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Sony's New Vaio PCG-TR1A: 12" Powerbook Killer?
Anonymous Howard writes "Sony has a hot new subnote on it's hand: the Vaio PCG-TR1A. This subnote is packed full of features: integrated camera (still and video), 10.6 inch bright wide-format screen, 900MHz Centrino, CD-RW/DVD Combo drive, 30GB drive, 802.11b, two usb ports, firewire, 3.11 pounds and a magnesium alloy case. The thing looks really cool. For me, it's the first subnote that actually gives me a viable option for purchase instead of a the Apple Powerbook 12". Read a article about it over at Designtechnica. Check out this forum thread that has good pics, other then the stock pics, next to a VPR Matrix 200A5."
http://www.dell.com/us/en/bsd/products/model_latit _latit_x200.htm. it's pretty nice, although i prefer the c400 myself. the x200 is just too small.
vodka, straight up, thank you!
4.6 lbs.
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the strongest word is still the word "free"
Hmm... you obviously haven't looked very hard.
Seems Slashdotted--Here are some pics from Sony.com
Not so much a comment as a question...
What has really set the Vaio apart from ye olde everyday laptop was the interesting addition of the integrated still/video camera. Are there any other manufacturers out who do this? Also...is it really usable as an integrated camera?
I recently sold my Vaio after owning it for less than a year. Memory had problems, seemed slow and just did not live up to expectations. I recently bought a Mac PowerBook G4, my first Mac laptop and I am extremely pleased with it. Airport Extreme 802.11G works flawlessly with my Linksys router using the G standard, I have Apache, mod_perl, MySQL, PhP and host of other apps installed all working flawlessly. If you're looking for a great UI with unix under the hood look no further.
Well...yes. I just did so last Friday. I have an old PCG-C1VN (the original Picturebook) with the Transmeta 600MHz. It came with ME preinstalled (worthless). I have run several different Linux distros on it. On Friday I reformatted it and installed W2K as I just got a T-Mobile wireless Internet card (only works on Windows...out of the box) and wanted to use it on my smallest laptop. Went to Sony's sight and clicked on the link for Installing W2K on the PCG-C1VN. Had all the drivers, and all "special instructions" for such things as installing the drivers in the right order (dependancies in effect) and getting W2K to allow the odd (1024x480) resolution. Lots of drivers to download, but no real problems. Works great with my T-Mobile card. All that said, it isn't the most useful notebook PC in the world...I much prefer my Thinkpad with SuSE 8.2.
ER
I don't know about other models, but until I dropped it and broke the screen after 3+ years, I was very happy running Red Hat, then Debian and then Gentoo on my Vaio PCG-XG9. I found support for pretty much everything but the WinModem. A single anecdote does not a dataset make, but hey, you asked "Have you *EVER* tried..." and yes, I have. Successfully.
Nonperiodic Central Trajectory
Actually, Adobe allows cross-platform upgrades on selected software titles. If you have PS7 on the PC and decided to switch to the Mac, then just call up Adobe customer service.
You will have to sign a "Letter of Destruction" promising that you will destroy your PC version of the software and fax a copy to Adobe before they ship you your CD.
I did it, and only paid for shipping for Adobe Photoshop 7.0...
So you CAN switch without costing yourself an arm and a leg. As for MS products, that's an entirely different story, but then again, you also have OpenOffice for OS X as an alternative.
1 pound = 453.59 g. Ergo, 3.11 pounds = 1.41 kg.
To quote ars technica, "...[burning dvds] isn't just a luxury, it's a requirement" ;-)
The 12" with DVD-R is $1,799.00 (and includes right off store.apple.com: 12.1-inch TFT Display 1024x768 resolution, 867MHz PowerPC G4, 256MB DDR266 SDRAM, 40GB Ultra ATA/100, SuperDrive, NVIDIA GeForce4 420 Go 32MB DDR video memory, 10/100BASE-T Ethernet, FireWire 400, Bluetooth built-in, VGA & S-Video out)
So compared to the Sony, you spend a 1.5 pounds more in weight to get ability to burn dvds, bigger display, bigger harddrive, more ram, os x, and with the difference in price you could buy an iSight and ... gasp take stills and video. The review of the Sony puts battery life between 2.5 to 7 hours ... the Powerbook is like 3 to 5 hours.
I guess what it comes down to is that if you are willing to pay more, you can look at a smaller screen and video conference for two extra hours (assuming the camera and iLink aren't what drags that battery down to the 2.5 hour mark)
I'm not sold on the editorial stance 'Powerbook Killer'. :-\
Read Heinlein's 1953 Revolt in 2100, now more than ever.
Another *possible* advantage of the Sony would be the integrated cameara. However, the new iSight from Apple probably produces better images and for $1800 (12"PB w/SuperDrive) + $150 iSight even without discounts the machine comes in at a lower price, in addition to getting *DVD burner *extra two inches of screen, give or take *OS X and iLife, etc. etc. *FireWire Hmm, doens't seem much like a PowerBook killer at all.