Would you use a Walkman instead of a iPod for a week?

[Ryushikaze]

The funny thing is, I was window shopping in bic/yodobashi camera yesterday, and despite all that stuff there being the latest and greatest, nearly all the current external drives are bigger and clunkier than my ancient discmanthingy relic. Even the plain dvd readers w/o any burning capability (and certainly no internal battery) somehow manages to be bigger than my drive, despite it being nearly a decade old... and that just blows my mind. Sony may have a history of shitty software, but their hardware engineering was always top notch.

That's not for lack of skill, but for universality of parts and reliability. Most external drives are actually mounted 5.25 drives, with a few being pared down versions, and a much smaller few being Laptop burners placed inside shells.

[FSTargetDrone]

Ah, I have a cellphone! Yes, I do!

Although my sisters grumble that I can't send/receive text, there no camera, no pictures, no internet, and no ringtones - when it rings it rings like a 1950's style rotary dial phone. BRRRRRRRRING!

This is a free app I found for my iPhone:



It actually, sort of works! You just slide your finger around and it click-clicks as it turns. I also have an old ring sound as its ring tone. I have that to distinguish the my phone's ringing from every other cell phone.

Incidentally, my grandmother had the same rotary desktop telephone in her home in Philadelphia for at least 40 years until she died. I think it was made of cast iron, because it survived an arsonist's house fire which gutted the downstairs. It was certainly heavy enough! The phone was so old, it was permanently wired to the house--it didn't have a typical plug-in phone jack on the wire to the wall. Years later, when I lived with her for awhile in the 90s, I had to set the tone/pulse switch on my cordless landline phone in my room to the PULSE setting so my phone would work with the house's wiring. The house also had an old gaslight fixture on the top floor room and the basement still had its coal room that, long ago, was regularly filled from trucks in the street that lifted up the rear bed and poured the coal into the basement. But that's another story.

I still remember in the 80s when my parents' house phones had a "PROPERTY OF BELL TELEPHONE" sticker on the bottom.

Anyway, back to the OT, I have owned 2 Walkmans, one of which I bought 5 or 6 years ago to listen to old tapes I have.

I had an old Aiwa Walkman-type cassette player. It had a whopping 3 analogue presets for the radio, each of which had a tiny tuner wheel on the inside of the cassette door that you used to set up the presets.

I also have an old Discman that had a built-in shock absorber. It was designed to be used in a car and came with a 4-button infrared remote. It no longer works, but I used a CD/car stereo cassette adapter to hook it into the car sound system.

[phred]

If I had tapes still I wouldn't have a problem going back to them. I still have a discman somewhere. I always kept them in my pocket though, so I would destroy them fairly frequently.
I like my little 1Gig MP3 player though. It keeps a little over 8 hours of music on it. So every night I just go home and replace it all, and viola! my music needs for tomorrow are met.

[andrewgpaul]

I've still got a few albums on tape, somewhere - I got bored copying them to MP3.

I ended up buying Insektors on VHS last year, because it was never released on DVD.

Was I the only person ever to have a minidisc player? I went through 2 players over the course of 4 or 5 years; I refused to upgrade to an MP3 player for ages because I couldn't get one with a built-in radio - I think I listen to the radio more often than I listen to recorded music on it.

[Lord Pounder]

I do have my old walkman in my junk drawer, I refuse to dump it as I know the minute it's gone I'll want it back. It's about 15 years old now and the tape in my once weekly radio taping of the Pepsi Chart Show with Dr Fox (the Brits will remember him). Prior to owning that Walkman I had a philips cassette player that was the size and rough shape of Dr McCoys tricorder.

No way would I go back to using a tape player over my iPod. Sorry, maybe it's chic now to hate on modern technology, especially Apple products, but damn it I like carrying my old CD collection around in a device small enough to fit easily in my pocket. I like being able to access my facebook while sitting on the toilet and having a ringtone that shows class and taste (the Imperial March for anyone who is wondering), I like it when Borat lets me know I recieved an SMS.

[defanatic]

I have a walkman app on my sony ericsson.

I don't have any tapes, though. I have a few CDs lying around. I think I could use a disk taking walkman, although buying batteries would be frustrating. But probably only if someone paid me.

[Jade Falcon]

I've just got a generic 4gb MP4 player that I got out of an Aldi's store, it'll do me. It looks somewhat like an Ipod Nano, but that's not why I got it. 4gb will do for me.

[tim31]

I had one of those walkmans with MEGA BASS, but it was grey, not yellow. Never really a fan of discman, even with the anti-shock... You couldn't clip them onto your belt/pants and they stole too much pocket space. I like my Block 2 iPod shuffle because it weighs nothing and thus clips on anywhere.

Fun Fact: I still have a pretty damned big cassette collection... And tape decks... Also, there's an 8-Track player in my shed. It still works too.

As I was reading I was living in the faint hope that you would say '8-Track player in my truck, underneath the CB'. Close, but not close enough. The South may not rise again.

[Mr. Coffee]

As I was reading I was living in the faint hope that you would say '8-Track player in my truck, underneath the CB'. Close, but not close enough. The South may not rise again.

Fun Fact #2: I've got the mounting brackets to put the 8-Track player in the dash under the CB...

[tim31]

Knew it.

A friend had a Charger* years ago, and was looking for a while for an 8-track to put in it for the lulz, but had to settle for a cd player.





*Australian built Valiant-Chrysler Chargers were slightly different from the ones the Duke boys drove. For starters, they looked subtly different, and even though the V8 was an option, the six cylinders were the hot motors that the race cars used(Hemi 265 six pack, mmmm)

[Mr. Coffee]

I'd do it except I've only got two 8-track cassettes and it'd take to long to explain to most people under 30-40 years of age what the hell an 8-Track is. If I ever get around to getting my Camaro road worthy again I might ju8st stick it in there for the laughs though.

[The_Saint]

As a slight aside the local auction house has a Laser-Disc player and what appears to be every Keanu Reeves movie ever released, on laser disc to go with it.

Anyone still use those?

[Jade Falcon]

I don't know about now, but Laserdisc apparently lingered as a fairly succesful format in the far east for some time, at least until DVD. It's likely that's where most Laserdiscs still available will come from.

[[R_H]]

As a slight aside the local auction house has a Laser-Disc player and what appears to be every Keanu Reeves movie ever released, on laser disc to go with it.

Anyone still use those?

I think they're still in use in the physics department at the high school I went to. They had a whole bunch of physics movies on Laser Disc for some reason (probably weren't available in DVD).

[Faabio]

Man... I still have my bright-safety-yellow Walkman Sport with the 'fancy' soft buttons and huge sealed side on the tape assembly, it has MEGA BASS and still works.

I have one of those too. Got it as a present from my American-aunt way back when. Awesome little piece of tech still working ok after all the bumps it got.

[JCady]

Man... I still have my bright-safety-yellow Walkman Sport with the 'fancy' soft buttons and huge sealed side on the tape assembly, it has MEGA BASS and still works.

Still got that too.

[Glocksman]

Sony did make a WM-2 walkman that wasn't much bigger than the cassette itself.
I didn't own one, but I remember seeing them for sale in the $100 price range back in 1981-82.

The one I used for years was a Sanyo knockoff that I paid $20 for at a pawnshop.

I also owned a D-88 Discman that I paid $50 for at Highland Superstore's going out of business sale.

I still own my Yamaha KX-1200U cassette deck.

I paid $300 for it clearance back in either the late 80's or early 90's.
The only thing I use it for today is the occasional cassette to CD conversion.

[Gandalf]

I had one of those walkmans with MEGA BASS, but it was grey, not yellow. Never really a fan of discman, even with the anti-shock... You couldn't clip them onto your belt/pants and they stole too much pocket space. I like my Block 2 iPod shuffle because it weighs nothing and thus clips on anywhere.

I kept mine in a discman carry bag thing under my arm, it held the case as well as a dozen or so CDs. That thing served me well for a long time.

I miss my walkman. It bit the dust a year ago, by the end my only audio cassette was Conversational Klingon.