I agree mostly. I wish there was one single flash standard and everyone would use it. Life would be much easier that way. Its frustrating that my digital camera and my palm use different flash memory. I'm sure many out there are confronted with the same type of situation.
The thing I like about MS over compact flash, though, is its size. It is about half the size, and with all these tiny devices coming out, I think that is a real advantage. Plus, its easier to fit a bunch of the memory sticks in my cases than compact flash.
As far as functionality, they are pretty much equivalent now. The only real differences are available memory sizes (compact supports largers sizes currently), form factor, and supported devices. Speed may be another, I hear the MS works faster, but I don't know that for sure.
You are right, most palm apps are small. However, apps are only a part of the picture. I'm a medical student, almost a doctor, and there are tons of medical programs, books, drug databases available for the palm. The books and databases are often as large as 4mb. You can see where I'm going with this as 16 mb fills up fast. You can extend this example to many other professions.
Also, I use my Clie to listen to mp3's since I pretty much always have it on me anyway. Again, a large memory stick is important for this functionality.
As far as size, 128 mb is starting to get small, but a Sony MS is about the same price of all the competition's flash so I don't really complain. It will be nice when they start releasing the larger sizes, however.
Sorry dude, I think your getting ROM and memory stick mixed up. Obviously, the moderators did not read the article. Here's the snipit below.
It has 16 MB of internal RAM (of which 15MB are available) and 4 MB of flash ROM.
I never saw any mention of a memory stick, so it probably does not come with one. Since you can pick 128mb up for about $30 on techbargin.com and devsdeal.com, I wouldn't worry about too much.
After federal and state anti-trust authorities shot down DirecTV's purchase of EchoStar recently, their purchase by a corporation that already has its own state-mandated telephone monopoly is....
I believe it was the other way around, EchoStar tried to purchase DTV. Small detail, yes, but worth pointing out.
I've owned a Sony Clie c710 modified to c760 for one and 1/2 years. Being a medical student I work with many others who also own various other palm os models.
Off hand, I have to say the Sony's have done very well compared to their counterparts. Ignoring features, and looking at just durablity, I've personally only had one problem, which is common across all palms. That is occasionlly I have to recalibrate my stylus, usually after I've dropped it or something.
As far as screen problems, I've never seen a Clie with a broken screen after it was dropped....sure it could/has happened, but I've never heard of it personally. OTOH, I've seen numberous palms and a few visors with cracked screens after a fall.
Battery life has never been an issue for me. I make sure I leave it on the cradle at least once a week.
The memory stick, never heard of anyone having any problem with one going bad. Just make sure you get a blue, not a white one, to make sure you never have problems with mp3 playback down the road.
Overall, I've been very happy with the Sony Clie's quality as well as the memory stick, and all my couterparts with a Clie that I have spoken too would say the same thing.
I think slashdot did a good job of misleading readers. If you go to the page that lists this 'rant', it clearly states it is a rant.
He never claims its an objective review. He posted it on his personal webpage. He likely did not submit this to slashdot to read. Michael accepted it. It was never meant to get posted on slashdot, and problable doesn't warrent being here.
That being said, I think JWZ is more realistic about the usability of Linux than most slashdot readers.
If I'm understanding you correctly, you're just plain wrong. I have had a Clie for over a year, the one with the mp3 player, a 710 converted to a 760.
If you have a white memory stick, it will play only the ATRAC format. These memory sticks are rare, and I have never seen one sold in the US. Occasionally, they'll pop up on ebay. I'm free to convert my mp3's to ATRAC on my pc with the included software (obviously, not ideal but it works) and I can rip my CD's straight to ATRAC. Also, you are able to copy tracks from the memory stick to a PC, just stick it in any MS reader, including a CLIE setup as a drive on your PC.
If you have a purple memory stick, you can play mp3's or ATRAC on the Clie. Every memory stick I've seen sold in the US is purple.
So as far as DRM on the CLIE, its virtually nonexistant unless you go out of your way to find a white memory stick.
What your saying is true. However, it would not solve the problem the parent message brings up. Like the parent message, I only want some sites, like slashdot, to have persistant cookies. Otherwise, I want to allow cookies, but only for the current session. This is different than all together blocking cookies.
Mozilla is certainly heading in a nice direction. Hopefully in the future their cookie management will become more robust.
This is a legitamite question. I'm a big fan of.ogg, but most people I know just don't care. MP3 is good enough, and all the hardware they've purchased supports it, not.ogg. This has been said many of times, because its true, and that is if.ogg is going to go somewhere it needs to be supported on hardware just as much or more that mp3. Most people have not been given an obvious reason to switch and unless mp3 starts costing consumers $$, most will never care.
Hell, its damn near impossible to find.ogg files on the p2p apps out there anyway. I tend to share hundreds of them, just to try and spread them around, but hardly anyone ever downloads them compared to any mp3s I'll share.
In any case, the more progress.ogg makes the better, even if it is small steps like this. Hopefully, we'll start seeing some huge steps in the near future with hardware.
satellite has severe constraints on expansion of their service. It's really expensive (and risky) to launch a satellite, there are limited orbits for them to use, and limited frequencies for them to use. A merger would have meant that the two companies could have pooled their resources and offered local channels throughout the country. Instead there's a huge duplication of effort, neither of which is adequate. So instead of less populous areas being subject to a monopoly (whose prices could have been controlled by other means, namely a single nationwide pricing scheme), they're subject to NO decent service.
This brings up a good point that I've wondered about. Obviously, there is a lot of redundancy between the two companies. They broadcast many of the same locals, hbos, shotimes, ect. If the two companies were planning on merging, you have to believe they had some plan to condense all the hardware so they'd all work with the existing satillites eventually. There have been a number of theories on how they might do this, I'm not sure if any of them are true, but I believe it is a reasonable assumption that the hardware would be consolidated somehow so everyone used the same satillites.
So, if I'm Dish and DTV and I can't merge (which I believe is a good thing), why not sell off the satellites to an independent company that can keep up their maintance and charge the two companies fees for using the signals? Another idea might be to somehow create an organization funded by both companies that runs the satellites, oversees the creation of new birds, and keeps the ones up there already in good working order. In this way all the satallites can be used together to avoid redundancy and provide more local coverage. Also, both companies could remain independent competitors and sell their own packages and hardware to work the with independent satillite providers. In this way, some sort of competion is maintained between the two and the unnecessary redundancy can be avoided.
Just a thought. I'm sure there are some flaws in it, but it is worth consideration.
I think most people are missing the point. First, if you read the article, you'd know that the plan is for students to learn 'book work' and lecture material online, but to work in local hospitals and clinics to gain experience.
The thing most people people seem to be missing is, this isn't designed for developed western countries. The idea is for underdeveopled contries with a lack of well educated health care professionals. One major goal of this program is to keep talented young minds in their own country. The idea is, if they learn there, they will be more likely to stay there. This is a real problem for many counties. As a med student in the US i come across a number of foreign medical students and residents that are training here in the US. Not a single one of them has any intention of returning home once they've completed training.
Now I'm not saying this plan is without flaws. I'm not sure the training would be adequate, at least compared to that in the US. However, I could see how in some regards their on the job training could be superior than that in the US. Without all the lawyers to deal with, doctors in their counties would probably be more willing to let students do procedures.
In any case, if the organizers can develope a feasible method to track how much experience their students get, this could be great for underserved nations.
Wrong. After your comment about the show ER, I suspect a troll, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.
I am in my 4th year of medical school. Yes, the first two years is mostly book work that involves memorization and the introduction of a number of concepts. Even then, however, clinical experience is intergrated into lectures.
After that, medical school turns into mostly working on the floors and with your own patients. For example, I just worked in a real ER. I saw my own patients, made a differential, ordered labs, and did my own procedures. Of course, this was all done under the supervision of an attending physician.
I've also done a sub-internship on the floors, where again I have my own patients, write my own orders and do most of the work...with supervision.
Currently, I'm in the intensive care unit. Same drill. My entire 3rd years was much like this. What you are saying is emphatically not true. Now, not all hospitals that have residents also have medical students because the hospital may not have a medical school afficliated with them. Perhaps this is the cause of your misunderstanding.
As long as this virtual program can guarentee the type of experience we get in a real medical school, then I say go for it. This is a big 'IF' however.
Absolutely true. Night vision loss is a common, well-known problem with LASIKs. At the St. Louis Anheister-Busch Eye Institue, a technique was developed to use implants so adjustments can be made in case a patients vision changes over time. In addition, from what I've heard, night vision loss is not as common. Now I am no opthomologist and I do not know much more that what I've already said about the procedure. It is important to consult someone who is knowlegable about LASIKS and the alternatives. If the doctor does not know of alternatives or is unwilling to discuss disadvatages/advantages of each, find one that does, that is your right. You should be careful since most doctors will only be trained to do LASIKS, so giving info about other treatments may cause them to lose $$. My vision sux pretty bad too, and if I have my vision surgically corrected, this reversible treatment is the first procedure I will investigate.
One other piece of advice, stick to an opthomologist, not their optometrist counterparts if you want the best advice on how to care for your eyes in general. In my experience the opthomolgist is much more forthcoming about possible side effects of things like contacts and does a much more thorough examination.
I live in St. Louis too, but my observations do not concur with what your saying. I am not, however, into gaming like I used to be say 10 years ago so I may be off slightly.
Many of the malls I've been to recently ie. Crestwood and MidRivers have large arcades that the teens seem to flock around. Also, that new huge theater, i think its called Ronnies, has a large amount of spaced dedicated towards arcade games.
So as far as arcades are concerned they seem to be largly unchanged since my teenage days. What games are available may be a different story, I can't comment on that.
They already have the mp3 thing going on. Through their website I found several full length mp3s available here. I'm actually listening to them as I type this. Bands like this deserve props. I have a good feel for their music now. I've never heard any of their songs before much less of them. Its the kind of sound I like. Now I don't have to worry about getting screwed with an aweful CD...I just purchased the CD.
Good luck guys, I hope to hear you on the radio one day here in St. Louis. You guys should do a show here sometime, I guarentee you'd have a good following.
The Clie will play mp3's straight off the memory stick, no copy protection built in if you use the purple memory stick.
If, however, you do not know, and buy the white memory stick, copy protection is built in and you can only play their proprietary format, not mp3's. However, their software will convert your music to their own format. Personally, I will convert the music to Sony's format because you can get equal sound as mp3 but with lower bit rates.
I've never seen the white memory stick for sale in stores or on any online stores, so I'm not even sure if they are sold anymore. I have seen them offereed with Clies for sale on Ebay, however. So if you want mp3, just make sure you get the purple memory stick.
Of course Internet Applications are going to be big with consumers. I don't see why they wouldn't. They don't require installation, they don't crash, they don't take space on the harddrive and they're easier to use. This can be good to Linux. The more PHP or Zope apps we create, the better.
Let's suppose you are right, they don't/won't crash (I don't think that is true, but for the sake of arguement). Ok, great. It doesn't crash. What about when the network goes down at work or you temporarily lose your service with your ISP at home. Internet applications won't be doing much in that case. I'm not sure trading one for the other would even be worth it. At least with a crash you can get the program up and running, usually, in a small amount of time. Who knows how long the network will be down.
I did some more searching. Searching for "apex 600a" on Ebay, I was able to find about 10-12 players for sale currently. So, it appears Phillips has in the past closed the auctions for the Apex600a, but is not currently doing so.
From what I've read over at the Apex Forums Phillips is stopping the sale of Apex600a players on Ebay. Here is a link to that thread.
Here is a copy of the letter sent to people trying to sell the Apex600a on Ebay:
Dear Sir:
Sorry for your frustration. As our previous message states, as the patent holder, we have a right to stop ANY sale of an unlicensed product, and at this writing, the manufacturer of Oritron and Apex DVD players is chosing to be unlicensed. It is the Manufacturer of the player who is unlicensed, and therefore ANY sale of the product infringes our patents (NOT trademarks). The patents are on the DVD technology.
We are sorry for this inconvenience to you, but at this time you cannot sell this DVD player on eBay. Please be assured that we are working on this at many levels and we hope the manufacturer becomes licensed soon.
Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.
Regards,
Ginger Affolter
IP Assistant
Philips Intellectual Property & Standards
PHILIPS ELECTRONICS NORTH AMERICA CORP.
1000 W. Maude Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94085-2810
I just did a couple quick seaches for 'apex600a' and 'apex 600'. I got no results. So, you can legally buy an Apex600a in the US, like I did from Best Buy, but it is now not allowed to resell it on Ebay. That makes sense.
The sony clie does not use the processor to play mp3's. Its way too slow. They have a built in chip that decodes mp3s and their proprietary format - ATRAC3. The audio port is a regular ol' audio out you can plug just about any set of headphones into.
I have a Clie and also did not buy if for mp3 playing purposes. However, I do use it to play mp3s quite often and what you are saying in my experience is just not true.
If you use the purple memory sticks, which are the only ones I ever see for sale, you can play mp3s with the Clie, as many as you can fit on the memory stick.
Also, I'm not sure what you mean by you have to "use their software to upload songs". I know of several ways to put songs on the Clie. First, if you get a MS reader, you can copy any and all files to and from the stick thru USB.
There is a driver that comes with the Clie, when installed, that allows you to use the Clie as a MS reader. With the driver installed, everytime I plug my Clie into its craddle, the memory stick appears on my computer as a "remote drive". Using the feature, I can copy files back and forth, no restrictions.
You can also use "their software" on the Clie in the audio player to copy songs to the MS if you please. I have never ran into any limits doing it this way either.
The only limit I have ran into, is when i have used a white memory stick. In that case, I've been free to copy *any* file to or from the memory stick. The white MS, however, will not allow you to *play* the mp3s on the Clie.
Slashdot Mirror
Considering this deal to be had at dell right now. I'd have to agree. # Celeron 1.6GHz, 256MB RAM, 20GB HD for $595.
puck
I agree mostly. I wish there was one single flash standard and everyone would use it. Life would be much easier that way. Its frustrating that my digital camera and my palm use different flash memory. I'm sure many out there are confronted with the same type of situation.
The thing I like about MS over compact flash, though, is its size. It is about half the size, and with all these tiny devices coming out, I think that is a real advantage. Plus, its easier to fit a bunch of the memory sticks in my cases than compact flash.
As far as functionality, they are pretty much equivalent now. The only real differences are available memory sizes (compact supports largers sizes currently), form factor, and supported devices. Speed may be another, I hear the MS works faster, but I don't know that for sure.
puck
You are right, most palm apps are small. However, apps are only a part of the picture. I'm a medical student, almost a doctor, and there are tons of medical programs, books, drug databases available for the palm. The books and databases are often as large as 4mb. You can see where I'm going with this as 16 mb fills up fast. You can extend this example to many other professions.
Also, I use my Clie to listen to mp3's since I pretty much always have it on me anyway. Again, a large memory stick is important for this functionality.
As far as size, 128 mb is starting to get small, but a Sony MS is about the same price of all the competition's flash so I don't really complain. It will be nice when they start releasing the larger sizes, however.
puck
Sorry dude, I think your getting ROM and memory stick mixed up. Obviously, the moderators did not read the article. Here's the snipit below.
It has 16 MB of internal RAM (of which 15MB are available) and 4 MB of flash ROM.
I never saw any mention of a memory stick, so it probably does not come with one. Since you can pick 128mb up for about $30 on techbargin.com and devsdeal.com, I wouldn't worry about too much.
puck
After federal and state anti-trust authorities shot down DirecTV's purchase of EchoStar recently, their purchase by a corporation that already has its own state-mandated telephone monopoly is....
I believe it was the other way around, EchoStar tried to purchase DTV. Small detail, yes, but worth pointing out.
puck
I've owned a Sony Clie c710 modified to c760 for one and 1/2 years. Being a medical student I work with many others who also own various other palm os models.
Off hand, I have to say the Sony's have done very well compared to their counterparts. Ignoring features, and looking at just durablity, I've personally only had one problem, which is common across all palms. That is occasionlly I have to recalibrate my stylus, usually after I've dropped it or something.
As far as screen problems, I've never seen a Clie with a broken screen after it was dropped....sure it could/has happened, but I've never heard of it personally. OTOH, I've seen numberous palms and a few visors with cracked screens after a fall.
Battery life has never been an issue for me. I make sure I leave it on the cradle at least once a week.
The memory stick, never heard of anyone having any problem with one going bad. Just make sure you get a blue, not a white one, to make sure you never have problems with mp3 playback down the road.
Overall, I've been very happy with the Sony Clie's quality as well as the memory stick, and all my couterparts with a Clie that I have spoken too would say the same thing.
puck
I think slashdot did a good job of misleading readers. If you go to the page that lists this 'rant', it clearly states it is a rant. He never claims its an objective review. He posted it on his personal webpage. He likely did not submit this to slashdot to read. Michael accepted it. It was never meant to get posted on slashdot, and problable doesn't warrent being here.
That being said, I think JWZ is more realistic about the usability of Linux than most slashdot readers.
puck
What about the other Clies like the n710c and n760c? They both play music, any hope they too might support ogg?
thanks,
puck
If I'm understanding you correctly, you're just plain wrong. I have had a Clie for over a year, the one with the mp3 player, a 710 converted to a 760.
If you have a white memory stick, it will play only the ATRAC format. These memory sticks are rare, and I have never seen one sold in the US. Occasionally, they'll pop up on ebay. I'm free to convert my mp3's to ATRAC on my pc with the included software (obviously, not ideal but it works) and I can rip my CD's straight to ATRAC. Also, you are able to copy tracks from the memory stick to a PC, just stick it in any MS reader, including a CLIE setup as a drive on your PC.
If you have a purple memory stick, you can play mp3's or ATRAC on the Clie. Every memory stick I've seen sold in the US is purple.
So as far as DRM on the CLIE, its virtually nonexistant unless you go out of your way to find a white memory stick.
What your saying is true. However, it would not solve the problem the parent message brings up. Like the parent message, I only want some sites, like slashdot, to have persistant cookies. Otherwise, I want to allow cookies, but only for the current session. This is different than all together blocking cookies.
Mozilla is certainly heading in a nice direction. Hopefully in the future their cookie management will become more robust.
puck
This is a legitamite question. I'm a big fan of .ogg, but most people I know just don't care. MP3 is good enough, and all the hardware they've purchased supports it, not .ogg. This has been said many of times, because its true, and that is if .ogg is going to go somewhere it needs to be supported on hardware just as much or more that mp3. Most people have not been given an obvious reason to switch and unless mp3 starts costing consumers $$, most will never care.
.ogg files on the p2p apps out there anyway. I tend to share hundreds of them, just to try and spread them around, but hardly anyone ever downloads them compared to any mp3s I'll share.
.ogg makes the better, even if it is small steps like this. Hopefully, we'll start seeing some huge steps in the near future with hardware.
Hell, its damn near impossible to find
In any case, the more progress
puck
satellite has severe constraints on expansion of their service. It's really expensive (and risky) to launch a satellite, there are limited orbits for them to use, and limited frequencies for them to use. A merger would have meant that the two companies could have pooled their resources and offered local channels throughout the country. Instead there's a huge duplication of effort, neither of which is adequate. So instead of less populous areas being subject to a monopoly (whose prices could have been controlled by other means, namely a single nationwide pricing scheme), they're subject to NO decent service.
This brings up a good point that I've wondered about. Obviously, there is a lot of redundancy between the two companies. They broadcast many of the same locals, hbos, shotimes, ect. If the two companies were planning on merging, you have to believe they had some plan to condense all the hardware so they'd all work with the existing satillites eventually. There have been a number of theories on how they might do this, I'm not sure if any of them are true, but I believe it is a reasonable assumption that the hardware would be consolidated somehow so everyone used the same satillites.
So, if I'm Dish and DTV and I can't merge (which I believe is a good thing), why not sell off the satellites to an independent company that can keep up their maintance and charge the two companies fees for using the signals? Another idea might be to somehow create an organization funded by both companies that runs the satellites, oversees the creation of new birds, and keeps the ones up there already in good working order. In this way all the satallites can be used together to avoid redundancy and provide more local coverage. Also, both companies could remain independent competitors and sell their own packages and hardware to work the with independent satillite providers. In this way, some sort of competion is maintained between the two and the unnecessary redundancy can be avoided.
Just a thought. I'm sure there are some flaws in it, but it is worth consideration.
puck
I think most people are missing the point. First, if you read the article, you'd know that the plan is for students to learn 'book work' and lecture material online, but to work in local hospitals and clinics to gain experience.
The thing most people people seem to be missing is, this isn't designed for developed western countries. The idea is for underdeveopled contries with a lack of well educated health care professionals. One major goal of this program is to keep talented young minds in their own country. The idea is, if they learn there, they will be more likely to stay there. This is a real problem for many counties. As a med student in the US i come across a number of foreign medical students and residents that are training here in the US. Not a single one of them has any intention of returning home once they've completed training.
Now I'm not saying this plan is without flaws. I'm not sure the training would be adequate, at least compared to that in the US. However, I could see how in some regards their on the job training could be superior than that in the US. Without all the lawyers to deal with, doctors in their counties would probably be more willing to let students do procedures.
In any case, if the organizers can develope a feasible method to track how much experience their students get, this could be great for underserved nations.
puck
Wrong. After your comment about the show ER, I suspect a troll, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.
I am in my 4th year of medical school. Yes, the first two years is mostly book work that involves memorization and the introduction of a number of concepts. Even then, however, clinical experience is intergrated into lectures.
After that, medical school turns into mostly working on the floors and with your own patients. For example, I just worked in a real ER. I saw my own patients, made a differential, ordered labs, and did my own procedures. Of course, this was all done under the supervision of an attending physician.
I've also done a sub-internship on the floors, where again I have my own patients, write my own orders and do most of the work...with supervision.
Currently, I'm in the intensive care unit. Same drill. My entire 3rd years was much like this. What you are saying is emphatically not true. Now, not all hospitals that have residents also have medical students because the hospital may not have a medical school afficliated with them. Perhaps this is the cause of your misunderstanding.
As long as this virtual program can guarentee the type of experience we get in a real medical school, then I say go for it. This is a big 'IF' however.
puck
Absolutely true. Night vision loss is a common, well-known problem with LASIKs. At the St. Louis Anheister-Busch Eye Institue, a technique was developed to use implants so adjustments can be made in case a patients vision changes over time. In addition, from what I've heard, night vision loss is not as common. Now I am no opthomologist and I do not know much more that what I've already said about the procedure. It is important to consult someone who is knowlegable about LASIKS and the alternatives. If the doctor does not know of alternatives or is unwilling to discuss disadvatages/advantages of each, find one that does, that is your right. You should be careful since most doctors will only be trained to do LASIKS, so giving info about other treatments may cause them to lose $$. My vision sux pretty bad too, and if I have my vision surgically corrected, this reversible treatment is the first procedure I will investigate.
One other piece of advice, stick to an opthomologist, not their optometrist counterparts if you want the best advice on how to care for your eyes in general. In my experience the opthomolgist is much more forthcoming about possible side effects of things like contacts and does a much more thorough examination.
puck
I live in St. Louis too, but my observations do not concur with what your saying. I am not, however, into gaming like I used to be say 10 years ago so I may be off slightly.
Many of the malls I've been to recently ie. Crestwood and MidRivers have large arcades that the teens seem to flock around. Also, that new huge theater, i think its called Ronnies, has a large amount of spaced dedicated towards arcade games.
So as far as arcades are concerned they seem to be largly unchanged since my teenage days. What games are available may be a different story, I can't comment on that.
puck
They already have the mp3 thing going on. Through their website I found several full length mp3s available here. I'm actually listening to them as I type this. Bands like this deserve props. I have a good feel for their music now. I've never heard any of their songs before much less of them. Its the kind of sound I like. Now I don't have to worry about getting screwed with an aweful CD...I just purchased the CD.
Good luck guys, I hope to hear you on the radio one day here in St. Louis. You guys should do a show here sometime, I guarentee you'd have a good following.
puck
The Clie will play mp3's straight off the memory stick, no copy protection built in if you use the purple memory stick.
If, however, you do not know, and buy the white memory stick, copy protection is built in and you can only play their proprietary format, not mp3's. However, their software will convert your music to their own format. Personally, I will convert the music to Sony's format because you can get equal sound as mp3 but with lower bit rates.
I've never seen the white memory stick for sale in stores or on any online stores, so I'm not even sure if they are sold anymore. I have seen them offereed with Clies for sale on Ebay, however. So if you want mp3, just make sure you get the purple memory stick.
puck
Of course Internet Applications are going to be big with consumers. I don't see why they wouldn't. They don't require installation, they don't crash, they don't take space on the harddrive and they're easier to use. This can be good to Linux. The more PHP or Zope apps we create, the better.
Let's suppose you are right, they don't/won't crash (I don't think that is true, but for the sake of arguement). Ok, great. It doesn't crash. What about when the network goes down at work or you temporarily lose your service with your ISP at home. Internet applications won't be doing much in that case. I'm not sure trading one for the other would even be worth it. At least with a crash you can get the program up and running, usually, in a small amount of time. Who knows how long the network will be down.
puck
I did some more searching. Searching for "apex 600a" on Ebay, I was able to find about 10-12 players for sale currently. So, it appears Phillips has in the past closed the auctions for the Apex600a, but is not currently doing so.
puck
From what I've read over at the Apex Forums Phillips is stopping the sale of Apex600a players on Ebay. Here is a link to that thread.
Here is a copy of the letter sent to people trying to sell the Apex600a on Ebay:
Dear Sir:
Sorry for your frustration. As our previous message states, as the patent holder, we have a right to stop ANY sale of an unlicensed product, and at this writing, the manufacturer of Oritron and Apex DVD players is chosing to be unlicensed. It is the Manufacturer of the player who is unlicensed, and therefore ANY sale of the product infringes our patents (NOT trademarks). The patents are on the DVD technology.
We are sorry for this inconvenience to you, but at this time you cannot sell this DVD player on eBay. Please be assured that we are working on this at many levels and we hope the manufacturer becomes licensed soon.
Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.
Regards,
Ginger Affolter
IP Assistant
Philips Intellectual Property & Standards
PHILIPS ELECTRONICS NORTH AMERICA CORP.
1000 W. Maude Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94085-2810
E-mail: ginger.affolter@philips.com
Web-site: www.licensing.philips.com
I just did a couple quick seaches for 'apex600a' and 'apex 600'. I got no results. So, you can legally buy an Apex600a in the US, like I did from Best Buy, but it is now not allowed to resell it on Ebay. That makes sense.
puck
The sony clie does not use the processor to play mp3's. Its way too slow. They have a built in chip that decodes mp3s and their proprietary format - ATRAC3. The audio port is a regular ol' audio out you can plug just about any set of headphones into.
puck
I have a Clie and also did not buy if for mp3 playing purposes. However, I do use it to play mp3s quite often and what you are saying in my experience is just not true.
If you use the purple memory sticks, which are the only ones I ever see for sale, you can play mp3s with the Clie, as many as you can fit on the memory stick.
Also, I'm not sure what you mean by you have to "use their software to upload songs". I know of several ways to put songs on the Clie. First, if you get a MS reader, you can copy any and all files to and from the stick thru USB.
There is a driver that comes with the Clie, when installed, that allows you to use the Clie as a MS reader. With the driver installed, everytime I plug my Clie into its craddle, the memory stick appears on my computer as a "remote drive". Using the feature, I can copy files back and forth, no restrictions.
You can also use "their software" on the Clie in the audio player to copy songs to the MS if you please. I have never ran into any limits doing it this way either.
The only limit I have ran into, is when i have used a white memory stick. In that case, I've been free to copy *any* file to or from the memory stick. The white MS, however, will not allow you to *play* the mp3s on the Clie.
puck
Blue memory stick = play mp3s (plays "insecure music")
White memory stick = can't play mp3s (plays only "secure music")
There is no good reason to get the white ones, that I know of, since the blues ones are exactly the same except they allow mp3s to be played.
Last I checked I could buy 128 megabytes for 45.00 at buy.com after rebate. That is certainly comperable to CF and secure digital.
puck