AfterDawn: News

Sony kills off ATRAC and SonicStage with latest MP3 player

According to ATRACLife, the new Sony B100 series of portable MP3 players will kill off two of Sony's mainsteads, the ATRAC codec and the SonicStage file transfer application.

SonicStage, the bane of all previous Sony players, was very unpopular, and with the release of the B100 series, it will be gone. The same goes for the ATRAC format (Sony's competitor to MP3, WMA, and AAC) which was also offered on all previous players.



Shipping in May and with price unknown at the moment, the series will offer capacities of 1 GB to 4GB and FM radio and recording. It will also be able to play the above mentioned formats.

Source:
MP3newswire

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 28 Apr 2007 18:35

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• 16 comments

• YOBUZZB

  Ok I smell a rat! Yeah right you just abandoned the very things that made you exclusive in the market with nothing in it's place! I smell a rat....an it's been dead a week rat!

  28.4.2007 18:40 #1

• killaklan

  will sony ever come out with a format that will actually be popular?

  28.4.2007 20:01 #2

• natony

  Originally posted by killaklan:will sony ever come out with a format that will actually be popular?The compact disc? (In partnership with Phillips though...)

  28.4.2007 20:05 #3

• ZippyDSM

  Quote:Originally posted by killaklan:will sony ever come out with a format that will actually be popular?The compact disc? (In partnership with Phillips though...)
  how amny things has sony done on its own that were able to float on their own and how many of them without OTT royalties?
  
  Playstation maybe?
  
  Sony has always been a first and second rate manufacture of common electronics(TV,radio,ect,ect,ect) but other than that what is it that they made that made them?

  28.4.2007 20:37 #4

• borhan9

  Quote:Shipping in May and with price unknown at the moment, the series will offer capacities of 1 GB to 4GB and FMNot very big on capacity and just an FM Radio option. In this market Ipod Nano and the other players would still have a decent lead.

  28.4.2007 23:48 #5

• SamNz

  Quote:
  Sony has always been a first and second rate manufacture of common electronics(TV,radio,ect,ect,ect) but other than that what is it that they made that made them?um you named is what made them and its usually decent quality
  also now the sony mp3 players seem more attractive to me nothing is as easy and simple as drag and drop transfer

  29.4.2007 00:40 #6

• pigfister

  have you seen the price of the sony mps players and how ugly they are?
  
  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-WALKMAN-NW-...7837817&sr=1-15
  
  
  
  
  £122.81 for an 8gig ugly lump of plastic!
  
  
  then for £154.08 you can get a Apple iPod 30GB Video, are sony just retarded about their price and styling? i mean what moron would even consider sony's option even the fanboys arn't that stupid, well ps3 lol maybe they are! sony must rejoice every time they rip off another consumer or sneak some more DRM into our lives.
  
  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Apple-iPod-Video...77838003&sr=1-1
  
  
  

  29.4.2007 01:11 #7

• SamNz

  Originally posted by pigfister:have you seen the price of the sony mp3 players and how ugly they are?thats not the new pricing anyway
  
  i think the sony ones look better and big deal they don't have color screen, who really watches video on there ipod esp when it only last for like 2 hours then the battery dies.

  29.4.2007 01:58 #8

• pigfister

  Quote:Originally posted by pigfister:have you seen the price of the sony mp3 players and how ugly they are?thats not the new pricing anyway
  
  i think the sony ones look better and big deal they don't have color screen, who really watches video on there ipod esp when it only last for like 2 hours then the battery dies.RE: video, maybe, hmm, commuters that spend an hour on the train every day that watch and listen to their rss feeds that downloaded over night on their way to work at 7:30am!
  
  that is current pricing right atm all over the web. for £30 more you gain 22 gig and a colour screen with video capability from the ipod or you can have the analogue radio on the sony that will be pointless from next year when the analogue reception is phased out good old sony to give us yet another obsolete format.
  
  with sony and the RIAA radio and new artists are already doomed as they pump out manufactured bands and crush the real talent unless they sign contracts for 94% of their income from sales or royalties being handed over so soon mp3 players will be pointless filled with crap they want you to listen to, probably songs like "sony we love sony we cost more because of DRM we love them, purchase sony!"
  
  RIAA Claims Ownership of All Artist Royalties For Internet Radio
  Originally posted by slashdot link:"With the furor over the impending rate hike for Internet radio stations, wouldn't a good solution be for streaming internet stations to simply not play RIAA-affiliated labels' music and focus on independent artists? Sounds good, except that the RIAA's affiliate organization SoundExchange claims it has the right to collect royalties for any artist, no matter if they have signed with an RIAA label or not. 'SoundExchange (the RIAA) considers any digital performance of a song as falling under their compulsory license. If any artist records a song, SoundExchange has the right to collect royalties for its performance on Internet radio. Artists can offer to download their music for free, but they cannot offer their songs to Internet radio for free ... So how it works is that SoundExchange collects money through compulsory royalties from Webcasters and holds onto the money. If a label or artist wants their share of the money, they must become a member of SoundExchange and pay a fee to collect their royalties.'"riaa and sony rejoice money for old rope!

  29.4.2007 02:43 #9

• DancingWD

  Originally posted by pigfister:have you seen the price of the sony mps players and how ugly they are?
  
  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-WALKMAN-NW-...7837817&sr=1-15
  
  
  
  
  £122.81 for an 8gig ugly lump of plastic!
  
  
  then for £154.08 you can get a Apple iPod 30GB Video, are sony just retarded about their price and styling? i mean what moron would even consider sony's option even the fanboys arn't that stupid, well ps3 lol maybe they are! sony must rejoice every time they rip off another consumer or sneak some more DRM into our lives.
  
  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Apple-iPod-Video...77838003&sr=1-1
  
  
  
  You talk as if iPods are not palstic ... ipods scratch very easily. Anyway I think that the design is quite good .. exept for color :D but you can choose the color .. unlike iPod balck or White ... and you will always get a pair of shity white earphones, god damed marketing (hey he's using ipod .. duh)
  While Sonicstage sux the sony players them selves are great especialy I like the extremely long battery life. another thing, you said that it is palstic .. but if its the same plastic that my NW-E407 is made of :D it will look great for at least a year :D I had been using it extensively for the last year and once I cleand out the dust it was as good as new - no stains no scratches no nothing (exept the earphoes were used up - nothing miraculas about it .. used everyday and the cable died), so I'm looking forward to the new sony players- they are pricy so what ipods are also, but still at least you get you get what you pay for - a durable solid original product.

  4.5.2007 16:22 #10

• pigfister

  Originally posted by DancingWD:
  
  You talk as if iPods are not palstic ...ipods are plastic but they look stylish, the sony mps player that's, far from original, more like late on the train, is an ugly lump and only has 8 gig hard drive, yes i said hard drive so all sporty types can pass on this offering so that's just like an original product eh, it is also 6.42 oz the heviest of the bunch that will be the added lead lump to make you fell its worth the extra £50 for a lower spec offering!!!
  
  and the navigation control on the sony looks like its been pulled from a child's toy.
  
  the ipod, m$ zune & the creative zen all look slicker than the sony offering and imo are far better value for money but sony seem to think that if they add an extra 30% to retail price ppl will think that its got to be better as its more expensive! there is also no support for AAC files with the sony just MP3, WAV, WMA so all the millions of registered users will not be able to use their fav download service but sony will have their own laden with DRM soon no doubt! where the the ipod is compatible with video support, voice recording support, photo (viewable) support, data storage capable, AAC,MP3, MP3 VBR, Audible, Lossless, AIFF and WAV! ipod technical specifications
  
  but as stated the sony is £122.81 for an 8gig(new model is 20gig & retails for £199.76) the ipod is £153 for the 30gig
  
  OMG i think yes that display is orgasmic i got to get me a sony now! no sry not organic just plain old boring, cheap and tacky what else would you expect from sony!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  i'm sure ipods arn't just black and white!
  
  

  5.5.2007 00:42 #11

• DancingWD

  Quote:
  i'm sure ipods arn't just black and white!
  
  Teh big ones with Hdd are.
  Well ok, like I said the, the purle color isn't that great but take for example Black one :D I love it, and are you saying that those are not slik? .. its completely round without corners and not slick enouth for you? well ... I guess thats a matter of taste.
  sure Ipods look great on display in a shop ... but to ceep them so in RealLife for more than a couple of weeks you have to keep them in a enclosed case (Its funny when my friend is carrying its nano in a sock like pouch :D ) they are not durable.
  well on the menu side ... I find the tuoch sensitve circle on ipod annnnoying . maybe because i just played with it only a little and it needs practice but still i really like clicking thingies more :D
  ofcourse I haven't had NW-A1200 in my hands so I can't say anything about the menu.
  ok so display isnt colored - big deal atleast it runs about twice as long as the competitors.
  well on the price side yes its price side i agree with you but i so happens that I hate ipods .. mainly because everyone has them .. Zen are not stylish enought for my taste so I'm left with sony :D and their LONG LONG batterie life. To keep you hapy I'll say I wont even consider buying this model :D I dont like hdd players, they are big, fat, heavy, fragile, and with relatively short battery life. Had Creative jukebox 10gb .. when I hit 3gb af music i had trouble finding the right songs now I have nwe407 and like filled it 700mb/1gb but those are all songs that i like so there is little "next, next, next ..."
  Now on the main topic :D the B100 well ... it looks ugly
  Picture
  its almoust as bad as the "bean" model nothing compared to the other walkmans its well looks as if some no- brand lump of plastic. OMG ppl if you cant design something new and decent use the god damed old design models they at least are a plesure to look at.

  5.5.2007 04:09 #12

• TekPete

  Well I certainly won't be buying it either. I'm still annoyed with them over the MZ-N707 Type-R which won't allow recording to be transferred to the PC (via USB) and the Hi-MD MZ-RH10 which whilst allowing the recording to be made in WAV has similar limitations including deletion of the original recording. Even transferring the recording via the optical lead offers no advantage either.
  
  I was going to go for the Creative Zen Jukebox, but I heard that there was no easy way of transferring the recordings directly either. It seems that the only way of transferring any live recordings made on any of them is to use the o/p from the headphone socket into the soundcard line i/p, not a 21st century way of doing it. I may as well buy a tape recorder!
  It's not supprising that Sony have effectively killed the MiniDisc format, I wonder how long it will take them to kill the MP3.

  6.5.2007 10:07 #13

• ZippyDSM

  Originally posted by TekPete:Well I certainly won't be buying it either. I'm still annoyed with them over the MZ-N707 Type-R which won't allow recording to be transferred to the PC (via USB) and the Hi-MD MZ-RH10 which whilst allowing the recording to be made in WAV has similar limitations including deletion of the original recording. Even transferring the recording via the optical lead offers no advantage either.
  
  I was going to go for the Creative Zen Jukebox, but I heard that there was no easy way of transferring the recordings directly either. It seems that the only way of transferring any live recordings made on any of them is to use the o/p from the headphone socket into the soundcard line i/p, not a 21st century way of doing it. I may as well buy a tape recorder!
  It's not supprising that Sony have effectively killed the MiniDisc format, I wonder how long it will take them to kill the MP3.cant bypass the DRM to put "open" music on it?

  6.5.2007 11:59 #14

• TekPete

  Eh?
  
  I'm not talking about transferring copyright music from the MiniDisc to the PC I'm talking about wanting to transfer my own original recordings.
  
  I have to admit that I'm not familiar with quite a few terms and references used on this site, like DRM etc. It's probably tied up with "Booking Out" and "Booking In".
  
  Incidentally there used to be a device made by Xitel that allowed direct transfer of tracks from the PC to the MiniDisc, but like I said I'm not interested in doing this, but anyway there's no point because Sony has killed the MiniDisc, no one I know would want a recording on MiniDisc.
  
  Anyway can anyone tell me if it is possible to transfer mic recordings made on a Creative Jukebox to a PC? Because there is absolutely no effing way I'm going to buy another Sony recorder.

  7.5.2007 13:53 #15

• TekPete

  So my Digital Rights are being Managed for me. The result is that I have no rights over my own material. I own the Digital Recorder but I don't own anything including MY Digital Recordings. So like I said I might as well buy a tape recorder.

  7.5.2007 14:00 #16