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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.'"
Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see the advantage of this over a traditional notebook and a digital camera. Although that requires two different devices, it lets each of them be smaller, lighter, and more suited to their specific task without harming their ability to work together. This, on the other hand, means that whenever you want to take a video you have to bring your computer, and whenever you want to send an e-mail, you're carrying your camera with you.
sounds like something isn't proportioned just right yet. Cool gadget, but I agree with the article that this is bound to be a niche product. Not enough power for serious data usage, too high price to be a toy.
Black holes are where God divided by zero
The camera is built in on top of the screen and can flip to point to or away from the driver.
That shit was a line from the post, you didn't even have to read the article. I'm assuming you're so lazy you stop breathing at some points during the day, right?
Finally, math books without any of that base 6 crap in them.
This notebook has been out for over a year and I've been looking at it and looking at it thinking that maybe it's size, weight and portability we make it ideal. But then, I notice it's price, I notice it's processor, I notice that no updated models have ever been made (is it an orphan?) and I walk away and wait for something better.
I think there is a place for laptops of this form factor but only Sony seems to make one. And the one they make is expensive and not part of their main product line. Is something wrong since no one else is making laptops like this?
I just can't see this size taking off - it either has to fit in your hand/pocket like current PDA's, or is about the size of a binder you carry under your arm like a note book. Anything in between is too small for serious work, and too big to carry around all the time.
W9x:Thanks for the make-work project Bill.
How exactly is this news? Okay, it's a new review maybe, but the machine has been on the market for over a year now if i'm not mistaken. One of my coworkers already had one when I started my current job in December 2001.
It's a nice machine, sure, but worthy of a slashdot frontpage post a year later?
--
If code was hard to write, it should be hard to read
I own one of the original VAIO Picturebooks (C1VN). There is very little difference between mine and the new model. You would think that given 2 years Sony could have really done something with it. I like my P-Book, but don't consider it a real laoptop either (which helps emmensely in the learning to like it deparment). In reading the review on the new one, I found myself feeling like I was reading a review on mine. Yes, the resolution's a bit higher, HDD a bit larger, it does MPEG2 now, etc...but big deal. These are things that I felt were "missing" in the original two years ago. Oh well. I find the Fujitsu P2000 a much stronger contender in the "man that's small but feature packed" mini-notebook division.
ER
.
I'm sure this is an "excellent review" seeing as the guy who posted it has the same url as the review.
Specs from article
Memory: 245216K total, 128880K free, (add type, clock here..)
Chipset: (add ID string here)
Male memory:
Memory: 245216K total, 128880K free, forgets birthdays, knows all Major legue baseball starting pitchers from '79-80
Female memory:
Memory: 245216K total, 128880K free, if-you-don't -know-i'm-not-telling-you
Why, o why must the sky fall when I've learned to fly?
Really, if Im going to buy a new hardware id like to see some benchmarks. 3DMark would be nice, just for the hell of it.
Also noticed it only has MMX support, wheres SSE?
Also, if your going to run linux on it, is there any compiler flags to make it faster for the cursoe chip? Also noted it had 0k level 2 cache, ouch.
and I would seriously look at getting one. Seriously, how practical is that camera. It's only 640X480. The form factor and size is enough to get me to consider getting one. The only other thing I have to ask is how easy is it to get linux on that thing without a Sony CDROM Drive.
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Sony VAIO C1MW PictureBook Review
Date: October 4th 2002
Author: Benj Mauck
Score:
Related Link: Sony Style
Introduction
In case you still think the PDA & notebook are still distinguishable, guess again. Sony's new VAIO C1MW PictureBook Series Notebook blurs the boundaries of both form factors and offers a solution to impress your family, friends, and colleagues. But at a cost of about $2000, can it really compete? Read on to find out...
Features:
Two very notable features set this Sony Picturebook apart from competition; first and foremost - its petite proportions. The form factor is halfway between a PDA and a notebook; yet with nearly all the features of a full size notebook. Unfortunately it is not quite small enough to fit in your pocket, yet not quite big enough to have a full size keyboard and screen. This might leave some people wondering if there is really a need for such a crossover vehicle in the electronic realm - something we have also been pondering. The half-height LCD (1280x600) and slightly compressed keyboard probably will eliminate the device from many business, home, and gaming markets. Yet there are certainly some benefits - especially when computing on the bus, train, or plane in coach class - where even a laptop can seem bulky. The intermediate size would also allow lugging around only a small backpack or large purse. Wearing it on the hip or in the pocket will unfortunately not quite work as well as a PDA. But at only 2.2 lbs, the extra weight is nearly inconsequential if you are already using a briefcase or backpack.
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. The possibilities with this are actually quite interesting. The immediate application that comes to mind would be recording business meetings or lectures at school. Because the camera lens is extremely small and can flip toward the front of the room, it is far more inconspicuous than to manipulating a video camera or even a tape recorder in class. In fact it is doubtful that that it would be recognized for anything but a PDA or calculator in school. The video quality is fairly impressive, though the resolution is only 640x480. Playback may drop a few frames if other applications are going - but will look smooth after burning it on CD and playing it when you get home on your desktop. No need to be stationary while recording, but do not expect all the features of a camcorder either. Video editing software is included to allow for some decent home video creation immediately after recording.
Extended battery life is the biggest boast of the Transmeta Crusoe CPU inside this Sony Picturebook. Unfortunately it is also one of the more difficult to benchmark, as this CPU does voltage and frequency scaling on the fly to limit power consumption according to need. A clear comparison can be made only with a standard load, such as DVD playback. Starting with a full battery we were able to make it to just before Wesley, Fezzik and Inigo Montoya storm the castle in The Princess Bride. That is exactly 75 minutes: maybe long enough for some of those new fangled movies like MIB II, but not long enough for a true classic. Obviously the included external CD-W/DVD draws a large portion of the power, and drastically reduces the battery life. For more common sporadic usage (including benchmarking, video capture, and idle time) we were able to demonstrate an average battery life of between two and three hours. This is comparable to many notebook computers - despite some claims of the CPU manufacture otherwise. Of course, a larger battery is available if your main concern is finishing your movie on the airplane.
Several other features are notable. There is one type II card slot - which would be perfect for an 802.11b wireless card. Built in stereo speakers provide adequate volume. The audio quality during DVD playback was good - as we would expect from Sony. The high resolution (1280x600) screen is excellent for watching wide screen DVD's, although we had to play around with the settings for a while to get the widescreen DVD to fill up the entire width and height. Unfortunately this size is not so convenient for office style applications - where viewing full pages is preferable. In such cases it would probably be a nice feature if the monitor could rotate 90. Games and graphics also suffer due to the limited height. Fortunately a port replicator is included to allow simple docking and connection to a full size monitor. The data transfer abilities via memory stick, ILINK (IEEE 1394), and AV in/out allows quick & easy access to many nice toys: camcorders, cameras, and gadgets. Of course modem and Ethernet are also included to talk to big brother - the PC.
Setup and Installation:
As expected no unusual setup or installation is necessary. Windows XP Professional is installed, as is Corel WordPerfect Office 2002. Boot time was one minute thirty seconds - perhaps a bit on the slow side when compared to other laptops, and even slower if compared to PDAs. Ample documentation is provided - but none is necessary to start playing. One push of a button pulls up the video capture program, momentarily turning the monitor into a mirror.
Benchmarks:
Not intending to replicate benchmarks taken elsewhere on the Crusoe we have just run a basic set. PC Mark 2002 gave a score of 1606/1440/339 for CPU/Mem/Hdd. Below are results from Rightmark and CPU Bench. The performance on most metrics shows it slightly lower than a PentiumIII at the same frequency. This may be disappointing to some given that most similarly priced laptops have nearly twice the performance. But clearly raw performance was not the intention of this device & must be weighed accordingly.
Find the latest reference results on http://cpu.rightmark.org
Linux can be done. http://vaio-pcg-c1.sourceforge.net that should start you off well.
And the production version uses XP, not CE.
I prefer my computing devices to have full-sized keyboards so that I can touch type on them. I prefer my cameras to take high quality pictures. This product wasn't designed for people like me. I still, however, think the picturebooks are spiffy.
On the other hand, Sony didn't really design the picturebook for people like me. This design originated in Japan with Japanese people in mind. In case you didn't know, the Japanese are absolutely crazy about little electronic devices, especially if they take pictures. The size and style are more important than the sheer power and functionality.
I'd estimate that nearly 20% (conservative estimate)of all new cell phones in Japan have high-res color screens and cameras built into them. I'm most curious to see how the picturebook fares against competition from these phones, which are even smaller and more stylish.
Honestly, this is blatant advertisement. I saw design technica's ad earlier on in another story and now this. I dont know how else slash ought to operate, but ads disguised as reviews is so Cnet.
Faraz
If you want video, a digital camcorder is smaller, cheaper, and better. There are even some portable MPEG-4 recorders with hard disk coming out.
I'm amazed the p-2000 doesn't get more press, it packs everything I need in to small package without using any external gadgets.
Talked my bro-in-law into getting one of these. I think it's very kewl. Plug 802.11b card into it and you're VERY portable and your webcam expierence is ideal. He's an airline pilot, so he's almost ALWAYS travelling, and this is the smallest way to get onto compuserve we could find (need to get to cserve to do bidding for airline pilot job).
M@
Krispy Cream is people
I use it for taping concerts (and nothing else). It's very, VERY slow. Slower than any other modern laptop. The Crusoe chip REALLY is nothing to write home about. It's probably as fast as a PII-500, if that. The screen is tiny but it's sharp. The hard drive is slow, but quick enough to record audio.
Like I said, all I use it for is taping, mostly because it's tiny and the battery lasts forever. It doesn't seem to be a very practical day-to-day laptop. I have another laptop (PII-266) that I use as my "actual" laptop.
- A.P.
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
The U1 is a produstion machine...soon the U3 will be out ...here is the Japanese site http://www.vaio.sony.co.jp/Products/PCG-U3/
_ ma ster.html
The specs are here in Japanese
http://www.vaio.sony.co.jp/Products/PCG-U3/spec
I'm just curious who's driving with this thing.
Software sucks. Open Source sucks less.
The camera swivels a full 180 degrees.
- A.P.
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
I think that if the new Zaurus is close in price to the old one it will be a much better choice the this sony. I have a vaio and love it. I really wanted the picture book when it came out, but its just a little to expensive. The new zaurus on the other hand is about the same size and I bet even with the optional zaurus cam will be less the half the cost.
Business News and Resources: www.usasource.net
wow,
i'm shocked by the negative comments about the Crusoe.
My lab partner and I both have the fujitsu ultralight with transmeta crusoe 5800 processors (same as the sony).
i have NO problems with the cpu. i get 4-5 hours using one regular battery. i get 10 hours with the additional extended battery.
THERE IS NO FAN. which is critical for us who attend regular meetings.
the machine is plenty fast enough. i regularly program, use mathematica (wolfram, inc.), word process, solid model (truespace, caligari.com), create macromedia presentations, play games, do advanced video editing... lots of reasonably processor intensive functions. i have a 30gig HD and 390 meg of ram. of course, it's not as fast as my dual athlon mp1900 desktop, but heck, i can't stuff my dual athlon into a butt-pack!
it doesn't appear sluggish at all. in summary, i love my fujitsu/crusoe. it's awesome, and all my friends are completely jealous:)
my question is, how many of you who claim to hate the crusoe 5800 actually have one ??
maybe you are confusing with the older crusoe chips that were not so good.
my 2c,
ap.
ps. the fujitsu is only 1500 bucks and it has a built in DVD player and CD burner (yes). i'm not sure why anyone would want the sony, unless they need the camera.
The 10 hours of video is an artifact of being able to fit a 30GB disk in the laptop, not because they thought that was the ideal amount of video capacity to have. You'll probably use much of the space for other things. (Besides, if you're shooting that much video, you're usually either somewhere you've got electricity or you're filming things that you'd rathe r have a real videocamera for.)
By the way, if you remember Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, this is the kind of machine Randy used to surreptitiously record his meeting with somebody-or-other, probably the Dentist, when they were busy convincing everybody of their plans for Increasing Shareholder Value. Predecessors of this machine design were available back then.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
One of my favorite things about the unit is the extended battery. It's big (folds under the unit), and expensive (think it was a good chunk of $1K), but getting 8 hours of battery life really made those long flights productive. It was truly amazing. Even in it's later life, it got close to 5 hours on the battery. (Unfortunately, my picturebook died recently, works fine, but won't charge any batteries. Sigh.) With the transmeta, the battery life should be even more amazing.
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
Yes, but, as I said, then you have to deal with tape. I've had enough of linear-access-only video.
Of course, if I actually needed to record video for some reason, I'd deal with it (or find some alternative.)
I Can't Believe It's A Law Firm, LLP does not necessarily endorse the contents of this message.
and this got modded +1 funny?!
After 1 year I'll say this:
I really like the long life, I get a total of ~8 hours of use between rechargings, with my spare double strength battery. (Ideal for 14 hour flights to Oz & other plane or outdoors trips I take). I think other laptops find this hard to beat.
I also like the size. I put in in the outer pouch of my backpack, don't even notice its there. Weight is 1 kilogram, 2.2 lb.
I like the pictures, but I have to admit it doesn't compete with a modern digital camera. Another downside is: If you see something cool, it takes a few minutes to boot up & you might have missed it already. :-(
Some of my photos can be found here: montage1 montage2 full list
Mine is 667 Mhz (down to ~300 Mhz when "crusoe" is invoked), but that's fine for Netscape, LaTeX, emacs, xboard, civ, etc. No CD. Ethernet is all I need. I've experimented with video (.avi file format, haven't used sound but it can be done) It looks good as long as the smaller size frames are used. With the larger frames it looks slow. All in all, I'm very happy with it & glad I bought it.
I have one of these notebooks. If you want to see some sample pictures, I put up a slideshow at a little get-together a little while back.
http://www.francischang.com/slides/8-2-02/
The camera is not very good, and is really bad in low-light situations.
You can put Linux on a picturebook, but as far as I know, noone's got the camera working under Linux with the latest 2 generations of the Picturebook. They've recently changed the hardware, and neglected to publish specifications.
--
#include <malloc.h>
free(your.mind);
This review would have one assume this is the first device of this form factor. Fujitsu has been selling the very similar Lifebooks for a while now, but are better in many respects.
- ROM drive is internal
- Can accept high capacity batteries and the ROM drive can be replaced for up to (so they claim) 14 hours of life
- Built in Wireless networking
- Substantially cheaper than the Sony
Check it out here
I have had one for the past six months and absolutely love it. The portability is just incredible, to the point it's been about my only luggage on my trip around the world. With the quad-battery upgrade you can pretty reliably get 8-10 hours on a full charge (nowhere near the 15 advertised, of course). And, though the transmeta is a bit sluggish, it's entirely adequate any non-gaming task (I do contract technical writing as I travel and it's paid for itself a couple times over). Furthermore, though not DoomIII-compliant, the ATI Radeon mobile is suprisingly quick and has been sufficient for me to continue 3d graphics programming while traveling. The camera is a pointless, granted (low res, takes ages to initialize, only digital zoom, manual focus), but the laptop itself is a godsend.
I think the biggest benefit of this laptop is that it's finally found a combination of speed, portability, and battery life such that you no longer have to ask yourself "should I bring my laptop today?" Instead, you just always have it in your bag, charged up the night before, to whip out at cafes or plane rides.
I can't recommend it enough.
Okay, the parent to this post did dissect my joke a little farther than I ever intended. But missed one thing. If one were to register lat.io they will only let you use www.lat.io and have it forwarded to another website. Plus they let other people register the same domain. If there are multiple registrations for lat.io they will just display a page with all the sites, and the visitor has to pick which one they wanted to go to. So if you ask me that is pretty sucky.