Zizone_

Yes, that's why Korean music market is dead. Their top chart in 2004, Seo Taiji's 7th album sold only 470,000 copies. This is musician who used to sell 3 million copies. Not to mention there seems to be no real artists lately. But, just think if one person shares 10 files, and say 10 other people shares 10 files... then one can get a point and see that numbers becomes big within a few moment. But, again people may argue with me and that's perfectly fine. What I am saying is that, this one very complex issue (what I mentioned is, surely, not the whole story) has proved Sony's current downfall in DAP market.

Yeah, I share same questions as you do. For some reason, there products are really at top level, while there softwares do not meet our expectations. I think there is some issue since they also own music industries. I know not many will agree with me, but I personally believe music files should be more restricted as Sony did previously; since one can find atleast 9 out of 10 people has download music files illegally. I think this is where the problem started when walkman lost lead to apple; for that people enjoyed music files without charge, while Sony's problem was more restricted to illegal files and file sharings. Now, files may be protected or not by option provided in SS. But by this time, apple gained lead, and this move left permanant image to Sony's Walkmans. I still have friends thinking Walkmans only support ATRAC. Edit: Yes, I agree with you on that they should also listen to consumers. And Japanese has saying that the customers are a god. Anyway, looking through their lenses, they cannot just ignore their numerous divisions either. So, finding this balance between consumers and their owned market divisions are surely tough. So this removal of DRM is one very complicated issue, again due to their own music market and for the consumers (it's like trying to pick a side when one's children are fighting). About that LCD and other issues, i strongly believe (by looking at their current deals with other companies) their future product line ups will have video support. And, I am hoping they will still deliver the superb sound quality like they have been doing through out their history. And I also hope Sony will show more attention for DAPs...

If the news you mentioned is true, March 2007, then A series will be more than a year old (since A series were released Nov. 2005). So by that time, I believe it is ok to replace with new line ups. And, yes I agree with you that skipping US is bad. But I really don't believe Sony was expecting this software problems that further damaged reputation of brand Walkman (I still think player itself is very well made). edit: I don't think it's really a matter of being 2nd place. There seems to be big gap between 1st and 2nd since Apple hold about 70% of this market (% maybe wrong). Once, Sony said this will be a long battle, a battle that can't be won by just one generation product line. Thing is that while Sony is improving but the rate is too slow, which is a huge problem. Hopefully there will be some sort of bright news to be made about possibly upcoming new lineups.

well, I may be totally off... but I think US will have new walkman, the new generation to come in future. I don't think Sony will release NW-A1000/3000. Not that they are ignoring US, but it's just that US is more competitive market. Having bad reviews and comments throughout various websites, some true while some are just ridiculous bias, current walkmans will not stand up to people's bias. I think I read news somewhere saying they may release new walkman line up in possibly November. Again, this is purely my thought and surely I can be wrong. Oh and if you really want to import one, here is a possible website for you. http://www.advancedmp3players.co.uk/shop/ As you can tell this is UK website. I believe they ship worldwide.

When you use non-Japanese SS or CP, Kana search in your NW-A3000 will disappear, which I tried with US version SS and CP with my NW-A1000. But then when I re-connect with JP version SS or CP Kana search in my NW-A1000 reappears (it takes time for the software to do some sort of work). And yeah Kanji was organized in English alphabet when using SS but in Kana list when using NW-A1000 (kana search). So SS is organized under English alphabet and within NW-A1000 they are under Kana lists. Anyway, I am also disappointed fact that it doesn't support anyother language but Japanese and English. But it shows some imporvement in Artist link part. Other than artist link, I really don't see any other improvements. Well there is AAC, but I really don't use that format so... Plus, personally CP looks better than SS while SS has more control than CP. I just wish all functions in both softwares will provided, not just few here and there in future.

hmm... as for speed wise, I say it's fast and also I haven't seen deleting problems. But only lack of language support while CP had perfect ones...

I say, they should really merge two programs into one and have all the features from both softwares with more funtions...

well I am using Japanese SS4.0 and ofcourse it is fine to rip Japanese CD to ATRAC with perfect kanji support and still allows you to search songs (in kanji) in Kana list via NW-A1000/3000 (just like Connect Player). But now when I rip Korean CDs, Korean characters are all in question marks... While Japanese ConnectPlayer has NO trouble in both Japanese and Korean (works great in language support part). Hopefully next update, they will support more languages than just Japanese and English... And yes I agree that NW-A1000/3000 Kana search works great either via SS4.0 or CP, but this kana search cannot be done through SS4.0 but only by NW-A1000/3000. Also, if you use Japanese version, Kanji or Kana falls in English alphabets in SS4.0. So they are organized not under etc for me. e.g) G: ガゼット. So atleast this is a good part.

oh i didn't know you can do that! thanks too.

352 kbps works great on my nw-a1000. personally i prefer 352kbps over 256kbps, since i can honestly tell difference between these two rates.

So umm... a dream music player! I agree with above lists. Someone mentioned about the bigger screen from apple... but I would like my players to be small (the reason that I didn't get video ipod).

I just found out you can download Dir en grey's the Final from Connect via SonicStage. If this is old news then I am sorry.

When I view detailed information of a song that I exported to my NW-A1000, it shows that it is ATRAC and 320kbps. I was just wondering why it won't say Atrac3plus when it is really a Atrac3plus file? Thank you.

My NW-A1000 (JP version) picks up Japanese and Korean without any problem. They do not go into "unknown," even if they contain both languages in track info. It works as if it were unicode in my computer and NW-A1000. So far I tried Japanese, Korean, and English without encountering any problems. Only problem is when I switch languages by using IME to search, CP freezes.

Sony's hardwares were almost always on the top of my list. If there was a drawback, it was its software. From reading this news, it seems not only will Sony excel in hardware but software as well. This is very good move by Sony and I hope to see brighter future for Sony. It also shows that Sony is closely paying attention to consumers' complains and trying to improve.

Thanks for the info.

I like J-Rock. Like band ガゼット　(Gazette). And one band from S. Korea, Seo Taiji Band.

I just ran into my first problem with Connect Player. I don't think this was mentioned before. When I use IME to change language to type in search box, Connect Player stops responding... Other than this problem, my Connect Player seems loads fast (about 10sec) and stable.

I am not questioning you but where did Sony say those information you just mentioned? I am just curious. Thanks.

Actually, I know one site where you can order NW-A1000. It is www.himeyashop.com You can click pre-order and see the second page (it is not really a pre-order but they just have it under there). Or you can custum order the item you wish. The only problem is the price. I don't think that site provides you the best price, but it gets you the item you requested.

Since your music files are MP3, I would keep them as MP3. I only convert WAV to Atrac3plus (when I import music from CD). If my happen to get music in MP3 then I keep them as MP3. And if you really care about music quality, keeping them in higher bit rate will help. I prefer Atrac3plus though, just my personal recomendation. Again, since you have original files in MP3, just keep them that way. Converting to Atrac3plus from MP3 will most likely result in sound quality loss. oh and I don't think MP3 192kbps = Atrac3plus 192kbps

ofcourse, I definitely recommend NW-A1000/3000.

I don't know if I am really lucky, but... so far Connect Player works fast (5-10sec) to load and never crashed on me.

I am not sure this answers your question but... tracks can be set as you wish by changing track #. You can change track number for each song by viewing property of that song and simply typing track number in the track number section. And this will rearrange your songs (if artist name differs by little within the album, then this will not let it arrange in song track number. so make sure artist name for each song is same).

Same here, it works fast and never crashed on me.