Japan loves Disney. They also love Sony. So Sony has decided to cash on this with ‘Christmas gift boxes’. Included in the special gift box is the Sony Walkman S-Series ‘NW-S750/S750K’ that is Disney themed, a Minnie cell phone strap and a protective case imprinted with the famous mice.

If you love Disney, this may be for you. Sony has a version with speakers too, which will be made available in limited quantities in Japan for 17,800 Yen ($ 220) and $ 21,000 with speakers ($ 250).

The classic music player that allowed people to take their music anywhere has been officially retired. Ah, the memories. The original cassette version of the Sony Walkman sold 200 million units worldwide over the past 30 years and now it will no longer be manufactured.

The image above is the TPS-L2. It actually had two jacks that allowed a second pair of earphones so you could share the music. We certainly have come a long way from the days of cassettes and 8-Tracks.

As usual, Sony has been busy updating their walkman range.They have just unveiled a fresh batch of Walkman players in Japan. The flagship is the NW-A850 series, which incorporates Sony’s S-Master amp, while the mid-range is the NSW-S740 series, which has most of the features of the flagship model without the amp. The NW-A850’s include a 2.8-inch OLED 240×400 screen, a body that is just 0.3 inches thin and, earphones with digital noise cancellation.

The mid-range NW-S740 also gets Digital Sound Enhancement and also includes digital noise cancelling headphones. The most interesting feature is an additional 50 hours of battery life over the previous model.

They love Walkmans in Japan. So much so that Sony’s Walkman line has temporarily passed the iPod for sales in Japan again, according to researchers at BCN. Players like the S640 helped Sony slide past in August with 47.8 percent of sales where Apple dropped to 44 percent. The Walkman overtook the iPod briefly a year ago, but these new figures mark the first time that Sony managed to hold an overall lead for the month.

The iPod nano 8GB and 16GB were still the top sellers, but it was the variety of Sony players that ultimately overwhelmed their numbers.

Sony being Sony has just announced a new E-Series Walkman, the E350. This model is available in blue, red or black and come in 4GB and 8GB capacities. The battery life is great, touted at up to 50 hours of music playback, and up to ten hours of video.

As usual, they support a wide range of formats. There isn’t much more to these colorful guys, they are pretty basic. They are available next month, priced at $70 for the 4GB model and $80 for the 8GB model.

You could be like everyone else and get an iPod, but if you want an alternative, Sony’s NWZ-E450 Walkman is an interesting choice. It’s available in five delicious colors, and supports .lrc files, which means that you can use it as a karaoke machine if you like.

This Walkman can dim the singer’s voice and some other features include a 2.2-inch QVGA display, customizable desktop wallpaper, music and video playback. You’ll get 50 hours of music on a full charge.

Sony is hoping that some Toy Story 3 branding will help sales on their S-Series Walkmans. So Sony has designed special edition Walkman S-Series devices imprinted with your favorite characters.

The original Sony Walkman Toy Story clear case for your gadget will set you back about $18 (or 1680 Yen). Compatible models include: the NW-S740, S740K, S640, S640K in 8GB to 32GB models. Designs include Woody and Buzz together, the Aliens and Lots-o’-Huggin’ Bear.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is coming soon for the PSP, and to celebrate, Sony has a custom-painted W252 Walkman. The wearable MP3 player can hold up to 2GB of your favorite music, and comes with six preloaded tunes from the Peace Walker soundtrack.

Aside from that, it has the camo theme and is water-resistant and super durable. If you love MGS, keep an eye out for this one. Available from June 2010.

If you thought that the walkman series was dead, think again. It’s still alive and kicking with two new phones that were just announced. The Sony Ericsson Spiro and Zylo. Both are sliders with social networking integration for the younger crowd.

The Sony Ericsson Zylo supports the HD FLAC audio format, a high-quality lossless audio codec. It won’t reduce the audio quality and delivers the best sound experience with Clear Audio technology.

Without any fanfare whatsoever, Sony has just unveiled a new water resistant, wearable Walkman in the NWZ-250. This version comes in both 2GB and 4GB models and is said to deliver up to 11 hours of battery life.

It weighs only 43 grams and will be available in black, silver, lime green, and magenta. You’ll be able to get one later this month for just $60 if you dig the heart shape.

Sony has unveiled their latest update to the A-Series Walkman line and it packs some serious features in a sexy exterior. The new NW-A840 series is available in black and brown and has to be the most stylish version to date.

The new model sports a 2.8 inch WQVGA OLED screen and is the thinnest Walkman ever, at only 7.2mm. The NW-A845 (16GB, Y24,000), NW-A846 (32GB, Y30,000), and NW-A847 (64GB, Y40,000) are all due on October 31st.

Sony just released its latest Walkman, the S540, in the US. The S540 features 2.4″ of viewing real estate and a pair of stereo speakers, so you can listen to your songs without headphones. An integrated microphone lets you record voice notes to yourself and you also get a built-in FM radio.

Battery life is about 42 hours with music playback on headphones, while video playback is 6.5 hours. It supports all of the popular audio file formats like AAC, MP3 and WMA. Video file formats include H.264, MPEG-4 and WMV.

The Walkman NWZ-S544 and the Walkman NWZ-S545 have been leaked by materiel.net, a French online retail site. Both models have very similar features, with the main difference being storage details: 8GB and 16GB. They are priced at 129 and 149 Euros.

Some features include: 8GB and 16GB of internal memory, 2.4″ display, FM radio, Built-in speakers, Plays Mpeg-4 AVC videos, Mp3, WMA and AAC (non-DRM), Battery: 42hrs audio, 6hrs video, 99.3×49.3×10.2mm, an weighs 70g.

If you love music but can’t afford that OLED walkman, this new device might be for you. The Walkman E-Series Video MP3 players have just been announced for Europe. They come in either Black or Red, with a five band EQ, support for rights-managed WMA and WMV files, and an FM radio tuner with one-touch recording.

It will be available overseas from the end July. Nothing on price or when we might see this one stateside. It has an interesting look even if it doesn’t sport OLED. Not sure I like those Mickey Mouse ear buttons though.

The big companies are always gunning for a piece of Apple’s portable media player market. So far, the road is littered with more corpses than even 300 Spartans can kill. Sony is hoping that their zany Zappin Walkman, shaped like a USB flash drive will be the charm.

It comes with 2GB of storage space, featuring Sony’s Drag and Drop technology for easy file transfer, is compatible with MP3 and WMA file formats, and has an integrated FM Tuner.