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When my wife and I moved to Wash. DC Our moving company stole our VCR. Insured at $350 bought 12 years ago, the company paid to replace it at retail. We still had the receipt (yes we're that crazy.) We bought what we call the uber-VCR 5 years ago. Look at http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity /eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_BrowseCatalog-Start?Categor yName=hav_VHSVCR&Dept=havsony now and all they offer is combo DVD players and none over $170. Clearly money is no longer being made by VHS recorders, and the last gasp already occurred. Now if you want a record player you might as well make your own since the cost is just crazy now after an insane dip as producers changed over to CD players. I also worked for Hollywood Video, and unless their store is by a trailer park, they're not renting VHS tapes anymore.

Never mind that the grandparent was talking about CRT vs LCD technology for televisions, not workstation monitors. Why are we bringing up these ultra-high resolutions when HDTV is 1920x1080 and 1280x720? We should be talking about 1920x1080 LCDs like Sharp's LC-45GX6U AQUOS or direct-view HDTV CRTs like Sony's KD-36XS955.

Then we can argue about dark scene detail, sharpness, color range/accuracy, fast-motion scenes, etc.

My god what a ripoff. That thing is an ipod mini with the buttons moved around, 1 more GB of space and released by a demonic company.

I just got a 4th gen (click wheel) ipod and its fantastic. There are minor innovations since at least the 2nd gen. Supposedly the 4th gen is all new stuff inside and out, but I haven't noticed much difference aside from the customizable menus and new games.

Things that are new to me:
Games:
Parachute (aim a turret with the wheel, shoot parachuting men and hellicopters)
Solitare (my favorite time killing game when I'm on a calculator or other tiny device)
And best of all:
Music Quiz (It plays about 5 seconds of a song that is on your ipod and you try and pick which one it is from a list of 5 songs on displayed on screen. Your possible points counts down as well as the # of choices. The perfect game for a portable mp3 player, now if only it saved high scores & or let you "win" after so many songs or something)

I'm not an Apple fan, my iPod is the only Apple product I own & use. I don't even use iTunes, I use EphPod. But the iPod is tiny, holds 20GB, has a sleek interface, both physically and the menus, it can charge from the same cable you use to transfer music & data to it with. It's just an all around solid product. While I wish the iPod supported Ogg, and FM radio, its other features outshine the other mp3 players I looked at. Besides, creative's software is a legend among poor quality and bloatware. That and I don't have any USB 2.0 ports on my computer, but I do have IEEE 1394 (aka Firewire). Now I just wish the prices for cases/accessories for the ipod would come down out of the stratosphere.

P.S. I don't wear the idiotic looking, painful, white headphones that come with it. I'm in love with my Sony MDR-A44s.

But, as we all know, Sony is the perfect example of a company where the right hand is completely kept in the dark about what the left is doing...

trust me, you don't want the apple earbuds anyways, whatever color they are.

sony makes some very nice earbuds that come in black. surprisingly good sound quality, and they don't hurt your ears one bit. i've had them on for hours at a time with no discomfort. sony has a lot of similar ones, but the mdr-ex71's are great.

it helps to break them in a bit first. crank up the audio from the ipod to full for 5 or 6 minutes, and you're all set.

Here's a list of all the sony stores in the USA. Note that some of them haven't opened yet.

No geek should be excited about this.

Amen brother. I would not buy a standalone DVD recorder that does not support firewire input (or i-Link as Sony insists on calling it).

So other than double-layer support, what makes this so ground-breaking over this one that they all ready produced (and has firewire)?

I get the impression that the MPAA is highly opposed to firewire on recording devices. I see fewer and fewer devices with this feature. Heck, I'd be willing to settle for input only as a compromise.

Personally my ultra-portable versitile media player of choice is the Sony X505 laptop.

http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity /eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_BrowseCatalog-Start;sid=Vla fJk-jSK-fdQ7Bp2GVLQCvoObgPGmU4_s=?CategoryName=cpu _VAIONotebookComputers_X505_Series&Dept=cpu_VAIONo tebookComputers

So hot.

The Sony Clie ones...run Windows or Linux...

I think you're thinking of the Sony VAIO TR series notebooks. They're really tiny laptops, with the low-voltage, 1 GHz Pentium-M. Combined with the small screen size (less backlight area), this gives it a 7-hour battery life. Another similar model is the Toshiba LifeBook P1000 (800 MHz TransMeta Crusoe, 8.9-inch touch screen, nine hour battery life). People tend to either love or hate these notebooks: you either hate the input system and thus don't care about the small size, long battery life, and other features, or you can tolerate a smaller keyboard and tiny (or no) touchpad and you value the other features enough to buy it.

Does Sony Electronics outsell both the music industry and the record industry along with the movie and video game industries that Sony's in as well? Does Sony own any book publishers?

The Sony website specifically says that it 'supports mp3', so maybe the PSP will support mp3 playback the same way?

Makes me sad, as a Linux user who would have bought a Hi-MD deck. :(

For the love of god, people, how hard is it to type ?
http://www.macbase.de/Xchange/vaio_vs_imacg5.jpg
http://www.sonystyle.com/intershoproot/eCS/Store/e n/imagesProducts/MoreImages/PCVV100G_4.jpg
http://www.sonystyle.com/intershoproot/eCS/Store/e n/imagesProducts/MoreImages/PCVV100G_7.jpg

For the love of god, people, how hard is it to type ?
http://www.macbase.de/Xchange/vaio_vs_imacg5.jpg
http://www.sonystyle.com/intershoproot/eCS/Store/e n/imagesProducts/MoreImages/PCVV100G_4.jpg
http://www.sonystyle.com/intershoproot/eCS/Store/e n/imagesProducts/MoreImages/PCVV100G_7.jpg

I've been doing this for years. All I had to do was attach the incoming coaxial connection, boot it up, and voila! It even came with a remote so I can watch the broadcasts in the comfort of my couch. Anyone interested should check out the amazing Sony WEGA.

You have backups, right? [Sounds of repressed snorting and manical laughter here].

A better solution might be to seperate the disks from the computer. After all, your hardware value drops 50% a year (wild assed guess), so the loss of hardware is sort of inconsequential (except for that Sony Monitor ).

Your data is really what you care about. New hardware comes from Newegg.

So why not seperate the disks from the system.

Using Fiber Channel , you can bury the disks in a waterproof cavern under the fake outhouse behind the barn.

Only a cable connects your disks to the PC, and no casual thief is going to even know what a fiberchannel cable looks like, much less go looking for where the other end goes.

The downside is the cost, of course, but the upside is that very few people are going to be able to steal your data by carting away your system before you can recover it, or whatever you need to do with it.

Since I know you Mac people get off on "thinness" you should really like Sony's 1.85 pound laptop that runs XP! You can run WMP 10 just fine on this, whereever you are.

i am a karma whore...

It's probably very low power like some digital cameras that are intended to be pointed at people's faces.

IIRC, my camera says the laser it projects is rated at 30,000 seconds (or something like that) meaning that you could stare directly at it for over 8 hours with no damage to your retina.

Cupertino, start your photocopiers!

Do you notice anything in common?

Perhaps Microsoft is making some deals under the table to prevent Linux from getting into the laptop market.

Folks in my office were constantly giving me the eye because of various portable storage devices I brought into work. They had this nagging feeling that I was borrowing proprietary code for use at home.

I finally settled on bringing in my Sony digital camera. They hook up through USB and mount under windows as just another drive. Easy to move files on and you can still take pictures of top-secret stuff in the office! Capacity is limited only by what you're willing to spend on memory cards.

Why a USB keydrive raised eyebrows and a fully-functional camera didn't, I'll never know...

While a 12 ibook was considered small 3 years ago, there are a lot better options when considering a portable laptop. The IBM x40, Fujitsu P series, or the Sony Picturebook are just a few examples.

Sony's going to need to establish a good ID department before they start producing innovative products again.

Lest you suspect that I'm a total Sony fanboy, I also have a 3rd-Gen iPod that you'd have to kill me to get off my belt.

Barely less than a week ago, I bought a Sony Vaio VGN-S150 laptop, to replace an old HP Omnibook subnotebook running Linux. I wanted something that was small-ish but had more than 1024*768 pixels on the panel. The VGN-S150 is a "mid-size" laptop, with a panel resolution of 1280*800 and absolutely amazing brightness and clarity.

I was aware that Sony had a poor reputation for reliability and suport when I bought it. However, since I don't tend to abuse my machines, I don't anticipate needing to deal with Sony. If the machine craps out, it will be because the machine is legitimately a lemon, and that fact should be revealed within the one-year warranty period.

I'm finding, much to my delight, that the VGN-S150 is turning out to be a rather fine Linux laptop. The ATI graphics drivers, both XFree86 and radeonfb, can drive the odd panel resolution directly without complaint, so I get to use all the pixels. The internal 802.11g card, with the Intel 2200BG driver, appears to work fine (although Kismet isn't talking to it). I have yet to get sound working, and I'm still trying to get ACPI standby/suspend to work. Elsewise, it's just lovely. Once I get Linux fully working, I'll do a write-up for the TuxMobil pages.

Schwab

This page from Sony Japan lists the U70 at 210,000 yen, or $1892.55 in USD.

Basically they're charging $750 to reinstall the OS. I need to get into the import business.

My Clie NX-70v already has a universal remote, and it's a fully functional PalmOS PDA, with other toys like a still/video camera, an MP3 player, a voice recorder, and a full (but tiny) qwerty keyboard.

And according to Amazon, you can get the things for under $120 now. Don't you just love the radical depreciation on a device you paid four times more for barely 18 months ago? *sigh*

But anyway, yeah, the remote. It's fantastic. Going out to eat with a whole bunch of friends, and the restaraunt puts you all in a private room with not one, not two, but three televisions obnoxiously drowning out conversation with sports & news? No problem! The same thing happened to me last week, and the Clie was able to turn off all the televisions right from the table, even when the TVs were 20 or 30 feet away. This only worked, of course, because I happened to have my Clie with me -- but then, it's a PDA, and I almost always have it with me.

The device described in this article, aside from being several times more expensive, is also several times less likely to have general purpose use outside of your living room (unless you're in the habit of going around town turning off televisions, but that isn't a very common hobby). If you're going to spend that much money, why not get a general purpose device?

The Clie I have isn't the only one that has the remote, either. The PEG-T665C also has one, as did the PEG-T415, and it seems like all the models in the NX/NV series (the folding clamshell ones like the NX-70v) have it, too. Even the fanciest of these should be available for a couple hundred bucks cheaper than the Navitus, and all of them are more capable. Shop around! :-)

I've got one of these, and it's fantastic. My TV, amp, DVD player, Direct TV receiver, and PVR now all have the same remote. It has enough "extra" slots that I can get IR light switches and/or power outlets, and program it to work them as well. Best feature: Via the learning function, I don't have to switch back and forth between "TV", "PVR", and "AMP" to change the channel, start recording something, then turn the volume up, I can put them all on one screen. You can't program it via your computer, and it doesn't have a color screen, but it's the coolest birthday present I've gotten in years! And it was only $100...

You may even save a few $$$!

Okay, so it's been tough, but you've finally managed to stop yourself from taking Dell up on its kind offer to crush your iPod into a thin paste in exchange for $100 off one of its own stellar music players. Good for you. Only now you're finding yourself tempted by those new players that Sony introduced yesterday-- in particular the NW-HD1 Network Walkman. As faithful viewer Mike Scherer pointed out, MacMinute reports that the NW-HD1 (catchy name) has a 20 GB hard drive, but weighs only 4 ounces-- almost thirty percent less than a 20 GB iPod, and only about half an ounce more than a miniPod with a mere 4 GB storage capacity. Trust us, size does matter, as through-the-roof miniPod sales will attest; Dell's player is a clunky slab by comparison, and when we had the misfortune to encounter a 40 GB Nomad Zen last weekend, we mistook the thing for a brick wrapped in tin foil.

Oh, but the temptation doesn't stop at size; whereas the iPod claims 8 hours of use per battery charge, the NW-HD1 boasts 30. What's more, since a 20 GB iPod goes for $399 and Sony's minuscule new player will sell for "less than $400", pricing will likely be a dead heat. So let's recap, here; for the same price as an iPod, Sony offers a smaller and lighter player with gallons more juice per charge, the same size hard disk, and-- did we mention this?-- the ability to store 8,000 more songs. Really! See? Apple claims its 20 GB iPod will put 5,000 songs in your pocket, while Sony's press release insists that the NW-HD1 will hold "up to 13,000 four-minute songs." No wonder you're feeling tempted.

Well, it's cold shower time, kiddies. First of all, any sort of song capacity comparison is a joke, since a 20 GB hard drive is a 20 GB hard drive. Sony's drives aren't enchanted by a dusting of magical pixie dust before leaving the factory or anything. (At least, if they are, you'd expect Sony to play that up as a differentiating factor.) The difference in numbers here is that Apple bases its song count on 128 Kbps AAC files, while Sony's tally assumes "songs recorded at 48 kilobits per second." Yes, 48 Kbps. Considering how many people whine that even 128 Kbps AAC files don't sound good enough, we're going to go out on a limb and assume that 48 Kbps songs in any format are probably going to sound like a portable handheld AM radio playing from the bottom of a well while a few dozen people pop bubble wrap nearby.

And here's the real deal-breaker: about that format? Turns out that Sony's decided to go with its proprietary ATRAC3 format... and nothing else. While Apple pushes AAC pretty heavily (it's the only thing it sells at the iTunes Music Store), at least the iPod can also play AIFF files, WAVs, the new Apple Lossless format, and probably most importantly of all, good ol' MP3s. If you get an NW-HD1, though, you'll have to transcode your entire music library into ATRAC3 before you can carry it around with you, and believe us when we tell you that you're not going to want to do that.

See, aside from the time you'd have to invest, there's the little matter of the fact that, quality-wise, the ATRAC3 format apparently sucks eggs whole through a Crazy Straw. For evidence, we point you towards the results of Roberto Amorim's l

I still can't buy anything bigger than 128Mb unless I import, and it's the thick end of a thousand dollars for 512Mb (I've got a P800 = Memory Stick Duo)

Erm - I suggest you look elsewhere...maybe the sonystyle website? If you're paying the thick end of a thousand dollars, you're either not counting in US dollars or you're being badly ripped off!

512Mb Memory Stick Pro Duo for $299 (US)

-- Pete.

I still can't buy anything bigger than 128Mb unless I import, and it's the thick end of a thousand dollars for 512Mb (I've got a P800 = Memory Stick Duo)

Erm - I suggest you look elsewhere...maybe the sonystyle website? If you're paying the thick end of a thousand dollars, you're either not counting in US dollars or you're being badly ripped off!

512Mb Memory Stick Pro Duo for $299 (US)

-- Pete.

This next incarnation of processors could speed up the innovation of watercooling.

Sony VAIO R Series "Features" Page (including "Advanced Liquid Cooling System")

Apple Power Mac G5 "Design" Page (including "liquid cooling system")

It's a neat device, but like almost all sony products you pay a premium to have the letters S-O-N-Y emblazoned on the case. It's annoying, but I put up with it, because they do offer innovations and impressive industrial design they usually offer. Almost always aesthetically pleasing and nice technology. A rare combination from a manufacturer I find.

I also think that while I truly enjoy having a "multicultural computing environment at home" (Debian/Apache/Php/Perl/MySQL/Sendmail, WinXP/Server2003/Exchange, Mac OS-X -server and client, Novell, and yes even Amiga and NeXT for nostalgic purposes) having a "unified industrial design philosphy" in the components in my entertainment center is just a plain old good idea. All of the components integrate seemlessly, no muss, no fuss. They just talk to each other on equal terms and that's great.

But, as I mentioned the look of their equipment is usually beautiful and melds nicely with my apartment's metropolitan look. Always assume with Sony equipment, you'll run into a premium price tag. One real problem with that is that they both ACHIEVE spectacularly and FAIL just as spectacularly. And their Wega TV's are just a jaw dropper to behold.

But, for the Sonyphilic, it may be useful to see my earlier rant on how bad their DVD carousel changers are. They're still cool to have (like having a personal TV station, I tell people), but mine broke on the stroke of midnight on the day its warranty expired. I called their support and they said "Oh yeah! We know about the mechanisms in those machines. They're faulty. But wer're going to have to pop you for $150 for repair since you're out of warranty". One thing I heartily recommend if you are buying sony entertainment products for your home is to GET THE STORE WARRANTY that BestBuy and places like it usually try to pressure sell you into.

I normally avoid those ripoff store warranties like the PLAGUE and on a couple of occasions stormed out of the store angry when the sales guy (and then his MANAGER) just wouldn't SHUT THE FUCK UP about it. These were times when I walked into the story feeling excited about the equipment I'd be buying (car stereos and what not, that stuff I go higher end than Sony). But Sony's support staffs are so universally abysmal, that when the sales guy utters the first syllable about their ripoff warranties I just say: SOLD! So, please say no more before I have to belt you in the mouth! I figure I'm already getting ripped to enhance the 'metroplitan look' of my home, why not go the extra mile so I can save myself the temptation of crawling through the phone lines to strangle a Sony support rep!

It's a neat device, but like almost all sony products you pay a premium to have the letters S-O-N-Y emblazoned on the case. It's annoying, but I put up with it, because they do offer innovations and impressive industrial design they usually offer. Almost always aesthetically pleasing and nice technology. A rare combination from a manufacturer I find.

I also think that while I truly enjoy having a "multicultural computing environment at home" (Debian/Apache/Php/Perl/MySQL/Sendmail, WinXP/Server2003/Exchange, Mac OS-X -server and client, Novell, and yes even Amiga and NeXT for nostalgic purposes) having a "unified industrial design philosphy" in the components in my entertainment center is just a plain old good idea. All of the components integrate seemlessly, no muss, no fuss. They just talk to each other on equal terms and that's great.

But, as I mentioned the look of their equipment is usually beautiful and melds nicely with my apartment's metropolitan look. Always assume with Sony equipment, you'll run into a premium price tag. One real problem with that is that they both ACHIEVE spectacularly and FAIL just as spectacularly. And their Wega TV's are just a jaw dropper to behold.

But, for the Sonyphilic, it may be useful to see my earlier rant on how bad their DVD carousel changers are. They're still cool to have (like having a personal TV station, I tell people), but mine broke on the stroke of midnight on the day its warranty expired. I called their support and they said "Oh yeah! We know about the mechanisms in those machines. They're faulty. But wer're going to have to pop you for $150 for repair since you're out of warranty". One thing I heartily recommend if you are buying sony entertainment products for your home is to GET THE STORE WARRANTY that BestBuy and places like it usually try to pressure sell you into.

I normally avoid those ripoff store warranties like the PLAGUE and on a couple of occasions stormed out of the store angry when the sales guy (and then his MANAGER) just wouldn't SHUT THE FUCK UP about it. These were times when I walked into the story feeling excited about the equipment I'd be buying (car stereos and what not, that stuff I go higher end than Sony). But Sony's support staffs are so universally abysmal, that when the sales guy utters the first syllable about their ripoff warranties I just say: SOLD! So, please say no more before I have to belt you in the mouth! I figure I'm already getting ripped to enhance the 'metroplitan look' of my home, why not go the extra mile so I can save myself the temptation of crawling through the phone lines to strangle a Sony support rep!

It's a neat device, but like almost all sony products you pay a premium to have the letters S-O-N-Y emblazoned on the case. It's annoying, but I put up with it, because they do offer innovations and impressive industrial design they usually offer. Almost always aesthetically pleasing and nice technology. A rare combination from a manufacturer I find.

I also think that while I truly enjoy having a "multicultural computing environment at home" (Debian/Apache/Php/Perl/MySQL/Sendmail, WinXP/Server2003/Exchange, Mac OS-X -server and client, Novell, and yes even Amiga and NeXT for nostalgic purposes) having a "unified industrial design philosphy" in the components in my entertainment center is just a plain old good idea. All of the components integrate seemlessly, no muss, no fuss. They just talk to each other on equal terms and that's great.

But, as I mentioned the look of their equipment is usually beautiful and melds nicely with my apartment's metropolitan look. Always assume with Sony equipment, you'll run into a premium price tag. One real problem with that is that they both ACHIEVE spectacularly and FAIL just as spectacularly. And their Wega TV's are just a jaw dropper to behold.

But, for the Sonyphilic, it may be useful to see my earlier rant on how bad their DVD carousel changers are. They're still cool to have (like having a personal TV station, I tell people), but mine broke on the stroke of midnight on the day its warranty expired. I called their support and they said "Oh yeah! We know about the mechanisms in those machines. They're faulty. But wer're going to have to pop you for $150 for repair since you're out of warranty". One thing I heartily recommend if you are buying sony entertainment products for your home is to GET THE STORE WARRANTY that BestBuy and places like it usually try to pressure sell you into.

I normally avoid those ripoff store warranties like the PLAGUE and on a couple of occasions stormed out of the store angry when the sales guy (and then his MANAGER) just wouldn't SHUT THE FUCK UP about it. These were times when I walked into the story feeling excited about the equipment I'd be buying (car stereos and what not, that stuff I go higher end than Sony). But Sony's support staffs are so universally abysmal, that when the sales guy utters the first syllable about their ripoff warranties I just say: SOLD! So, please say no more before I have to belt you in the mouth! I figure I'm already getting ripped to enhance the 'metroplitan look' of my home, why not go the extra mile so I can save myself the temptation of crawling through the phone lines to strangle a Sony support rep!

The price for these two items in Japan are currently 210,000 yen (1,900 USD) for the U70 and 178,500 yen (1,600 USD) for the U50.
I don't think price is a big concern for anyone willing to shell out an extra 700 bucks over the original retail price to get the latest toy from Japan, when there are so many comprarable products in the US that would be just as useful to 99.9% of the population. Stuff like this doesn't have to fill a particular niche, it just has to be new and unique enough to attract the attention of rich technophiles who crave the bleeding edge.

The price for these two items in Japan are currently 210,000 yen (1,900 USD) for the U70 and 178,500 yen (1,600 USD) for the U50.
I don't think price is a big concern for anyone willing to shell out an extra 700 bucks over the original retail price to get the latest toy from Japan, when there are so many comprarable products in the US that would be just as useful to 99.9% of the population. Stuff like this doesn't have to fill a particular niche, it just has to be new and unique enough to attract the attention of rich technophiles who crave the bleeding edge.

Lots of stuff...if you got lost

More info, lots of pictures. ;) In Japanese Here

Sure.

HTF do you even get that through your front door?

I don't know about all brands/models, but the one I mentioned above has a depth of about 26". That should fit through most doors (although you may have to remove it from the shipping carton first.

FWIW, my desk at home has a 30"x60" surface. It gets through a standard doorway (with a fraction of an inch clearance) if I remove the door from the hinges first. I would expect anything with a depth less than 30" to have no problem getting through doors.

Always found the Sony Clie to be very readable. Good high-res (for PalmOS units, 320x240) displays and nice bright backlights. Won't do Microsoft Reader, but etexts and stuff should be fine. There's a lot of good PalmOS software (including specific eBook readers and whatnot), and relatively good Palm support for Linux in general. New ones are relatively expensive but you should be able to get older ones (like my PEG-SJ30) online for around $150 or less. Bad things include their reliance on Memory Stick.

If you don't like Sony, or you'd rather have a Windows-based one or whatnot, the Dell Axims are very nice. The X3 is very small and includes nifties like built-in WiFi. Plus, they're damned cheap - the 300MHz Axim X3 (doesn't have wifi) runs $199 retail. Hard to beat, pricewise. ASUS also makes some neat-looking ones too.

I am new to PalmOS development (possibly just in time for the finale?). I went to the Palm Developer Conference in February, and here is my perspective on some of your questions.

(1) If you're referring to Usenet mailing lists: I perused the comp.sys.* newgroups that pertained to Palm development a while back (I don't recall the specific newsgroups). I concur, they have become stale. I think this is one of the weaknesses of Usenet as opposed to the way Slashdot keeps things interesting. In Usenet, you troll through so many newbie questions and bitter, irrelevant flamewars and just give up. At least I did.

(2) I think there are some weaknesses in the way Palm 3rd party software is marketed. It seems as though everything is marketed almost like shareware instead of the way it is sold in the PC world. Given the very low prices, that probably makes sense. But I suspect things would be better if there were some consolidation: some big boys should probably just buy out some of the crapware vendors to clear the decks and increase the signal to noise ratio. Just my perception, but I think there are a lot of basically sameware that makes the market worse.

I think that Cobalt may result in some interesting new categories of software coming out. Path graphics, multitasking, better security, schema databases, and better multimedia support are coming. Some basic info is here.

(3) PalmSource reorganized the developer documentation recently. Try it again and see if you think it's better. Here it is.

(4) I get the impression that a lot of developers still like PRC-tools. But there is a new Eclipse-based developer suite now. I haven't used it, because I think it is Windows only (ah, the lack of Mac support... sigh). Here is the link.

(5) I don't know. I was able to get a ROM by registering on the PalmSource site, and after clicking on a few legal agreements (eternal soul, first-born child, etc). Then again, ROMs are under the control of the PalmOS "licensees" (device makers). So it might be more difficult if you want a ROM for some specific device. I don't know.

As a new developer, I saw some reasons to be optimistic but also I have a lot of doubts.

Optimism:
1. The Palm Developer Conference was apparently well attended, according to people who had attended previous ones.

2. There are lots of interesting devices out there. Sony, Tapwave, Garmin and PalmOne have built some slick devices that I think are very impressive. While Slashdotters find it easy to yawn at gadgets, when I compare my HP-11C calculator (ca. 1981) with my Sony Clie TJ37, I'm not sure which is more impressive: the longevity of the HP, or the amazing level of technology integration in the Clie. Take your pick... I may still be using the HP in 20 years, but the Clie will be long gone. (These two devices are about the same size and weight by the way).

3. The new OS. I don't know if it will put them at parity with MS, or ahead, but right now they are behind, so this is absolutely necessary.

Pessimism:
1. I heard some of the same arguments from PalmSource execs that I used to hear from Apple in the mid 1990s: we're better than MS. I trust that these execs understand that they are whistling past the graveyard.

2. Hand-waving about sales stats. PalmSource execs said that handheld sales figures don't tell the whole story -- that they omit smartphones, which are splitting the market. OK, maybe. I haven't seen the sales figures for smart phones.

3. I think the biggest question is the value equation. One post referred to the paucity of storage on PDAs as a problem. I have to agree, though there i

Is that what your gf tells you? Can you do math? When was the last time you saw a shrink? I see the begining of a libido related problem.

When I watch a 16:9 format movie
1) on the Apple display, I see a 1920x1080 picture. That's 2,073,600 pixels.
2) on the Dell display , it would be a 1600x900 picture. That's 1,440,000 pixels.

That comes to 44% more pixels on the Apple display. Hardly comparable. Then of course, if you are pushing Dell, you gotta be smokin' some stuff, dude.

Apple's offering may not be beautiful in every one's eye, but a comparable Sony's offering lists for $3,000 (that's 50% more than Apple's). Even their "sale price" is 30% higher than Apple's regular price. If you buy a Mac you can get up to $500 off the display price.

So, if you actually crawled out of your parent's basement, gave up your job at MucBurger, got an education, become a professional, started making tons of $$, became an outstanding citizen of the USofA by buying lots of stuff, and learned the fine art of conversing with the morons who troll as ACs on /., you'd find that your Dell is not in the same league as my Apple. Next you'll be mouthing off that your Kea is better than my BMW. (I would have actually gotten a Jag, but my patients expect me to drive a Beemer. Ah well!)

Generally, I don't give professional advice for free (the AMA frowns on that kinda behavior). But for you, kiddo, here it is, gratis: Forget about your mommy. Return her panties at once! Move out. Get a job - a Real Job. Drink some kool-aid: Job's kool-aid. You'll find its a lot better that the Dell Dude's reefers. And remember, get your drugs only from an person certified by the AMA.

You are welcome. It was my pleasure.

holy cow! Let's fix that link....

Have you considered the CLIE PEG-UX50?

A buddy of mine swears by it (technically he has the Japanese version).

The PDA you requested. Since it's got the Wifi, I don't think you'll really miss the bluetooth. However, you can also get a Bluetooth memory stick for it, just in case.

Ever heard of a standalone CD-recorder?

Something pretty much like this already exists, it's just not made by Apple. Check out the Sony Clie PEG-UX50

Believe it or not, I'm the one that wrote that.

I chose "suprisingly affordable" because the main product I was comparing the NEC to is Sony's Airboard, which retails for 136,500 yen (around $1,300 USD) just by form factor. Obviously, the Airboard has more functionality, but details on the NEC device are still scarce.

This product is outclassed before it even comes out. The same $399 (US) will buy you a PDA with double the resolution - either the Sony TH55 or a Palm Tungsten T3. Both have wireless networking built-in (Bluetooth for the Palm, Wi-Fi for the Sony).
Sony: TH55
Palm: Tungsten T3

So, if you're a dyed-in-the-wool, dreams-of-penguins fanatic who simply must have Linux in everything, go ahead. People who are looking for greatest bang for their buck will buy elsewhere.