Sony Debuts NW-A800 Video Walkmans

By Geoff Duncan Published March 2, 2007

Sony Debuts NW-A800 Video Walkmans — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Sony has finally taken it’s world-renowned Walkman portable media player line into the world of digital video, unveiling its NW-A800 series of Network Walkmans for the European market. The NW-A800 series will initially be available in three models—the A805, A806, and A808—sporting 2, 4, and 8 GB of flash storage, respectively. For viewing video and images, the units sport a 2-inch QVGA (320 by 240 pixel) LCD display; the display features a portrait placement rather than the landscape design seen in Apple’s iPod, but Sony says video and images can be viewed in either orientation. The units weigh just 53 grams (1.9 ounces) and are just 9mm thick.

Of course, the NW-A800s support both audio and video playback, with MP3, AAC, WMA, and (naturally) several variations on Sony’s own ATRAC audio format, although the devices are not PlaysForSure compatible. On the video front, the Walkmans support MPEG-4 H.264/AVC encoded files.

Recommended Videos

Sony claims up to 30 hours of music playback time on a full battery charge, although that’s with 132Kbps ATRAC files, and battery life will be less for other audio formats. Sony says users can get up to six and half hours of 382Kbps video playback on a single battery charge.

For now, the NW-A800 series will only be available in Europe (starting in April), although Sony says it plans to take the new Walkmans to additional international markets in the future. Pricing in the U.K. (without VAT) stands at £102.12 for the 2 GB model, £127.65 for the 4GB model, and £170.20 for the 8 GB model; in U.S. dollars, that would be roughly $200, $250, and $333, respectively. The NW-800s will be available in at least four colors: black, white, pink, and blue.

Former Contributor

Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

Topics

Emerging Tech

Google is making Gemini and Search work better with the apps you love

Gemini's guest list is growing, and your favorite apps are invited.

Gemini AI on a phone.

Google has been finding more ways to make Gemini a part of your daily routine, from putting together playlists to ordering groceries through your favorite apps. Now it's expanding those capabilities to more services, with Google Search joining in, too.

The company has announced a new Connected Apps Platform that makes it easier for developers to bring their services to both Gemini and Search. Alongside this, Google is adding new partners to its growing lineup, bringing more of the apps people already use into its AI ecosystem.

Emerging Tech

AI bots are now trying to sabotage public health policies, like banning disposable vapes

Thousands of AI bots voted in a public health poll to block sales restriction on disposable vapes. It's like Big Tobacco is back from the dead.

Woman smoking a vape.

In the broad context of AI and its perceived harms, health and medical risks often pop up in the conversation. The warnings even come from frontier AI labs, such as ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and Anthropic, both of which have warned about misusing AI to cook up bioweapons. Security experts have already spotted a few such incidents in the wild, especially with the usage of AI models without any solid guardrails.

Well, it appears that the risks run deeper. As per an analysis appearing in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), AI bots are now being deployed to influence public policies governing health risks to citizens. In this instance, an attempt was made using AI bots to thwart regulations that aim to restrict the sale of disposable vapes, all while disguising the manipulation efforts as a response from real humans.

Emerging Tech

A tiny smartphone gadget can detect some of the nastiest chemicals in your water

Scientists built a tiny smartphone gadget that can spot toxic 'forever chemicals'

Smartphone-connected drinking water safety sensor Featured

What if checking your drinking water for dangerous chemicals were as simple as plugging a tiny gadget into your smartphone? Researchers in Japan have developed a compact sensor that could make that possible, potentially bringing sophisticated water contamination testing out of expensive laboratories and into people's hands.

Scientists at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) have created a portable device capable of detecting extremely low concentrations of PFAS, commonly known as "forever chemicals." The findings were published in the journal Biosensors and Bioelectronics, which demonstrate how an inexpensive sensor and a smartphone could make identifying potentially harmful chemicals in water a lot easier.