The first MP3 player was introduced by MPMAN in 1998. It was expensive, awkward, and had 32MB of memory. 10 years later, we have flash players with 1000 times the capacity, several times the battery life, WiFi, Bluetooth, video and a mountain of other features.

Here's an extensive look back at how we got this far in the last decade, covering over 70 players sorted by release year.

Dear Sony,

Thank you for killing off one of the most unusable MP3 player I have ever come across with its tiny and cheap navigational buttons. Have you read my review? Oh, and while you are at it can you please discontinue SonicStage and give us true UMS drag and drop support? Also if you could please bring back what I thought was an amazing player (sans SonicStage), the NW-HD5? You were really onto something there. How about the NW-HD6 or HD7? This time with a bigger hard drive, a nice EQ, gapless MP3 and a color screen.Looking forward to seeing what you will screw up next...

Yours truly,

ABi

[Read via dapreview]

A reader recently emailed and asked me, “What is a good alternative to the Sony HD5?” I thought, “Why doesn’t he just buy an HD5?” But he goes on to tell me that no one is selling the HD5 anymore. I Googled around. Nothing. All vendors have pulled it from their site. I could could only find a few left on eBay.

The HD5 was a great MP3 player, the size, the battery life, the removable battery, the non-touch sensitive buttons, the user interface, the shock protection, the non-proprietary connection and the amazing sound made this player nearly perfect.

Nearly perfect?

Sony almost got it perfect. But the fact is the Sony HD5 had a skeleton in the closet and it was a dinosaur skeleton, SonicStage. SonicStage trumps all the previously mentioned amazing features, poisoning the user’s experience by making them jump through hoops to get music on and off of the Network Walkman.

Hopefully Sony and others will realize that drag and drop UMS is the only path to a perfect MP3 player

The Zen Sleek is newest line of Creative’s 1.8” hard drive based players succeeding the Zen Touch. Currently it comes with a 20GBs of storage in a sleek aluminum outer shell with a touch pad and tactile buttons on the front. The Zen Sleek is smaller in height and width but is about a millimeter thicker than the 20GB iPod. Some of the standard features of the Zen Sleek include FM / FM recording, voice recording, PlayForSure subscription support, Outlook syncing, and universal mass storage drive partitioning.

Read on for an in-depth review.

Sony has released another MP3 player and they are taking it back to the eighties, as they are simply calling it the WALKMAN. But, apparently this time it's in ALL CAPS. Two versions of the player will be a 20GB and a 6GB that features OLED display touting ease of use and a nice user interface. In addition, they are introducing two additional shuffle modes, “My Favorite Shuffle” and “Time Machine Shuffle”. The first of which will shuffle the 100 most played songs and the second will shuffle tracks in the selected year of music.

If I am stuck using their SonicStage to transfer music just like the Sony NW-HD5 then I will have to give it the thumbs down. If Sony would make transferring music on and off of their players less restricted, they would have some really good digital audio players, especially since the NW-HD5 has audiophile quality sound.

[Press Release via: Engadget]

I was browsing eBay today and I found a few individuals selling information on unlocking the volume limit on the Sony Network Walkmans for about two bucks a pop. I see this as unethical; it’s not their information to sell. So I thought I would post this information to spread the word and to keep these fools from making money off readily available information that is not their own. Below are the same instructions you would pay for on eBay.

Reuters is reporting that Sony is now selling more flash based MP3 players than Apple in Japan. While the new line of Sony flash players have surpassed the iPod Shuffle, Apple is still selling more hard drive based players. Sony has sold two times the number of flash players than they had forcasted

This is really a shame that Sony has to be the one to overtake Apple. Much of my problems I have with the iPod I have with Sony. Sony takes your right to choose away from you as does the iPod. You are stuck using Sony’s less than average SonnicStage software and can only user Sony Connect for legal music downloads. You can read more about these restrictions in our Sony NW-HD5 review that we published a few weeks ago.

The Sony Network Walkman NW-HD5 is the successor to the NW-HD1, NW-HD2, and NW-HD3. (Sony skipped the NW-HD4 because in Japanese the number four sounds like the word for “death”.) This particular model is a 20GB, and they have yet to release the 30GB version to the United States. The player weighs 4.06 oz (115g), measures 2.36"x 3.49" x .56" (59.9 x 88.7 x 14.2mm) and comes in silver, red, and black. It includes SonicStage® software, headphones (MDR-E931LP), carrying pouch, USB cable, and AC power adaptor. It accepts MP3, ATRAC3, ATRAC3plus and will convert WAV and WMA files. They claim a battery time of 40 hours. Continue reading for the full review.

Sound quality is not something we generally look for when shopping for MP3 players. Most of the time audio quality doesn’t matter because we listen to them walking down a busy street, working out at the gym, commuting to work. Not to mention, most people have low bit rate encoded music downloaded from a music service or ripped themselves at low default settings. For those who do have discerning ears and enjoy music as an audiophile, cnet has rounded up the latest hard disk based players for a blind sound test.

The player that consistently ranked number one was the Sony NW-HD5 and was described as “crispy and warm”. Ranking second, the iAudio X5 was described as “warm and true” with the iRiver H320 right behind it in third. The Creative Touch also faired mixed reviews but was described as being “tight” and “hiss-free”. Toshiba’s Gigabeat H20 had mixed reviews saying that it is "tinny," "good for techno" (what the hell does that mean?) and "slightly processed with a hint of hiss". …and one that consistently ranked last… the Apple iPod. But hey… it looks cool ; )

[cnet]

I came across this today while I was browsing. The Sony NW-HD5 Network Walkman is now available to purchase at Amazon for $299.99. This 20GB player is good for 40 hours of playback and plays MP3, ATRAC3, and ATRAC3plus. The player has in interesting feature that switches the orientation of the screen and buttons automatically when you turn the player sideways. The NW-HD5 is also considerably smaller than the iPod. Check out our Sony HD5 review.