Sony launches pleasantly affordable high-resolution Walkman

There’s often quite a price premium for folks who prefer hi-res portable audio over a ubiquitous smartphone and a pair of cheap earphones. Indeed, the company who kicked off personal groove machines has been known to charge a small fortune – which make… Continue reading Sony launches pleasantly affordable high-resolution Walkman

Sony goes for gold with latest Signature Series digital audio player

Sony has announced a pair of Android-based digital audio players that can stream over Wi-Fi as well as play Hi-Res stored music, boast native 11.2-MHz DSD and offer balanced and unbalanced headphone output. And one of those players is wrapped in gold-p… Continue reading Sony goes for gold with latest Signature Series digital audio player

Hackaday Podcast 028: Brain Skepticism Turned Up to 11, Web Browsing in ’69, Verilog For 7400 Logic, 3D Printing in Particle Board

Hackaday Editors Mike Szczys and Elliot Williams cover the most interesting hacks over the past week. So much talk of putting computers in touch with our brains has us skeptical on both tech and timeline. We celebrated the 40th Anniversary of the Walkman, but the headphones are the real star. …read more

Continue reading Hackaday Podcast 028: Brain Skepticism Turned Up to 11, Web Browsing in ’69, Verilog For 7400 Logic, 3D Printing in Particle Board

Forget the Walkman: It’s the Headphones

Forty years ago this month, a product was launched  in Japan that would have such a huge impact on the consumer electronics market that we are still using its descendants today. The story goes that one of the Sony founders would listen to music while traveling for the business, and …read more

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The Cicada: A Parasite Art Piece With Commitment Issues

How often do you think deeply about the products around you? How about those you owned five years ago? Ten? The Cicada — brainchild of [Daniel Kerris] — is an art piece that aims to have the observer reflect on consumer culture, buyer’s remorse, and wanting what we cannot have.

The Cicada consists of an ultrasonic sensor feeding data to a Raspberry pi which — calculating the distance of an approaching human — either speeds up or slows down a servo motor connected to a General Electric Walkman’s cassette speed potentiometer. Upon detecting someone approaching, The Cicada begins to loop …read more

Continue reading The Cicada: A Parasite Art Piece With Commitment Issues