dissappointed with Sony user interface change over past players

[arnold]

Damn Sony! The user interface has grown worse since the A82x. I was just about to buy a new Sony player, only to find out that it is not possible with ANY of the new Sony players to skip whole albums while playing songs.

My current player, the A829, has the ability to change albums back or forward with a flick of the up/down button while playing a song. This is very handy, even neccessary when running or cycling (I don't want to look at the screen just to change the album while running and definitely not when cycling...)

[CrowdAds]

[meetooman]

- Maybe some less talented runners and cyclers were disappointed that the players were "randomly" skipping only when pressing the up or down buttons.

- Maybe giving a choice of behavior in the system menu is also too confusing for most people. A feature for you is a stress factor for the majority.

- Maybe idea/concept of album is dead. People buy and download individual songs now. So your "skip album" function is now irrelevant for the mass.

Here is a link on an article showing you why this function will never be back:

The death of the album (in handy graph form)
By Nate Anderson (arstechnica.com)

[Dreamnine]

You listen to music while cycling..? Geez..

[Satellite_6]

I'm one of them tiny percentages who like albums. . .

[CDMP3PlayerFan]

Overall, I've been pleased with Sony interface. It's simple but very usable. One thing I'd like to see them add is the ability to customize the main screen, to give you the option of adding and deleting items that appear on the main screen.

Albums haven't been much of an issue for me since I rarely listen to entire albums. However, I do think it's a good feature to retain at least as an option, along with the ability to jump to the next artist.

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by Dreamnine

You listen to music while cycling..? Geez..

I wouldn't. Here in the States, you're supposed to ride on the right side, with the flow of traffic, so the cars are always coming up behind you......so even with my open-backed 'phones, I don't think I would listen while riding.

Walking is different....here, you walk on the left side, so the cars are coming towards you....so I will wear my 'phones while walking.

[meetooman]

I am an old album person too, and I only listen to music by albums (in the original order).
Still about user interface, it seems to me that cover art browsing mode has disappeared from the last S540. It was already not available on the E430 but was present in the S630/730. That's my main UI regret.

[CDMP3PlayerFan]

Overall, I've been pleased with Sony's IU. I don't usually listen to entire albums so the ability to jump from one album to the next hasn't been an issue for me. The one improvement I'd like to see is the ability to modify the main screen where you can choose the items you want to appear on it.

[MSG]

My only complaint is that albums are listed alphabetically, not chronologically.

[arnold]

Originally Posted by meetooman

- Maybe giving a choice of behavior in the system menu is also too confusing for most people. A feature for you is a stress factor for the majority.

Must be some pretty stupid runners, if they don't know how to use the hold button...

Originally Posted by meetooman

- Maybe giving a choice of behavior in the system menu is also too confusing for most people. A feature for you is a stress factor for the majority.

That made me laugh. Perhaps it is a stress factor for the same reason, that they can't operate the hold button.

Originally Posted by meetooman

- Maybe idea/concept of album is dead. People buy and download individual songs now. So your "skip album" function is now irrelevant for the mass.

You are probably right. But even the mass could use a handy way of skipping to the next artis/folder/album, without having to look at the player. This iShit cancer is making mp3 players and phones less usable than they used to be - back in the day when they had more buttons and more short cut functions... Like half a year ago.

Originally Posted by Dreamnine

You listen to music while cycling..? Geez..

Could you elaborate on that comment? What exactly do you mean by that?
There are countries and cities in this world, that have roads purely dedicated to cycling... Think cities smaller than metropols. Perhaps you live in Glasgow and there are not many roads suitably to safe cycling for you, but around here there are miles and miles of roads fit for safe cycling.

Anyway, I am very pleased with Sony user interface in general and certainly very pleased with my A829, but it grinds my teeth that the ability to easily skip albums and artists by button press is gone. The wife thinks the same (she uses Sony players too and is getting the A845).

ps. Just an example to my fellow music fan from Glasgow: This is the city center of a Finnish city, Oulu - pop. 140,000:
http://www.ouka.fi/tekninen/pyoratie..._keskusta1.pdf
and cycling routes of Tampere, pop. about 200,000 (or 450,000, counting surrounding regions)
http://www.tampere.fi/tiedostot/5xru...ailykartta.pdf

The roads marked in red are solely for cycling and walking. The cycling routes continue far outside the city center of course and are totally safe for listening to music

Myself, I only listen to music while cycling outside the city center, the roads are quite safe.

[CDMP3PlayerFan]

Originally Posted by MSG

My only complaint is that albums are listed alphabetically, not chronologically.

This reminds me of another feature I hope Sony will fix in its future players: videos are listed by the date they are added to the player rather that alphabetically by their title.

[Ghibli]

On the A840 you can change album from the Now Playing screen by clicking up or down, just that it's one extra click than what's been described above because it takes you to the album art scroller (like on the X series) and you have to select the next album. I'm not sure about the S740 but it has an identically-styled UI to the A840 so I wouldn't be surprised if it does the same.

Personally I prefer the A800 style where you can select each detail of the Now Playing screen and go straight to that list, so for example, you can look for another song by the same artist, album, genre or even year (the latter two aren't even shown on the newest players, probably to make room for the enlarge album art).