New NW-A (002, 003, 005) Series to Debut Soon
We’ve been keeping our lips zipped to avoid any issues, but as engadget has revealed the news we feel inclined to share what we have available. The 002, 003 and 005 will be 512mb, 1GB and 2GB respectively and replace the existing E100/E300 series (it will not replace the NW-A3000, nor NW-A1000). Pricing will be below the rival iPod Nano in the related sizes and should be very attractive to most consumers. The usual OLED is employed again and gives this thumbdrive an unique look amongst the competition. Apparently, there will be no ‘Artist Link’ (which was introduced with the NW-A3000, etc.) and this isn’t too terribly surprising as it doesn’t run too well with Connect Player anyways.
The units will NOT debut with Connect Player, but rather come with Sonicstage 3.4 (which was a very well made release by Sony). It is also noteworthy to state that this unit will not have FM/AM capability, which may have made it uber attractive in the end, but the jury is still out on that front.
If Sony price these to compete with iPod nano, then not many people will care. The nano has color screen, photo viewing, and full iPod GUI and funtionality. Sony should instead follow sandisk’s or iPod shuffle’s pricing if it still want to compete. C’mon Sony, are you still interested in portable audio business? Release these at iPod shuffle’s pricing ($99 for the 1GB), and people will flock all over.
Again, late in the game. Thanks to the iPod nano, people are no longer amazed by 1 tiny line simple MP3 player, unless it’s at bargain price (eg. Sandisk, iPod shuffle). The Axxx series are not even available in the US. We’ll see how fast Sony can ship these. Maybe by the time the PS3 ship…
Oh, and with all that space, the font is that small?
A nice clean design. The 2GB is good news. No more fishing around for a USB cable. Not as innovative as the E400/E500/A600 core style players.
However I was expecting more features.
Nice design, a year too late. This would have been great (NICE built-in USB connect!!!) if it had come out when the iPod shuffle has debuted.
I don’t get Sony; yet ANOTHER change in design in such a short time. Heck, the A-series never even made it to the States, and it has alredy been updated again!!!!
I hope the price is low and there is no hiss which can be heard in the E and A series flash players.
How do you browse the library with that control? Also, the original Swedish article says Sony is sticking with the NW-A1000/3000 for hard-drive players, instead of replacing them. Can you also confirm that?
I wish Sony had a bigger capacity player (and a smaller one). But I’m getting tired of waiting and always ending up disappointed. If the Gigabeat S were gapless…
“Pricing will be below the rival iPod Nano”
Um, no. If you were to say “below the rival iPod Shuffle” then thatd be legit.
The 2GB looks to be cheaper than a 2GB Nano(180US)if you convert KR to USD,the US market usually ships CE at lower prices than the EU & Scandinavia-so Kurisu is entirely correct.
‘rival iPod shuffle’..?
these have screens and a battery that lasts..and lasts..
I agree, colour screen and radio are needed to compete now a days in this market. We’ll see how this sells, wonder if the US will get these as well, or be screwed like with the new units.
Not sure why sony didn’t opt for colour coded headphones.
First of all many don`t see this blog portion ….that`s why i didn`t came to know on 26th.
Design looks rather awful not sure why they have left FM..I know AM requires bigger internal circuit that`s why they are not adding it but FM should not have been left ..
Poor Show Sony …I `m not impressed until it see more pictures & more detail about this player .
A competitor of the Nano? No way man! It’s definitely better than the shuffle but it all depends on it’s final pricing.
[…] Update: Guess not on the screenless audio bit! ATRACLife has the skinny on the new E-series, which does in fact rock a one line display (but forgoes the FM, apparently). Looks like it could give the you-know-what a run for its money after all. […]
Any idea whether it will be available as a USB Mass-Storage Class device for loading/retrieving tracks?
=?utf-8?B?RW5nYWRnZXQ=?=…
Engadget around the world
http://www.engadget.com/2006/0…/26/engadget-around-the-world/Date: 3/26/2006 2:14 PM Author: Ryan Block
We know you’ve been watching closely all week, but there’s more going on out th…
It will have FM tuner. No HDD models coming
Darn. I wish Sony would fix the existing units, before filling the shelves with under developed cr@p.
Now 5 months waiting for my NW-A3000 to work as advertised, so you can understand my frustration at new product launches, when the last lot are still unfinsihed..
Sony has good looking designs, very good build quality (most of the time). But Sony Electronics is hampered by Sony Music, et al - the mandatory Sonic Stage is not a good piece of software. Even if it were, I would have liked to dump my tracks through USB Mass Storage, or through Winamp Library etc. As it stands I’ll pass, thank you. Such a shame this is, as the player itself is quite nice.
Never again,
Bought my last ever SONY product, a 1GIG PSYC mp3 player… Poor sound, terribly cheap housing, devoid of any redeeming quality. (I’ve since gone back to using my SAMSUNG Yepp-256mb player, its built well (metal housing) and loaded with options.)
Sony mp3 players have the quality built in of a HappyMeal toy & the proprietary ATRAC/SonicStage BS limit how you can use them. (try loading & playing mp3’s on from a friends computer!)
Thank $deity for that! Connect, while nice to look at is slower than a slow thing riding on the back of a snail, and not altogether stable either.
I’m not sure if anyone is really serious about beating the iPod. OLED is kinda cool and all, but you just can’t compete with colour screen.
Sony’s mp3 players are pretty neat, but not as neat as the iPod. However their new Walkman phones are getting interesting - they’ll be the ones eating out the iPod Nano market.
I got a wicked cd/mp3 player with the SonicStage technology, and the article is correct, it IS incredibly well built. The two gig, smaller than the one gig nano, and probably comparative price (a little higher, methinks) should hold four times as many songs as the one gigabyte, simply because the format that the nano uses takes up considerably more space than sonicstage. I personally think that if Sony could’ve made it a little larger, and included that fm radio, this could’ve killed the nano (given enough advertising).
I’m still hoping for a version of this that comes out in conjunction with the PS3, so that you can easily have your own music on games. Katamari Damacy on GTA 3, anyone?
Hopefully the 2GB version will be £90-100
To Mad: Have you tried Sony’s MP3 file manager? Just load it on your flash player. When you’re connected to a different PC, run that app directly from the device, and you can easily drag-n-drop MP3s to the app. No Sonicstage needed.
Come On!! I own 3 Network Walkmans form SONY and they work perfect with no issues what so ever. So what if they have Sonic Stage that requires you to use the 1 PC to load your music on or off. PLEASE PEOPLE!! Have you been reading the news about iTunes issues and the DRM? I had an iPOD and then another and another till finally I tossed the piece of cr@p out in the trash and iTunes was no better than sonic stage. So don’t dump on SONY and there products. How many of you REALLY listen to the stupid radio if you have a few thousand songs on your player. OH! And don’t brag about the BIG color screen on the nano…PLEASE you really going to break out the nano and watch a MOVIE on it or even a movie trailer NO!! You’ll go blind looking at it. It’s all about presentation and who makes the most functional and cool looking player because that is the one you want to have even if it is devoid of a radio or big color screen cause personally I turn it on and then put it in my pocket and go. In a world of White and now Black iPod JUNK, it’s nice to see SONY brining color to this world of CE devices. Apple needs to just stop with the iPod junk and create something new that has a better battery life then a few hours and better or innovative design since they are so cutting edge. Remember Apple is the one company that recruits all the SONY product designers to make there CE devices. Why do you thing the iBook is so popular? Sony designed it for them. I swear, even the local drug store is selling iPod junk. I am so sick of WHITE!!!
Johnny Rocket, did you forget to take your medication again?
Sony NW-A (002, 003, 005) series coming…
We’ve been keeping our lips zipped to avoid any issues, but as engadget has revealed the news we feel inclined to share what we have available. The 002, 003 and 005 will be 512mb, 1GB and 2GB respectively and replace……
A poster in Dapreview says there may be a NW-A3200, with 40GB. Ishi, Chris, anything to say about that? Even though I’m not a big fan of the NW-A3000, being colourless and bulky, I’d jump at the opportunity to have a 40GB Atrac player. Unfortunately, I don’t think it would make much difference in terms of market share (Sony needs to be ahead of Apple, not trying to catch up). But I’d certainly be pleased to have double the current capacity.
Personally, I love this design. As for the capacity, I was hoping they would release 8gb… OLED is certainly cool, but I hope the light intensity will be increased. As you all know, during the night time it is really nice but during the day light, it is nearly impossible to see.
Strictly personal opinion, but I really support OLED. To be really honest, I only listen music and don’t really pay attention to other stuffs… Maybe just music titles and artists’ names…
8Gb might be released in near future by Apple or some other company don`t dare to dream that Sony is going to release 8Gb model.
Sony NW-A Serie: iPod Nano Killer…
Sonys Produktdesigner haben schon in der Vergangenheit gezeigt, dass sie optisch ansprechende Produkte aus dem Hut zaubern können, und so weiß auch die neue MP3 Player Serie NW-A zu gefallen. Die minimalistischen Player sind nicht größer als herkömmlic…
“As for the capacity, I was hoping they would release 8gb… “
Navigating 8GB of music with only 1 line display will be a b|tch. IMO, 1 line is not even good enough once you reach 2GB.
=?utf-8?B?RW5nYWRnZXQ=?=…
Today in Engadget: March 27, 2006
http://www.engadget.com/2006/0…day-in-engadget-march-27-2006/Date: 3/27/2006 5:59 PM Author: Evan Blass
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
News
Exceptional Innovation
shows off Me…
““As for the capacity, I was hoping they would release 8gb… ”
Navigating 8GB of music with only 1 line display will be a b|tch. IMO, 1 line is not even good enough once you reach 2GB.”
What I meant by that was not specifically for this model.
I meant in general flash plyer before this was even announced.
If SONY Made an 8GB Flash MP3 Player which looked like the NWA-3000 then it wouldnt be too bad.
Get a life people. This is to replace the Bean to be discontinued shortly.
Oh! Tell me how you want to navigate 8GB of music on this miniature? This is ridiculous! 8GB of music - do you even get time to listen to 1GB of music at a stretch?
Anyway……….
I would love to be able to carry around 8GB of music, as long as there’s an easy to hit “shuffle” button, who cares about “navigating” it? Just let the music play… so to speak.
Am I the only person out here who would be happy with a small plastic stick with a hardware switch to select between 3-4 playlists and just a play button that shuffles those lists? To me, that would be musical nirvanna. Why do you have to be able to change the playlists on the fly? Isn’t that why these things interface with a computer? So we can just set it up and go?
Still waiting for my dream player…
Looks nice but i’m also dispointed when the left the FM. and also the display….they should add a display screen atleast one line.
“Oh! Tell me how you want to navigate 8GB of music on this miniature? This is ridiculous! 8GB of music - do you even get time to listen to 1GB of music at a stretch?
Anyway……….
Comment by bachus The Snowman — March 28, 2006 #”
They are not talking about this specific player and hoping it to be 8gb.
That 8gb comment is that they were expecting more sophisticated player (ofcourse better screen) prior to this news.
The talk of a NW-A3200 is yet another fleeting rumor or conjecture if you will.
[…] Via.:Atraclife […]
[…] Sony will be releasing small flash based MP3 walkmans with built in USB connections. The will come in 512MB, 1GB, and 2GB versions respectively. ATRACLife mentions that this player will be a replacement of the E100/E300 series players and that it will prices below the respective Nano sizes. Bad news for all you SonicStage haters, the A000 series will ship with SonicStage 3.4. But then again there is always SonicStage alternatives like GYM. […]
A few comments:
-I notice no hiss on my A608.
-color screens on players at these capacities are overrated. The main reason I’d take a color screen over the OLED is that the OLED is invisible in broad daylight– can’t see a word on the screen.
-Watch apple release a 6gb nano within the coming months. I agree Sony needs to leap ahead, not try to catch up. That said, these look great. Honestly 2GB isn’t much when you’re using higher bitrates. If I didn’t have a 608 I’d be looking at these for a portable– especially if it will run Sony’s MP3 file manager.
Audio Player Sony Serie NW-A Svelati…
In considerazione di alcuni sviluppi recenti (Sony Bean Bye Bye) un annuncio del tipo era presumibile che fosse nell’aria e, in relazione a alcune fughe di notizie verificatesi nella giornata di domenica su Engadget, qualcuno che aveva degli assi nell…
It doesn’t matter how nice the hardware my look on paper, as long as sony keep pushin’ SS on people it will fail. SS/Connect is pure garbage.
Why havn’t sony press released the product already?Everyone knows its the real thing.
As usual we have to wait for the Sony`s offical announcement ..SO that`s not new at all ..
The lid to that will get lost/broken in no time. Very slim design however. I kind of like it.
[…] Πηγή: ATRAClife […]
A quick look online shows it will have a 30 hour battery life and the same 3 minute quick-charge feature of their other flash players.
Well its now official on the sony sites.
@Tom,Only Sony Europe has announce the official confirmation but not all .
Sony Walkman E-series flash players…
Sure,
Sony may have taken a page out of the old screenless audio player book on their new E-series players, but hey, from the
sound of it these things may have some decent features and storage to ‘em. Though to the best of our knowledge they
have…
I don’t care about the nano’s color screen I prefer the added battery life. The OEL displays are nice. Far better than the cheap “bean” they recently released.
Do these make my NWA608 redundant??
Surely sony knows that with a 2gb player, you need a much bigger screen than a 1-line display. “come with Sonicstage 3.4 (which was a very well made release by Sony)” this software isnt very well made - its utter crap. I have it for my bean and its sooo confusing and annoying. It has deleted all of my 500 songs numerous times. I can not see it beating any of its rivals. Sorry sony.
CRAP..no screen
I have bought the 2GB version of the player and its amazing. I also have a nano and for sport the sony is far better - lighter and huge battery life and £40 cheaper. Also the different cases available are cool; silicon, clear or armband. Only £12 for silicon! Excellent build quality and easy to navigate when sweaty.The nanos click wheel is annoying to operate when your sweaty, on this you just scroll using the button. Definately advise!!!
Sony.ca has finally put the new NWE series on the website, with availability on May 25th. They list the 2GB model as having FM radio whereas sony.co.uk does not. So, what’s the story, do the 2GB models have FM radio or not?
I can’t wait to get my hands on this new little puppy. I have the HD3 which was on the market for all of 5 minutes but it is such a great player. I like the idea of having a 2GB model for the most played songs/albums in my collection.
Also, my wife received an IPOD Nano as a gift (don’t shoot me, it’s not my fault)… are there programs out there to convert Attrac to mp3/wma? As she’s a jogger, I’ll probably wind up giving her a nwe NWE-5 though…
2GB model does not have a built FM tuner :-(((
Yes! Finally the final piece I needed. Thankyou!
Gef
Has anybody had any problems with the usb on a nw-a3000. everytime i conect it it says it has malfunctioned/unrecgonised. any help?
Hi,
My Sony NW-A608 has a peculiar issue. It is always showling USB Connect even disconnecting it from PC. Not showing any controls. I did reset, format NW-A608 and also upgraded firmware from sony site. Still no result.
If anybody faced this kind of issue earlier, tell me how you resolved it.
Please suggest me how to resolve the above issue.
Thanks,
-M
Hello can you send me a guide how to add a mp3 to my nw-e002 mp3 player coz it always say now NO DATABASE what is that error that i get? can you help to fix my problem pls. need some guid for these. thnx.
well i m using a sony bean for more than 1 year. but its battery is still very good and it lasts alot.the most important part is that sony batteries does not have a wear effect as other products do have. although bean is not the full power of sony or full potential of sony but still it lasts for 1 year.i m taking nwe005 it has a fm tuner and many desired features. plus its very compact. and very attractive i have no problem with oled screens. they display each and every infrormation. and sony has released sonic stage 4.3 which can be easily dl from sony site and there is also an firmware upgrade for it and i have not tried nwe005 but i m taking it bcoz its sony full potential or max. and it has truely beaten ipod shuffle i have always hate ipod bcoz of its poor battery life.. and it even dont have fm on it. these have and they r even better than samsung ypt9 bcoz they r really buggy and slow. and takes alot of time and i have used bean to its full potential everyday.
i love sony
i cant download songs to my mp3 A003…HELP PLEASE!!!!!!!!!