Sony Walkmans without restrictions!!!

Hooray!
Sony released in the US some new Walkmans weeks ago, saying that they are ditching their own format (ATRAC) and now you don't need to use their own Sonicstage software to send music into the players any more. A lot of people hated Sonicstage because they say it's unstable and hard to use. I fell OK with Sonicstage, but two main reasons I avoided it in the past: 1. It doesn't support Unicode, so Japanese song names got messed up if you are using a Chinese version of Windows; 2. Sonicstage is Windows only, and I am using a Mac.

Then Sony finally released Sonicstage-less Walkmans. At the time, I didn't report it here, because duh, they say you now have to use Windows Media Player 11 (WMP) to sync songs over. Isn't that Windows only again? Yet just as I was starting to consider iPods (I was starting to think that the only decent players that could be used with Mac are iPods, as most of them on the market are now WMP only, like what Sandisk offered), 2 things happened. 1. iPod nano suddenly became iFatty (eww, disgusting...) 2. People on forums are reporting that you can drag&drop files on to the new Walkmans just as you do with USB thumb drives, and Linux and Macs are supported!!

I don't like iPods as the old ones are too much plastic, the new ones too fat. (the last gen nanos are OK) And most of all, I don't want a me-too player as most people here in the US has an iPod now. Now, these Walkmans are just what I wanted.

One more problem though, Sony started offering these at a time when I am unemployed, and income-less... Darn!

Sony's Walkman site | Discussion on ATRACLife