disclaimer: listening to music using headphones while bike riding, roller-skating or skiing is now strongly discouraged (still acceptable while taking a walk or unglamorously using public transportation however).
The First Sony Walkman Was Released 40 Years Ago
41–50 of 180 posts
Re: The First Sony Walkman Was Released 40 Years Ago
#42disclaimer: listening to music using headphones while bike riding, roller-skating or skiing is now strongly discouraged (still acceptable while taking a walk or unglamorously using public transportation however).
By who, for what reason?
Re: The First Sony Walkman Was Released 40 Years Ago
#43disclaimer: listening to music using headphones while bike riding, roller-skating or skiing is now strongly discouraged (still acceptable while taking a walk or unglamorously using public transportation however).
By who, for what reason?
By the authorities, for the reason of your own physical well-being. In some places, it's even illegal: https://www.quora.com/In-California-is-it-illegal-to-ride-a-...
Re: The First Sony Walkman Was Released 40 Years Ago
#44The UX of cassettes was very useful for sharing and swapping music or speech, and for resuming where one left off. Because of the linear tape, the cassette's "playback cursor" was stateful and independent from whether the medium was read-only or not. Playback resumed at (nearly) the same spot as it was last stopped, even if moved to a different player. Successor formats didn't have this property. Interestingly, Sony…
I’ve been thinking a lot about how the UX of cassettes and vinyl encouraged an immeasurably deeper immersion and exploration of music. My walkman would keep playing as the battery died, playing the music slower and slower still for about 20-25 minutes. This was fun and made it easier to figure out how electronic drum patterns and sounds were put together. To say that had an impact on my own productions later would be an understatement. Also it didn’t matter that I had one album or mix on the tape, I would happily listen to it hundreds of times. Didn’t need infinite scrolling libraries of compositions...
Re: The First Sony Walkman Was Released 40 Years Ago
#45The Walkman is a classic case of how an entrenched competitor with deep pockets couldn't really stand in the way of an innovative product. I point this out because, whenever you come across an idea for a startup, you'd inadvertently find one or more businesses already built around the idea, sometimes with ginormous funding or income. Remember how iPod beat Walkman, Firefox gazumped IE, Zoom sped past WebX, stripe poc…
> Remember how iPod beat Walkman No. No I don’t. Who the fuck was still using a Walkman in 2001?
While the portable CD players from Sony were branded "Discman", they later used the "Walkman" brand for a range of featurephones (e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Ericsson_W580i) explicitly designed as music players. So you could actually say that the _iPhone_ ultimately beat the Walkman...
Re: The First Sony Walkman Was Released 40 Years Ago
#46The UX of cassettes was very useful for sharing and swapping music or speech, and for resuming where one left off. Because of the linear tape, the cassette's "playback cursor" was stateful and independent from whether the medium was read-only or not. Playback resumed at (nearly) the same spot as it was last stopped, even if moved to a different player. Successor formats didn't have this property. Interestingly, Sony…
I enjoyed reading your comment, and couldn't help but thinking how I miss this time. The joy of bringing something physical to somebody - a cassette, a vinyl - for their listening pleasure. The feedback loop from the act of giving and receiving. This whole idea of physical sharing made the music more personal and magical. Nowadays I have shared playlist for family and friends, and it lacks magic.
I missed it too. So I went ahead and got an old, refurbished harman/kardon cassette deck after months of research about different cassette and deck varieties. Learnt about type 1 (ferric), type 2 (chromium dioxide) and type 4 (metal) cassettes.
And now when I get back from work in the evening, I put on a cassette whilst making dinner. Or when I have friends over. And I let them pick the cassettes, which is always rather exciting.
I listen to a lot of metal and classical music, so finding original cassettes (even the really nice metal ones) isn't that hard at all. Plus they're cheap! (Waaay cheaper than vinyl).
And if all that weren't enough, there are bands still putting out cassettes: synthwave artists (Taurus 1984), indie bands (Tvivler), and even pop (Sigrid)! And if I don't find artists I like, I can always make my own ;)
tldr: If you miss it, you can still go out get yourself a cassette deck and enjoy it!
Re: The First Sony Walkman Was Released 40 Years Ago
#47The UX of cassettes was very useful for sharing and swapping music or speech, and for resuming where one left off. Because of the linear tape, the cassette's "playback cursor" was stateful and independent from whether the medium was read-only or not. Playback resumed at (nearly) the same spot as it was last stopped, even if moved to a different player. Successor formats didn't have this property. Interestingly, Sony…
I love how you conceptualise things based upon what seems to be your familiarity with DB cursors, stateful interfaces and other CS concepts. You're absolutely right, of course - it's just an interesting choice of conceptual frameworks to position your analogy within. I'm sure a non-programmer could also identify this property of cassettes as a medium, but they wouldn't be anywhere near as precise, nor use anything li…
it's even more interesting to think that people designed these devices without this frame of reference
Re: The First Sony Walkman Was Released 40 Years Ago
#48The UX of cassettes was very useful for sharing and swapping music or speech, and for resuming where one left off. Because of the linear tape, the cassette's "playback cursor" was stateful and independent from whether the medium was read-only or not. Playback resumed at (nearly) the same spot as it was last stopped, even if moved to a different player. Successor formats didn't have this property. Interestingly, Sony…
I’ve been thinking a lot about how the UX of cassettes and vinyl encouraged an immeasurably deeper immersion and exploration of music. My walkman would keep playing as the battery died, playing the music slower and slower still for about 20-25 minutes. This was fun and made it easier to figure out how electronic drum patterns and sounds were put together. To say that had an impact on my own productions later would be…
There's something about the 2k+ era where the optimal point in life is timeless, perfect and predictable. Whereas most things we did enjoy before that were not.
Re: The First Sony Walkman Was Released 40 Years Ago
#49I have a D6C Walkman Pro -- bought in, I think, 1990 -- that still works (or did last I tried it, anyway, maybe a couple of years ago). Great little deck; with metal tape and Dolby C, did a fine job recording CDs.
Re: The First Sony Walkman Was Released 40 Years Ago
#50The UX of cassettes was very useful for sharing and swapping music or speech, and for resuming where one left off. Because of the linear tape, the cassette's "playback cursor" was stateful and independent from whether the medium was read-only or not. Playback resumed at (nearly) the same spot as it was last stopped, even if moved to a different player. Successor formats didn't have this property. Interestingly, Sony…
I enjoyed reading your comment, and couldn't help but thinking how I miss this time. The joy of bringing something physical to somebody - a cassette, a vinyl - for their listening pleasure. The feedback loop from the act of giving and receiving. This whole idea of physical sharing made the music more personal and magical. Nowadays I have shared playlist for family and friends, and it lacks magic.
I remember discussing with a guy in college. He was deep into digital format. Everything he listened was encoded and store on hard drive. Which most of us did at the time. But I told him that I missed the physical side of things. LP covers, CD boxes. He was entirely dumbfounded, almost annoyed.