http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8117619.stm
Cute BBC fluff piece about swapping a kid’s iPod with a Walkman. Personally, I don’t miss my old Sony Sports, which weighed a ton and went through batteries pretty quickly. On my last trip, my nostalgia was of the “I can’t believe I used to use a Walkman” variety whenever I dragged out my 80GB iPod, which lasted for nearly 16 hours on one charge, and put my entire library at my fingertips. On my first trip, I had 10 mixed tapes I brought with me (read: Had to lug in my backpack, along with tons of replacement batteries) which, by the end, were so familiar I wound up giving most of them away. I know which one I prefer.
It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape…
Another notable feature that the iPod has and the Walkman doesn’t is “shuffle”, where the player selects random tracks to play. Its a function that, on the face of it, the Walkman lacks. But I managed to create an impromptu shuffle feature simply by holding down “rewind” and releasing it randomly – effective, if a little laboured.