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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that the thing I've been wanting for the last 3 months is soon to be that much closer to my budget cos' it's becoming outdated...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.'
Except for the proprietary ATRAC format killing of your poor MP3 world.
Ever notice that if you choose Sony, everything seems to work really well with if it is also from Sony? In their hardwary kind of way, they are getting as hegemonous as the big M.
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
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 :-)
I'm all for competition and for things looking desirable. But I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed with the two products I checked out (the tablet and the iPod-competitor), especially considering that Sony have a pretty decent reputation for product design.
I own an Archos Jukebox from a couple of years back. It's not the most attractive device. More recently (when I was passing through Singapore and Hong Kong) I got to see and hold the new Archos devices and they are a vast improvement.
From Sony, with a substantial budget and existing stable of industrial designers, I expected a lot more. The buttons are an absolutely crucial component of a device's usability and appearance, and I don't think these two products really stand out. I have an iPod 40GB (thinking of selling it because I don't really need it; but the design and usability is excellent) and it's a very attractive object. I guess I expected Sony to challenge that a little more -- to provide more competition.
'Thats they exact same thing a banana wrench monkey.'
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.
When will some company take a decent processor and throw it into a tablet? I used a Fujitsu tablet the other week and loved it. It makes alot of sense to me to be able to flip the thing over and read like a book. Great for kicking back and reading datasheets. Now, if it just had some gusto- I could put a bunch of design tools on it.
It is all Japanese to me.
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 have a Vaio laptop (don't remember the number, but 700MHz PIII in the slimline case with external CD and floppy). It's a really nice machine, but when I went to replace the hard disk I discovered something: Sony tech support is useless. The only thing their hardware support page tells you is where to send the machine back. No service documentation available, and no spare parts.
Contrast this with IBM, where you can download PDFs with full disassembly instructions and parts lists. You can order parts from IBM for reasonable prices, and they show up in a couple of days. They're actually *helpful* on the phone -- I bought a refurbed Thinkpad that had a European keyboard, and they cheerully talked me through finding the US replacement.
Can't tell you if other vendors are as good as IBM, but I can tell you that if you plan to touch the hardware at all, avoid Sony like the plague.
They've done it to me with a tape recorder and a laptop in the last couple of weeks. Numerous other crap before. It's reaching the point where I'm discouraging folks from choosing Sony, 'cos they can't even keep stock of a product for the lifetime of their 'Sony Style' magazine/catalog thing that they have here in Australia.
I find your ideas intriguing and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
$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.
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..
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.
I worked in Sony here in Japan. Every division except movies and PS2 is running at a loss. They have NO new ideas and the morale there is rock bottom. Everyone hates the President as an arrogant a*hole. 5 years from now they won't exist. It's goodbye Sony. They'll be bought out soon after they lose enough money... How many Sony appliances have YOU bought in the last 8 years? Not enough to keep them solvent.