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.""

Comments

That's a review?

[Doktor Memory]

While this actually looks like an interesting product, this "review" appears to have been mostly cribbed from Sony's product info pages and press releases, and provides pretty much zero useful information other than the screenshots and the base product specs.

A few questions, off the top of my head, that I'd love to see answered:

• What is the effective range of the remote-control functions?
• How does using the remote control affect the battery life of the unit?
• Is the remote limited to the control codes bundled by Sony, or can it learn?
• Presumably there is a PalmOS application being used to manage the remote functions. Is it...any good? Can you program macros? Does it even have a name?
• How does the battery life, weight and size of this unit compare to PDAs in a similar price range?
• Can this product use the 256mb memory sticks? (The reviewer even asks this question, but apparently couldn't be bothered to call Sony and ask.
• Does the foreshortened screen (compared to Sony's other clamshell Clies) make graffiti input difficult?

...nevermind that it verges on journalistic fraud to enthuse about how this thing can use 128MB Memory Stick cards without mentioning how insanely far behind CompactFlash and SD in both price and capacity this is.

This isn't a review, this is a puff piece.

Re:That's a review?

[palmpunk]

Well, I've had mine for about a month now. I think I can answer most of these for you.

-What is the effective range of the remote-control functions?
Works across my living room. I don't have a large enough space to really test it. I think Sony claims it to work 15-20 feet.

-How does using the remote control affect the battery life of the unit?
The only thing that is going to drain your battery more than just having the thing turned on is playing audio and using the bluetooth radio.

-Is the remote limited to the control codes bundled by Sony, or can it learn?
It's bundled by sony. So it is not going to work for everything. Doesnt work on my friend's satellite receiver for instance.

-Presumably there is a PalmOS application being used to manage the remote functions. Is it...any good? Can you program macros? Does it even have a name?
There are plenty of apps for previous versions of PalmOS, but this beast is running os 5. Couldn't say if a new one was in develepment or not.

-How does the battery life, weight and size of this unit compare to PDAs in a similar price range?
I have no idea on this one. The only models I compared were the Sonys. I think for the size/cost this is the one for me :)

-Can this product use the 256mb memory sticks? (The reviewer even asks this question, but apparently couldn't be bothered to call Sony and ask.
Yes. About three weeks ago sony released updated drivers which will support up to 1gb memory stick pro. Of course this updated driver does not replace the current one on the device. It takes more ram...

-Does the foreshortened screen (compared to Sony's other clamshell Clies) make graffiti input difficult?
Yes, using graffiti is difficult on this device. The keyboard takes a little getting used to. I find entering numbers, especially into splashmoney, is easier with graffiti. Entering more than a word is easier with the keyboard.

The brushed aluminum case is not as sturdy as I thought it would be. A leather case is a must for this device for when you do drop it. The only other problem I have is the small amount of ram in the device. Sony loads it up with applications. Which I do not use and cannot delete! Also, any upgrades do not update the program in flash, but stay resident in ram.

Epedemic!

[lexcyber]

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.