Redefining music convenience

Attention, the iPod and other DAP devotees. Take out those white ear buds and listen for a moment. Before the iPod and mp3 player became omnipresent, way, before there was Walkman. Before the iPod was even a thought, Sony had sold millions of this iconic cassette player. Sony Walkman TPS-L2, a 14 ounce, blue and silver, portable cassette player with chunky buttons, headphones and a leather case was first introduced in  1979, fundamentally changing the experience of music and recording industry.As the story goes, it was created, loved and nurtured after the Sony audio-division’s Nobutoshi Kihara came up with a way for company chairman Akio Morita to listen to operas on his long and frequent trans-Pacific flights. The charge fell to Sony designer, Norio Ohga, who built a prototype out of Sony’s Pressman cassette recorder.Courtesy a highly innovative consumer marketing campaign in which Sony representatives simply approached pedestrians on the streets of Tokyo and gave them a chance to listen to the Walkman, the product sparked a revolution in music on the go. Any commuter in any big city in the world is more likely than not to have a pair of earbuds or headphones on as they walk, bike, or ride to their destination.At first, the main buyers of the Walkman were music fans in their mid 20s. However, the popularity of the Walkman spread very quickly to a wider young audience, kids who didn’t only wanted to listen to music, but to wear it. The Walkman coincided with the exercise craze of the ’80s, which saw the Western middle class, newly confined to office jobs take to the gym and fitness classes. By 2015, over 400 million Walkman portable music players were sold, enough that city officials would declare them a public nuisance that could result in deadly traffic accidents or ear damage.Sony continued to roll out variations on its theme, adding such innovations as AM/FM receivers, bass boost and auto-reverse on later models. Sony even made a solar powered Walkman, water-resistant Sport Walkmans and even devices with two cassette drives.But cassettes, like any technology, weren’t going to last forever. The classic cassette tape Walkman obsoleted post 31 years, after a strapping battle of co-existence with the digital music revolution. It enjoyed a staggeringly long career for a single known gadget.The name lives on today in the form of new MP3 players. The heyday of the Walkman may be over, with today’s kids baffled and disgusted by the relative clumsiness of cassettes. But the habit it spawned, listening to music wherever and whenever you want, is bigger than ever. Walkman may have passed on beyond modern need, but never beyond memory.Welcome to the world of ‘Nutty’s Infotainment. YAYS!’Your time starts NOW.What was originally launched as Soundabout in US, Stowaway in UK and Freestyle in Australia and Sweden? Its brand name was included in Oxford English Dictionary in 1986. Sony Walkman What is claim to fame of Andreas Pavel as far as personal stereo is considered?He is generally credited with the invention of portable cassette player. Sony had to pay a huge amount, as per the settlement reached in 2003.It can be claimed that the 2018 World Cup is being held in both Europe and Asia. A Russian city, considered to be part of Asia, hosted some matches. Name this city.Ekaterinburg.Name the only man to captain and coach a team to the FIFA World Cup title. Franz BeckenbauerThe Ferry Point International Bridge represents one of the busiest border crossings between the United States and Canada. Thanks to the National Bell Telephone Company, the residents at either end of the bridge share a common history going back to this day, 1st July, 1881. What is it?The first international telephone conversation, made between Calais, Maine, USA, and St. Stephen, New Brunswick, CanadaWhich Oscar-nominated star of ‘Born on the Fourth of July’ was actually born on the third of July?Tom CruiseQuantophreniais an obsessive reliance on what?StatisticsThis company sponsored the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam, and has supported every Olympic Games since. It is the longest continuous sponsor of the Games. Name the company?The Coca-Cola CompanyWhat popular board game did Fidel Castro promptly ban upon rising to power in Cuba?MonopolyBelow is a still from a TV commercial aired this day, 1st July, in 1941 on the NBC-owned station WNBT (now WNBC) in New York. “America runs on Bulova time,” a voice says. What was so special about this?(Answer next week. Answer to last week’s photo quiz: Che Guevara)