13-year-old swaps his iPod for a Walkman for a week

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13-year-old swaps his iPod for a Walkman for a week

Postby Teazer on Tue Jun 30, 2009 9:00 pm

"My dad had told me it was the iPod of its day.

He had told me it was big, but I hadn't realised he meant THAT big. It was the size of a small book.
When I saw it for the first time, its colour also struck me. Nowadays gadgets come in a rainbow of colours but this was only one shade - a bland grey.
...
My friends couldn't imagine their parents using this monstrous box, but there was interest in what the thing was and how it worked.

In some classes in school they let me listen to music and one teacher recognised it and got nostalgic.

It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape. That was not the only naive mistake that I made; I mistook the metal/normal switch on the Walkman for a genre-specific equaliser, but later I discovered that it was in fact used to switch between two different types of cassette.
...
Another notable feature that the iPod has and the Walkman doesn't is "shuffle", where the player selects random tracks to play. Its a function that, on the face of it, the Walkman lacks. But I managed to create an impromptu shuffle feature simply by holding down "rewind" and releasing it randomly - effective, if a little laboured.

I told my dad about my clever idea. His words of warning brought home the difference between the portable music players of today, which don't have moving parts, and the mechanical playback of old. In his words, "Walkmans eat tapes". So my clumsy clicking could have ended up ruining my favourite tape, leaving me music-less for the rest of the day. "
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8117619.stm


Little could he imagine the alternatives back then:
Image
Last edited by Teazer on Tue Jun 30, 2009 9:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 13-year-old swaps his iPod for a Walkman for a week

Postby cerebus on Tue Jun 30, 2009 9:12 pm

LOL! Or even worse, he could've tried some 8-tracks! ;D
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Re: 13-year-old swaps his iPod for a Walkman for a week

Postby Steve James on Tue Jun 30, 2009 9:31 pm

I might be misremembering, but Sony didn't call those big rigs "Walkman." They were simply portable radios whose main difference was that they played cassette tapes. (Btw, I'm not sure that 8-tracks had portable players.) The "Walkman" --iirc-- first came out to play cassettes, but it was the first or among the first to play "cds." Anyway, the whole point was that it was smaller than the "boom boxes" aka "ghetto blasters" that needed lots of space on the shoulders. You could strap it to your waist and be active. It took a while for it to be practical, though; and, by that time, the media had changed. So, now the Walkman is digital (but still just a natural progression from reel tape to miniature tape to cassette to cd to magnetic disk to chip).

S'funny because I'm clearing out stuff and have a crate load of cassettes that I'm going to donate. Otoh, I have a lot of vinyl that I will keep. Ironically, if I chose to play them in 20 years they'd sound almost like they did when I played them last. Okay, maybe I also think that there'll always be enough technology to play them come the zombie apocalypse.
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Re: 13-year-old swaps his iPod for a Walkman for a week

Postby Areios on Wed Jul 01, 2009 2:00 am

that story was awsome. I realy liked walkmans, better than most ipods.
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Re: 13-year-old swaps his iPod for a Walkman for a week

Postby Darth Rock&Roll on Wed Jul 01, 2009 6:24 am

I had a walkman and it's a piece of shit compared to my ipod or even one of my mp3 players.

I don't know what the fascination is with old tech. It's inferior for the most part. Let's move on. :)
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Re: 13-year-old swaps his iPod for a Walkman for a week

Postby everything on Wed Jul 01, 2009 9:02 am

hilarious story though
amateur practices til gets right pro til can't get wrong
/ better approx answer to right q than exact answer to wrong q which can be made precise /
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Re: 13-year-old swaps his iPod for a Walkman for a week

Postby chud on Wed Jul 01, 2009 9:07 am

Teazer wrote:It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape.


;D
Last edited by chud on Wed Jul 01, 2009 9:08 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 13-year-old swaps his iPod for a Walkman for a week

Postby fuga on Wed Jul 01, 2009 9:15 am

Steve James wrote:Okay, maybe I also think that there'll always be enough technology to play them come the zombie apocalypse.


You do realize zombies are attracted to the oldies.
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Re: 13-year-old swaps his iPod for a Walkman for a week

Postby Snow on Wed Jul 01, 2009 4:04 pm

Technology always alters the art form. One way I think the iPod has altered the art form is the demise of the concept album, the ordering of songs into a coherent, collective whole. (Not judging, just saying.)
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Re: 13-year-old swaps his iPod for a Walkman for a week

Postby gretel on Wed Jul 01, 2009 6:14 pm

if you made a mix tape as a gift for somebody, all they had to do was put it in and play, but if you make a mix cd they have to use their computer to transfer to Ipod before they can play on the Ipod. or am i Ipod illiterate?
it was funny to hear him talk about my past as though he were an anthropologist.

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Re: 13-year-old swaps his iPod for a Walkman for a week

Postby Teazer on Wed Jul 01, 2009 7:39 pm

You could put a bunch of mp3's in a folder on a jump drive, create a playlist in the folder, then they can copy it over to their mp3 player and open the playlist. It's pretty easy. I don't know how much people do that though these days. More often it's "hey check out this band" and they go on youtube. I doubt those playlists will stay kicking around in the back of a cupboard for 20 years to be retrieved later. Kinda like letters vs email.

Rather than the personalized mix tape concept though, it's really good if there's some "dj" or whatever you like - they can just post their playlist online and if you are so motivated you can get all the music for that set off itunes or wherever and it's ready to go. No limit to being two 45 minute sides either!
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Re: 13-year-old swaps his iPod for a Walkman for a week

Postby shawnsegler on Wed Jul 01, 2009 8:36 pm

I lose things like walkmans and ipods and cell phones, so I just don't own them.

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Re: 13-year-old swaps his iPod for a Walkman for a week

Postby grzegorz on Wed Jul 01, 2009 9:14 pm

Damn I'm getting OLD...
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