Sony may have their problems (PS3 launch, anyone?) and they've definitely backed their fair share of losing horses (remember miniDisc?), but for all of their flaws and hegemonic behavior, they've still put out a number of gadgets that are well-made (my Discman is still running strong over 12 years later) and have some cool functions.

The S2 line of Walkman mp3 players certainly seems to have been designed with the later idea in mind - the S203F, for example, has a built-in calorie counter; stopwatch; target setter for limiting your workout by time, calorie amount or distance traveled; a music pacer that will sync the music genre with your pace; 1 line electroluminescent display; a shake-activated shuffle mode and a quick-charge mode that will give you three hours of battery life after three minutes of charging. TrustedReviews didn't explore the quality of manufacture in their review, but they certainly explored the features and what they have to say sounds pretty good if you're looking for a musical companion to go with your sporting activities.