CAN a MiniDisc Walkman rival the iPod? Sony thinks so. After exploiting some intriguing physics to boost the storage capacity of the languishing MiniDisc audio format more than fivefold, the company thinks the technology can form the basis for a new generation of cheap digital music players, digital cameras and hand-held movie viewers.
Launched in 1992, a conventional MiniDisc (MD) records an hour of music or speech on a 177-megabyte 6.5-centimetre disc. But although MD has been a big success in Japan, it has been overshadowed elsewhere by recordable CDs. But with its capacity now expanded to 1 gigabyte per…
