navsimpson

Yeah, gapless does mean seamless transition with, umm, no gap Sony players are definitely not alone in this respect, as since the iPod 5th gen update, iPods have been capable of gapless when playing MP3s. I think there are some Samsung players that do this too. As for the NWZ, it seems that everyone who's tried it can't get gapless to work regardless of format. -Nav

Did you have a Connect account? If so, you might be able to sign in and simply reimport your music from your player(s). If there's no copy protection on your music, as the above poster said, you should be able to simply transfer the files from your old hard drive.

Oh-oh. Media Manager 'Pro' sounds like it'll cost people money. That's never a good thing, especially because it will have to be better than WMP11/iTunes to make people want to pay for it.

Sonicstage 4.3 is the only version of Sonicstage that will work with Vista. I run it and I've had no problems at all with it, so you might be okay. -Nav

Man, I am totally being lazy but very nerdy today... Anyway - I just downloaded and tried the new MP3 conversion tool. It's a little slow, but not too bad. It can batch convert all the ATRAC files on your hardrive, which is good. I have no idea how or why, but the track name, artist name *and* album art got transferred over, which is pretty impressive. But I honestly can't tell if it uses the lossless portion of AAL files. I have a crappy sound card now, so it's tough to see if it's taking from the 352kbs part or the lossless part. Anyone wanna' email Sony and find out? -Nav [update]: It's possible I have terrible ears, but I'm pretty sure that it transcodes from the lossless portion of an AAL file.

Given how easy it is to convert AAL to WAV and then batch convert to MP3, I think you should be alright. Still, although pata2001 vehemently disagrees, AAL is the smartest lossless solution there is (was...) for use w/ a portable device given the way it allowed you to keep lossless on your PC and lossy on your device. Still - ditching ATRAC is waaay waaay too late. It should have never even existed in the first place. -Nav

Well, you don't really have to use Sonicstage except to transfer music - other than that, your player is the same as the new one. I actually prefer the a81x to the s61x personally ('course, I haven't actually seen the new one in person). -Nav

Kurisu said they'd change it to Sony Insider. The domain is registered - but I'm not sure if it was 'our folks' who did it. -Nav

Couple of things to note: 1) The Engadget post said that they will be opening up the PSP's Media Manager software to support the Walkman later this year. That's good, as it'll mean podcast support. I think I'd rather stick to WMP11 though. 2) They support the PS3 for transfer and ripping. That's kinda' cool. -Nav

I dunno dude - seems like a better business decision than staying with ATRAC/Connect to me. I'm not sure if Sony are going to put out another high capacity player. There are rumours of wifi iPods that might be 40/80GB which might push Sony to do something similar. I wouldn't hold my breath though.

http://reviews.cnet.com/mp3-players/sony-n...l?tag=cnetfd.mt I don't really get what the difference between the s61x and a81x is. Anyway, CNET like it but not love it, which is weird. Maybe the a81x will get a higher review. -Nav

Why would Rhapsody be incompatible? It currently uses MTP, which the a81x apparently supports. But, I think that Rhapsody are about to launch in partnership with MTV and Verizon, so I don't know if it will stay that way. As an aside: man, Sony really have to something about those names - couldn't this just be the Video Walkman 2? -Nav

I think the other new series - the s6x - will have an FM tuner. No-one's heard anything about that yet though. -Nav

This might sound stupid, but have you actually seen/listened to those tracks on the device? -Nav

I also totally forgot about gapless. Another thing that's missing from WMP - podcast support. That's a shame. Still, here's my prediction: the new nwz-a8x will be the first Sony player to get an Editor's Choice from CNET. -Nav

Yeah, me neither - sucks that we have to wait for things we don't use. Went to a Sony Store in Toronto a couple of days ago and they thought the NW-A800 was the current one - hopefully you have better luck. -Nav

My guess is that because Sony Canada will need to negotiate deals with Napster Canada, we won't be getting this for a while. Shame, as this seems like perfectly good reason to 'accidentally' drop my NW-HD3. -Nav

Here it is: http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores...552921665224910 US$229 for 8GB. Cheaper than a Nano right? So definitely supports WMA DRM, but also does AAC. Totally confused as to what the software will be then. -Nav Update: It's WMP 11 'with MP3 conversion tools'. Still sorta' confused. Does that mean Sony are back to transcoding? Update 2: I just realised: no ATRAC support. Holy crap!

Dude, it supports Playsforsure but also does UMS. And why are people thinking that this will only be a 2GB model? It'll be the same as before - 2, 4 and 8, maybe even 16. I think Playsforsure is kind of strange as well, but it's light years beyond Connect, especially if it works with Napsters subscription option. -Nav

Can't say where I heard it, but expect to hear an announcement on Thursday. -Nav

In addition to the news about new, Sonicstage-free players, Engadget has something up about new headphones: http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/27/sony-bu...-big-and-small/

Oh yeah. Thanks Ceres, I'd forgotten about that. Hm. Maybe Sony will provide a plug-in, a la Orban? Or their own plugin that lets ATRAC files be played in WMP? -Nav

So, is this the first time Sony has done something that we here have been asking for? i.e. just taking the NW-A800 and getting rid of Sonicstage? If they keep everything else the same - AAC support etc., wouldn't that make it the perfect player? Still - why choose an obviously dying DRM format? I'm pretty impressed though - the NW-A800 is like the perfect player. If I can use WMP 11 rather than the Sonicstage... wow. Maybe this was the 'Sony Changes Everything' teaser we got. [Edit: Maybe? This is totally that change] -Nav

Hm. I just go to play around with the NW-A800 for the first time today, and I was seriously impressed. It's tiny and lightning quick - I have serious doubts that this Rolly will be as good. I don't think I would blame Sony for giving up, but it seems like an odd choice when your hardware is actually superior, all Sony fanboyism aside. Ah well. -Nav

Dude, that is typically cryptic. I suppose if you told me why, you'd have to kill me? -Nav