... for Japan, but a U.S. announcement will hopefully come soon. I considered posting this in the headphone cable thread, but that would have been a bit much.
Anyway, I think this is going to be my next PDA, since I’m using an iPaq 1940 now with a measly 240x320 screen and no WiFi. The 320x480 screens Sony uses are gorgeous, and I’m hoping the TH55 has bulit-in Bluetooth (reports are mixed) and that the TR will sync with it over BT.
The price is actually decent too, it’s less than $400, which is pretty good for the features and great for a Sony product. I’m glad I didn’t push the “1-Click” button on the iPaq 4155 last week. Palm OS 6 would be nice, but not a real deal-breaker.
As a side note, is anyone else a PDA junkie? Admittedly a lot of mine end up in the drawer after a few months, but I’ve had PDAs going back as far as the Apple Newton and Sony Magic Link (oh yeah!). I was going to purchase an iPod mini, but figured an extra $100 would be worth it for mp3 playback with a lot of extra functionality thrown in.
A long trail of PDAs for me as well: (semi-chronological)
Apple Newton Messagepad 2000 (320x480 screen too, though huge)
Sony MagicLink
Palm Vx
Handspring Visor Neo
Palm m100
Compaq iPaq 3630
Sony CLIE NX60
Sharp Zaurus SL5000
HP iPaq 1910
HP iPaq 1940 (current, but not for long)
I got turned on during the PalmOS release…back in the USR days…I tried PPC when it was WindowsCE and one iPaq recently…a 5xxx series. I sold both of them within 2 months of purchase. I love the simplicity of Palm.
I find my current Clie to be just too much…more then I really need. I am thinking about going to a very thin Clie and a dedicated MP3 player.
If you’re thinking about the NW-MS70D, I have a NW-MS90D from Japan (same as the 70, only with 512MB memory). It’s a good player, but unfortunately it still requires you to convert your mp3/wma files to ATRAC before they’ll play. That was a big annoyance from the days I used my NW-E3, and I thought Sony would have done something about this by now considering they advertise mp3/wma support on the tech specs page. Also, the battery is embedded in the player, and Sony doesn’t sell replacements. I only get about 6 hours of playback despite Sony’s 33 hour claim, so I think I may have gotten a bum battery. I currently carry an iPod to avoid chewing through my Pocket PC’s battery, but I may go back to just the PDA after the TH55 comes out here.
[quote author=“cellery”]If you’re thinking about the NW-MS70D, I have a NW-MS90D from Japan (same as the 70, only with 512MB memory). It’s a good player, but unfortunately it still requires you to convert your mp3/wma files to ATRAC before they’ll play. That was a big annoyance from the days I used my NW-E3, and I thought Sony would have done something about this by now considering they advertise mp3/wma support on the tech specs page. Also, the battery is embedded in the player, and Sony doesn’t sell replacements. I only get about 6 hours of playback despite Sony’s 33 hour claim, so I think I may have gotten a bum battery. I currently carry an iPod to avoid chewing through my Pocket PC’s battery, but I may go back to just the PDA after the TH55 comes out here.
I was thinking about the NW-MS90D but I didn’t like the conversion and the DUO sticks. I am bidding on a Creative Muvo2 with the 4GB Microdrive. If I win I will remove and sell the MD and put in my 1GB CF card, that should be perfect for me. {and close to free, the 4GB card sells for around $250, so does the Muvo}
Good call on the Muvo2, I am thinking about doing the same thing if the iPod mini has the same 4GB Microdrive in it. It would be nice to have an mp3 player with no moving parts in it, I already trashed my iPod’s hard drive several times while jogging and had to reformat.
[quote author=“cellery”]Good call on the Muvo2, I am thinking about doing the same thing if the iPod mini has the same 4GB Microdrive in it. It would be nice to have an mp3 player with no moving parts in it, I already trashed my iPod’s hard drive several times while jogging and had to reformat.
I was going to do that because I think the Imini is better designed, but after a ton of research I found 2 things:
1. MD may not be removable
2. If it is, you will not be able to replace the drive. Same thing goes with the original Ipod, only apple coded drives will work, not any random HD.
This is what i’ve read online, not sure if it’s 100% true or not.
Erik, even though we have pretty different views on PDAs, PalmOS especially, I find myself tugged in a similar direction. I just broke down and bought an iRiver iHP-140 (will be great for transporting files around in addition to MP3s) Monday and I find myself more drawn to the idea of the Moto MPx220 (yes, I know it is rumored to be delayed) or the SE P900. As long as quickie web browsing isn’t painful on either device, I can dump the PDA as a device class. I don’t want the hassle of carrying around 4 devices with me all over the place.
cellery: The TH55 (if it has Bluetooth) would have been my ideal PDA a year ago. It will certainly make a lot of Clie fans happy when it hits… those that haven’t migrated to the T3, anyway.
I can’t move to a strict palm….I rely too much on the scroll wheel. BT is not a concern for me because my TR doesn’t have it and I don’t believe in BT {I still don’t see the point}...
Honestly, i’m looking at the TJ25 and a decent MP3 player. I know the TJ has had screen issues, so it isn’t a final decision yet.
[quote author=“tifosiv122”]I don’t believe in BT {I still don’t see the point}...
Took me a while to get into it too. The most compelling reason for having it is that I can share my phone’s GPRS radio between my TR, Clie and my phone’s WAP browser. I refuse to buy a phone without it now and any new Internet-connectable device I look at should have an optional BT attachment at the very least. It’s nice to be able to send my phone new themes, ringtones and pictures directly from the TR or Clie without buying a separate cable or using kludges like emailing to myself. I haven’t really found a good use for BT syncing other than scoring points on the geek-o-meter.
BT has been practically useful only with my phone and BT headset. I’ve never transferred files between PDA and phone, and I rarely ActiveSync via BT. I’ll never buy another phone without BT because of the convenience of a wireless headset, but I’d be fine with a PDA like the new Sony that has at least one wireless standard.
Yeah I use Verizon who has had 1 BT phone ever. I owned it, it was a 270c, best phone i’ve ever owned. The BT adapter {actually goes between the battery and phone} was something like $250 so I never got BT for it. My cell has built in speakerphone, so I have no need for a headset. I guess when more and more things start to use BT i’ll jump on….right now I am staying away.
I’m still using the Clie…but rarely. I have only the most simplistic needs from a PDA and my phone has slowly started to take over those duties. Also, with the portability of the TR, a PDA is starting to fit less and less into my lifestyle.
Portable audio is still necessary though. I switch between my Sony MZ-N1 Minidisc player and my original Sony Music Clip. The minidisc player is awesome in that the battery life is 14 hours standard or 50+ hours with a single AA battery attached. Of course, I have to carry a few MD discs around but at least they’re small…cost only $2 and can carry over 2 hours of music per disc. The music clip is for the gym…it only has 64MB of memory (which was pretty good for 2000) but good enough for 90 minutes at the gym.
I keep wanting to get a new MP3 player but I have yet to find one that’s really appealing to me. I like the idea of the MP3 player also acting as external storage but I haven’t decided on how much I actually need. I’m also intrigued by the new Sony Hi-MDs that are coming out. The new models will connect directly to the PC and act as storage devices. The new Hi-MD discs (which are the same size as the old ones) will act as 1GB storage media. The older discs can also be used at 300MB discs. Of course, you’re still stuck using ATRAC3+ (which I don’t mind too much) but now you can mass dump the files over…including any other kinds of files. The Hi-MD discs will only cost $5-8 initially…so, that’s pretty impressive. 1GB of storage for a maximum of $8…I don’t think anything else comes close to that right now.
[quote author=“Buckerine”]BT has been practically useful only with my phone and BT headset.
This too is one of my favorite uses of BT. I’m using a Jabra Freespeak BT-200 with my Sony Ericsson Z600 (and previously with my T68i) and it works so well when I’m on the road. The sound quality is good.
I also found BT very handy in being able to connect my phone to my PDA and check e-mail, instant message, and surf the net via GRPS. I did this during some of my client meetings…yeah, awful. They thought I was taking notes. :ph34r:
It’s also handy to look up contacts in your PDA, tap on their number, have your phone (inside your pocket) make the call and have the phone tell your BT headset to wakeup. That’s extremely geeky…but actually useful.
BT is also handy for the TR in allowing it to update contacts on your phone. It also allows file transfers to the phone and it allows you to add wireless keyboards and mice to your TR without the need for proprietary adapters or cables.
[quote author=“gr00vy0ne”]I’m also intrigued by the new Sony Hi-MDs that are coming out.
Yes, I agree…if I dislike the Movo {which I might, I didn’t like my Rio Karma} then MD might be for me…I can’t wait to see what they look like. Currently you can pick up a Sony MD Player/Recorder for around $99, that’s not bad.
