Sony Walkman Is 30 Years Old!

I must have been too busy celebrating Canada’s birthday yesterday, because another birthday completely flew under the radar for me. While perhaps not quite as notable as my home country, the Sony Walkman certainly changed the way that we view music. It was yesterday, on July 1, that the Walkman celebrated its 30th birthday. I still remember when I had that big, chunky yellow “Sports” Walkman tape player that just about everyone else seemed to have. That was one rugged beast and it was easily t

Sony poops Walkman birthday party

For a bigger version of this Sony Walkman image, click here It's hard to believe, but one of the most iconic brands of the 20th century was born 30 years ago today. The Walkman TPS-L2 went on sale in Japan on July 1, 1979, priced at a tad under 50,000 yen (then around 213 US dollars). What's even harder to believe is that Sony is steadfastly refusing to celebrate the event, despite the acres of free publicity it could generate for itself. We at Tech Central think this is crazy, so we've

Walkman

Okonomibloggy has a blog-post with a link to a BBC story about a thirteen-year-old boy who traded his I-pod for a old-school 1980’s style cassette-player Walkman for a week. The original "Walkman" (1979) It was an amusing read. The article mentioned that the Sony Walkman was turning thirty years old soon. The original "Walkman" logo (1979) The current "Walkman" logo. I looked online and it turns out that today (2009 July 1) is the 30th anniversary of the

ask the readers

WorkHow Much Does Shuffle Play Really Matter? By Angus Kidman on July 1, 2009 at 1:00 PM Being able to shuffle your music at random is one of the main benefits of the digital music era, but is it something you really use on a regular basis?The BBC News Magazine recently wrote up the results of an interesting experiment: asking a 13-year old to forsake an iPod and instead try out an original, tape-playing Walkman. Apart from the predictable grumbling about the size and not realising you could tur

On 20 Years of Soundtracks to Life

Over at the BBC, a teenager named Scott compares an iPod to a Sony Walkman (read it here ). Scott is amused more than baffled by this obsolete technology, although it takes him a while to realize that a cassette tape can be flipped over. On July 1, the Sony Walkman will be 20 years old. It's hard to imagine what urban life was before the Walkman. Sony first introduced portable transistor radios in 1957 and these proliferated rapidly. With an earphone (like this ), it was possible to carry mu

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