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Sony Announces Excellent New Handhelds
PalmAddict writes "Sony Japan has announced what was only supposed to be a non-working mockup at Palm Source just a few short weeks ago, as reality. Palminfocenter has the scoop on the PEG-NR70, a thin, folding, half VGA, built-in digital camera picture taking, MP3 playing powerhouse." Nothing I can say except wow.
pictures from sony's japanese language site: http://www.jp.sonystyle.com/peg/Store/Clie/index.h tml
Sony Introduces Two Models with Keyboards, MP3 Players
.65 inches. They weigh 7 ounces, including the stylus.
Posted by: Ed on Monday, March 11, 200212:06:43 AM
Sony Japan has just introduced two new cutting-edge handhelds. The PEG-NR70 and PEG-NR70V both have built-in keyboards and 320 by 480 color screens. They also have built-in MP3 and ATRAC3 audio players. In addition, the PEG-NR70V has a built-in camera.
These have a clamshell design, with the keyboard on one side and the screen on the other. However, the screen can pivot around and then close again, this time with the screen facing out, allowing these to be used like a traditional handheld, with text entry done through a virtual Graffiti area.
The screen doesn not flip all the way around like a note pad does. It opens, the screen rotates on an axis located just above the hinge, then closes back over the keypad. When the screen rotates, it's image automatically flips over so it is still upright to the user.
Frequent readers will recognize the NR70V as the one a Sony executive briefly showed off at PalmSource last month.
The 16-bit color Backlit TFT screen is 3.8 inches tall. When closed, both of these models are 5.4 by 2.8 by
They are the first Palm OS models to use Motorola's 66 MHz Dragonball SuperVZ processor. They run Palm OS 4.1 and have 16 MB of RAM and 10 MB of Flash ROM.
Of course they have a built-in Memory Stick slot. They also have a Jog Dial and a Back button.
These have a built-in Lithium Polymer battery, which Sony estimates will last for 10 days, based on 30 minutes of use a day. They have an additional DSP chip for handling audio and this drains significant power. The company says these will last for 7 hours of music playback with the display off.
The PNR70V's camera is also on the hinge. It can take images with 100,000 pixels. It has a 1/6 inch CMOS Image Sensor and it can take pictures between 0.3 meters from the lens all the way to infinity. it saves images in PG Pocket format in sizes of 320x240, 160x120, or 88x88.
These models have the enhanced IR port from the T-series. They have other things in common with the T-series, sharing the same styli and HotSync port. This means the NR series should be able to use many of the same peripherals designed for the T series.
They also comes with ear-bud speakers and an audio control wand similar to previous Clié models with built-in audio players. Also like previous Sony models, the screen can be turned off while playing music. Because they use a separate DSP, the user can listen to music while using other applications.
In addition to software necessary to use the audio player and camera, they come with Documents To Go 4.0 Standard Edition to allow the user to access Microsoft Office files and Intellisync Lite for the Clié to synchronize with Outlook.
These handhelds have been introduced only in Japan. The NR70 will be available on March 23. The NR70V will be out April 13. There is no word yet on when they will be available in other countries.
The NR70V will sell for 59,800 Yen, or about $465. The NR70 will sell for 49,800 Yen, or $385. Again, these are the prices in Japan. They may or may not indicate what these will sell for in other countries.
Sony has also introduced the PEG-MSB1 Memory Stick Bluetooth module.
Thanks to SaxonMan for the tip and Eugene for his translations. -Ed
Related Information:
* ClieClub: Lots of Pictures of the new models
* PIC: Sony to Announce New Handheld in Japan Next Week
* PIC: Sony Prototype Pics
* PIC: Bluetooth Memory Stick Gets SIG Approval
* PIC: Sony Forum
for those too lazy to copy & paste :)
here's a link
Every once in a while I like to masturbate a new word into my vocabulary, even if I don't know what it means.
It seems that Sony has a hard time focusing on consumer products in the IT sphere. They tend to hit or miss. The VAIO line was a pretty tepid offering up until the previous iteration. The Playstation I & II were tremendously successful in their markets. The CLIEs were good(great?). Their MP3 players and MD players had terrible connectivity to PCs or Macs.
The new PDA looks good though. Maybe this will be a hit.
So that's why I can't get onto PalmInfoCenter today. Anyone looking for more info on this might want to try PDABuzz, another pretty good Palm site.
It hurts when I pee.
Here's the CNET Story
Nothing I can say except wow.
Yeah, that's about the same thing palminfocenter.com is saying right now...
"...eleven-thousand hits in HOW LONG??!!"
Stuff a cell phone into this thing, and I'd think it was perfect.
Lots of pictures of the new models
It's not much besides pictures, but that's the first thing you want to know, right? That, and that they have a 66 MHz Dragonball SuperVZ processor, run Palm OS 4.1 and have 16 MB of RAM and 10 MB of Flash ROM. They also come memory stick slot and a jog dial. Battery life is 10 days, used for half an hour each day. Guess that means 5 hours.
:Peter
I'd pay for the new Slashdot subscription service if I got posts say 30 minutes before non-subscribers. That way I would half a chance to see the site befor it's slashdot-ed.
"Failure is not an option, it's part of the standard package"
It's a link to a story with heaps of (threaded) comments attached. I'd say that the database is getting spanked.
No. That's not a technical term. I just made it up then.
Reliable, Great Value Hosting: $7.95/mo 2.4G/120G
"Excellent"? says who?
I see it was a comment of the submiter, but isn't
it a bad-thing to slip-in product endorsement into
article submissions?
I am afraid of covert ad tactics. You can never
notice them, for they disguise as a personal opinion.
Most of you will probably dismiss me as a troll or
flame bait, or even mod me as such, but some of you
will notice the subliminal impact of a header like
that.
First impression counts, and hidden presuppositions influence our choices later.
It is called "nesting" if you are not familiar with
propaganda.
--
Is it just me, or do you guys think that this thing would have been 500% better if they had turned the keyboard sideways... so that it could have been made large enough for human hands?
-Evil
There aren't any compusa stores in japan, therefore the compusa-theft-protocol is not legal to implement on a japan device do to export regulations.
Companies are planning to create a mod-chip for the device, but because it's fair use, sony will sue them according to the DMCA.
"And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the World"
1 John 4:14
Palminfocenter has the scoop on the PEG-NR70, a thin, folding, half VGA, built-in digital camera picture taking, MP3 playing powerhouse. Nothing I can say except wow.
/.ed) but I can only imagine that it's no more than 1.3 megapixels.
:: We Kill Trolls. We Worship Penguins.
Is this really what people want?
I'm not trying to flame here, but I personally would much prefer a small MP3 player that I could take with me on a jog or to the gym (or use in a business situation if necessary).
As for the digital cam feature -- again, I would rather have a more versitile and quite frankly, better quality, digital camera with 3.3 megapixels or something. I can't get to the specs page for this particular PDA (it's
Perhaps I'm out of the loop, but is the PDA as a tech Swiss Army knife practical (aside from the "gee-wiz" factor and showing it off to your friends, of course)?
monolinux.com
"Nothing I can say except wow."
(disregarding the screen for a moment)
All of these things have been done before by... guess who... Pocket PC. MP3, Digital Camera, high-resolution screen, etc. These are all standard features on Pocket PCs.
Still, Sony is taking the right direction by adding these fatures to their devices. Some people don't like to play MP3s or Videos, I find that it's a great way to pass the time on the long train ride to work every morning (I could drive but the traffic is really bad in my suburb).
What it looks like open and closed (from the Japanese site)
It looks like they have a Bluetooth card accessory coming out and a GPS card. There is also what looks like a wireless modem and another type of wireless adapter, but I'm not sure if it's 802.11b, or not.
a couple more views
It can also be used to transfer map/location data back and forth with your Sony Car Navigator (in Japan). And it can function as a programmable remote control for your home theater gear (TV, DVD, VCR, etc). It looks like the camera uses Picture Gear Pocket edition, so the photos are probably compatible with most of Sony's DV and digital still cams (and transferrable by Memory Stick).
It's surprising they didn't put a phone in, but I guess Japanese hipsters wouldn't be caught dead talking into a giant PDA when they have such amazing "keitai" cell phones.
nokia are doing this with the symbian OS and thats shipping soon
http://www.nokia.com/phones/7650/
regards
john jones
Looks neat!
I'm a 2000 man.
There are a lot of posts saying "but all of this stuff has been done before by other PDAs..."
While this is true, the 320x480 resolution with a full-tablet mode has only been done by one PDA, the Apple Newton 2000/2100, now discontinued for five years.
A screen resolution of 320x480 makes a HUGE difference when working with information, text, graphics, etc. With a resolution of 320x480 and a virtual graffiti area (which could conceivably be left hidden and replaced with a 3rd-party natural handwriting recognition system?!) we could FINALLY have a near-Newton-killer on our hands...
Of course, it is still lacking in some areas... Only a 66MHz Dragonball CPU vs. the 162MHz StrongARM in the Newton 2x00, PalmOS vs. NewtonOS (which is still a decade ahead of its time), no PCMCIA slot(s), no 3rd party natural handwriting recognizers yet available for PalmOS, etc.
Still, wow. For a long time, I've thought that since nobody would ever make another PDA with a 320x480 display, nobody would ever even begin to come close to Newton. But this does! In fact, get me that natural handwriting recognizer and a nice "natural" database like Notion for Newton and you could see me switch... Maybe... Well, okay, probably not.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
If you want just an MP3 player, then buy one (I hear those iPods are cool, and oh so versatile). If you want a digital camera, then buy one. The Clie is a PDA, that happens to play music (saving from having to have two devices if you want both sets of functionality). I think the music playing bit is an obvious addition to a PDA. Just look, people are trying to make PDA's out of iPods.
Now the camera, I think people are just totally missing the point here. Do you honestly believe that Sony thinks that someone will say, "dude, I don't need to buy a digital cam now that Sony has this". Uh WRONG. No, it's Sony having a decent grasp of their home market, one in which such gadgetry sells. (i.e. Now take your NR70V, stick in the blue tooth module and start communicating with other similarly equiped individuals, including sending pix.)
Also, what's the big deal. If they sold it ONLY with a camera, then I could see some people getting a bit miffed, but hey, you don't like it, save some bucks and just buy the model without it, duh.
I'd say you're off there. QuickOffice for Palm already will utilize the 240x320 screen of the Handera 330 in either portrait or landscape mode. PalmOS devices are definitely moving toward higher resolutions and virtual graphiti areas.
older apps will just be scaled to 320x320 by pixel doubling and the graphiti area will be displayed, I'd guess. In effect, the older apps would look exactly like they always have. Newer apps, though would have the option of 320x320 + graphiti area or 320x480. The Handera 330 already does this at 240x320.
10 days with 30 minutes a day = 5 hours. 7 days, if used with music and screen off = 3.5 hours. Ok, do the maths. This thing will less than 2 continuous hours with music and screen on.
I happen to own a PEG-760C and I routinely use it to listen to MP3s at work all day. I used up ~20% of the battery a day, and this was before I figured out how to turn the screen off. Now I hardly use 5% of the battery/day. This also includes time spent using its more traditional PDA functions.
MP3: I've given before. DRM means special app on windows to convert your MP3 to Sony homebrew format with copy protection. So it's not really MP3. First you need another OS to do the conversion with their crappy app (Jukebox if I remember correctly), next you can't transfer more than once and in one direction
Bullshit. I can mount the memory stick as a USB device, and copy MP3 directly to it. No DRM, no extra software. Have you even used a Clie before?
- Memory Stick: Ok: Sony still doesn't get it. The most expensive format per MB. I still refuse to go this route. What is the point of adopting this format over other proven and more economic ones?
I'll partially agree with you on this. We don't need one more memory standard, but it's only marginally more expensive. There still is no standard for memory expansion in the electronics market anyway, so there is no dominate solution as far as portability goes. Each standard has its set of supported products.
Special keyboard rotation and cool design: Here too, I've given in this trap already. If I need a keyboad, I get a laptop. Graffiti doesn't cut it for me. Cool factor: I already have an iBook and an iPaq. I'll still with that.
Good for you. I'm glad your happy with your laptop, but some of us would still like the basic features of a PalmOS plus a little extra in a smaller foot print. I personally can write in Graffiti much faster then I can type on those keyboards, but I don't assume everyone can. Sony is try to appeal to a larger market then just you and I.
Too lazy to come up with a clever sig.
> It's a downright bastardization by slavering fanboys who must run linux everywhere to put linux on this beautiful sony handheld.
I just got Linux running on my toilet bowl (RedHat 7.2).
It's great!
Now I have to type 'rm -rf *' when I'm done.
Of course, I replaced the stdio function 'fflush()' with a version that does the appropriate thing.
Next, I'll be installing Linux on a rock in my front yard. Yes, a rock. I'm not sure what It will do yet, but won't it be great to have Linux on a rock?
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat
...looked somewhat familiar...
:)
Not implying anything of course, it was just one of those "I've seen that somewhere before" moments.
SIGFEH