Okonomibloggy has a blog-post with a link to a BBC story about a thirteen-year-old boy who traded his I-pod for a old-school 1980’s style cassette-player Walkman for a week.
The original "Walkman" (1979)
It was an amusing read.
The article mentioned that the Sony Walkman was turning thirty years old soon.
The original "Walkman" logo (1979)
The current "Walkman" logo.
I looked online and it turns out that today (2009 July 1) is the 30th anniversary of the release of the first Sony Walkman.
The first Walkman went on sale on 1979 July 1.
I didn’t have a Walkman in 1979. I got my first one in the mid-1980’s when I was in high school.
It was the most current version…but an antique by today’s standards.
And compared to the modern Walkman, it was as big and heavy as a brick. But back in the ’80s, it was the coolest thing. And it was considered small and light.
Compared to my current Walkman (I use a Sony Walkman MP3 player now…not an I-pod) which can hold my entire CD collection in it’s memory, the one I had in the ’80s played cassette tapes…which are crap, but back in the ’80s they were the most modern medium for music storage.
Did you have one of the “brick” Walkman cassette players back in the ’80s?
Do you have a Walkman now?
I have this type of "Walkman" MP3 player now. It's small and light, but...
Sony's newest "Walkman" is smaller and lighter!
Tokyo Five 
i want a sony walkman
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Do you have an I-pod? Walkman and I-pod both have their strong and weak points.
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i like more sony walkman. your writing and web design is very intresting.
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Thank you.
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Those were the days when I used to sneak and borrow my brother’s walkman. I used to remember the 1st one was sort of silver in color and eventually other electrical brands start making their own walkman and I remembered having a bumblebee yellow walkman for my own. Look at how much the portable music devices have evolved!
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Did you have one of the yellow, waterproof Walkman radios?
I’ve had one of each format they made (never had the waterproof one, though).
I had the cassette tape player, CD player, MD player and now the MP3 player Walkman.
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You still have those in mint condition ..whoaaaaaa im impress ..Im not sure if it was a waterproof one ^_^ shame i never kept it but knowing a friend of mine who runs an electrical shop I am sure she may have those hehe .. post those Walkman’s why dont you, just want to see how they have evolved!
How’s the daughter’s interview go?
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No, I don’t have those old Walkman radios anymore. I had them.
>How’s the daughter’s interview go?
They want someone to work later than I will allow my daughter to work…so she couldn’t accept the position.
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I was in a lot of Sony commericials and other advertising from 1977 – 1981; for Xmas in 1979, they gave me a Walkman! I was only 8 and probably would have just preferred candy LOL so the technology and price were completely lost on me at the time! (Man, I feel old!)
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We’re you in TV commercials?
If you find one that you were in on YouTube, tell me the link!
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Yup, my friend dropped his in a lake and it still worked! And they are still useful today, http://www.pervertedvinyl.com/iwalkman/
Wonder if he still has it…
http://tendonitis.wordpress.com/
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Well, it’s lucky that your friend had a waterproof Walkman!
And that link you included shows someone uses an old waterproof Walkman case as an I-podcase…it should be a Walkman MP3 player in that case, don’t you think?
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Hey I’m the maker of this iwalkman, and WOW – that’s amazing this link is known about/still in use! I was describing this project to a friend and randomly googled to see where it was being linked from. An interesting angle of this whole ipod + sony walkman issue comes from one of the first people to make the housing, dubbed the RetroPod, who was sent a cease + desist letter from Sony because they were afraid people would criticize their way of design [due to the fact an ipod could fit INSIDE their own device].
http://www.retropod.com/
cheers
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I looked at the cease-and-desist letter at that link.
I don’t think it was unreasonable. Those are trademarked names owned by Sony and Apple.
As I mentioned in a comment above…you should’ve put a modern Walkman in that old Walkman case. (I think the Walkman MP3 player is better than I-pod anyways).
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I remember my big, yellow, water resistant Walkman from the 1980s. I loved that thing.
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Sony still uses yellow for their water-proof equipment…such as the underwater camcorder, waterproof cameras and radios.
I’ve never had any of their waterproof line.
Did it really work? Could you submerge that Walkman?
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