I just bought Sony’s internal CDRW/DVD+-RW…I will be trying to install it as soon as it arrives…I will post pics and my results.

Erik

I don’t want to give out any info until I am positive it works. I don’t want people to go out and spend the money if it’s not 100% possible. I bought it from someone who swears it will work. I paid $215.

Erik

I also suspect that Bluetooth will be omitted (again) from the TR series. I wish it wasn’t the case but for some strange reason Sony seems to think that users don’t want this feature even though it seems like a majority of people do want it.

I suspect they’re waiting for Intel to add Bluetooth as part of their Centrino technology so that they can incorporate it more inexpensively. Bluetooth support is supposedly on the roadmap for Intel although I don’t see it coming anytime soon as it took them so long just to put out an 802.11g product.

I doubt they’re waiting for Intel. They managed to do it just fine in Europe and in Asia. They are basically just saving the cost of the BT chips in the US, which is on the order of $5-$10 per unit. There would be NO additional development costs on either the hardware or software side. Bluespace NE English already exists and the BT boards are already being produced in quantity for the TR. There will be delays from the FCC, but the BT chip they are using has a blanket FCC approval and they will have to deal with the FCC about the 802.11 radio anyway.

Sony, right or wrong, doesn’t view BT as an important technology in the US and doesn’t feel it needs to add BT to sell equipment. As a big PDA fan, I know that many Sony Clie PDAs like the NX73 and forthcoming TH55 are equipped with BT outside the US only. Maybe with phones like the 3650 and T610/T616 becoming so popular, it will time for Sony to reconsider that position.

Depends on where you are. If you are in North America, I’d recommend sticking with the US machine. You’ll get Sony tech support and the dongle isn’t that bad. Sony US won’t help you with devices from another OPCO. You will have to ship to get support. Japanese machines have the best tech and there are some retailers like Dynamism and iCube that offer support on imports from the Land of the Rising Sun. Dynamism says they offer the device with English WinXP, I’d check with iCube. The European TR1MP is not the best choice due to older tech (slower proc, less RAM) and a historically high Euro/GBP vs US$.

I’m definitely interested in hearing back about the DVD+-RW swap.

I doubt they’re waiting for Intel. They managed to do it just fine in Europe and in Asia. They are basically just saving the cost of the BT chips in the US, which is on the order of $5-$10 per unit.

just another idea why sony might omit BT. there are countries, israel for example, that forbid the use of bluetooth for some reason. sony is surely exporting american tr’s to such countries, because of the use of english keyboard layout there. so instead of having seperate models with and withouts BT, just go for the one without.

I plan on buying a tr probably late summer if not before.  I was wondering if anyone had any idea if the tr will be getting anything significantly new besides a dvd burner between now and next fall.  thanks