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Sony Launches 2 New "Video" Clie Models
boss_ton writes "Sony is launching its newest Clie handhelds(NX80V, NX73V ), a combination personal video player and personal digital assistant, to the United States.Its already a huge hit in Japan. Amazon is reporting the launch date as July 11th. The NX80V is priced at $600.
Here's the scoop on CNet. The official product page is here."
A little electrogadget popular in Japan? I am shocked.
Us Clie-heads are less than impressed with this device. It's merely a generational refinement of the existing NX70 series; by no means a dramatic upgrade.
... but hey :)
The 'video' features touted in the headline have been in the last several models. The new 'features' include additional hardware buttons for when the device is in tablet mode; a collapsable CF slot (which can only be collapsed when not in use), a backlit keyboard, and an improvement over the NX series' cameras (1.3 MP on the NX80 - still not as good as the 2 MP camera on the NZ90).
Other inclusions are software based, including new Decuma handwriting recognition (supposedly nifty - especially for Asian character sets), and Sony's new CF driver allowing CF memory to be used - which isn't as powerful as Eruware's third party driver, since it doesn't support the built-in applications like playing audio off a CF card.
I'm obsessed with Clie's, and spend way too much time every day at www.cliesource.com
All in all, the NX73/80 are better than their predecessors but by no means exciting for those already owning a NX or NZ. I certainly don't think it deserves the fanfare the articles & slashdot headline etc are giving it - but hey thats PR for you.
Groove Salad -- a nicely chilled plate of ambient grooves and beats.
...because Japanese companies do not waste time with suing each other for every little poop. American companies behave like a 3 year old whom the lollipop was taken away.
Now serious: Japanese are more ready to spend huge money on new neat innovative gadgets than enybody else in the world.
It is the perfect platform for testing new products... check this: Sony QUALIA 016.
You might want to recheck your sources - Japan's military spending on the Self Defense Force is second only to China out of the Asian countries. It's most certainly not "a 1000 person National Guard".
(If you want hard figures, according to the SDF's page, the budget for military spending for this year was 4,926,500,000,000 yen, which at the current exchange rate is 41,852,858,368 US dollars - not exactly peanuts.)
A lot of us were surprised it didn't have built-in Bluetooth. Note however that the version of the NX73 Sony France released (and presumably the rest of the European versions) DOES have built-in bluetooth. France is NOT however releasing an NX80 at all, with or without BT.
Some reasoning here: in Japan, there are a ton of fast wireless data services, and they have CF cards for access (similar to a GSM/GPRS PCMCIA card for your laptop). The Japanese haven't really adopted Bluetooth; connecting your PDA/laptop to your cell phone for wireless net access just isn't necessary with all the wireless services they have there. Everyone gets the appropriate CF card and hops online that way.
Now in Europe, Bluetooth is all the rage - and pairing the PDA with the cell phone is almost a must. That's why Sony released the Bluetooth device in Europe but not Japan.
But we're all surprised (and I'm personally disappointed) there isn't a Bluetooth model in the US - adoption here hasn't been nearly as fast as in Europe, but it's becoming more popular.
There is of course a Bluetooth Memory Stick you can purchase to add support, but that's not as elegant as built-in. The high-end NZ90 model does however have built-in Bluetooth in all markets.
Groove Salad -- a nicely chilled plate of ambient grooves and beats.
You are begging the question here, assuming as true that which you wish to prove.
In some regards Japan is more advanced (robots, miniaturized consumer electronics, catering to every bizarre sexual fetish.) In other fields it is not (stealth aircraft, computer operating systems, GPS.)
Since WWII, Japan has not been allowed greater than a 1000 person National Guard
This is complete rubbish. The SDF is an army in all but name and far larger than 1000 men, although rather lacking in airlift and heavy weapons capability.
and is otherwise protected by the US's armed forces.
True. Damn freeloaders. But better that, than reviving the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere.
This has many effects. One is more money to spend on technological R&D.
Japan's government has poured billions down the R & D rathole, trying to choose technology winners in advance and shape their development. Remember fifth-generation computing? Most of this money is wasted, or at best can be described as subsidies for non-competitive but politically connected corporations.
Another is more money to spend on education, which leads to a smarter population capable of making huge technology leaps.
Much of the extra time spent on education in Japan is devoted to learning the 10,000 (or is it 25,000?) ideographic characters that an educated Japanese must know. We, on the other hand, learn our alphabet in first grade and add modest increments of orthography up to about sixth grade, after which it ceases to be taught at all.
Moreover, the Japanese educational milieu is brutally suppressive of creative thinking and independence. Regimented rote learning begins in early childhood and continues through the high school years, suppplemented by "cram schools" to prepare for the rigorous but irrelevant college entrance examinations. Once in college, students snooze through four years of studies. Even the mighty Todai is a joke compared to any second-tier research university in America, much less Harvard or Cal Tech.
After college, the salaryman goes to work in a big company doing mind-numbing work in a rigid hierarchy, churning out well-made but derivative consumer goods. Or he stays in academia where the hierarchy is, if anything, even worse. Maybe after he has been a professor's dogsbody for fifteen years he can get his name on a paper, or maybe not, if the lab director doesn't like him.
In truth, you could hardly imagine a system that would stifle independent thought more effectively. If the Japanese succeed in scientific endeavors like the blue LED, it is in spite of their educational system rather than because of it. And most of the true scientific breakthroughs seem still to come from us hairy gai-jin barbarians; the reams of patents the Japanese file are typically concerned with minor variations on trivial matters like building a better dildo or toilet.
As a final note, I have seen the inside of a Japanese classroom. It is spartan to a degree that would not be believed in even a poor neighborhood in the US. I guarantee you that we spend more per student per year in this country, especially in big-city systems where teaching and learning are secondary to providing jobs for otherwise unemployable union thugs and political hacks.
Furthermore, the Japanese have other cultural factors that contribute alongside these economic factors to create an environment suited very well for developing bleeding edge technology.
Since you brought it up-- I assume what you are likely referring to is the racial and social strictures that would boggle the mind of most young Americans.
The Japanese are the most racist people on earth, by a wide margin. Koreans whose families have lived in Japan for centuries are denied citizenship and barely tole
Too much Law; not enough Order.