Sony kills Walkman

R.I.P. WALKMAN: Sony has given last rites to the iconic Walkman, which will be discontinued after a run that started in the late ’70s, eventually spawning the now-ubiquitous personal player that replaced it. The company reportedly shipped the final batch of Walkmen in April. "We used to go visit [Sony founder] Akio Morita and he had really the same kind of high-end standards that Steve did and respect for beautiful products," former Apple CEO John Sculley said in an interview with Leander Kahney of the Cult of Mac blog. "I remember Akio Morita gave Steve [Jobs] and me each one of the first Sony Walkmans. None of us had ever seen anything like that before because there had never been a product like that... Steve was fascinated by it. The first thing he did with his was take it apart and he looked at every single part. How the fit and finish was done, how it was built." And the rest is history. (10/29a)