Using a Sony USB Walkman on an OSX MAC Without SonicStage!

So, if you want to skip past the back story (BASTARD!) click here to get to the good bits of how to run your Sony Walkman USB mp3 player without SonicStage even on a Mac!

So, last weekend I was at Fry's Electronics up in Canoga Park picking up some parts for my various projects. Fry's Electronics, for the non-initiated, is a supermarket for gearheads like me. I grew up loving electronics and to a certain extent, monkeying around with my own electronics. I was a hardware hacker before there was a popular term for it. When I moved to LA back int he 90s and found Fry's it kinda changed my life. When I'm low on cash and can't afford to go to Six Flags or DisneyLand, I'll go to Fry's and just window shop. It's a wonderland.

So, I'm there last weekend and of course, I have to look at all the cheapy, cut-rate media players they have there. Stuff that plays bizarrely formatted videos and mp3s for insanely cheap--you can get a 1gb video player for about $40. Of course, the picture quality is likely crap. To a gadgethound like me, it's the thought that counts. Once I get some steady income again, I think I might be adding one or two cheap video players to some custom toy projects I'm working on.

ANYway... (hey, I didn't start a paragraph with "So,"!) As I'm scoping the cheap crap I spot an older Sony Walkman e003f USB stick that plays mp3s and has an FM tuner. Listing for $60, it was on sale for $40. I seriously considered getting it. I knew Sony players aren't Mac-friendly, but I found myself becoming wistful (listful?) for my early days of carrying around Sony Walkmans as the original audio lockpick to my imagination. I couldn't help but think how cool it would be to have the Walkman name in my pocket again and for cheaper than any price I'd paid previously.

I knew my temp gig was ending and that I'd have to watch my funds, so I didn't get it. Coincidentally, I hadn't found the parts I needed, so I dropped $5 on a 2-pack of USB swivel plugs and headed home.

This whole week that Sony Walkman USB stick haunted me. It was 1 gig, flash-based (obviously), a huge battery life (20+hours!) and it was so slick looking with a little OLED screen (something neither my 1g iPod Shuffle or my 2g iPod Shuffle Boot has). Then I realized I hadn't found the parts I needed. Still, my job ended and while I had the money to drop $40+ on the e003f and my parts, I kept thinking that I should save my money since I have no definite temp job coming up.

Then, I finished a HUGE script I'd been working on since early June. It was such an immense achievement for me (212 pages in two months is pretty damn prolific!) so I decided to screw it and spring for the Walkman stick. ^_^

Of course, it's not compatible with Macs and even on Windows machines you can only use SonicStage (which I've read SUCKS but is being discontinued), so that presented a problem. However, while I'm not a software guy, I knew from my experiences finding software for my various hardware projects that I'd be able to find something that would let me dump mp3s on my new Walkman stick.

So, after a good bit of Googling and tech-forum-diving, I was able to find [http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=174319|NW-E00x Mp3 File Manager] which you can read more about here: http://nwe00xmp3man.sourceforge.net/

For now, I'll tell you that it's a Java app (so it'll run on any platform that supports Java) and it runs directly from your Walkman stick. I couldn't get the latest version of it to work because Java.com doesn't have Java SE6 (required by 0.13--the latest version of NW-E00x Mp3 File Manager) but I DLed 0.12 and it worked fine. So, if you want a super cheap, high-quality mp3 player with FM built-in and a few other neat features (equalizer, workout stopwatch, etc) get your ass to Fry's and grab the silver Sony Walkman NW-e003f for $40 before they sell out because now you can use them WITHOUT SONICSTAGE.

Now if Sony can just get it's head out of it's ass and start doing things like supporting Macs, ditching UMDs and Memory Sticks, cut the PS3 price to something reasonable, stop hiring Sam Raimi to make shitty Spider-Man movies, and firing that white guy who is ruining things for them.

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