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Sony U750P Handtop
captainJam writes "In September we announced that Sony's U50/U70 line was being dropped. With news today that a North American version of this handtop is coming out, that news becomes half-truth. The U50/U70 may be no more, but the line has been upgraded a touch and simplified by having just one model instead of two. Handtops.com has a brief look at the new Sony U750P."
I've read U50 reviews stating that the U50/70 is expensive. That's relative -- do you really NEED such a device? Nobody really NEEDS to watch movies or do any of the other myriad things one could do with a U50, the point is that you CAN watch movies and listen to music, you CAN check your email, you CAN play games, restart your HTTPD and sendmail daemons all from the comfort of your couch, or train. This is a luxury device, and given the specs and amount of effort that must have gone into making it, I don't think the price is expensive at all. This is the Rolls Royce of iPods, you pay for quality and finesse. The U50 is an extravegance that makes life more fun, and as such, it's worth every penny.
So it can survive being dropped? That's a neat feature.
Wouldn't it be better to buy a laptop for that price? Then you could play DVD movies and do a lot more other things too.
Then again, with this you can bring all your work AND media with you. Plug it in at work, detach it, listen to mp3s on the subway ride home, plug it in at home...
Nah, I'd still rather have a laptop!
Question for owners: what these devices are good at? I mean, at $2000+ it should offer smth that $300 PDA or $450 Smartphone don't. Please - it's not a flamebait, I'm genuinely curious. :)
that's the point: they're tiny, they look cool, and you want one. much like a mont blanc fountain pen or an omega seamaster watch compared to a biro or a cheap digital watch: they don't do anything different - they're just nicer - and some people are prepared to pay for this.
personally i could have bought a hundred cheap watches for the price of my omega, but i keep telling myself that the amortised cost per glance at the time is quite reasonable!
Captain Jam
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captainJam's Recently Accepted Submissions
Sony U750P Handtop
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OQO For Sale
OQO price and release date
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On the Possible Handtop Paradigm Shift
All true and at the same time completely missing the point.
Even the Sony Picturebook, which (closed) is about the same size, is awkward to use one handed. This thing is a tablet computer done right. Status poseurs aside: people who have need a tablet computer would find a normal laptop far too heavy and awkward (clam shell is no good for holding in one hand and driving the other; neither is a keyboard).
Bad analogies are like waxing a monkey with a rainbow.
It seems to me that Captain Jim gets off with these little battery operated toys.
This seems like a perfect applience for Bluetooth, unfortunately they forgot to include it, again.
Wireless keyboard and mouse as well as going online through mobile phone doesn't seem too bad as far as I'm concerned.
And those complaining about "get a laptop instead" clearly have no imagination. These are made to work in situations were you only have your hands to hold it. Eg during your train ride to work (which many US people don't do). It's made for use on the move, in those situations a laptop is just not possible.
I'm at a loss to understand the appeal of these. I can see the appeal of a handheld computer system with a large screen and I grasp the desire to have a lot of storage space on such a handheld. What I don't get is why a PC with its general purpose nature is being shoehorned into such an inappropriate form factor. It seems to me a device truly meant to be a haldheld and not cimply a tiny PC would be an overall better design.
I can see very few instances where something running a StrongARM/XScale chip with 64-128MB of RAM isn't going to be powerful enough to handle chores that would end up relegated to a handheld device. Current PocketPC and Palms can play video, compressed audio, and even 3D games. This is on top of all of the mundane uses like note taking, calendar keeping, and contact management they might be used for.
Running typical desktop software on a handheld device doesn't seem very appealing to me either. Running a full version of Word on a handheld while riding on the train sounds a bit ridiculous to me. A Word document viewer on a lightweight device makes a bit of sense but not the full application. I don't see many people with an overwhelming desire to run Outlook XP on their handhelds.
Then there's the price tag of these suckers. The U750 costs more than most high-powered laptops and quite a bit more than even extremely powerful and feature filled PocketPC and Palm handhelds.
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
I've got a U101 and it's a great carry-everywhere notebook. I can do all the emailing, websurfing and occasional sshing that I need.
But why on earth would anyone want one without a keyboard? I've tried surfing the web with tablet and there's nothing worse than trying to type a URL with a stylus.
This thing is just a really expensive media player - I can't see any other use for it.
Another example of taking all the shortcomings of a handheld device and mixing them with the shortcomings of a laptop.
In the real world I can't use this thing (or anything similar) in the field until I can make it through an 8 hour day of moderate to heavy use (outside away from power) without the battery going dead on me. And guess what, add the "wonders" of wireless network connectivity and GPS (2 important things for us people that have a userbase that works outside) -- and the 2 hour battery life will be at at about 60 to 75 Minutes. (I know to some of you that would constitute a full work day....but it is still not good enough for me)
(+1 Funny) only if I laugh out loud.
2 CompactFlash slots for Music and Storage (microdrives must be supported)
1 Zaurus SL-C3000 (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/15/linux_4gb _hdd_pda/) for form factor, bright touchscreen display, keyboard, NetBSD/FreeBsd/OsX (or linux)
add Ethernet, and 802.11b/g, USB 2.0
Full day battery(8 hrs) battery life with user replacable, standard AA NiMH batteries
Support, source code, and a vendor supported dev. community
Stir Vigoriously, pour into a sub $600 package
Sell hundreds of thousands of units!!!
"I say we take off, nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
The U70 does not use an active digitizer for the stylus. Some would argue that's a weakness, however, it allows one to use a stylus or any other point object (fingernail, etc). If you want a full review including a discussion on its handwriting recognition, check out:
Sony U-70 review
The guy, JK, who wrote that review went so far as to install the tablet pc os on the device. Said, the handwriting is very good.
The shipping version of the U750P will not have the tablet pc os, however, it includes ritePen which provides much of the same functionality.