RIP Sony Walkman

Like hearing someone died who you thought passed away years ago

[weeks]

So, it's really, really OK to toss out those cassette tapes now.
[switched.com...]

BTW...

My 83-year-old Mom still enjoys her boom box cassette player. Last month of her favorite tapes came loose at the end and my sister elected me to handle the repair. I got a dentist friend to do the on-hands work. I had to find an old cassette with screws in it we could move the tape into (from my very old files of journalism projects; ah the memories, the threats of lawsuits...); repairs kits were not to be found on the web.

After the repair, I decided to make a digital copy (music was not available anywhere on the web for download) and that was a huge PITA. Audacity is great software IF YOU ARE A PROFESSIONAL SOUND ENGINEER WITH HOURS TO SPEND ON A PROJECT.

[icedowl]

I'm not about to toss my cassette tapes until they simply fall to pieces on their own. My old (and only) truck only has a cassette player with its am/fm radio. I do have a portable cd player that I can attach via a cassette shaped device, but using it is a PITA!

[ken_b]

RIP Walkman

I bet Walkman, the WW member is gonna be surprised when he reads that.

[cien]

Ah, the memories. Paula Abdul, Michael Jackson, Ace of Base, Bon Jovi, Europe.. For some reason I feel really old today. RIP Walkman. Are any of you still using a VCR? I am... :-)

[wheel]

I call my kids' Ipods walkmans. They're all like, 'What?'.

[Jon_King]

>>I bet Walkman, the WW member is gonna be surprised when he reads that.

That is what I thought, man you startled me!

[rocknbil]

Ditto .... was a bit worried. :-) Can do without the tapes. One less bit of garbage strewn along the highways for a few hundred yards.

[lawman]

I bet Walkman, the WW member is gonna be surprised when he reads that

Ha, edited the title to protect the innocent. :)

[weeks]

Sorry about that, Walkman. Now you and Mark Twain have something in common.

[Matthew1980]

Hi all,

Yes, just heard this on Radio 2, sad day, some kids think that music only ever came in mp3 format, or CD and laugh when I show them my walkman - at least there is no more winding the tape on with a pencil when the mechanism got a little hungry!

Cheers,
MRb

[rocknbil]

Now you and Mark Twain have something in common.

Never argue with fools, onlookers might not know the difference? :-)

[Matthew1980]

Never argue with fools, onlookers might not know the difference? :-)

Yes, I see this often with 'supervisors' at work!

Cheers,
MRb

[CyBerAliEn]

Wow. I heard this on CNN the other day, and my thoughts were:
(first) "Wow, they haven't done that yet? About time."
(followed by) "Who the hell has been buying them?"

lol

Life and technology progress! Needless to say, being born in 1987, I vaguely recall what a cassette is (parent's junk)... but my memory of a Walkman was a commercial with a cool alien and a CD player. I grew up with CDs and even those have been obsolete for some time now (FYI).

[Matthew1980]

@cyberAlien,

Life and technology progress! Needless to say, being born in 1987, I vaguely recall what a cassette is (parent's junk)... but my memory of a Walkman was a commercial with a cool alien and a CD player. I grew up with CDs and even those have been obsolete for some time now (FYI).

Ahh, the latter end of the 80's What a great time that was, huge shoulder pads and dodgy pop records (Jona Lewie is seeing a revival judging by the latest Ikea *I think* advert), walkman's were ace, though ANY running meant that your music would sound weird, I had one that had a FF + RW button on it, and DUAL earphone sockets, most of my music collection was cassette until mid 90's.

"Who the hell has been buying them?"

Ha Ha, yeah, I was wondering that too, especially since most of todays kids are listening to music on their iMac-apple-pods; I think as there may have been a retro resurgence in the last few years though, these things seem to happen every so often; you get some school girls wearing the luminous green and yellow socks at the moment, very 80's, it looked rubbish then too..

But I digress; Yep RIP walkman; I wonder how long it is before they RIP the Discman..

Cheers,
MRb

[Rugles]

I have about 300 cassettes in a box in the basement. The cassette was a horrible format on reflection. You could never easily find a specific song (unless it was the 1st song) they wore out very quickly. The machine would eat them and sometimes rip them.

The only benefit, guilt free downloading if I previously purchased a cassette of the music.

[lawman]

The cassette was a horrible format on reflection

Some think it was better than 8 track tapes. :)

[ken_b]

< glances over at the fully functional record / 8 track / cassette player, am/fm radio thingy in the corner and thinks, "baby, we're showing our age!" >

:)

[incrediBILL]

Funny timing as I just threw out a big bag of cassettes the other day, the ones I made for the car off of CDs back in the day.

Just checking the play lists of the remaining commercial tapes, if I can get them off Amazon MP3s, fine, if I can't I might get a USB Tape2PC converter.

Beyond that, ALL the cassettes are going in the trash.

All the video tapes we wanted to keep are being burned to DVD and all CDs that haven't already are being ripped to MP3.

Then all the VHS and CDs are going to Goodwill.

After that, we still have a rather hefty collection of vinyl that will either be massively thinned out or dumped.

It's gotta go.

[weeks]

lawman said

Some think it was better than 8 track tapes. :)

I remember riding with my friends in college with 8-tracks and thinking, "This is so stupid." Seriously, I would be interested in reading a book about why anyone thought that was a good idea. Yet, tens of millions of eight-tracks were sold to serve the players people bought with joy. Tape player in a car! Woo!

[lawman]

I remember riding with my friends in college with 8-tracks and thinking, "This is so stupid."

Some think it was better than THIS [news.cnet.com]. :)

[Syzygy]

Very interesting is the man responsible for the success of the Walkman in Europe. Still very up on technology and its impact on society - and still packs a very serious clout in the world of business!