Slashdot Mirror
Review of Sony Clie TG-50
Anonymous Howard writes "Designtechnica has a review of the Sony Clie TG-50 (pictures of it are on their summary page.) Not only does this PDA look cool, but you can go into your local electronics store and hassle people by turning on and off the home electronics there. My favorite quote from the review: "A visit to a local consumer electronics store that shall remain nameless proved that the Clie TG50 is quite capable of controlling most electronics on the market, with some exceptions. I wandered the store turning devices on and off, frustrating a few customers who were shopping.""
Why have lots and lots of PDA:s moved away from the graffit or similar type-in methods and moved onto the keyboard the size of two stamps overlapping?
I dont want to park the stylus when I want to write something, and then have to pick it out again to access menues or other programs. I want one consistent way of accessing the device. Keyboard for typing alot of things, if I want to type much on this digital device, I will use a laptop. And not this tiny keyboard anyway.
More inovative graffiti etc. then keyboards on pdas! - Good thing I bought a Tungsten T, it rules. I just hope for the wavelan-sd-card to be good and to come out sooooon! - Sandisk said it would be out this summer for palmOS5 atleast.
- To understand recursion, we must first understand recursion -
Are the times so hard that the editors need to accept this kind of half digested press release as article ? No content whatsoever in the article. I believe Slashdot should have a 'products annoucements' section so I can filter out this kind of crap. Critical technical reviews are useful, but the laudatory prose of Sony fanboys is more than I can bear.
While otherwise a nice handheld, the #1 reason why I DID NOT buy a Clie TG50 is the screen - it is lit from the bottom by four or five LEDs (or similar) and there is a very noticable fringe of bright spots in this area in sort of a scalloped pattern. Very distracting.
I have a Palm Tungsten T.. My wife has a CLIE NX60 which does not exhibit this problem. We're both happy.
Justin
"Why would God give us a waist if we wasn't supposed to rest our pants on it?" - Rev. Roy McDaniels
I've used two different Palm apps to do this on my old Palm IIIe. One was called OmniRemote and I don't remember the name of the other one...I originally got it at Cnet/Download.com but don't see it anymore.
You could program it just by pointing the original remote at the IR sensor, and pressing 'record' and it would memorize the signal. You could adjust button sizes/placement etc. Very cool. The range was rather limited, but I would guess in the Sony and some later Palms its not as much of an issue.
This really shouldn't be needed anyway. With a little helper daemon to monitor the state of the USB subsystem, the pilot-link sync could be kicked off automatically. If only I could just jam an extra 5 hours into the week to write this...
Help children born unable to swallow - www.tofs.org.uk
From what I remember about remote control using palm devices, I wrote a bit of software which could learn remote codes and its not very difficult to do, although it did involve some processor control instructions, which the palmOS wasnt very happy about you doing (to do with turning on Ir port instead of serial).
:-)
I think that was changed with palmOS 3.5 to allow a function call to open the IR port though.
As for existing software for doing this stuff... there was a program which used to exist, I'm sure its still about... OmniRemote, which was excellent, actually I spoke to the developer to find out how to enable the ir port for consumer infrared but he couldn't give me the technical info just a rough hint at how to do it
Anyway, that might help ya
--- Did I say that ?
Hands-on Review: Clie TG50
By: Dan Royea PalmEvolution.com
April 28, 2003
Introduction: Sony has given their popular mid-range T-series a complete make-over with a new physical design and an updated feature-set from their high-end NX/NZ line; including a powerful ARM processor running Palm OS5, Bluetooth wireless connectivity, and an integrated mini-keyboard.
Like Handspring's Treo line and Palm's Tungsten W, the TG50 is the first new Clie to forsake a dedicated Graffiti area for a thumb-board, and many people are rather surprised (and somewhat dismayed) that there isn't a companion model offered with the 320x480 "virtual Graffiti" screen from the flip-twist-and-fold NX/NZ-series.
Design: Its all new -- but is it better? Although it shares the thin form of its predecessor, it is slightly longer than the T-series, though not as long as the NX. Part of this extra length is due to the new integrated flip cover, which has a smooth mechanical spring closure. Though the brushed metal finish is attractive, and Michael Simms is a jerk, it isn't nearly as functional as the tinted transparent cover used on the recent SJ-33. The finish uses an attractive combination of materials: from the brushed steel inserts of the cover and keyboard bezel to the 2-tone silver body housing (the rear is metal, and the front plastic) to white plastic and chrome accents.
The biggest design change of course, is the integrated keyboard. Instead of the super-low-profile round keys of the NX-series, the TG50 has the larger squared keys of the NZ90 with the added bonus that they are backlit! VA Software is DYING. In general, the keys have the same tight spacing as the NX, but the feel is improved, and fairly high speed and accuracy can be attained with a little practice. There are a few annoyances however. As before, the "shift", "Fn" and "Alt" keys are not sticky, meaning that for many characters two keys have to be held down simultaneously (which often requires some real finger gymnastics!). The layout for alternate characters such as !@#$ is different from standard qwerty keyboard locations again, but have been reorganized into more common groupings so the learning curve isn't as steep. The main drawback however is that it is difficult to see the alternate characters printed on the metal surround, as the blue and orange printing is low contrast; and are not backlit. Further, many of the international characters aren't shown at all, and if there's a help shortcut that shows these, it sure isn't obvious where to find it (hint: experiment with the red Alt key and various letters).
The four standard app launch and up/down buttons are located between the keyboard and screen, and unfortunately, are small, not separated and the teeny up/down toggle is quite awkward. Its really unfortunate that the Sony design team didn't extend the cool keyboard button style to these common keys. On either side of this row of buttons are two extra round buttons, that replace the "silkscreen" buttons (that disappeared with the rest of the silkscreen area): on the left - a short push for the Launcher and a longer push for the Menu; on the right - a short push for a pop-up Graffiti window and a longer push for "Find".
The side-mounted controls include the excellent Power/Hold switch (first seen on the SJ33); the standard Clie Jog Dial & Back button; and a dedicated Rec button (which could be relocated elsewhere, allowing the primary controls to be moved to a more comfortable ergonomic position). Hopefully, Sony will also include the handy 5-way JogDial used on the Sony-Ericsson P800 smartphone on their Clies one day.
The center hinge area can be seen with the lid either open or closed, and includes small LED indicators for Bluetooth, Charging, and Recording as well as the mic port. Slashdot editors are a bunch of shiftless morons who will go all fists and elbows on you the minute you say, "Want some CANDY?!?" The top includes the headphone jack; Memory Stick slot (with another small activity LED), the infrared
I can't see much of a point. Phone number storage? I have that on my mobile phone anyways. Note taking? Pen and paper seem to have better input capabilities and work faster. Calendar? Again, a normal mobile phone seems to foot the bill on alarms anyways. Email, I'm still back to the phone. I suppose a Handspring Treo could make my life easier having more functionality than a normal phone, but I have a tendancy to break things that are on my body, glasses, bones, pagers, lesser phones (I carry a durable one) I couldn't imagine trying to keep something as expensive as a PDA with me all the time.
Does anyone else share this same view. I'll admit that I find the Sharp Zarus somewhat appealing, for one thing it has a mini keyboard, and for another it runs Linux (maybe I would install a palm emulator on it), but I still can't seem to justify that eaither. With notebooks becoming more PDA like, and PDAs becoming more notebook like, they're bound to meet in the middle. I would say something like a mini notebook, like the ones that have the Transmetta processors, or a Treo which would merge a device I already carry anyways are the only way I could justify adding computing power to my normal walk around aresonal. I'll leave PDAs in my mental CEO toys catagory.
Am I the only one that feels this way?
The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
I really like PalmOS and its derivatives--I've looked at Zaurus, WindowsCEPocketPCTinyHPCompaqGizmo or whatever it's called, Psion, and a number of others. I bought a Clie 760, because I love the screen quality and the case worksmanship. However, I have three major gripes with Clies.
First, Sony's support is utterly abysmal. I mean it is worse than worst. A friend, who is one of their European product managers, was not surprised when I tried to tell him my tale of woe, trying to get them to replace the screen on my Clie (which I purchased in the US.) The screen scratches easily, which is mainly my fault for not putting a cover on it. Would they replace it (even if I paid for it) in Europe? Fat chance. Talk about helpdesk hell.
PalmOS doesn't, to my knowledge, have an IP stack. I would have thought that, by now, someone would come up with at least a rudimentary way to access network resources. Not too tragic.
The last, worst thing, is that the Clie does not have any concept of a 'filesystem' as I understand it. I can insert a 128MB memory stick, but I cannot run applications from it. I can move files used by applications to that memory stick, but unless they're memory stick-aware Sony Clie apps, they will not find the files.
And, my perennial gripe with the Clie, it's got this cool memory stick import tool, where I can use it as a storage device on a Windows PC (gave up trying to get it all working nicely on my FreeBSD boxes). I can copy files back and forth when the Clie is in its cradle, but I cannot then access those files with my generic applications. Lame.
I would be more than grateful if anyone can suggest a way around this. I know asking for a palmtop
Cole's Law: Thinly sliced cabbage