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A Raft Of New Products From Sony Japan
my1wong writes "Sony Japan has launched a DoVaio campaign which features a lot of new stuff. ... Main new stuff included wide screen notebooks ( E series), multimedia desktop replacement ( A Series), long-awaited evolution update to the ultra small U101, and this time it's a tablet indeed ( U series). Last but not least, the expected challenger to iPod, it's called VAIO pocket, VGF-AP1. All very sexy... Guess Sony has been woken up by Apple's success with iPods and Powerbooks."
The 20 GB Vaio is heavier and bigger than the 20 GB iPod.
Great advantage: battery power for 20 hours instead of iPods 8 hours
Just got a Vaio for our President, one of the small ones, he loves it and all, but the problem I have with the Sony's is the sheer amount of crap they install on the machines - the thing just seems to really drag its feet due to all the unnecessary software installed. I got rid of most of it anyways, but what a pain.
The huge difference being that the iPod plays MP3s, WAVs, AIFFs, and AAC.
The Sony job only plays its own format.
So your analogy is fundamentally flawed.
-- james
Some general comments after reading the posts, and checking the links...
It looks like the actual WideScreen offering from Sony is the S-series
(Link: http://www.vaio.sony.co.jp/Products/VGN-S70B/), not the E-series as mentioned in the post. Looks cool, but I think the WideScreen to buy if you are going to go ye old Windows or Linux route would be a 64-bit offering, like the current 64-bit AMD laptop from eMachines.
Glad to see that Sony lowered the resolution on the U-series. The older U1/U3/U101 model had XGA resolution on a 6.4 screen. I saw a U3 at trade show...beautiful screen, but talk about turning you cross-eyed. It was almost necessary to use the magnifier tool on every screen. 800x600 just makes more sense on a screen this small.
Any finally, that new VAIO Pocket player looks more like RCA Lyra Audio/Video jukebox then it does the iPod. I believe the Lyra lasted less than a year for RCA (they don't sell it from their web site anymore). I'd say Sony's will most likely follow that same fate. Most consumers I know want more storage in a smaller size, not larger.
My Japanese is not that good, but my vision is... for now
(void) signal(SIGALRM, (alarm_fired=1)); if (alarm_fired) printf("Revoke is clueless!\n");
Once again, your brain fails to do any research. A simple Google search would show that AAC is in fact an *INDUSTRY* standard defined by both the ISO and IEC.
That means it's an OPEN standard that ANYONE can use.
In short, your ignorance and hatred of Apple is clearly manifest and thus not suitable for discussion among normals.
*YOU HAVE LOST*.
Interesting views on Apple...but those aside, do understand that the more you insist "AAC format is [Apple]'s own format", the more you make a fool of yourself.
MPEG-4 AAC is actually the next generation of MPEG (.MP3 files would be a previous generation).
So be sure you know what you are talking about, other wise it makes you look like..er.."CRAP".
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
Not video, so much as a color menu screen with appropriate graphics for whatever artist's song happens to be playing.
The menus are nice and I like the industrial design on the thing, Sony knows their shit in the ID department. Alas, as has been said elsewhere, the ATRAC kinda kills it. Drop that, give me the 20 hour battery life, and we're good to go.
Will it be an iPod killer? probably not, but it'll definitely turn a few heads.
Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine...
The IPods not much smaller than the Sony player. Sony's player has the following dimensions:
11.5 x 6.3 x 1.7(cm) as compared to 10.4 x 6 x 1.57 (cm) for the IPod (20 GB)
It weighs 195gms as compared to IPods 158 grams.
Read short writeup from The Register
Not sure if the Sony player plays video though.. It has a color screen and 20 hours of battery life. May give some competition to the IPod if the ease-of-use factor does not suck.
Oh yeah, and for all those nay-sayers who say that this will crash and burn, dont be so hasty. I know people who will buy a gizmo only because its a Sony. It has a good reputation that it will cash in on..
Please, keep your FUD to yourself.
There are no tiger attacks in my area and it's all because this rock I'm holding keeps the tigers away.
faulty laptop? sony *won't* sell you the spares. they don't even provide *drivers* for some of the suckers, as some different model numbers merely denote different OS's installed at delivery, and they won't let you change and keep support. they're legendary for the quality of a support - just not in a good way.
iTunes now will transcode (?) WMA files into MP3's or AAC for you to transfer to your iPod. This is exactly what Sony's ATRAC does, at least on its MiniDisc units. Anything you put on a MiniDisc is converted from MP4/AIF/WAV/MP3/WMA/FLAC into ATRAC and then recorded on the MD. Again, my only experience is with MD, but if you use Sony's software to do this (I can't, I use a Mac), the ATRAC that is recorded to disk has a DRM Check In/Check Out system is very restrictive. Much tighter than Apple's DRM'd AAC.
Yes this device does video. . .
to be more specific there are two models:
One that plays only music and displays JPEGs and another that plays video
Picture of the interface if anyone's interested
Link to main article in Japanese