pata2001

Sony support are useless. The NWZ series are USB mass storage device, thus will work with any OS (Mac, Linux, Windows, etc). You transfer the music via drag-n-drop. The device will show just like an external USB drive. However, you cannot sync with iTunes, unless you install 3rd party apple scripts/plugins That allow iTunes to "sync" with mass storage devices. iTunes will only sync with iPods natively. You can still use iTunes as your jukebox, and to transfer the music, just drag-n-drop the tracks you want to the device in Finder.

Agreed. At EX85/EX90 prices, you can get Shure/Ultimate ears with much better sound quality.

http://asia.cnet.com/crave/2008/05/23/pick...ur-new-walkman/ http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/23/sony-in...kman-nwd-e020f/ Great. I thought this model is not going to be released outside Japan. Hopefully the EX stock bud, replaceable covers, multiple colors, and dynamic normalizer feature remain in the NWD version. Oh, NWD? I thought Sony is sticking with NWZ. Urrgh. As if consumers are not confused enough. Prices are $69 for 1GB, and $79 for 2GB. Hmm, dunno, 1GB should be more like $50 nowadays.

I have a distrust of people that claiming an unadvertised feature without providing proof. If I claim my PS3 can play Xbox games, would you want proof? Same thing.

Sony already supports MP3, WMA, and AAC. What else do you need? Want FLAC? Get Cowon.

WTF? Are you smokin something? All I did was ask a question. 1. Connect your Sony to a speaker. 2. Play 2 tracks that you know are gapless. 3. Start recording with a digicam or cellphone showing the timebar and sound being gapless. Any recent digicam/cellphone can record video AND audio just fine. 4. Upload to youtube How hard is that? I did it many times already. [sarcasm]I am the president of Sony, and since I'm sitting inside Sony's head office, I don't have to prove anything.[/sarcasm]

Holly thread resurrection Batman!

Could you record a video of the device playing the tracks gaplessly and post it to youtube?

Err, his library is in WAV already. So the simplest thing he could do is simply encode the WAV files into MP3 or something. No need to re-rip from scratch.

Why would you want to do that? The E507 supports MP3 just fine, so simply transfer the MP3 as is and spend your time listening to the podcasts instead of wasting time transcoding them to Atrac. You can always set Sonicstage to automatically transcode everything to Atrac during transfer.

I guess the first question is why do you buy the Japanese version in the first place, knowing that Atrac and Sonicstage is no longer supported outside Japan? Try running the installer under Applocale set to Japanese.

No, you just hate WMP. My favorite app is MP3tag, although I'm not sure if it could do exactly what you want (ie. automatically retrieving WMP's album art). The album art from WMP should be stored in the same folder as the MP3 as a hidden/system file called folder.jpg/albumart.jpg. You might have to paste them manually using a separate ID3 tag editor. MP3tag can do batch tagging pretty well.

You know, thanks for pointing that out. I was wondering how come the demo unit at Bestbuy have the Rhapsody icon, and the units sold there has Bestbuy stickers inside the box. IMO this simply stupid of Sony USA. They probably got some kickback form Bestbuy/Rhapsody, but it confuses consumers and creates more confusing SKUs. Even worse if they drop any features, no matter how insignificant, from the firmware. I guess Sony USA has a hard time kicking the habit of neutering firmwares of their products in the US. How hard is it to simply release 1 firmware for units of the same model?

Err, I don't think that's the same. What I meant by shuffle by album is for the unit to shuffle the albums during playback, but the unit played each album's tracks in order.

Figures. I don't understand why Sony ditched that feature. Not impressed at all, other than the larger screen. The control pad seems not that easy to use quickly on the go/blindly compared to the A80x.

Nope. That won't work on later versions of SS (I think anything after 3.x). You have to use applocale. Was there any error messages? Did you change any of the windows' default fonts? Are you sure you didn't change windows' language? TBH, I can't believe people are still willing to put up with this.

Any option to shuffle by albums? I played with a demo unit at Bestbuy but I don't see such option. The last Sony DAP that can shuffle by album that I know is the NW-E99. I can't believe Sony doesn't put this feature anymore.

There are better image hosting sites out there. Photobucket, imageshack, flickr, just to name a few.

I've been using the EX85 for months now. In short, it's simply a glorified EX71. It has better bass and highs than the EX71 (not as harsh), but the mids are still drowned. Simply inferior to IEMs, even the cheap models of Shure/Ultimate ears that can be had for similar price. Isolation is not great either due to the angled piece. I imported the SL version (which is why I'm still using it). It's fancy and turns a few heads on the street, but SQ wise, one can do better elsewhere. Only for those that prefers Sony's sound signature or those that thinks bass and no mids is good sound quality. http://www.audiotstation.com/forum/showthread.php?t=35514

As long as the drivers are there, I believe the hardware is fine. The problem is Sonicstage, which is not unicode.

The previous NWZ series (A81z and S61x) are also firmware upgradeable, but do we see any significant firmware upgrades? Nope, they ended up being discontinued. Heck, the HD1, Vaio Pocket, etc all are firmware upgradeable, but how many firmware upgrades did we see on those? Sony is a consumer electronic company. Providing firmware upgrades with new features will only prohibit consumers from buying their newer products. If you want those features, get the product that have those features, or you will be waiting for a long time until you end up buying the next lineup.

The E005 uses LiIon battery. Charging it when it is low can actually harm the battery. LiIon batteries are designed to be frequently charged. Besides, the E005 will drain its battery after a couple days anyway (even when it is not used), so just charge it daily regardless of use. As for temperature, yes, LiIon battery lifespan can be affected by temperature. As expected, extreme hot/col is not good.

I don't think so. The B series was intended for China market, where cheap flash players are all over the place. I bet the B series is just a rebadge of some Chinese OEM DAP (no AAC support, an actual on-off button, no dynamic normalizer, MP3 voice recording). I mean when was the last time Sony release a Network Walkman that can do voice recording? The B-series feature list matches most generic MP3 DAP. I do hope Sony USA will release either the E01x and/or E02x under the NWZ series. However, I don't think it will happen. What happens in Japan usually stays in Japan, and Sony USA is the dumbest of them all.

Well, since the site seems to be getting back on its feet, maybe we'll see more insider info. Both the A and S series have been duplicated for Japan and outside Japan (NW vs NWZ series). But where's the E series? I like Sony stick type players in general. The NWZ-B10x is severely lacking in feature (not even AAC support), a downgrade from the previous E series despite moving to drag-n-drop. Why Sony didn't release an NWZ version of the E-02x and E-01x?

Yes, agreed. I can't believe that till now, Sony USA keeps doing this dumb business decision to market different models in different regions. LP version is redundant and not needed, a waste of manufacturing cost. All they need to do is sell the SL version with an extension cable, that's it, everybody will be happy. By selling LP version, Sony is only alienating their own fanbase that are using remotes (remember Sony was the one that popularize the use of remotes on PCDPs and MD players). Just another proof how dumb Sony USA is.