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"NOKIA BL-4C" by IWSE Zhang
(cdna.artstation.com)
Source: NOKIA BL-4C (by IWSE Zhang - ArtStation)
ArtStation profile: https://www.artstation.com/iwse
RSS Feed: https://www.artstation.com/iwse.rss
Weirdly, a thing like this did briefly exist. Meet the Sony Data Discman.
I had a sony discman (yes I know it is not the same but you reminded me of it). Remember the brief period of technological innovation in noskip features?
I couldn't afford one at the time, so I didn't really pay that much attention. I did eventually pick one up in the brief period when I had my own income but before dedicated mp3 players became a serious thing. The anti-skip didn't work.
I had one on the very cusp of MP3s becoming mainstream. One of my first purchases when I had my own income.
It was a random Chinese "discman" with MP3 playback functionality and ID3 tag support. I also owned a CD burner.
It was pretty slick. It would only read the disc until the track was loaded to memory so coming from a cheap knockoff discman the anti skip was next level. I could actually run with this thing! I'd have to stop and let it load between tracks but no big deal.
It didn't rock my world as hard as minidisc did, which I completely fell in love with but it was still pretty cool. I still struggle to believe that we no longer have physical media of any kind. I'm an album guy and it still feels kind of wrong.
I feel like with the cheapness of flash media these days, someone should be doing albums in mp3 on 64Mb USB sticks. At 1Mb/minute that's only 10min less than a CD. Like the old hit clips but a full album.
I always had a vision of doing the same but with SD cards, complete with album art in a little booklet. I never found a suitable player that would lend itself to the project. They do exist but they tend to be garbage.
That's awesome!
Hi-res version of that picture
Source Blast from the Past: Sony Data Discman - The Digital Reader.
And one photo with the discs
Source: 有了大屏智能手机 电纸书的价值何在？_掌阅 iReader电纸书_苹果评测-中关村在线