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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."
God I love seeing shiny new gizmos coming out.
Not cos' I can afford them by any stretch of the imagination, but it means that the thing I've been wanting for the last 3 months is soon to be that much closer to my budget cos' it's becoming outdated...
'Don't worry' said the trees when they saw the axe coming, 'The handle is one of us.'
I for one, am a happy Ipod owner. I am very happy that the device will let me play music files. I do not need to watch videos on it, i do not need to call with it or whatever else manufacturers want to sell me. I just want to listen to music with as little fuss as possible, and the ipod serves that purpose admirably. Not to mention it integrates great with my operating system :-)
Like Toshiba, I imagine Sony will cripple an otherwise decent piece of hardware with some sort of DRM scheme. Besides, it looks too complicated to be of much use as audio player and too geeky to be bought by anyone other than otaku and clueless salarymen.
25+ buttons? Do they not know that people like(d) the ipod for ease of use, amongst other things?
"Why are these the only approved OSs:
Windows XP Professional/Windows XP Home Edition/ Windows 2000 Professional/Windows Millennium Edition/ Windows 98 Second Edition"
Probably so they won't have to support any other OS that could be installed on the device. Just a normal case of preventing annoying/too difficult support questions.
This is the sig that says NI (again)
Every mp3 player that has come out in the past two years has been dubbed an "ipod killer" but it seems the competitors dont understand that people dont just buy and ipod for the 20gigs. You buy it because of the look the feel, the adds, the feeling of going to the apple store and knowing your part of something.
i like sony and they make great products, and the video playback looks great but i cant see it beating the ipod.
my (22/7) cents
I can't wait to see what horrible DRM Sony includes with its newest music player. If the past is any indication the DRM will be the products major stumbling block. The Sony version of iTunes is already riddled by DRM issues and I can't imagine that this player would be any different. One of the major benefits of the iPod and iTunes is that the DRM is not a hinderince to the overall product, this is what needs to be copied by the other music players in order to be as successful as iTunes. A slick player with a slick interface will only get you so far if you cripple the right of the people to do what they want with the things they purchase.
Please do not let scientific accuracy interfere with the intended humourous/interesting/insightful value of this comment
The real question is bang for your buck. One of the big things with the powerbooks is what you get for what you pay. You almost always come away with a better deal with a powerbook. The best I have seen is another laptop come even.
THe other big plus in the powerbook is a BSD based OS. Not windows so there isn't as much crap (virus, worms, etc) to deal with.
Evolution or ID?
i expected a lot from this Sony device, especially in terms of design ... but after seeing the mini-Vaio, one thing is clear : iPod is still alone in his category - which is at least 2 levels above everything else ... at least in design
... just try boasting to your friends that you own a "Sony Vaio Pocket VGF-AP1" .. they'll fell asleep before you finish spelling the damn thing!
and don't get me started about the name
"There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
when a major multinational corporation, releases "new products" that are over priced and are "cool" because they have decorations that amount to 5 cents of shiny plastic,and a few hours with solidworks (=common cad program) /. drools.
When a major multinational corporation releases a major upgrade to an OS used by millions,and distributes the upgrade for free, they are the evil empire.
seems to be a lack of consistency here
It plays MP3 files by converting them to ATRAC on your PC.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
$465, it only plays ATRAC 3 format and the looks...well, I'm not sure Apple have too much to worry about. I don't think the Sony brand has all that much cachet these days - they just churn out mass-produced stuff built down to a price, same as most other manufacturers. Shame - they used to be a bit of a Japanese icon in the days of the first Walkmans, when Trinitron was by far the best TV tube you could get.
When I am king, you will be first against the wall.
Except if you're ripping from your own CDs you don't get DRM'ed AAC, you get plain AAC (which is actually a Dolby format) in a Quicktime container. AAC inside a Quicktime container is actually MPEG-4.
Microsoft is a Monopoly, Sony isn't. Sony isn't the only big company out there that makes good Stereos, or TVs or Laptops and PDA even.
And Microsoft isn't the only big company out there that makes OSs, office suites, or compilers.
But, just as Microsoft products work best with other Microsoft products, so do Sony products work best with other Sony products. If you buy a Sony device, you have to use Sony's MemoryStick, not the Compact Flash that is most common. If you buy a Vaio laptop, you're buying support for a Clie and a Cybershot too - even if you use a Psion and a Coolpix. Sure they aren't a monopoly - but you cannot deny that Sony does everything it can to lock its customers into its "platform".
And if they wanted to go with gestures, why not just use a trackpad instead of 25 buttons?
A 5x5 matrix gives you tactile feedback as to where you are, mirroring the on-screen interface, e.g. it's much easier to "go down two steps and then over one", etc. It's an improvement on a trackpad for this type of interface, e.g. a menu based interface where you don't actually have to manipulate a mouse pointer. From the animation I think this would actually be very easy to use. The problem with the iPod is that you can only go up or down, select or back. So to change the EQ for example you have to go back through lots of menus, select the EQ you want, and then get back again through the menus to the album you were playing*. This Sony device would enable much quicker navigation through the menus. The iPod UI is the best currently available on a digital music jukebox, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't have problems.
*5 back, down, select 'Settings', down, select 'EQ', up/down, select eq setting, back, select 'Browse', select 'Artists', up/down, select artist, up/down, select album, up/down, select song.
Dumbass troll. The sony converts (transcodes, even--ick!) YOUR music to DRM'd ATRAC, a format ONLY SONY [cares to] support.
iTunes rips your CDs to whatever real format you want (MP3, AAC, WAV, AIFF, AL) and NEVER adds DRM. The only place there's DRM is in music you choose to buy from the music store. If you don't want DRM, use AllofMP3 or rip a CD. That's not Apple's fault, ask the labels why they won't sell it without DRM.
The difference is that music you rip with iTunes is also compatible with any other decent player out there. Music you rip with Sony's software is compatible with other people with the Sony software, but oh wait, it has DRM so it's playable on the Sony portable and only your computer there. (And what happens if you have to reformat your hard drive and your GUID changes, will you have to re-rip and re-transcode your collection? So now you need two copies of your music. One real, one Sony Fantasy World. Great.)
Sony's entertainment division just brings down the electronics division. If they were this asinine back in the 90s, Sony would have quit making VCRs when they were still a must-have item, because clearly letting people record video is just asking for piracy. I think Sony should dump the entertainment division, spin it off and never speak to them again. Their hardware would improve immensely if they didn't have to worry about offending the dumbasses in the entertainment division who have no sense about technology.