Sony announces X-Series Walkman

Sony might have admitted that Apple is winning the MP3 player war, as previously reported on Pocket-lint, but that isn't stopping it from trying to wrestle the crown from Cupertino's shiny white head.

Its latest attempt is the X-Series Walkman, which - you have to admit - is a bit of a looker. It's the first Walkman with an OLED display, which should result in a bright, clear picture and better battery life. That OLED display doubles as a 3-inch 432 x 240 touchscreen, a half-inch smaller than the 3.5-inch display belonging to its main competitor - the iPod touch.

The other big feature is the sound quality. Sony is promising rich, wide bandwidth audio with ultra-low distortion that's more often seen in its hi-fi products, while enhanced stereo separation will also please headphone listeners.

There's also digital noise cancellation, aimed at commuters. Three different settings will apparently cut background noise in planes, buses and trains and in the office. Flyers will also be able to pump the in-flight audio system through the X-series for the same benefit.

Lastly, there's built-in wireless connectivity. Sony promises that users will be able to browse the Internet and watch YouTube - and iPlayer content - directly from the device.

The X-Series will be available from 13 May, and cost £209 for a 16GB model or £279 for a 32GB model.

Networking

What is a Network?

Linking two or more computing devices together, usually for sharing data (files or folders) or resources (mail servers, file server, printers, Scanners etc.) is popularly known as a Network.

If there are a number of computers at home or in an organization, connecting them together can bring substantial benefits. For example, you can share printers, internet connections and files such as photos or music etc.

Networks are built using both computer hardware and software. Networks can be categorized into different types like LAN, WAN and MAN according to the geographic area they span.

he primary purpose of a computer network is to share resources:

• You can play a CD music from one computer while sitting on another computer
• You may have a computer with a CD writer or a backup system but the other computer doesn’t have it; In this case, you can burn CDs or make backups on a computer that has one of these but using data from a computer that doesn’t have a CD writer or a backup system
• You may have a computer that doesn’t have a DVD player. In this case, you can place a movie DVD on the computer that has a DVD player, and then view the movie on a computer that lacks a DVD player
• You can connect a printer (or a scanner, or a fax machine) to one computer and let other computers of the network print (or scan, or fax) to that printer (or scanner, or fax machine)
• You can place a CD with pictures on one computer and let other computers access those pictures
• You can create files and store them in one computer, then access those files from the other computer(s) connected to it

Peer-to-Peer networking
Based on their layout (not the physical but the imagined layout, also referred to as topology), there are two types of networks. A network is referred to as peer-to-peer if most computers are similar and run workstation operating systems.

It typically has a mix of Microsoft Windows 9X, Me, Windows XP Home Edition, or Windows XP Professional (you can also connect a Novell SUSE Linux as part of a Microsoft Windows-based network; the current release of the operating system is really easily to install and made part of the network).

In a peer-to-peer network, each computer holds its files and resources. Other computers can access these resources but a computer that has a particular resource must be turned on for other computers to access the resource it has. For example, if a printer is connected to computer A and computer B wants to printer to that printer, computer A must be turned On.

Client /Server Networking

A computer network is referred to as client/server if (at least) one of the computers is used to "serve" other computers referred to as "clients". Besides the computers, other types of devices can be part of the network.n a client/server environment, each computer still holds (or can still hold) its (or some) resources and files. Other computers can also access the resources stored in a computer, as in a peer-to-peer scenario. One of the particularities of a client/server network is that the files and resources are centralized. This means that a computer, the server, can hold them and other computers can access them. Since the server is always On, the client machines can access the files and resources without caring whether a certain computer is On.

Another big advantage of a client/server network is that security is created, managed, and can highly get enforced. To access the network, a person, called a user must provide some credentials, including a username and a password. If the credentials are not valid, the user can be prevented from accessing the network.

The client/server type of network also provides many other advantages such as centralized backup, Intranet capability, Internet monitoring, etc.