[rippinchikkin]

<img src="http://parcom.pronetworks.org/PROneT-News/sony.jpg" align="right"> Sony counters iPod Shuffle with the Bean
By Tony Smith
Thursday 18th August 2005 12:05 GMT

Sony has launched a curvy, palm-sized portable music player dubbed, not inappropriately, the Bean. Sony Walkman Bean we'll resist the opportunity to suggest the Japanese giant's move is somewhat half-baked.

Instead, we'll point out that the design is certainly more Mister Bean than Sean Bean. More formally monikered the NW-E205, the 512MB Flash-basedNetwork Walkman Bean supports Sony's own ATRAC3 Plus format and MP3. It's available in four colours: blue (aka 'Tropical Ice'), pink (Cotton Candy), black (Licorice) and white (Coconut), all selected to suggest jellybean styling rather than a more haricot heritage.

The unit has a one-line OLED screen. The Bean has its own, integrated USB connector for both song transfer and battery charging. The built-in Lithium Ion cell yields 50 hours' playback time, Sony said, though that presumably assumes you're playing 48kbps ATRAC3 files.

<img src="http://www.pronetworks.org/forum/images/smiles/source.jpg"> The Register
<img src="http://www.pronetworks.org/forum/images/smiles/view.jpg" border="0"> <a href=http://www.theregister.com/2005/08/18/sony_walkman_bean/ target=_blank> complete article</a>

[kanaloa]

LOL, they look kinda funny.

[rippinchikkin]

We'll resist the opportunity to suggest the Japanese giant's move is somewhat half-baked.

God I love the Registers writers, they never miss a chance to poke at someone or something.
They are kind of cute, your right(the Bean, that is, not the writers)