^TM

Strings From Your Bean

Sony Walkman BeanÔ MP3 Player

By Jeff Gottesman

I’m old fashioned. I’ve had my Sony WalkmanÒ headphones for about a hundred years and I’ve been very happy jogging, working out, and just leisurely walking down the street while listening to my favorite radio station. When I’m in the car, I listen to the radio or my CDs, and at home I even have a bunch of downloaded MP3 music that I listen to on my computer. Taking my favorite MP3 music with me has never crossed my mind…until now.

The Sony BeanÔ MP3 player has got to be the smallest device of this type that I have ever bean…I mean seen! I guess they call it a “bean” because it’s shaped like one and nicely fits into the palm of your hand. Although, I’m not sure I really want to carry an MP3 player in my hand all the time that I’m moving about. I did not see any kind of strap that could be attached so that I could hang it around my neck or attach it to my clothing…so I guess a bean in the hand is all you get without any strings.

The bean comes in various colors and models with different size memory storage. Mine was pink (hey..I didn’t get to pick it) and had 1GB of memory which will store approximately 695 songs. The battery is charged quickly through your computer USB port and can provide 50 hours of playback. It also comes with a built-in FM radio tuner for those times when you want to listen to something “live.” I found the audio quality to be superb.

ORGANIZING YOUR MUSIC
To organize your music, the bean comes with Sony’s SonicStageÒ Music Management Software which is the only way you can transfer music to/from the device. Unfortunately, I already use Winamp and Microsoft Media Player to manage my downloaded music and it would have been nice if I could use some of my existing software to transfer music to the bean but I could not figure out how. SonicStage is a very straightforward application that allows you to transfer music to the device by directly downloading songs from the ConnectÔ Music Store, by ripping audio tracks from your own CDs, or by simply transferring MP3 songs from your current collection. The music is then arranged by title, track, album, artist, genre, or any other way you want to organize your music.

Music stored on the device plays back the Sony ATRACÒ, ATRAC3plusÔ format and MP3 files, and also supports WMA and WAV (the latter two are considered “unsecured” formats).

You should be aware that the software and the MP3 player operation support secured file formats to protect digital rights management and copyrighted materials. When I initially tried to transfer some of my music onto the device, an error message was displayed informing me that my computer was not registered; therefore, a transfer could not take place.  I knew that my bean had been used before, and I presumed this was the problem. So, my next step was to register my computer with the Connect Music Store. I was then informed that the bean was not registered to my computer and I still could not make the transfer. Frustrated? A bit. Using the help menu I figured out that I would have to delete everything from the memory of the bean and then re-register it. Wiping it clean was easy, and then the transfer of my own music was a snap. In fact, I didn’t bother to register the bean and I was simply told that I would be able to transfer any of my own music or CDs, but if I wanted to download songs from the Connect store, I would have to register the device to my computer. So…why all this fuss? I’m guessing that it is the built in method to protect copyrighted music that is downloaded from the internet. My understanding is that if you follow the process and then pay to download songs, you can freely move them onto the bean and even onto other computers. I did not try any of this.

CONNECTION TO YOUR COMPUTER
The bean connects to your computer using a built in USB connector that “pops out” of the end when you need it. If your computer USB port is not on the front of your computer, a short USB extension cable is provided…but since the length is only about 3 inches it doesn’t help much if your USB port is at the back of your computer. When the device is plugged into your computer USB port, it is recognized by the SonicStage software and transfers can be made. The device is also recognized by WindowsÒ Explorer as a removable storage device, so you can also transfer any digital files to the device as well! With 1GB of available memory, this gives you a lot of capacity to carry around files, photos, music, and anything else right in the palm of your hand. This is a great feature to have!

LISTENING TO MUSIC
Playing back music was a little tricky for me simply because I have large fingers. The screen on the device is very readable and displays all kinds of information about the music being played….just like a typical CD player. But, the buttons are incredibly small for changing the functions of the display and switching between music playback and FM radio. The largest button on the player has at least 5 different functions such as start/stop, volume, track advance, fast forward, etc. It was difficult to remember which way to push this button to activate which function.

There is a “menu” button that allows you to change the look and feel of the device to your personal preferences (set time, date, automatic volume, animation windows, etc.) and also allows you to do a music search through all of the songs that are currently loaded into memory. You can search out songs to play based on artist, genre, album title, etc., but the operational “tree” for all of these menu selections is a bit confusing so I highly recommend reading the instructions provided in a .pdf file on the software CD. I guess trying to put so many functions onto a unit so small with so few buttons has some limitations. Once you realize how to navigate through the menu tree, it’s no more difficult than operating all the functions of your cell phone (which I have yet to master).

An interesting feature allows you to set start and stop points in a particular track so that you can repeat a selected interval or phrase in the track. The instructions say that this is useful if you are, for example, trying to learn a foreign language and you want a section of the recording to repeat several times.  Sounds like a great idea….I’m not sure I would use this while I’m jogging J.

The FM radio works surprisingly well! The reception on the bean was better than the clock radio that I have on my desk. Somehow, through all the menu trees you can enter preset stations so that you can just press one of the tiny buttons and select one of the many preset stations that are literally at your finger-tips. When searching for FM radio stations, I found it fascinating that as the frequencies on the display increased up the dial, they stopped at every decimal point in frequency (ie. 90.0, 90.1, 90.2). Sony should know that the FCC assigns FM radio stations at only odd intervals (89.9, 90.1, 90.3)…I just thought this was an amusing observation.

SUMMARY
In summary, my bean was cool…as in “cool beans.” I appreciated the quality, the features, and the enormous memory. However, I felt that the unit was a bit too small for me. The buttons were a little too small for my fingers, there was no way to hold the unit other than in my hand, and I was a bit afraid that I might lose it because of it’s size. But…if you like compact packages, great sound and full features, the bean is the way to go! And it doesn’t even give you gas!

Back to TravelLady Magazine