Sony to Release B100 Series Drag and Drop Walkman
In a stunning revelation brought forth to ATRACLife from trustworthy insiders, Sony is soon to debut a new flash-based Walkman to the world. What differentiates this device from previous Walkmans is its absolute freedom in music transfer. Sony has finally arose from its slumber and has made this a drag and drop personal audio device that doesn’t require Sonicstage to assist in moving music onto the device.
One, two, and four gigabyte versions are expected in three colors with OLED color display. Surprisingly, voice recording is included with all versions, and there will be FM-radio variants as well. The B100 series with FM capability can also record FM audio directly onto the unit. The ATRAC codec will not be supported with this device, but people familiar with the situation have stated that MP3 and non-DRM’d WMA will; we are left to speculate if AAC will be supported.
Expect an entry-level price point similar to previous Sony offerings and availability within the next month. A higher resolution image follows after the break..
hmm this is cool
but it is not like sony =P
It doesn’t sound sound much like a Digital Audio Player but more of a voice recorder and just a simple audio file player. I don’t understand why Sony has given it a Walkman brand name to it… Anyways, it seems like a choice for those who need sound/voice recording function and simple audio file player.
wow looks like aplicot has arrived, hehe I a bit early but in the right order so far, sony ain’t done yet though.
atrac is dead, it died long ago (sony knew this but wanted to hold on), acc and mp3 are the way forward, flac for lossless. I am sure you guys read the part about drag and drop right? its what will allow sony to take back the market.
I was hoping to buy the new A800 but if drag and drop are to be added to it or forthcoming products, I may just hold on a bit longer.
interesting development by sony.
Okay, this is very suspicious Sony. No Atrac support AND drag and drop of other popular formats.There has to be a catch. What about Connect music store and Sony’s precious music division(DRM). Maybe I should hold off purchasing the NW-A80x, the next step could be a similar device with drag and drop instead of needing to use SonicStage.
Anthony.
Lastima, me dan ganas de reemplazar mi NW-E003F por uno de estos. Si son baratos hare el cambio sin dudarlo.
El Sonicstage es lo mas parecido a una horrible tortura.
Anyone else think that sony will release another video walkman (possibly touch-screen) flash based and will dump SS and allow it to be used on a mac?
hmmm ‘closing the gate after the horse has bolted’ comes to mind.
This sounds more like a rebadged OEM unit than a true Sony product. What differentiates this from all the millions of other flash mp3 + FM + drag and drop units produced by Taiwanese and Chinese manufacturers over the past few years? Seems to have pretty much the same features. Looks quite nice, but I like ATRAC and have a lot of music in that format, so probably won’t be getting one of these devices.
hard to believe
YES YES YES… finally sony has come to its senses!!
I couldn’t belive this news when I saw it in my mailbox this morning….
What sets it apart? It’s a sony Walkman!!! That means good to superb audio quality, good build quality and stunning battery life!
If this is True, I think it’s a test from sony to look how people react at this new move from sony.
C’mon people, THIS could be THE big CHANGE in Walkman History…….Drag & Drop is something people around the Globe are begging for for a long long time….
One of the biggest problems for people to buy a Walkman has gone away with this… history…..
Maybe the next step is setting atrac free…..
I just hope sony proceeds in this way with all their new devices WITH atrac support.
So you’ll get a Drag & Drop and Sonicstage combo. If you want atrac, you’ll have yo use SS, otherwhise just drag n drop it…
great news guys!!!
greetz
[...] AtracLife, the Sony blog dedicated exclusively to the devices that can play the ill-fated codec, has grabbed a scoop on what Sony’s next flash-based player looks like and how it differs from all of the past ones. [...]
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seems to me this is a device for the professional recording market where propietary formats are not used, hence no atrac and no mention of aac. this would enable samples and demos to be exchanged easily between artists, mixers and producers. the support for direct recording also points towards replacing DAT or MD field recordings
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Don’t most people carry around a phone that can do all this already anyway, maybe even a Sony Ericsson?
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Getting there. Not fussed about the design though, that USB cap is definitely getting lost. But Sony appears to be listening to what its consumers want.
I’m from the minority group who like ATRAC, not to mention the playback time with ATRAC is much better with Sony products. I’m holding my breath for a new incarnation of NW-HD5, maybe without HDD, and drag and drop (although I like to organise my files the way SS lets me do it). Anyways, great news.
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Sony Walkman B100 ohne SonicStage und ATRAC, Welt dreht sich weiter…
Es ist eine Weile her, dass Sony sich auf dem chinesischen Markt erstmals traute einen mp3-Player ohne SonicStage und ATRAC ins Rennen zu schicken. Scheinbar lief der Player so gut, dass das Experiment im größeren Maßstab fortgesetzt wird. Die B100…
Sony have supported drag and drop on the Walkman branded phones since the beginning. It was only a matter of time until their music players went the same way…
Looks like the shape of things to come.
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Looks like a Decent walkman ,but Shape does look awful:(
Finally!!! I own the NW-HD5 and Sonic Stage is a real pain; listening to your music shouldn’t have to be so complicated.
I will wait and see. It appears that I am the least excited about drag and drop. Hopefully some software will be included to help file management.
No ATRAC? Not for me then. No way I’m gonna re-rip 300CDs.
[...] Sony to Release B100 Series Drag and Drop Walkman [ATRACLife] tr { border: 0px } td { cellborder: 10px} table { border: 1px solid black } [...]
Oh, yeah~!! XD
Wait a sec….
When they said “Drag and Drop”… they meant the “Normal” D&D, right?
I still have my NW-E95…. I don’t often use Sonic Stage, but instead, I use its built-in “MP3 Manager”…
Royal pain as well… I could Drag & Drop, but it picks files, and I can’t take it back out…
I can understand if I can’t take it back out, and I usually just delete anyways… However….
Pick Files??
That would suck alot.
I converted to Creative for it’s super user-friendliness… Yes, to me, being able to D&D any MP3 without showing “No MP3 format was detected” was a blessing.
Also, please, please, please support mutiple languages without the stupid “squares”… it’s annoying… and it wasn’t helping much.
But if B100 has all the things this report claims, then I think I’m sold…80%
Keep on improving, Sony!!
Even if I diss you all the time, you’ll always have a special place in my heart~!! XD
By the way, I kinda hope the design can be more like NW-E01x series….
Am I asking too much? >_
Yowza! This kinda’ came out of nowhere… Definitely seems like a smart move on Sony’s part.
I will say, however, that drag ‘n drop is *not* a mass-market feature. It’s one for people with a general familiarity with computers and how they work. The iPod is so popular precisely because it has iTunes to take care of all the folder nonsense for you. So hopefully, this is a stop-gap solution until Sony come out with a new piece of software that will handle their new video/music store and actually be stable and easy to use.
Yeah, I agree with the comment that this looks like a rebadged product. The ability to play MP3 and WMA only is characteristic of cheapie Chinese players. All of Sony’s “better” products these days support AAC and ATRAC (including recent releases like the S700 and A800 series). If Sony were completely ditching ATRAC, they probably wouldn’t have included support in the A800 only to exclude it with this model.
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I love my PSYC but Sonic Stage was always tedious to make sure each songs didn’t get buried into some subfolder. I hope that they improve the design look. It would look rather nicer as some nice female perfume container or some tough little macho gadget then the little too common USB Flash Memory Stick. I hope it can clearly record the abuse i get sometimes or catch my funny late night one liners. Thus if so i suspect i could drag out easily into my computer those sound nuggets. I wish they could morph its skin somehow, make it look like real eyecandy not just an ear candy superstore………make it chameleon-like. Go for it Sony,,,,,, the Shibuya Look……..109
About f-in’ time!
Ive been usng a NW-E507 for a few years. Audiobooks and pod casts.
I gave up on music when Nugent stopped touring…..
Anyway, I have found the Sony “bullet” players to be bulletproof and have really long battery life. I dont watch tv on my player so what else do I need but a tough and long playing device?
Anyway, with it’s on board File Manager I am able to act as though it is true drag and drop…though it is slower because of its transcoding process I guess..
In any event I will be buying the new product because it is time for an upgrade and I want more storage.
Thanks for the heads up.
I think the temperature in hell just dropped a bit…
No ATRAC support isn’t exactly welcome news for me, it means I’ll be re-ripping a ton of CD’s.
To much like a U.S.B key…
[...] Sony to Release B100 Series Drag and Drop Walkman [ATRAC Life via Electronista] [...]
Hello!!
I thought I am dreaming today in the morning as i read my mails!
This is not true? No Atrac!!??
But Drag and Drop? Perfect!!
The Thing is: Do Sony need ATRAC? I mean if you think about a long future?
NO NO NO NO. Damn again: NO.
Nobody wants ATRAC. Some guys who have ripped their CDs in Atrac? I´m sorry it´s just bad luck. Nobody needs Atrac!!
But as I know from Sony: It will be shit!! It´s just a cheap China Produkt and the other Players will have still Atrac. Anyway for me it´s not important to have Atrac so I don´t mind.
But Drap and Drop is the thing everyone needs. But Sony will not do it!!!
I bet! SONY WILL NOT DO IT! THEY WILL NOT DO WANT PEOPLE WANT!!!!
That is sure!!
Bye
ugly, doesn’t look like a Sony at all…
I don’t know but I think this is ICD-U70’s sucessor due to the emphazis on voice recording. This was pasted from the ICD-U70’s page at Sonystyle.com:
“MP3 Playback
Provides easy playback of unsecured MP3 files by dragging and dropping files into the MP3 folder on the device.”
^ See why I say this new Walkman is the ICD-U70’s sucessor? Drag and Drop isn’t new for Sony on their voice recording devices.
what were you guys expecting, this is the lowest model in the the sony lineup, a lot cheaper than any of the others that are out or will be coming out, so design had to be sacificed a bit.
funny, they add drag and drop, and people still complain. If you don’t like it, buy and ipod.
Oh, I forgot to ask the IMPORTANT QUESTIONS~!!! >__
Crap, the comment isn’t show normally… let me try again…
Oh, I forgot to ask the IMPORTANT QUESTIONS~!!! XI
1) CLEAR AUDIO!! Does it have Clear AUDIO!? O_O I really want to try out the Clear Bass & the Clear Stereo~!! O_O
2) Noise Canceling, does it have a built-in noice canceling!? If Sony’s noise-blocking head phones can’t be as effective as Shures, there’s not much point in using it for me… (Noisy background commute.)
3) Accessories!? Does it come with really nice accessories!? The cool, stylish, functional accessories!?
4) I wonder if situations such as D&D the mp3, but the player still won’t recognize it?? You know, like the old “MP3 File Manager”?
5) What about muti-lingual?? Does the player recognize multi-lingual ID3 tags?? I hope so… it’d suck so bad if all it shows are “Squares”…. =_=|||
I was tempted to buy NW-E01* series… But Drag & Drop looks tempting… Please, SONY!! At least let it have Clear AUDIO~!! >_
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If Sony do ditch ATRAC completely, that will mean that there is no point for me in buying any of their players any more. If Sony do want to go down the road of widely-usable audio formats, the obvious solution is surely to make ATRAC available to all manufacturers as it is by far and away the best audio format in use at the moment. That way it is available widely, is less likely to die out and gives people the CHOICE of using it without having it forced upon them.
Now Sony, how about a high-capacity HDD player? Surely it cannot be too difficult to produce an 80GB player if others can do it. I am getting fed up with having to carry two players around with me…
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Sony B100 series will be free of SonicStage hell…
Major developments are happening on the Sony front, and boy do they include some juicy news! First of all the B100 series will be Sony’s first drag-and-drop MP3 player supporting MP3s, non-DRM’d WMAs, and even AAC formats. The SonicStage software wi…
No Sonicstage!? YYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!
I wonder how long it’ll be before they come up with a high capacity version, or even if this one will be able to cope with having a gert big flash drive hacked onto it’s internals?
Is it just me or does Sony have a tendancy to get one thing rite per player???? I think this player is on the way to making the computer side of the experience more ‘doable’ let alone user friendly, but for the first time in ages they’ve released a poor hardware product?
I understand why people want drag and drop, but i’m a fan of media management…. if the damn thing would work. Get the connect interface back, make the damn thing work, give drag and drop as option… but for gods sake DONT drop atrac. I do not see the benefit of not including it in a product?!?! Its free for sony???? Atrac is by far the best codec out there and i personally love it. Great move adding wma and aac to most products but dont tick off the people who’ve supported them thru their bad years!
I wouldnt get this player… but if they could jus put all these good moves together, they have a chance at making a great user experience. Then the battle begins for market share (and the only way they’ll do this is making something 10x better than ipod).
I agree with mikey… keep atrac, bring back nu nw-hd5… bes walkman in years!
Dan
[...] was definitely a via via via item but it appears as if it came first from ATRACLife. This looks to be a cool way to Experience Mobility using Sony’s NEW flash-based [...]
[...] was definitely a via via via item but it appears as if it came first from ATRACLife. This looks to be a cool way to Experience Mobility using Sony’s NEW flash-based [...]
One thing I don’t see explained anywhere is why adopting drag & drop means ditching Atrac. Is there any serious limitation in the codec that doesn’t allow it to be dragged and dropped as an MP3? Since SonicStage has allowed ripping without copy protection for some time, why not just letting people use their Atrac libraries? Why not releasing some software that would eliminate the copy protection in older Atrac files? Why, instead of killing the format, not releasing it freely, so others can support it, even if just to let people find an easy way of transcoding?
As for supporting other formats like AAC, that’s nice, but Sony needs to also support the tagging structure that the major user of AAC, Apple, adopted.
[...] ATRACLife Sony to Release B100 Series Drag and Drop Walkman - Way too late… [...]
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Wow. I cannot believe all so many folks are providing “meh” or negative comments about this product….
Sony finally provides a drag and drop unit (with the flash drive connector no less) and folks aren’t pleased. Have we not be begging for a connect-free Sony DAP for a loooong time.
I had given up on Sony, but if this device delivers as described, I will pick on up in a heartbeat.
No gapless playback, and a cheapo amp, obviously. Won’t be able to compete.
Unbelievable. Hell has truly frozen over. No SonicStage. Oh my. Oh my…
Let me sit down and digest this…
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How Fake do you wanna make this thing? I’m surprised that no one has really picked this up.
Is everyone this easily moved? I mean, why an overhaul of this magnitude all of a sudden? If Sony is so consumer demand elastic wouldn’t they at least try to modify their range slowly, instead of throwing out something which every1 has wanted just after the realise of a80x and e01x.
For me, the recording and atrac is really sus, so if this is fake, gotcha. If not, I’ll take everything i said back and we can all party.
Well well, I sense a bandwagon being jumped on here. Just because a load of copy paste tech blogs are predicting the death of Atrac doesnt mean its gonna happen. As far I can see this is a cheap player with standard features made for the masses (note the ‘B’ model number).
Atrac & Sonicstage will live on without doubt, I mean why shouldn’t it? yeah its had its troubles in the early days but 4.x is just perfect now & I cant see them throwing away the hard work its taken to get there.
I see this as a niche audio product from Sony to keep a few people happy…..
As for me, my HD1 & my Atrac collection with persist until a new 20 / 40 / 60 gig player arrives. 4 yrs old & still kicking the ipods a**! in every way
RS
[...] Sony to Release B100 Series Drag and Drop Walkman [ATRAC Life via Electronista] [...]
Yes, I may even buy one for myself just to try it out. It’s about time. Now all they need to do is fix the PS3.
Ｉ am chinese!
大家好!我来说说我的看法
我刚买了NW-603F，今天才知道有这款不需要sonystage的上市，我心中那个悔啊～！！！！其实你们知道不，在中国，sony 要再不出这系列的话它的销量就完了！因为中国人几乎都被哪个软件搞的头大了！每人愿意去弄！这款产品的出现将大大打开它的销量，呵呵，只是可惜了我的银子！！！！谁要６０３F?我超低价卖给他！！！
What the hell is Sony doing? I can see why they’re ditching Sonicstage but why ATRAC? It is by far the BEST audio codec, even superior to AAC both in quality and smaller file sizes. The Playstation 3 system can also rip CD’s in ATRAC format and that was just released recently. Is Sony just releasing an alternative media player for those who are tired of the “vendor lock” where you are forced to use a certain application or is this really the end. On a side note: although it wasn’t specifically intended as a audio player, The Playstation Portable (PSP) used the drag-&-drop feature for adding music and videos as well. That brings me to another point. Why can’t Sony just make the new B100 or any future device with the capability of the PSP. The PSP support all of the most popular codecs availible (MP3, MP4-AAC, WMA, as well as ATRAC, ATRAC3, and ATRAC3plus. If they discontinue or re-program the software for ATRAC then fine, but at least offer it as a convienience (how ever the hell you spell it) for those of us who have already pledged our loyalty.
ATRACalltheway:
No ATRAC so they can use off-the-shelf chips that others have been using for years, maybe. Reducing manufacturing costs have a lot to do with the no-ATRAC choice, IMO. No proprietary relatively low-volume, higher-cost chips.
That and the fact that outside of a few fans, nobody cares about ATRAC. Playing it isn’t as straightforward as you might think without SonicStage, too (correct me if I’m wrong here, I don’t keep up with ATRAC playback, really).
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SonicStage不要・ATRAC非対応の新ウォークマンなら男らしい。…
engadgetからの情報。やっといっぱしのMP3プレーヤーの仲間入りとなるか。
……
I don’t think this bad looking “walkman”will be successful.Even we can’t call this strange thing WALKMAN.THIS B100 is like the CE-P series CHINESE SONY company release before.
I will not buy this “walkman” anyhow.
if true I see this as good news. But could it be a hoax as there is nothing I can find on Sony websites. SS wrecked my PC and I had to take the gorgeous NW-A608 back for a refund. Still using my NW-E99 1GB with MP3 manager. If this is really true I can see me snapping up the 4GB asap. Let’s have some confirmation as I think it may be some sort of ‘wishful thinking wind-up’
I don’t know what to make of this really. Direct MP3 support is a good move for the general public. But for me, dropping ATRAC doesn’t sounds right. There aren’t that many who genuinely (and proactively) like ATRAC over other formats, but I do and I’m sorry to see it go in any device.
Why oh Why can’t sony bring out a player compatible with DRM? Many other players are but with Sony you still have to burn your downloads to CD then rip them back to your PC to transfer them. I can’t be bothered with that.
OK, called the Sony centre and they seem to confirm this is in the pipeline. But I’m really keen to see when this will actually surface to buy…anyone got any more news???
huh!
“drag-and-drop” ?
we’ve been using that from 5 or 6 years ago,
sony is too old-fashioned!
way too late…
[...] Encontrado en atraclife [...]
LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL WITHOUT SONIC STAGE..MUCH MUCH MUCH MORE BEAUTIFUL…OUT TO F*** SONIC STAGE
Damn it, drag ‘n’ drop involves nothing more than just basic file operation…nothing needs to be converted when transferring files this way.
Could not be simpler for Sony, but why did they not do it before ?
The answer is simple, I think : they developed their own audio codec, ATRAC, they spent a fortune on its development and they did not want to throw the whole into the trash.
Oh poo, I bought my NW-E013F player a month ago and only heard about this new drag & drop player a few days ago!
My review on B100 vs E010 series:
- B100 has poorer built and sound quality
- B100 is cheaper
- B100 is slightly larger than E010
- B100 cannot display album art
- B100 doesn’t require the stupid SonicStage for file transfer
Make sure you try it at a local store before buying it. The actual product doesn’t look as sleek as the pictures here.
Ha! I have a black 2GB NWDB105 and I’m listening to it now. Perfectly happy considering it cost 45 quid from Argos. 410 tracks on it now lots to listen to.
OK it doesn’t have the fab build quality of my NWE99 or the 608 I had to take back…but it’s pure drag and drop heaven!
Will probably carry it in the black felt bag from my NWE99. Works real slick and to cap it all I got the mail from Sony todat announcing the end of Connect! Hurrah!!!
Get one…for £44.99 it’s top notch.
[...] those rumors. Now, continuing a recent trend started with Sony Ericsson phones and seen with some other Sony players, Sony announced a new line of video Walkmans that will not support ATRAC, but will support MP3, [...]
Atrac was never accepted, but let’s face it, it sounded much better than MP3 and WMA even at lower sampling rates. Compare a NW-HD5 against any IPod and you’ll see. Unfortunately, everyone seems to be racing to formats that undo what audio experts have been trying to do for many years - improve recorded sound. I’m glad Sony held out (albeit for the wrong reasons) because at the end of the day, I hope the market steps back to realize that popular portable music devices have undone over the past five years what it took generations to produce - sonic purity. The sound quality produced my most MP3 and WMA devices…especially iPod…how do I say this delicately…sucks!!! I hope the Sony devices sound better than the junk out there now! And popular as they may be, iPod’s sound like total garbage!
Where can I find a firmware revision to update my old E95 to drag and drop operation? Is Sony going to issue the firmware update or will it come from a 3rd party?
This is such bad news…I just bought and A805…the atrac version and the sound quality is fantastic. ATRAC beats mp3 and AAC hands down and this seems like a step backwards. Why dont Sony push ATRAC rather than give in and use the same rubbish sonding formats as everyone else…all those years of atrac development down the drain
The UK site now has the A800 series of Walkmans side by side… one with AAC WMA etc and the other supporting ATRAC. Its only a matter of time before the ATRAC one is phased out I guess, but I really cant understand why Sony hasnt just opened up the player to accept ALL formats including ATRAC??? http://www.sony.co.uk/view/ShowProductCategory.action?site=odw_en_GB&category=NWS+A+Series
[...] Encontrado en atraclife [...]
I am really not at all happy (and very disappointed) with the NWD B105 for various reasons.
I was using a NW-E003 (1GB) and was totally happy with this option until it go nicked from work one afternoon. I was looking to upgrade anyway and thought of purchasing the new B105 because of the drag and drop functionality and also the non-dependency of Sonic Stage
Well what a bad decision I made:-
a) On average I would set my volume at around the 19-20 mark on my previous player and this would easily drown out any external noises. I would also get around 3 days play time out of this on my available battery.
To achieve the same level of volume I need to set it at around the 22-23 mark and no I am not getting deaf and the AVLS is switched off! So by default setting the higher volume rate causes less time on the battery i.e. I now get around a day and a bit if I am lucky!
b) The shuffle feature on the previous player was a little dodgy but I could at least work around that. The new shuffle just does not work period! For example, track A is played, I then forward to track B, C, then it goes back to A again? I have 400 tracks on the player how is this possible? Then as a total and unexpected bonus, when I switch off and on again, lo and behold, it defaults to the last track I played i.e. the A track again and guess which songs follow next:- B,C, etc. What a nightmare
There are some other items I could mention but these can be regarded as opinion only. I also visited the Sony website where I upgraded the firmware to the latest version and this has made no difference.
In honesty (unless I have a faulty item which I doubt) I wish I never bought this and had the option to purchase the previous model and stick to SonicStage!
DRUG AND DROP WHITH SONY PLAYERS WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SONY NOW ITS ABOUT TO TAKE THE MARKET FRON IPOD (need i tunes ).
Maybe i buy this player,like the drag and drop support and nthe best part it;s a s-o-n-y mp3 p-l-a-y-e-r
i would rather hold back until Sony has released the great DAP like S706 without SonicStage nightmare(maybe 2008?)
[...] Sony to Release B100 Series Drag and Drop Walkman [ATRAC Life via Electronista] [...]