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Hoping to take some market share from Apple in the world of digital-music players, Sony (NYSE: SNE - news) on Thursday began taking orders for its latest digital Walkman, known as the Bean.

While officially known as the NW-E300 line, Sony is marketing the new devices after their bean-like shapes. The palm-size devices are available in four jellybean-inspired colors: pink, black, blue and white.

A 512-MB version costs US$130 while a unit with 1 GB of storage is priced at around $180. Although the players will not be on the shelves until late September or October, Sony is taking preorders on its Web site.

"Sounds an awful lot like the [iPod] Shuffle; but just being like the Shuffle is no guarantee [of success]," said Gartner (NYSE: IT - news) analyst Michael McGuire.

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holy crap they look awesome

they look cool,  the price is "cheaper" compared with other mp3 players, ill get one of those

they do look cool, but imho, a 1GB HDD will not be able to be compared to the 20GB, 40GB or 60 GB HDD to apples..

only 1 gb

tut tut

there not 1 GB Hard Drives they are just
another flashmemory mp3 player, i for one would like a small mp3 player
more than a ipod which is relativly big as im an active person, an i
would break moving parts.

Also with that sortage in that size new memory sticks should be out soon

I like the idea, however ipods are fashionable they are not the best but they are liked and that's why they want them. I still think sony should make a new thing altogether e.g videos on it and connect to internet

very ugly.... if ever you see me make anything like that in my future life as a product designer you have my permission to slap me with a big wet smelly fish.

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Originally posted by gif83
very ugly.... if ever you see me make anything like that in my future life as a product designer you have my permission to slap me with a big wet smelly fish.

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That is the ugliest thing that I have ever seen. I don't know what they were thinking when they designed that. The ergonomics look crap too... The iPod looks so much cooler than that.

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Originally posted by Lee Jeffery

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Originally posted by gif83
very ugly.... if ever you see me make anything like that in my future life as a product designer you have my permission to slap me with a big wet smelly fish.

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dude how on earth can you possibly think thats ugly

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Looks good to me. The mix of colours look nice. A smaller hard-drive would be good for me (I have what I would call a fair amount of music (I don't just fill up my HDD with songs I never listen to), and it only takes 2.5Gb of my HDD, so forking out the huge fortune for other mp3 players would be dumb). Its relatively cheap too.

I think the iPods look like a small lunchbox, or a glasses case. :/

Like wow, I so want one of those. They look so freaking wicked. They look so much easier to hold then a rectangle. And they are a decent price. (Exchange rates, remember?)

A 512-MB version would cost £72.

A unit with 1 GB of storage would be £99.

I think the iPod is much nicer than this, and much more sensible to have. For the price, you may aswell buy a £30 MMC card for a phone that is 1Gb. That would only be able to hold like 150 songs max, which sucks if you think about it. An iPod seems so much more sensible to use, and much easier to use, in my experience.

As said earlier, all it is really is a flash stick that plays the data that is on it, it isn't a hard drive...

Can you honestly imagine putting that thing in your pocket? It would be too annoying .

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Originally posted by traxor
Can you honestly imagine putting that thing in your pocket? It would be too annoying .

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So it could bounced around, it would be all slippery and swing everywhere, like a pendulum... It looks like a testicle ...

I'd rather keep it in my pocket to hide it... It's vile.

Thinking about it, it would be a good projectile.

"is that a bean in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me?"

edit: traxor 4000 posts

kinda nice to see once, but i dont think i would want one

omg the Bean? what the heck are they thinking at

"hey what do you have?"

"i have a Bean"

major opening for some bad sex jokes there...

great slogan "flicking the bean turns it on"

OMFG, that looks cool. I too rather that small thing than an iPod.

Now, the things you can come up with are infinite, I think.

"Hold my bean, please"

"You've got to see my bean!"

"Do you like how my bean feels to the touch?"

Etc.

They look cool. Hmm wouldnt mind one!

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Originally posted by Regexp
"Hold my bean, please"

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Originally posted by Lee Jeffery

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Originally posted by Regexp
"Hold my bean, please"

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Originally posted by traxor
That is the ugliest thing that I have ever seen. I don't know what they were thinking when they designed that. The ergonomics look crap too... The iPod looks so much cooler than that.

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I wouldn't even consider buying that thing.. How much for half a gig..?
they look ugly... and iPods PWN

Not bad, at least they don't look like cheap plastic ipods.  They absolutely have to get Mr. Bean to promote them.

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Originally posted by Garndell
Not bad, at least they don't look like cheap plastic ipods.  They absolutely have to get Mr. Bean to promote them.

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They do look very nice! When the iPod came out though, I somehow wasn't desparate to get one. I had an mp3 player wayy before any of my friends had it, so I guess that phase for me has passed. I'm behind on my music too

I think it is just ugly really.  Ipod shuffles are cheaper, and iPods are easy to use.  Plus I bet the bean accesories would suck

"Is that a Bean in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?"

They choose to make it look like a bean so it would be easy to fit it in your hand.

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Originally posted by Kryptonate
"Is that a Bean in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?"

They choose to make it look like a bean so it would be easy to fit it in your hand.

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Originally posted by Lee Jeffery
"is that a bean in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me?"

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It seems like the kinda thing, people love it or hate it..... I'm debating right now.......looks kewl I guess.....but im not sure if it would be as kewl as my iriver.....  no matter how much space....

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Originally posted by Lee Jeffery

slow

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I think this looks pretty cool, what wasn't in the news article is other features. They claim that with a 3 minute charge, you can get 3 hours playback time, and on full battery you can get upto 50 hours playback time.

Also, I think it looks cool, it is not trying to compete with the iPod but with the iPod shuffle, there is a big difference.

imo, Sony makes way better stuff than Apple.

Clearly Sony was trying to make an MP3 player that was comfy to hold, but I never hold my MP3 player anyway, and I don't know anyone who does. It goes in my pocket and never comes out unless I need to abuse it.
And it hasn't got a big enough screen, so thumbs down for me

can you please change the thread title, it REALLY is not a Ipod rival

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Originally posted by Veggie
can you please change the thread title, it REALLY is not a Ipod rival

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nah, they look terrible...... its a ipod with more rounder curves, be quite nice to hold in ur hand though (like sprite bottles with the little dotty inner curves to hold em better if u know what i mean). and its a shit name. imagine somebody asking you what ur listening to and u have to tell em its called a Bean and I thought the iRiver was shit.

personally, i'll stick with my 20GB iPod [offtopic](which, if u wer wondering I got my brand new one off apple last week to replce my old one with the HDD failure, [THANX TODDY!]) [/offtopic]

They look a bit to bulkie to me. esp if they can only hold 512/1gb.

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Originally posted by MC Inferno
nah, they look terrible...... its a ipod with more rounder curves, be quite nice to hold in ur hand though (like sprite bottles with the little dotty inner curves to hold em better if u know what i mean). and its a shit name. imagine somebody asking you what ur listening to and u have to tell em its called a Bean and I thought the iRiver was shit.

personally, i'll stick with my 20GB iPod [offtopic](which, if u wer wondering I got my brand new one off apple last week to replce my old one with the HDD failure, [THANX TODDY!]) [/offtopic]

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