I actually used a Walkman couple months back. I was traveling by bus during a baseball game and wanted to listen to the play by play, which was on an AM station. Good thing I had my circa 1990 Walkman with AM tuner collecting dust in the back of a closet. Worked like a charm.
<i>I'm relieved that the majority of technological advancement happened before I was born</i><p>Maybe, but there is a lot of technology advancement still happening.
Sony still sells cassette Walkmen:<p><a href="http://www.sony.co.uk/product/paw-cassette-walkman" rel="nofollow">http://www.sony.co.uk/product/paw-cassette-walkman</a><p>I don't use a portable music player very often — I prefer to think during the periods I am at large in the world and not 'doing' anything — but when I do, I use my late-90s-'vintage' Walkman.<p>I don't want to listen to tracks in a random order. The order of the movements of a symphony is part of the music; the order of the pieces on an album is part of the album. I can't listen to thousands of pieces of music during one excursion. I find the crap-quality-ness of cassette pleasant and that of MP3 et al. unpleasant.<p>Of course, the iPod does have its benefits, for example, helping to secure the medium-term health of Apple, and thus of the Mac and OS X.
plus, no drm or big brother.<p>it's super easy to burn tapes/cd's and give them to people. i don't have an ipod, but i hear that everytime it gets plugged into a computer it synchs with itunes, so you can't just give a friend some songs. is that true? i remember parties where the music sources were people bringing different tapes and cd's--in this age would everyone have to bring an ipod, or can you still transfer music across machines (to say nothing of different types of machines)?
Are we really this desperate for news fodder? With all that's going on in technology is this the best use of the BBC's time and resources? Because the kid seems pretty intelligent and while reading I kept thinking "If you're going to have this kid write an article aren't there topics that would be more interesting for him to write about? Like how he thinks the future of technology will turn out or what's the most significant technology he uses on a daily basis?"<p>Instead we get insights like this (which the BBC actually chooses to highlight)<p>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.<p>Wow. If I'm ever stuck on a desert island with only a walkman and am jonesing for shuffled music I'll now know what to do.
I'm about to be a dad, and I've been pondering this topic for a while now. Is my kid missing out on the rapid evolution I experienced? Or was that just the tip of the iceberg?<p>How am I ever going to explain the awesomeness that was getting my first dual tape deck?