Sony Vaio C1MW PictureBook Review

daanger0us writes "There is an excellent review of the Sony Vaio C1MW PictureBook that uses the Transmeta Crusoe CPU and has a built in camera so you can capture all those special moments. Here's an excerpt: 'Size is not the only identifying attribute of this VAIO. The built in Motion eye camera is really the most intriguing part of the design - and probably the selling feature. The camera is built in on top of the screen and can flip to point to or away from the driver. The software loads at the push of the capture button and live video begins showing up within seconds. JPEG shots or MPEG2 video can then be recorded and replayed quite easily. With the included 30 Gigabyte hard drive a quick calculation shows that about 10 hours of streaming video and audio can be recorded at a time before running out of room.'"

Comments

Re:Why not just get a digital camera

[Mr. No Skills]

Sit in a coach seat for a few flights and you'll see the advantage. This laptop is much smaller that a typical 12 inch screen laptop (the screen is a letterbox format, not the typical screen proportions). If you wanted a separate camera and laptop, you still might want to give this form factor a look because it is so small.

I wouldn't compare this device to a laptop as much as I'd compare it to a PDA. A PDA that doesn't really fit into a pocket, but has the display you wish a PDA would have and the ability to look at a spreadsheet or document and comprehend it. Problem is -- it costs as much as a laptop.

The camera (at least at one point) was really sold for portable web-conferencing and not for video production. The ability to record MPEGs is more of a function of the newer processors. There's a firewire jack if you need to plug in a better camera.