The First Sony Walkman Was Released 40 Years Ago

Post by v7p1Qbt1im » Tue, Jul 02, 2019, 11:22 AM UTC

simonh wrote: post #79

niftich wrote: post #11

The 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…

When I was a student I worked up a mix tape for a girl I was into. I spun the tape to the start of the second track then gave it to her. Next time I saw her I (casually) asked her something she could only answer if she'd heard the first track. That meant I knew she'd played it through, then rewound it and played it again.

Post by dboreham » Tue, Jul 02, 2019, 11:50 AM UTC

agumonkey wrote: post #82

lm28469 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> how and why it was on a tape I think you're overthinking the whole thing, it's not really "on" a tape. It's the default operation of a tape, they didn't have to come up with the idea, it's a side effect of the medium. You need a motor to move the tape, no motor = no movement = the tape stays in its current position. To automatically rewind the tape you'd need some sort of mechanism under tension in it which would p…

that's what I was hinting at. Did the designer really think about it or was it just naturally there.

Post by bluedino » Tue, Jul 02, 2019, 11:54 AM UTC

agumonkey wrote: post #53

megablast wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It did ruin the minidisc, when Sony decided you couldn't get digital data from the disc.

there's an alternate universe where MiniDisc replaced floppies in the early 90s and became the main storage format.

Post by jacobush » Tue, Jul 02, 2019, 11:57 AM UTC

badamp wrote: post #34

ignoramous wrote: post #20

The 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?

Post by cat199 » Tue, Jul 02, 2019, 12:07 PM UTC

niftich wrote: post #11

The 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…