By Shane McGlaun

I still think of those giant yellow cassette players from the 1980’s when I hear the Walkman name. It also reminds me of those huge headphones with the built-in FM radio sporting the giant antenna that I used to see people wearing when they ran. I’m surprised most joggers didn’t end up with neck injuries from the massive things.

Sony has added a new product to the Walkman line that is slick and sounds a lot like the iPod touch. The new gadget is the Walkman X-series and it is available in 16GB for $299 and 32GB for $399. Other than the amount of storage, the two models are the same. Both sport a 3-inch OLED screen for video in WMV or MPEG-4 formats.

Noise reduction technology and special EX headphones work together to eliminate 98% of external sounds from the environment they are worn in. Sony says these are its first products with integrated Wi-Fi in the Walkman range. The player can access Slacker Radio and YouTube over Wi-Fi. The players are set to ship in mid-June.

[ Sony ]

Sony Ericsson announced a new portable music phone under the Walkman name Sony made famous in the 80’s with yellow cassette players. The W890i is a music phone Sony says is a thin as a CD case. The phone comes with 26MB of memory onboard and supports Memory Stick Micro (M2) sticks for storage expansion.

The phone can work on EDGE, GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, HSDPA and UMTS 2100 MHz networks. Two color choices will be offered including mocha brown and sparkling silver. The phone measures in at a mere 4.1-inches x 1.8-inches x 0.4 inches in size and weighs only 2.8 ounces. Sony also features TrackID on the phone that allows you to identify songs you like when you don’t know the group or artist.

VIA [ Sony Ericsson ]