
I actually like Apple for having the guts to innovate in this area, with the iPod touch, iPhone and laptop batteries.
So for my use, I'll take the camera with the AA's.
http://www.nextag.com/ipod-external-battery-pack/products-html
Or even roll your own http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2007/04/building-an-external-battery-pack-for-your-ipod.ars
Now, you may never take enough pictures to run your battery down, but other people do. Thank the powers that be for cameras with swappable batteries.
I would never buy any device I couldn't change the batteries on myself. I'm sure not going to send a device to the manufacturer and have to PAY them to swap the battery. That would be stupid.
Of course there's a huge difference between an iPod (entertainment) and my camera (work that needs to be done).
I, like many, would not appreciate going back to such limited technology.
"Another useful feature is the power socket on the side, so that you can plug the Walkman into the wall when you're not on the move. But given the dreadful battery life, I guess this was an outright necessity rather than an extra function."
Though, it's possible to plug an iPod into the wall as well, so this really is no advantage.
The real advantage of a walkman over today's iPods is that no one is going to mug you for a walkman.
When I was a kid in the '50's I had a tube radio in my room (a small one - about the size of a toaster) and lots of radio drama was still on. I still actually prefer radio to TV.
I dont think people wish to back to the Walkman. However I do think there are features which could be improved on the iPod. It is pretty drastic that if your battery dies, you have to send the iPod back to the manufacturer.
Well not necessarily the manufacturer, there are a number of 3rd party businesses doing iPod repair. And some people have the skill to replace the battery themselves, I no longer have the eyesight or deftness to do it.
Not mention "if your battery dies." Of course sooner or later it will die, but it could be the equivalent of a Walkman by then.
http://www.nationwidedisc.com
I still have a Walkman/AM/FM radio I bought in 1988 (I remember because I sold a car to buy an '88 Honda NT650 bike and celebrated by buying the Walkman and a 4-cassette Jimi Hendrix boxed set). It still works, though I don't use tapes any more - but I do listen to the radio on it.
When the tape reached the end I could set it to reverse and keep playing automatically.
Great gift for a techie dad.
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by bbbegone
June 29, 2009 11:16 PM PDT
- I had a Walkman when I was a kid. It wasn't nearly as large as the portable CD player I began carrying around later. Plus, it had FM radio which didn't kill the battery as much as playing a cassette.
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Showing 1 of 2 pages (36 Comments)Maybe it was just me, but I didn't mind it being so ugly. It gave me a good reason to cover it up with a bunch of stickers and decals. It felt personalized. I would never do that with my iPod now.