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Sony/Transmeta Video Laptop
Polo writes "Sony has a new small-sized transmeta powered PCG-GT1 laptop with a stronger focus on video. The lcd screen
reverses and [swivels] for easier shooting. With so much hardware support required, I wonder if linux drivers will be difficult to implement. Interesting camera/pc convergence stuff (besides that, with hard drive costs coming down so far, its probably a good idea. Definitely looks like fun.
Here's a ZD Net Review where they aren't so hot on a slightly different transmeta vaio. (not the one with the crazy sidemounted video camera)
PowerBooks have had firewire since "forever"?????? WTF?? I OWN PowerBooks not to mention owning an iBook for home use and not even my 1999 Wallstreet 400MHz PowerBook has firewire -- only the latest model Powerbooks and iBooks have it. Since when did 6 months become "forever"?
I've also had several (3) Sony VAIO laptops over the last 3 YEARS and guess what? They've ALL had i.Link firewire on them!! Not that I could do anything with it until about a year ago (and I still don't), but Sony had laptops with ACTUAL built-in VIDEOCAMERAS and firewire long before Apple -- which Apple laptops come with a built-in videocamera, anyway??? You're just talking out of your ass and you know it!!
If you have to be a Mac fanatic, don't be such a STUPID one and make the rest of us look so damn bad!!!
The ZDNet review is about the other form-factor pcg-c1 style 1024x480 transmeta laptop, not the one at sony's Japanese site.
"A bit small for fortysomething eyes," so says the zdnet review. I would say that it's definitely not designed for you, then. I would also say, "why are you reviewing ultralight laptops?"
I would also say "It's 2.2 pounds. Where do you expect the battery power to come from?" For something that light, with that size of display, and with a hard drive, 5.5 hours is pretty good.
Hmmmm, the first thing I thought of when I saw this thing was that bit in Stephenson's Crytonomicon where the main character was secretly snapping pics in a business meeting with his laptop.
Of course, by the looks of it, there's nothing secret about the camera on THIS thing. Ah well..
No, it's more of a loud fan/HD whine. It comes on a couple of seconds after booting the laptop, and stays until it goes to sleep or is shut down.
Also, the camera driver is Here, although I've never tried it out.
I read the internet for the articles.
- This thing is tiny. The picture doesn't do it justice. It's less than 1/4 the size of my Dell laptop (Latitude CPx--with the batteries that explode).
- The Screen is wierd, with only about 1/2 the height of a normal screen (resolultion is 1024x384 or something), so you are constantly panning up and down the screen.
- Ours is loud, although I think it might be a misfeature of the particular laptop we have, the little beastie has a high pitched incessant whine while it is running.
- The camera is neat, quality is on par with Indycams and the like, the built in software lets you add all kinds of useless effects to the picture, we never use it.
- There are apparently linux drivers for the camera, although I don't have the link handy.
- Battery life is pretty pathetic if you don't get the external battery add-on. We usually just have to leave the thing plugged in whenever we want to use it.
- These machines are so thin they only have one type II PCMCIA slot, which leads to lots of swapping (naturally type III cards are out of the question).
- The Picturebook is also among the lightest laptop I have ever used, it is literally no problem to carry this thing around, unlike my aformentioned Dell (especially with both batteries installed).
Overall they are pretty neat little boxes, although a little small for everyday use (the keyboard is a bit cramped as well, but the pointer does have three buttons--unusual for a laptop). I'd recommend them for people who absolutely need to have the smallest fully functional latptop possible (and who have small fingers).I read the internet for the articles.
Offtopic my ass! This is a perfectly legitimate question about the article. Read it! It makes no sense whatsoever! Easier shooting what?!? Shooting with a laptop?!? This is very much on topic.
"Hot lesbian witches! It's fucking genius!"
Open price Sale schedule on November 18
OS: Windows ME
CPU: TM5600 600MHz
Memory Bus: 100MHz
Memory: 128MB (*1)
Hard Drive: About 20GB
Display: 1024x768 TFT liquid crystal
Modem: 56kbps (V.90/K56flex) (*2)
Stamina: 5/10/17 hours (*3)
i.LINK: Four pins
-DV animation edit
-Video mail
-Live dispatch
-10x Optical zoom
-680,000 pixel CCD
-Blurring correction (jitter corection?)
-Auto focus
(*1) 16mb is used with the system.
(*2) V.90 and K56flex are distinguished automatically and switched. 56kbps is a theory value when data is received. When data is transmitted, 33.6kbps on the standard reaches the maximum value. When Fax is transmitted, [it] becomes 14.4kbps or less. An actual transmission rate changes by the situation of the line quality etc.
(*3) Both battery packing (S)/battery packing (L) (optional)/battery packing (LLL) (optional) of the battery use time are standards at the power saving mode. It is likely to differ from the above-mentioned description time according to the use state and setting, etc.Moreover, battery packing (S)/battery packing (L)/battery packing (LLL) cannot be used together.
(*4) The commodity of the open price does not provide the suggested retail price.
(*5) The screen is a synthesis of all (*hamecomi*).
Equipped with Windows Millennium Edition which makes lifestyle of personal computer pleasant
I like the last bit there...
This is slashdot. Why do you thing Linux drivers were brought up? :)
I for one am going to install Linux on it the second i get it!
I think its VERY sweet that it has an 8meg 3d video card... drooool... if the modem works in Linux, ill be happy with it! My current Picturebook is definatly worth every penny i spent on it.
Cybie! aka Ralph Bonnell
I installed Linux the second i received my first Picturebook, before anyone had Linux on it...
im not going to argue this point, i do it for the same reason i would buy WinCE devices and try to get Linux on them too... there ARE Picturebook camera drivers, and if it doesnt work, ill try to write my own...
now where did i put that Linux i-opener?
Cybie! aka Ralph Bonnell
Yeah, I've been using a C1 for about a year; it is very nearly the perfect laptop.
Keyboard is the right size: small as possible while retaining complete functionality. And it dispenses with those stupid trackpads for a joysticklike pointer.
Screen is hella bright, and the odd aspect ratio lets you do two word pages side by side.
So light you barely notice it in a backpack or bag, so small you can stick it in a jacket pocket.
The camera on the original C1 is kind of marginal, but the later models are very detailed.
And the one downside is the 1 hour 20 minute battery life. Retch. That's why we c1 phanaticks are all freaking out at the prospect of a five hour transmeta processor assisted battery life.
\
you tell me which one can you carry with you?
F /...
---
Solaris/FreeBSD/Openstep/NeXTSTEP/Linux/ultrix/OS
--- I do not moderate.
Shouldn't the 't' in 'transmeta' be capitalized? Is this a CmdrTaco mistake, or did he just cut and paste the comment?
If you look a little more closely than General Corto did, you'll see that Taco says it's a "slightly different transmeta vaio. (not the one with the crazy sidemounted video camera)".
But on a side note, I'm rather disappointed by the performance of the Crusoe-based Vaio.
I was SO looking forward to scoring one of these with the end of year bonus, but I don't really see any reason right now to go with the Crusoe model over the Intel model (aside from the geek chic factor of having a Crusoe).
-LjM
Uhm, no they aren't.
Set the crack pipe down, son
And slowly step away...
You dont need it to live a happy life, you can do it without the crack.
Dacels Jewelers can't be trusted.
Last I heard NeoMagic got out of the laptop video business, so I would imagine that these newer ones will have something else. I'm pretty sure the specs for the transmeta picturebook claimed to have an ATI rage mobility or something.
where can I get this version!
I just started rereading this damn book for about the tenth time,if there is another version, than I want it!
Slackware: old school feel, new school gear.
ship it to me then!--been looking for a copy of that damn book forever--apparently the good mr Stevenson would rather it fell of the face of the planet---oh well
Slackware: old school feel, new school gear.
>P.S. --What it would look like if we took Q & R out of the alphabet
WETYUIOP. Why do you ask?
Although I don't have a use for it, there are certainly enough jobs out there would can use a tool like this. A real estate agent, or a consultant, landscape or a news reporter, can take quick shots of places they go to, wihtout the extra bulk of a notebook AND a digital camera. Mind you, when you havea notebook and a digital camera, you're also carrying double the accesories.
Too big for every day use
Actually, it would fit into a shoulder-strapped bag just fine. The screen is 6.4 inches! How much smaller do you want?
too pricy for casual carrying around
I don't think they intended this for high school or college, whichever you're from.
too crappy battery life for extended use
Actually battery life is 5/10/17 hours depending on what kind of battery you're using (according to the page). That seems pretty adequate for a days amount of work. Not sure what you mean by "extended."
too small for real data entry.
Hah. hahahahahaha. hahahahaah. you're kidding right? Don't expect IT departments to switch to the Sony PCG-GT1 any time soon...
It was prbably me that did thta.
But my typing skils are geting stroger.
Now we have to suffer through another round of [foo] (IEE-1394) to explain it everytime its mentioned?
I realize that marketing types figure that re-branding every n years will ensure job longevity, but would it hurt you so much to stick to a frickin name for something?
--sugarman--
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/p/nm/20001016/tc/m
The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.
OTOH, I wonder if they ever did anything about that crappy NeoMagic video chip: in my opinion having one of those would be a real downer.
I mean, come on Sony... you were able fit a 1024x768 TFT display in this thing, why can't you fit a chip good enough for 3D graphics in??? Or even MPEG2 hardware decoding?
OK, Sony, the question still stands: when can we see decent laptop graphics over here?
http://www.son y.c o.jp/sd/ProductsPark/Consumer/PCOM/Acc/PCDA-J1A/
This is one of the first real 200dpi monitors that I have seen on a product, and put to a great use. Obviously these screens are only economical to make at 6.4", but Sony seem to be consistently good at putting the latest TFT LCD screens on their devices. It can't be that long before they release a laptop with a 200dpi screen at a decent size like 12.8" (2048x1536).
The battery life quoted is impressive as well - up to 17 hours seems to validate everything that Transmeta have claimed. TFTs are getting lower power, and new technology is coming our like LEP displays and the like which will cut power usage even more. Hard drives are drawing less power as well, and DDR memory is lower power than SDR memory. That leaves the processor and northbridge - both solved by the Transmeta processor. Sony's use of the processor is also a big plus for Transmeta.
But these high resolution monitors are starting to make things like font smoothing a thing of the past. X11 will look smooth and good on one of these screens without having to implement anti-aliased fonts or graphics. This leaves alpha transparency as the one major missing feature.
Am I alone in seeing the potential of this thing? You could capture live video and encode to divx on the fly with virtual dub! You could store that 40 gig harddrive with every scene in your very own movie and then do the non-linear editing on site. This is ground breaking freedom! Anyone can be a video reporter and cable in news stories from anywhere in the world (where you can get a fast net connection, like say a hotel). This is the bomb. I want one damn it.
How we know is more important than what we know.
He get's modded up though, with the obligatory Linux mention. Wow, he really brought a lot to the discussion with that one.
Err, there's already competition in the chip market, AMD, Arm, Sparc etc. etc.
Why would you install Linux on it "the minute you get it" if there aren't drivers?
Are you mad? Why would you spend the money for this video camera tech. and then install an O/S that doesn't support it. Unless you're going to write your own drivers of course.
Do you really need to be able to type? Or would a keyboardless but w/ hard drive heavyweight PDA be what you want?
The picture book is almost what I'd want, but I think that if you could shave a couple of hours more into the battery life, and perhaps lose the keyboard for a touch screen at maybe 600x800 [sic] (instead of 1024x480) and also offer it for sub $1k, then my ears would really perk up. Before then, tho, the picture book is neither fish nor fowl.
Too big for every day use, too pricy for casual carrying around, too crappy battery life for extended use, and too small for real data entry.
I'd like to see what modern tech could do for the newton, which is not far from what I'm babbling about.
isn't this the same vaio you guys just said looked like barf? hemos stomped the guts out of the slashdot crew in battletech at als.
You see a problem, I see potential. - Vincent 'Vinnie' Antonelli
It seems to me they spent about 10 minutes maximum on this review. I knew there was a reason I didn't like ZDNet.
Did you even look at the photos? They are diffrent machines.
Very cool device, no doubt. It's on my Christmas wish list... but some slick translucent plastics, like the iBook, would make it even cooler.
- systmc
This device is very cool. Very specialized electronics for specific uses. Expect to see more of it in the future.
People who would be very interested in this item are investigators and insurance adjusters -- onsite/accident investigators. The applications in their fields of work matches perfectly.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20001016/tc/sony_p c_dc_1.html
This picture shows the full camera and has a more detailed explanation
~~~Please pass the salt, I hate unsalted MD5s
It's interesting but some fo the strangest things have Linux drivers, simply because somone took an interest in it. Linux drivers are only as far away as you are willing to hack the box. The neater the box, the more people that want to hack it. The more likely there will be drivers.
"Science is about ego as much as it is about discovery and truth " - I said it, so sue me.
Actually, I would like to be able to do a few things any time I feel like it, wherever I am:
listen to music
Take pictures
record movies
record sound (a couple hours worth)
type/check email/browse the web
standard PDA stuff
So I need a PDA that can play MP3s and record. I also need a small laptop that can take pictures and video. The picturebook is big enough for casual stuff yet nice and compact to fit in a bag.
Seems like a great thing to have around to me. Does the job of three devices elegantly without taking up much space.
-Erik
Slashdot doesn't show DoubleClick ads; Andover/OSDN (a division of VA Linux systems) does. IIRC, when Slashdot was blockstackers's baby, it used Adfu and no DoubleClick.
Will I retire or break 10K?
The folks at PowerDVD supposedly have a software DVD player for Linux. They solicited interest in the oem/bundled market, but have yet to release it as a seperate product the way they have done with their regular PowerDVD. Their web site lists Linux as a supported os at this point. I have a jangle into them to find out what is up. When I do, I will try and let folks know.
P.S. --What it would look like if we took Q & R out of the alphabet
uee?
So what's the salivation factor? (I just spit all over my keyboard, oops.)
skkkoooonnnggggkkk ptui
I have a fujitsu lifebook b2130, which has a touchscreen, and I'm suprised it's not a more requested feature. It's not great for text selection, but otherwise it's very pleasant and intuitive to use and works especially well on small devices (like the b2130) since you don't have to move your whole arm to use it. Notebooks/tables of the future are going to be very nice to use.
Who said anything about being able to afford it? I want lots of stuff I can't afford.
--
As a matter of fact, I am a lawyer. But I play an actor on TV.
I want one of these.
--
As a matter of fact, I am a lawyer. But I play an actor on TV.
Why were Linux drivers brought up? The OS listed was Windows ME... just because it's Transmeta powered doesn't mean it runs Linux.
/. staff was talking about installing Linux on it and failed to mention that.
Unless, of course the
Refrag
I have a website. It's about Macs.
If you look a little more closely than CmdrTaco did, you'll see that the model numbers are different for those two machines, and the case of the system which Polo was talking about is quite dissimilar to the one in the ZD review. Having said that little rant, I really like the convergence thing, and it's only going to get more and more prevalent.
The ZDNet review kinda hints at this, but I wonder: will the Curusoe(sp?) chips necessitate a new set of benchmarks to acurately measure performance?
I don't usually put a lot of faith in most benchmarks, but a lot of people do. It would be a shame to see Transmeta chips slurred by poor benchmark scores that may not reflect the chips true power.
It's hardly interesting that
P.S. You know that magazine PCComputing? *SIGH*. I used to subscribe when I was 12, and back then there were only 65 ads per page. I mean, wow.
Anyway, I think this is a Good Thing (tm) for Xmeta and the rest of us. The more competition that we see in the upcoming years the better..we all know this. As far as posting every little battle won by the Small Guys, well, I'm all for it. These little articles are interesting, they shed light on why
TLF
The only fool bigger than the person who knows it all, is the person who argues with him.
I do not respond to cowards. Especially anonymous ones.
The say "part" of the low score? Winstone would seem to be precisely the sort of benchmarks that optimizers hate. I used to have some peripheral involvement with HotS pot Java VM, and nothing upset the development team more than benchmarks that didn't reflect real-world uses of their product. And HotSpot is very similar to TransMeta -- both selectively compile interpreted code into optimized native code. See the Hotspot Benchmarking Q+A.
__________
First of all, I was sort of wondering how it is possible to have a "stroger" focus on video..is that something like a "stronger" focus on video?
This camera/computer thing is pretty neat. There have been a couple of other attempts in the past at this sort of thing. I have a friend who was looking into buying into this sort of thing a while back, but he said that they were severely limited by the speed and by the size of the hard drives. He didn't mind a high-cost, but for what he needed them for (onsite editing and such) they were an impossibility. This new thing seems to have those problems beat, and with a reversible screen to boot. I really like it, and it doesn't look like the new viao! Definitely a plus in my book.
The anti-salmon
The 2300$ pricetag seems high, but that is nothing compared to what you are getting. First of all, you are getting your whole editing studio right there....in the palm of your hand...you have the camera, the computer, everything. THis is perfect for people that can't afford high-end editing equipment and such. This is also perfect for anyone that needs to do a lot of on-site editing without dragging along an extra laptop, batteries and all sorts of stuff. It also has a transmeta chip, which means the battery you have will last a lot longer...this alone is worth some extra $$. I think the price is very reasonable for what you are getting. Also, when more companies start to make their own picturebooks, the price will be driven down even further.
the only thing I can think of that would make this thing better is a built in cdburner or dvdram.
The anti-salmon
You know, EmperorLinux already offers one of these - pre-installed with linux and drivers for EVERYTHING on it. I'd buy one if I had the bucks.
http://www.emperorlinux.com/kiwi.html
on a consumer standpoint that is. I mean, I can think of lots of uses for this - most of which have to do with various forms of rapid documentation - but there is no way in hell I'd want one of these for my personal use.
A transmetta laptop as a laptop - oh hell yes, but I'm quite happy with my little Olympus digital camera that fits in my pocket. From a pure vacation standpoint I'm not going to want to lug around that brick (brick by camera standards) of a box just to snap pics or video.
And given that its most likely that audience that would do most of the buying I wonder how successful this will be... especially at $2300 a pop.
Ad in classifieds: Pandora's Box (no box) $5
Is this where Laptops are heading? Does a person really ned a HandyCam with an onboard PC? I seriously doubt it's capabilities for any seriuos Video Editing, seems to me like this is another interesting sony gadget, destined for the *ignor* pile.
I am become Troll, destroyer of threads
Everyone remember this:
"The [music] industry will take whatever steps it needs to protect itself and protect its revenue streams. It will not lose that revenue stream, no matter what." The disturbing part is what Heckler says Sony will attempt to do to help them win: "Sony is going to take aggressive steps to stop this," Heckler told the Summer Forty-Niner. "We will develop technology that transcends the individual user. We will firewall Napster at source -- we will block it at your cable company, we will block it at your phone company, we will block it at your [Internet-service provider]. We will firewall it at your PC"
Reason Number 3 to never buy a Sony Product. A great reason; but Beta and Memory Sticks are #1 & #2. So lets all remember: Fuck Sony.
would you want a laptop that when closed resembles the Millenium Falcon?
I rest my case.
How many of these will get broken, I wonder, by some MORON thinking that the camera is some kind of joystick control, "yup, up, down, up down, right *SNAP* oops, uh, gotta go"
--- Jump!! Fire!! Bullet time!! - Lego version of the Matrix
What is a stroger?
"Power corrupts. PowerPoint corrupts absolutely."
Has anyone used one of the older picture books?
And what kind of RAM are you talking about that sells for $400/512MB?
-atrowe: Card-carrying Mensa member. I have no toleranse for stupidity.
to see what the actually translation on the page would be, "And this is what we give to the Americans this quarter, even though what we have is a decade ahead of this"
How Jaded Are You?
Reverses and what?
Damn cute little thing, though.
--
"Open source is good." - Steve Jobs
"Open source is evil." - Microsoft
Just a thought. :-)
I really like this. I can't wait for the Transmeta chip to get more mainstream, that will be reallly great for everybody. Competition is good!
--------- The 'gui' in 'penguin' is pronounced K-D-E .
If you've been to a convenience store lately, then you already know this: Sony is now selling its own brand of disposable batteries. They're making a wholescale entrance into the battery market. But this then raises the question as to why they're focused on selling laptops that consume less battery life than their counterparts'? It'd be like HP deciding to sell printers that consume fewer ink-cartridges. HP is an ink company, and Sony is positioning itself as a battery company. We all know HP is a toothless enterprise if ever there was one, but Sony is a real competitive force.
We as slashdotters should petition the FTC to break them up now before they start leveraging their dominance in the record-label industry and come out with a line of Barbara Streisand batteries and seal our fate for us. They are still small enough to be broken up now. If we squander our opportunity, then we will have to answer to our children and grand children. We shall rue the day if it comes to pass.
-- Anne Marie
Well, sorry for that! What's the big deal about this hardware? JB has been using cooler things since ages... Clicl here for Slashdot clone, honest! Give a 5 rating for uncovering lunateks. Please..
Looking at the method behind Crusoe I reckon this will give some sort of advantage in terms of executing such things as video filters, fades etc. Would like to see some Premiere Benchmarks.