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Lust After The Sony Clie NZ90
V0rtex writes "Once again, Sony is ahead of the game with their new Clie PEG-NZ90. View the specs here. Not to be released until the end of February, this one is packed with some long awaited features since the NX70V such as built in bluetooth and the 2 megapixel camera with flash. Is it really that great? Check out a couple reviews. It would be nice if they would include the faster (400 MHz) version of the XScale processor and step the internal memory up a bit, but this one carries an $800 price tag as it is." Even if it has issues, I think any step towards integrating the vast array of personal electronics (Cel Phone, MP3 Player, PDA, Digital Camera) is a good one. And this looks like the first PDA with a real camera.
... so 400Mhz is overkill. The OS is much more efficient on a Palm device because they're not copying files into usable memory to run them.
Now wash your hands.
.. Sony Ericsson P800: Cell Phone - check. MP3 Player - check. PDA - check Digital Camera - check. I seriously want one of those :)
128MB Memory Stick: 58.73 UKP (not inc. VAT)
128MB Compact Flash: 30.27 UKP (not inc. VAT)
Both prices from Dabs. (Normally, I buy memory from Crucial, but they don't stock memory sticks.)
So: memory sticks are expensive, hard to get, and only work in Sony devices. That's a pretty fair reason not to use them in my book.
With 6 in 1 card readers for USB costing around $30 in the UK, its easy enough to transfer data between different card formats, provided you buy one that has a slot for each type rather than a slot or two that multitasks. A PC with a card reader is such a useful machine for sorting out collections of MP3s or photos or whatever, maybe doing a bit of red eye removal, that the apparent disadvantage of going via an intermediate card reader isn't as bad as it seems.
I had on of the the early sony NR70s, without the camera (the low res just didn't seem worth it). For me, at least, it wasn't the /weight/ that did , but the size. The thing was just too tall to fit into a pocket comfortably so I stopped carrying it around.
(That and I never, ever got used to the keyboard. Go go gadget graffiti.)
When in the course of things I filled it with water and it was going to cost over $300 to repair, I started looking around and decided I needed a smaller form factor. This ruled out Pocket PC, etc, and I went back to a Tungsten. It might not have ALL the features, but it was the ones I need, and I carry it.
The large, thick, form factor is an absolute killer for me in these PDAs. (Though that small iPaq mentioned in the parent... that looks interesting.)
The main reason is that the Memory Stick, in implementation, sucks in just about every way imaginable.
It is bigger than SD/MMC, more expensive per MB than just about any other removable media, slower, and is still maxed out at 128 MBs.
Sony has been promising gigabyte memory sticks for years, and just recently they announced that not only will it be delayed further, but in fact they won't work on ANYTHING but new devices.
I'm the very happy owner of a Sony NR70V, but to suggest memory sticks are even remotely competetive with the plethora of compactflash and SD/MMC available in stores today is ridiculous.
The sooner Sony gives up on this stupid attempt to control storage media, the better off they and their customers will be.
Recursive: Adj. See Recursive.
I have an older integrated phone/PDA (Kyocera smartphone). I got it to eliminate the need to carry two information widgets in my pocket.
The display on this thing sucks (IMHO if it ain't bright and probably color, it's hard for this old guy to read). BUT... I don't use it that often as a PDA. It's there when I need it, but like many Palm users, my Palm desktop (in this case running on [asbestos on] windows [asbestos off] ) is my true personal organizer.
But having a synched copy of all of my data in my phone is extremely handy.
Unfortunately, given the stupid fragmentation of the US cellular market, and the forced practice of buying your phone from the service provider, there aren't enough choices out there. I would like a new, smaller phone/PDA but QWest doesn't have them (gratuitous factoid: "QWest Sucks generates 37800 hits on google).
Furthermore, qworst informs me that the market doesn't seem too interested in pda/phones - consumers are more likely to have phone/lames... errr phone/games than phone/PDA's. And since the market is so fragmented, only the largest demographic groups get what they want.
On top of that, some of the cool PDA/phone combos don't do analog. That means that if you leave the big city, your phone is dead. Here in Arizona, where my favorite drive to the mountains has a 90 mile stretch without NO stores or gas stations, this is a non-starter. And of course when I go tornado chasing every year in the midwest, analog is needed most of the time.
(Okay... you wonder why I still have QWorst when I think they suck. It's because they are my home phone carrier and thus are the only people who can give me totally automatic one number service. If you call my home-office number and my cell phone is turned on, the cell rings. If the cell is off, the home phone rings. Very cool!)
The only good weather is bad weather.
nonsense - my PEG-SJ30 works just beautifully with Missing Sync on my G4 - you even get a little iPhoto plug-in that allows you to export albums to .PGF for the Clié.
Nice action - highly recommended.
That was classic intercourse!
Sony-Ericcson's T68i is also available from AT&T (I have one). It has the camera module, and some basic PDA features (like reminder, notes, calendar). But as far as I know, none of the first and second generation Nokia camera phones are available here in the US (nor the more PDA like phones).
Also, I think my brother mentioned a third generation camera phone from Sony Ericsson.
Both the T68i and I suspect, T62u are fairly old phones.
Je ne parle pas francais.
> of the user code is written as 68K and emulated on the device
:) as for how the OS5 devices run, i have posted a few stories in the past to /. and, a few of them are here in other stories:
8 73 166
7 87 743d =4787 183
= 13 4
:) - having 400Mhz would give us even more fun stuff to experiment around with. the real issue we are running into is the differences with ARM implementation, mainly OMAP and XScale. sony adopted XScale, Palm adopted OMAP. there are some slight issues between the two, which, gives different 'running speeds' for native arm code.
:) it just takes a bit of thinking and good design. we have been writing ARM code for palmos way before the pubic devices were available - it was fun figuring out how native arm code works and rebuilding cross compilers :)
damn.. i had moderator points - but, i figured my input in this story was better than moderating it
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=35839&cid=3
and, some other postings specific to native code in the ogg/vorbis threads. [maybe of interest - more specific to development of native arm code]
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=46474&cid=4
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=46474&ci
as a developer, having 400Mhz is nice. we have a 3D engine (raycaster based) running on 68k units, and, we were able to seriously enhance it for arm units:
http://mobilewizardry.com/board/viewtopic.php?t
its been solely possible due to the extra processing power. while some may argue its only an emulated system - the extra Mhz means palmos can do pocket pc stuff
> There is a way to write some code as ARM, but it's pretty painful
it is not painful to write ARM code
Ah, nice to know. Note that I said 'probably'. And you do have to pay for it, which makes the Mac a second-class platform to use a Sony Clie with.
For those on OS X, find the required software here:
Missing Sync
and Linux:
Pilot Link
Michel
Fedora Project Contribut
I've owned a Sony Clie c710 modified to c760 for one and 1/2 years. Being a medical student I work with many others who also own various other palm os models.
Off hand, I have to say the Sony's have done very well compared to their counterparts. Ignoring features, and looking at just durablity, I've personally only had one problem, which is common across all palms. That is occasionlly I have to recalibrate my stylus, usually after I've dropped it or something.
As far as screen problems, I've never seen a Clie with a broken screen after it was dropped....sure it could/has happened, but I've never heard of it personally. OTOH, I've seen numberous palms and a few visors with cracked screens after a fall.
Battery life has never been an issue for me. I make sure I leave it on the cradle at least once a week.
The memory stick, never heard of anyone having any problem with one going bad. Just make sure you get a blue, not a white one, to make sure you never have problems with mp3 playback down the road.
Overall, I've been very happy with the Sony Clie's quality as well as the memory stick, and all my couterparts with a Clie that I have spoken too would say the same thing.
puck
That is not exactly what they announced:
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-980270.html
They don't have a list of the devices that are compatible up yet, though.
"The defense of freedom requires the advance of freedom" - George W Bush
For the Cut'n'Paste impared:
Link 1
Link 2
Link 3
Link 4
Was that so hard?
Carpe Cerevisi - Seize the Beer
You should take a look at that - nearly the only negative thing about is of course that it uses memorystick :(
It was mentioned here a few days ago I think, but you can see a good (p)review here: http://mobile.burn.com/review.jsp?Id=141
The newest version of the PalmOS, version 5, allows PalmOS devices to have more than 16MB of RAM. But so far only the Garmin iQue 3600 has added more RAM. As drool-worthy as all of the NZ90's stats are, the measely 16MB (only 11MB of which are available to the user) feel like a deal breaker. Granted the Memory Stick slot makes the extra RAM less necessary but still....
Does this