pata2001

The gapless properties in iTunes has nothing to do with gaples playback. It only disables crossfading. Gapless on iTunes and iPods are automatic. When you import tracks to iTunes, it will scan the track's length (showing as "determining gapless information").

Sonicstage cannot play AAC (.3gp) gaplesly, but the S70x series can. Bummer huh, no gapless. Sony took 1 step forward, and 5 steps backward, as always. It is ironic that in the beginning, iPods are heavily criticized for not having gapless playback ability. Now, it is one of the few that support gapless playback. Can't wait for September 5th. Thanks a lot for doing the tests.

Several suggestions for gapless codec support test: -AAC ripped via Sonicstage (.3gp) -AAC ripped via iTunes (.m4a) -MP3 encoded with Lame -standard WMA (so far, there is no hardware capable of playing WMA gaplessly, only WMP does, so highly unlikely)

Finally somebody bought it. Thanks a lot for the pdf manual! So it is an MTP device, not UMS, not usable outside XP/Vista. And man, Sony USA just cannot hide their hatred towards Kanji (in this case Japanese). Taken from the manual: What is that supposed to mean? So even if the device supports it, they still have to put a disclaimer like that.

Well, that's the thing. There are plenty of stock of these new walkmen at my local sonystyle store, yet nobody is buying them, thus it's hard finding reviews/tests on these.

Ah, I see. Got too excited too soon.

OK, now I'm really excited about these new DAPs!!!!! Guess what Sony used to based the software on.... LINUX! YEAH, OPEN SOURCE! AND you can check the source codes too (although I have no understanding of the content!). When I tried finding the manuals for the NWZ-A81x series, I stumbled a GPL license at Sony support. I thought WTF? GPL? Then voila, check this list of Sony products that use Linux, and the links to the source code! http://www.sony.net/Products/Linux/Download/category7.html#5 So yeah, maybe some productive people will be able to do some interesting stuff. Hey, maybe I'll buy one of these just because. Good job Sony, but maybe you should be more upfront about it. Ishi/kurisu, maybe you guys should put this in the front page. IMO this is a big thing for Sony to post the source codes of their walkmen software.

eMusic use plain MP3s, and there are CDs.

Yes, it's true. Atrac is outdated, propietary, and Sony cannot even put full support on their devices. Speaking of lower bitraters, HE-AAC provides better quality, and highly supported in the cellphone market.

Atraclife is a community blog/forum, NOT a Sony marketing team. Atraclife is NOT responsible for marketing and Sony's stupid decisions. If you're actually an audiophile, you would have explored FLAC, APE, apple lossless, or skip them all altogether and stick with uncompressed WAV/PCM, all have existed way before Atrac lossless. If you want to stick to a dead unsupported format, go ahead, but don't blame anybody else. I lost count on how many times I've said that Sony is going to ditch Atrac.

I think you missed the news. The latest B100, A810, and S610 series don't support Atrac anymore.

Well, US is getting the B100 series too. http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores...ategoryId=16178 As for the A810s, only up to 8GB. The B100 seems to be a good value. 2GB for $80. The Zen V-plus is $80 for 2GB too, but some people may prefer the Sony's stick design.

Well, I guess Connect IS done for. http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/30/live-fr...ynote/#comments There you go non-believers. I wonder what will happen to this blog/forum. Sonylife? NW-life?

WMP can sync anything in its library to any UMS compliant devices. Sony Network Walkmen have been UMS compliant so far, but in order to use the music tracks in the player, Sonicstage is still required for transfer.

Wow, almost forgot about that. You have an extremely important point, gapless playback. Previously, Sony players are gapless with Atrac. Now that Atrac is gone, if Sony doesn't implement gapless playback with AAC, this is like 2 steps backward! The S70x series can play gapless AAC, but only if they're ripped with Sonicstage (.3gp). WMP doesn't have AAC capability.

The A80x is UMS device. You only need Sonicstage to transfer music. Other things like videos are transferred drag-n-drop via explorer. Didn't you read the reviews on this thing?

Hey, you guys got the A80x already, before these are coming here.

Hey, how did you find that? It was not listed on the regular menus. The prices looks ok-ish, but the new Creative Zen is cheaper per GB, and we don't know what Apple will do.

Plus I think that kind of blister packaging is only for US market, so I'm sure these are US-bound units.

Nevermind. I posted my thread before the updated info at engadget. There are many MTP/play-for-sure devices that are not UMS capable. Considering iTunes, Walmart, Amazon, EMI, Universal, all are going towards DRM-free music, this shows that Sony Electronics is still under control of Sony Music/RIAA for clinging into play-for-sure DRM, something that even Microsoft itself is moving away from. Creative is smart, advertising support for iTunes DRM-free AAC .m4a on their new Zens. These Sony players will be just another blip on the radar, considering that it's going to be released days after the upcoming Apple event.

Hmm, that's strange. Maybe you're right. Also looks like the MP3 file manager is not compatible with Vista. However, it seems the OP's device is detected okay. His only problem is in transferring the files.

The earbud is not new. It's just a cellphone version of the EX52 that's been out in Japan for a while.

You should NOT have to install any additional drivers. The latest drivers are already included in Sonicstage. OK, I think I can see the problem. 1. Make sure you install the latest Sonicstage (4.3 I think) in Vista 2. When ripping to Atrac, make sure you disable or uncheck the copy protection. 3. If you only want to transfer MP3s, you can always use the MP3 file manager instead of Sonicstage. 4. If you still have problems in the end, yeah, it's due to Vista. The blame should be on Sony for not making a 100% compatible software for the latest OS, but Vista has so many compatibility issues that it's not funny. Even Apple has problems with their iTunes in Vista. Another reason to stick with XP.

Finally! A80x for the US. Man, Sony USA is just too stupid. I mean, NOW they are releasing 2GB players? New iPods are coming pretty soon. Again, Sony USA, stupid and late AGAIN and AGAIN. Looking at the NWZ series, looks like Sony gave up Connect in favor of Windows Media play-for-sure DRM Talk about dumber and dumber, even Microsoft is dumping play-for-sure, and now Sony is adopting it? Maybe Sony should just stick making PCDPs and MDs. They were pretty good at those. It's unfortunate that they gave up on those. By the way, for a blog called Atraclife, we're kinda behind the engadget people now. C'mon, just spill the juicy stuff already. Maybe ishi and friends are held back by NDA? EDIT: Apparently this is NOT the NW-A80x, but the eveil twin, NWZ-A81x. WTF? Being Windows Media play-for-sure device, I'm afraid it's won't have the drag-n-drop features of the NW-A80x. How stupid is Sony USA? Why can't they just release the plain Nw-A80x in the US, since they're out in Canada already?

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