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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.
I'm continuously amazed by the stuff they can cram into these little devices these days. And the comment about a more powerful processor had me ROFL...this thing's faster than my PC for glory's sake!
I sometimes question the value of integrating everything. It's cool and all, but I sort of like the modularity of things as they stand. Like if I'm in a meeting I can have my PDA but leave the cell phone behind, and I can go jogging with my mp3 player and not have to bring the camera along too.
Still, I don't think we should be too hasty. If wielded with wisdom and with the desire to defend, the Sony Clie NZ90 could save us from the doom that grows nearer with each dawning day.
Boromir, son of Faramir, King of Gondor and Minas Tirith
The thing that I don't like about Sony's Memory Stick technology is that, well, no other PalmOS based PDAs use them. The others use a card system called SD/MMC (if memory serves), and those cards are cheaper, etc. There are also many types of non-memory expansions you can get for those PDAs, such as GPS modules, Bluetooth (if the PDA in question doesn't already have it). You can't use these if you have a memory stick PDA.
-Enfors-
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.
I agree, but only to a point.
Integrating an MP3 player with my Palm sounds like a cool idea, at least it did when most MP3 players were stuck at 64 or 128 MB of storage. Now that we've got many 20+ gigabyte players out there, a "real" MP3 player will never fit in a PDA (at least not until we can get HD-like capacities in flash or extremely low power drives).
Getting a cell phone integrated is good, for cool factor, but I wouldn't want one. For one, I'd be tied to whatever local providers had service for my particular model. Unless you could trade in a CDMA version for a GSM version the next time I get annoyed with my wireless carrier, then this simply won't fly for many people. Plus, I can certainly see a need to talk on the phone while looking something up -- which you can't do with an integrated unit unless you put it in speakerphone mode (or carry a plug-in earpiece/microphone).
And, finally, maybe this new Clie has a "real" digital camera, but please define "real." Compared to 640x480 2nd generation cameras, maybe it's cool, but compared to modern 4 megapixel cameras? How big is the lens opening (which helps to drive its sensitivity to low-light situations)? How quickly will you drain the batteries when using the flash?
I think it's important to remember what made PDAs, especially Palm-powered ones, so popular in the first place. They filled a need, not for a "laptop in your shirt pocket," but for a quick way to take notes, keep contact lists together, etc. I'd say that as far as PDAs take that same approach to integrated features like MP3s or photos, that's a Good Thing. The PDA approach to these should be to allow users to listen to "an album or two" and to take "an occasional photo of the whiteboard that you just filled with a world-changing idea."
But if they're trying to make a PDA into a "PowerMac in your shirt pocket," then it'll fail. And it should -- there will always be far better cameras / mp3 players / phones available than what's integrated into a PDA.
...but this one carries an $800 price tag as it is." Even if it has issues...
For $800 I sure as hell don't want it to have 'issues'. Linux has 'issues', I'm willing to deal with them because it's free. If it cost $800 I'd laugh and ask for a refund.
It shouldn't be! It's cheaper and it rocks. I can write and compile code on the commute in to work, as well as all the usual sh!t you'd associate with a PDA. All while listening to a bunch of mp3's.
You can get a camera for it (but why, when you can get a perfectly decent digital camera), phone Cf card etc.
I'm not getting excited about the sony...
For many people, one of the biggest reason to buy Sony products is the memory stick. So many of their products use them now and they're all neatly integrated. I, for instance, have a digital voice recorder and mini-dv cam that all use the memory stick, and if I had to go buy a digital camera, notebook, or desktop, it sure would be appealing to get one that could also use these memory sticks.
I'm not aware of many desktops, let alone notebooks that ship with CompactFlash or smartmedia built in, but I do know the Sonys all have them.
Maybe they should include a magenet on the back so it can be attached to the inside of a bathroom stall for hands-free use.
Easy reason for having the camera. It works with the address book. When you make a note of someone's address, you can take a snap of them and attach it to their addressbook entry. Handy if you meet a lot of people and just can't remember their names.
"You know you want me baby!" - Crow T Robot
That's pretty harsh. Maybe in your area that's the norm, but in my area the average tech salary is only $40k a year, or about $20 an hour. And I really doubt you make $800 a day ($292,000 a year). If you do, more power to you. Some people are just glad to have jobs though with this shitty economy of ours.
I'm a little disappointed with this release... Many of us are breathlessly awaiting an Ericson / sony style crossover, in the hopes of picking up a very stylish, very functional treo mp3 equivalent.
NZ-90 Demo
And for comparison, the NR-70
Fortunately, as with any new Sony release, this should push the price of the rest of their line down a bit... You can charge a premium for the latest and greatest, but you have to back off when you release something later and greater. Let's hope they back away from that black magnesium.
This Sig is a mnemonic device designed to allow you to recognize this author in the future.
Don't forget that the thing has an ARM processor but most of the user code is written as 68K and emulated on the device. There is a way to write some code as ARM, but it's pretty painful (no global variables, C++ features or debugger). This got to be more overhead than copying some files into memory.
I'm personally annoyed by this integration of digital devices. I want discrete components.
I don't want a cell phone at all.
I do want a digital camera, but I want interchangeable lenses, etc. I bet this PDA doesn't have that.
I want an MP3 player. I don't want a cell phone with it. When I'm listening to music, I don't want the bloody phone to ring.
I want a digital camera. I don't want to take my PDA on vacation. What good is a PDA in the middle of nowhere when you're camping?
I do NOT want a built-in camera on every single digital thingie I own.
I'd rather have all these things separate, and better, rather than integrated into one-size-fits-all piece of shit that is more "cool" than it is "useful."
"Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives" should be a convenience store, not a government agency.
BETAMAX
They love to try and corner the market and will hang on tooth and nail to their proprietary idiocy.
I just have a habit of not buying things from companies that turn evil.
I'm a Mac person, and remember the Sony CDs that break Ibooks. So I decided "Sony's out".
Within the next 6 months, I noticed reports of Sony quality being down, so I don't regret my decision either.
In line with that, I also dropped HP from my list of "good companies" when Lucent's marketing manager was hired as their new president, and all the old management fled. Lucent, if you remember, came up with those wonderful closed architecture WinModems that -- as it later turned out-- died within a year due to quality problems. Now, as it turns out, I find that HP has been short-filling their inkjet cartridges.
Same kind of decision about Sears. When their middle managers had to sue their upper managers for firing them when they refused to continue to attend Scientologist courses that said "cheat the customer..." I decided it was time to give my business to other companies. In the following years, I did not regret it.
It's just too bad that with all the fluid hiring and firing, and stock changing hands, it's a bit hard to keep up with what companies. But when they go bad, it's usually permanent. So once you find an apple going bad, it does make sense to throw it out.
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
The relative efficiency of the OS isn't the issue; the complexity of the desired applications certainly is.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
Those aren't the primary functions of a PDA. You use it mainly to take notes, keep addresses, etc. The faster you can get in, look up an address, and shut down, the better. Keeping that info in memory instead of having to look it up in a file has to be at least a little faster.
(That said, AeroPlayer rocks. Somebody put up a (leaked) patch that fixes the Tungsten T audio problem; with the patch in place, AeroPlayer sounds as good as any other MP3 player. For you Ogg zealots, it supports that format too.)
20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
Oh cram it. You people have been doing this for years. Everytime something finally satisfies all your bitching you ask for something else. 2-3 years ago you were saying you wanted all that except the 3MP optical zoom camera.
Goto any PDA site, and everytime a new PDA comes out someone says "Oh yeah, I'll buy this when...insert large list of features"
I'm not telling you to stop wanting these things, cause sure, that would be pretty cool, but you can't use "I'll wait fot the next generation" as your reasoning every single time. Obviously you don't need all/any of these things, single out the things you need everyday and go with it. Then go buy high quality stand-alone versions of the stuff you only need once in awhile.
For example, you can already buy cell phones that do mp3, voice recording, calender/scheduling, SD and run PPC. You're going to have to make some kind of sacrifice, thats life. To think that your standards won't be any higher than this in 2-3 years is absurd.
Given the timing/context of the message and previous announcements, it has been generally assumed that nothing prior to the NX series of handhelds will be compatible, meaning that anything older than about 5 months is no good. The new MS format apparently requires more processing power to run, but you're right that they haven't confirmed what is and isn't good yet. The fact that the Memory Stick Duo exists (a two-sided memory stick of 128MB on each side) is a pretty good sign that the incompatibility is more wide-ranging that a software patch.
Recursive: Adj. See Recursive.
You, sir, are full of /. FUD. mem sticks are not more expensive. i just got 128 MB mem stick for $30. you cant do much better than that with compact flash. Also dozens of big companies make products that use memory sticks, and more products are added to that list all of the time. Sony has not lost the battle. they have almost 30% of the flash memory market now.
Because memory sticks are ludicrously expensive compared to other formats
Quick look on pricewatch shows the cheapest 128mb MMC/SD card at $53, the cheapest 128mb memory stick at $57, hardly "ludicrously expensive". Plus, if you're buying a $800pda, how many memory cards do you need, and is a $4 differential in cost (or even $10) worth not purchasing the entire pda?
I own two CE devices that use electronic memory, an Olympus digital camera (smartmedia) and Sony camcorder (mem stick). The media they used was extremely low on my totem pole of "features" that influenced my decision to buy. Things like image quality and features factored WAY more heavily. Now had it boiled down to two devices that were basically the same and one used one format and the other used another, THEN I would probably lean toward using a more "common" format, but that hasen't happened yet. Esp. with SmartMedia, it was a struggle early on. But then again I'd much rather have inconvenience (and perhaps a bit more cost) to get a "superior" product in those areas that are most important to me.
I'd rather have all these things separate, and better, rather than integrated into one-size-fits-all piece of shit that is more "cool" than it is "useful."
Then go out and buy everything seperately. They are all available for you. Why are you even here? Unless you are into S&M and keep viewing things that you hate.
I am not in the market to buy an 11 megapixle camera but I am for a 2 megapixle one. $275-400 USD range.
I am not in the market to buy a 20GB MP3 player, something cheaper in the $200 USD range.
I am not in the market to buy a $1000-4000 USD laptop just to use it as a contact manager.
I am in the market to buy a nice PDA.
The value added features this thing provides would save me a lot of money.
"I dont want the bloody phone to ring"
Then turn the fucking ringer off dipshit.
"What good is a PDA in the middle of nowhere when you're camping?"
To take pictures of your vacation dipshit. Maybe even some journal/log entries of your trip and surroudings. Inspiration for a story or even a song. How about maps of your surroundings with points of interest.
I dont want to carry around a laptop, a camera, a mp3 player, a GPS unit and a cell phone when all of what I need fits into the palm of my hand or my pocket.
No major manufacturer except for Sony endorses memory stick.
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http://www.konica.co.jp/global/press/020924_8e.ht
http://www.konica.com/products/digital/cameras/kd
http://www.konica.com/products/digital/cameras/kd
http://www.samsungelectronics.com/news/digital_me
http://www.samsungelectronics.com/news/digital_me
http://www.samsungelectronics.com/camcorder/digit
http://www.samsungelectronics.com/camcorder/digit
http://www.brother.com/usa/fax/info/mfc5200c/mfc5
http://h30015.www3.hp.com/products/detail.php?pro
http://h30015.www3.hp.com/products/detail.php?pro
http://h30015.www3.hp.com/products/detail.php?pro
http://www.lexmark.com/US/products/overview/0,122
http://www.i-love-epson.co.jp/products/printer/in
http://www.i-love-epson.co.jp/products/printer/in
http://www.kenwood.com/j/products/home_audio/digi
http://www.pioneer.co.jp/catalog/sys/x-sv7dv.php
http://www.pioneer.co.jp/av-sys/hd1/index.html
http://www.sun-denshi.co.jp/scc/bb/index.htm
http://www.sharp.co.jp/sc/eihon/wahp1/text/index.
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/Pioneer/CDA/Car
http://www.mitsubishielectric.co.jp/mobile/mova/d
http://www.sharp.co.jp/products/sh712m/
http://global.acer.com/products/pda/s60.htm
http://global.acer.com/products/pda/s50.htm
http://www.global.acer.com/products/pda/n20w.htm
http://www.global.acer.com/products/pda/s15.htm
http://www.clevo.com.tw/products/images/8880.pdf
http://pr.fujitsu.com/jp/news/2002/10/8-2.html
http://www.nec.co.jp/press/ja/0210/1004-30.html
http://121ware.com/product/pc/lavie/200205/pro/sp
http://www.alpine.co.jp/alpine/navi02/n02.html
http://www.datatec.co.jp/sr/index.html
http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/cpg_pro
Shall I go on?
And yes, the memory stick format is much more expensive
I just paid $30 for 128 MB MS. Show me a better price for CF or SD/MMC.
not to mention has various confusing variations (e.g. magic gate)
You mean 2? Magic gate, non-Magic gate? Boy, that is confusing.
and is still proprietary
"Proprietary", eh? Guess what? All of the major formats are proprietary. Want to sell a CF device? You can if you ante up to the CF org. Sony has released quite a few specifications (http://www.memorystick.org/topics/eng/aboutms/fo
You might find prices on Amazon.com come close to CF or SD/MMC but I can walk into any camera shop and be offered compact flash cards by 3 or 4 manufactures where I'd be lucky if could find 2 for memory stick.
I count 6 manufacturers of Memory Stick: Lexar, SanDisk, Sony, I-O Data, Apacer Tech.
Acer [acer.com] makes some PalmOS based PDA's that use Memory stick.
All right, I stand corrected. But my point remains - SD/MMC is the de facto standard for PalmOS based devices, meaning you have more options if your PDA can use them.
Acer [acer.com] makes some PalmOS based PDA's that use Memory stick.
Which leaves us with a total of 1 producer to buy these items from. 1 producer = no competition. And thus, memory sticks are indeed more expensive than their SD/MMC equivalents.
In fact, you might be surprized at the number of devices that support memory stick [memorystick.com] (Kenwood, Pioneer, Samsung, HP, Fujitsu, NEC, Alpine, Konica, Mitsubishi, and Sharp are among the companies that make memory stick devices)
Right, but I'm not interested in those. I'm a PDA guy. (Note that my original post began with "The thing that I don't like about MS...")
-Enfors-