Memories of an iconic gadget The Sony Walkman turns 30 today, amazing as much for the passage of time as it is for the fact that the Walkman brand persists today in digital audio players and cell phones. PC World ranked the Walkman at the top of our 50 Greatest Gadgets of the Past 50 Years list a few years ago. I suspect that even if Apple iPhone had been a contender then, the Walkman would still have come out on top. Thing is, the Walkman encapsulated more than just mobile music. It represented the possibilities of what we could take with us. And how we could capitalize on mashup music. Before the Walkman, magnetic tape recorders in the home were typically relegated to the realm of standalone components the size of TiVo today; or perhaps it was integrated into a boombox, an all-in-one radio and tape device that purported to... [read full story]
