The Bone Fone was a wearable radio that draped around the user's neck like a scarf. Bill Hass invented the device, [1] and JS&A marketed it in 1979. [2] [3] According to the marketing materials, the Bone Fone resonated sound through the wearer's bones. [4]
The device represents an evolutionary step from hand-held electronics (transistor radios) to wearable technology (Walkman, iPod, smart phone). The Bone Fone did not achieve the longevity of transistor radios, originating in 1947, and surviving to the present. The Sony Walkman line achieved greater popularity; iPods and smartphones achieved greater impact. But, the Bone Fone helped make the transition to products users could wear, freeing the hands for other activities, such as exercise or gardening. [5] [6] [7] In late 2019, Sony introduced a similar, though much less-rugged product, the SRS-WS1 Wearable Neck Speaker. [8]
Sony Group Corporation, formerly known as Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K. and Sony Corporation (ソニー株式会社), commonly known as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group comprises entities such as Sony Corporation, Sony Semiconductor Solutions, Sony Entertainment, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Financial Group, and others.
Walkman, stylised as WALKMAN (ウォークマン), is a brand of portable audio players manufactured and marketed by Japanese company Sony since 1979. The original Walkman started out as a portable cassette player and the brand was later extended to serve most of Sony's portable audio devices; since 2011 it consists exclusively of digital flash memory players. The current flagship product as of 2022 is the WM1ZM2 player.
The Compact Cassette, also commonly called a cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Ottens and his team at the Dutch company Philips, the Compact Cassette was released in August 1963. Compact Cassettes come in two forms, either containing content as a prerecorded cassette (Musicassette), or as a fully recordable "blank" cassette. Both forms have two sides and are reversible by the user. Although other tape cassette formats have also existed—for example the Microcassette—the generic term cassette tape is normally used to refer to the Compact Cassette because of its ubiquity.
The iPod was a series of portable media players and multi-purpose mobile devices designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The first version was released on November 10, 2001, about 8+1⁄2 months after the Macintosh version of iTunes was released. Apple sold an estimated 450 million iPod products as of 2022. Apple discontinued the iPod product line on May 10, 2022. At over 20 years, the iPod brand is the oldest to be discontinued by Apple.
Headphones are a pair of small loudspeaker drivers worn on or around the head over a user's ears. They are electroacoustic transducers, which convert an electrical signal to a corresponding sound. Headphones let a single user listen to an audio source privately, in contrast to a loudspeaker, which emits sound into the open air for anyone nearby to hear. Headphones are also known as earphones or, colloquially, cans. Circumaural and supra-aural headphones use a band over the top of the head to hold the drivers in place. Another type, known as earbuds or earpieces, consists of individual units that plug into the user's ear canal. A third type are bone conduction headphones, which typically wrap around the back of the head and rest in front of the ear canal, leaving the ear canal open. In the context of telecommunication, a headset is a combination of a headphone and microphone.
A transistor radio is a small portable radio receiver that uses transistor-based circuitry. Following the invention of the transistor in 1947—which revolutionized the field of consumer electronics by introducing small but powerful, convenient hand-held devices—the Regency TR-1 was released in 1954 becoming the first commercial transistor radio. The mass-market success of the smaller and cheaper Sony TR-63, released in 1957, led to the transistor radio becoming the most popular electronic communication device of the 1960s and 1970s. Transistor radios are still commonly used as car radios. Billions of transistor radios are estimated to have been sold worldwide between the 1950s and 2012.
The Stereobelt was a personal stereo player devised by Andreas Pavel, a former television executive and book editor. Pavel filed a patent of invention for his portable music player in Italy in 1977, and adopted the same protective steps in Germany, United Kingdom, United States, and Japan. He sought royalty fees and later commenced legal proceedings against Sony Corporation after the Walkman released commercially in 1979, believing the electronics manufacturer had infringed his intellectual property. Judges ruled against him, revoking the patent, stating his concept was "not significantly inventive".
The iPod Shuffle is a discontinued digital audio player designed and formerly marketed by Apple Inc. It was the smallest model in Apple's iPod family, and was the first iPod to use flash memory. The first model was announced at the Macworld Conference & Expo on January 11, 2005; the fourth- and final-generation models were introduced on September 1, 2010. The iPod Shuffle was discontinued by Apple on July 27, 2017.
A portable media player (PMP) or digital audio player (DAP) is a portable consumer electronics device capable of storing and playing digital media such as audio, images, and video files. The data is typically stored on a compact disc (CD), Digital Versatile Disc (DVD), Blu-ray Disc (BD), flash memory, microdrive, SD cards or hard drive; most earlier PMPs used physical media, but modern players mostly use flash memory. In contrast, analogue portable audio players play music from non-digital media that use analogue media, such as cassette tapes or vinyl records.
A personal stereo, or personal cassette player, is a portable audio player for cassette tapes. This allows the user to listen to music through headphones while walking, jogging or relaxing. Personal stereos typically have a belt clip or a shoulder strap so a user can attach the device to a belt or wear it over their shoulder. Some personal stereos came with a separate battery case.
The history of Sony, a Japanese multinational conglomerate, dates back to 1946.
The iPod Touch is a discontinued line of iOS-based mobile devices designed and marketed by Apple Inc. with a touchscreen-controlled user interface. As with other iPod models, the iPod Touch can be used as a portable media player and a handheld gaming device, but can also be used as a digital camera, a web browser, for email and messaging. It is nearly identical in design to the iPhone, and can run most iPhone third-party apps from the App Store, but it connects to the Internet only through Wi-Fi and uses no cellular network data, as it lacks a cellular modem.
A headset is a combination of headphone and microphone. Headsets connect over a telephone or to a computer, allowing the user to speak and listen while keeping both hands free. They are commonly used in customer service and technical support centers, where employees can converse with customers while typing information into a computer. They are also common among computer gamers and let them talk with each other and hear others while using their keyboards and mice to play the game.
The Walkman effect is the way music listened to via headphones grants the listener more control over their environment. The term was coined by Shuhei Hosokawa, a professor at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies, in an article published in Popular Music in 1984. While the term was named after the dominant portable music technology of the time, the Sony Walkman, it generically applies to all such devices and has been cited numerous times to refer to similar products released later, such as the Apple iPod.
AirPods are wireless Bluetooth earbuds designed by Apple Inc. They were first announced on September 7, 2016, alongside the iPhone 7. Within two years, they became Apple's most popular accessory. AirPods are Apple's entry-level wireless headphones, sold alongside the AirPods Pro and AirPods Max.
A dock connector is an electrical connector used to attach a mobile device simultaneously to multiple external resources. The dock connector will typically carry a variety of signals and power, through a single connector, to simplify the process of docking the device. A dock connector may be embedded in a mechanical fixture used to support or align the mobile device or may be at the end of a cable.
AirPlay is a proprietary wireless communication protocol stack/suite developed by Apple Inc. that allows streaming between devices of audio, video, device screens, and photos, together with related metadata. Originally implemented only in Apple's software and devices, it was called AirTunes and used for audio only. Apple has since licensed the AirPlay protocol stack as a third-party software component technology to manufacturers that build products compatible with Apple's devices.