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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.
The thing that holds me back from buying Sony products is their memory stick. If they would use Smart Digital or Compact Flash I'd get one is a heartbeat.
Check out Sony-Ericsson's new phones. I have the T-62u and it does a lot of these things out of the box, or with an attatchment. It has an attachable 32MB mp3 player, can take a camera, has a calendar, alarm, is synchable with Outlook and features GPRS "high speed" data transmission.
Its a greyscale display, but still has a nice look.. not like the T81i(I think thats the name) which is full color and features a screensaver. (Why in gods name do I need a screen saver on a phone?)
but I think Im going to swing less towards bigass PDA's all-in-ones and more toward smaller phone style ones.
I already have to carry my work-issued two way pager, my Multiplier geek tool kit, and my bungee badge on my belt.. adding a PDA just makes me look a bit too batman.. where adding a phone only causes me to lean to one side a little bit.
Maeryk
Feminine Protection? What is that? A chartreuse flame thrower?
Good luck fitting it into your shirt pocket or purse.
With this trend I foresee the following:
"Repeat after me: With this PDA I thee wed."
"With this PDA I thee wed."
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
The thing is a brick. 10.3 oz? And $800? Come on. Why not get a laptop?
I really, really, REALLY hope Sony gets off this everything-but-the-kitchen-sink kick, and release a lightweight, full screen version of the Clie. Hell, I have been using the Palm OS for years, but my Ipaq 1910 is on it's way now, because it is approximately the same size/weight as a Palm V.
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
But I made a laundry list of features yesterday of what I want in a handheld/phone:
Integerated Cell Phone
MP3 Playback
Voice Recorder
GPS
Memory slot (SD, Flash etc...)
Calender/Scheduling etc...
Full operating system (either Linux or PocketPC)
Clamshell design (hate having to use a stupid case)
At least 3 Megapixel Camera with optical zoom
I think we will have this in about 2-3 years and it will cost $500.
Any other features I've forgot?
Knowing me, I probably would have been bored/vaguely amused if I was left to my own devices. Then where would we be? And since I try to limit lust to interactions with my wife, I totally would have missed the mark on this one.
Thank Cmdr. Taco kids.Thank you Taco
*nix.org - Get It In You
Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate. Ex-O'Reilly/MIT employee, now a full-time Google employee.
Look, I'm a Clie owner myself...have the older T615C...Bought it for the crystal clear Hi-Res display that left the m515 in the dust (at the time). But there's something that's really eluded me about Sony's approach to PDAs....
Why would someone want a digital camera integrated in their PDA? Is there some aspect of Personal Digitial Assistance that involves photography?
Personal entertainment...games, digital music, wireless news service...things a person might use daily or to fight tedium, I can understand. But, a camera?
Some similar multimedia features Sony has touted for a while now have also perplexed me. Like having a picture viewer and movie player in your PDA. In what situation do I, when mobile, need to suddenly watch a 10 sec movie clip? Are people really carrying pictures of their grandkids on these things?!
Then I figured it out. Masturbation. The only viable use I can fathom for having the ability to conveniently and surrepitiously carry around tiny movie clips and random digital phots is to satisfy a lonely geek's need to have easy-access porn-at-hand...for when...ah...nature..calls.
I mean, is this the understood, implicit subtext in packaging all this worthless multimedia capability in a handheld/palmtop? (Wow. Even the form factor is masturbatory.)...or is there some other utility I'm missing?
I can only assume the digital camera is for the porn do-it-yourselfer.
Feelin' Trollish,
Me
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.
... you Lust After The Sony Clie NZ90 and you have 'been' with more PDAs then girlfriends
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.
Woo hoo!
How can they afford it?
I noticed another great deal the other day too.... new Ferarris are coming with FLOOR MATS!
To ensure perfect aim, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target
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.
Dude, that Palm's going to be faster than the desktop I'm writing this at.
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.
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
With a 2 megapixel camera and a 0.15 megapixel display, does anyone else think that PDA makers are concentrating on the wrong features?