He means natively supports MP3s….as in playing MP3 files directly without any sort of conversion. The VAIO Pocket currently only plays ATRAC encoded files and won’t play MP3s natively.
Great. I just realized that there’s an update on Sony Japan’s site for the VAIO Pocket that improves transfer speed (not that I felt it was a problem) and supports the “automatic” transfer of album covers from SonicStage 2.1 (the latest Japanese version). There’s also more grouping options and sorting options on the device itself in addition to “hard disk performance” updates.
So, I’m going to perform the firmware update and adjust my review accordingly.
[EDIT]
Whoa! The revision is version 2.0.0.9030J compared to my original version of 1.0.0.05272. That’s an entire full revision. Now I’m really curious. It’s currently updating as I type…
They actually fixed a lot of the little issues I had with SonicStage integration and the disconnect between music on the VAIO Pocket and SonicStage. The review is going to have to be re-written now. :ph34r:
Ignore the initial query. I found the answer to my question.
This firmware covers the Vaio Pocket VGF-AP1 and VGF-AP1L series and will be included along with SonicStage 2.3; Sony’s Jukebox software for the player. Besides adding native MP3 support, the upcoming SonicStage will be updated such that it no longer needs to convert MP3 -> Atrac3Plus first. Player updates include better performance, speed-scrolling and gapless playback such as to allow uninterrupted playback of music ripped from live/concert CDs.
Well, I don’t have an iPod although I do have access to an iPod mini so I’m not sure if I can comment on either that well. I can give you my impressions about the Sony products though and I will do so once I update my VAIO Pocket to the latest firmware.
Unfortunately, I’m going to have to wait until they release the JDM firmware…unless someone can confirm that the EU version supports Japanese characters. I have a lot of Japanese music I listen to that have track titles encoded in their native kana/kanji characters and I don’t want them to get mangled by a Western Alphabet only character set.
Thanks gr00vy0ne! I own several portable MD units and I can understand the need for Kanji support. Hopefully, Sony Japan will release the upgrade shortly.
I have the MZ-NH1 as well, thus my curiosity with the VAIO Pocket’s sound output. Since the VAIO Pocket is designed by Sony VAIO, it is plausible to state that perhaps Sony Audio and VAIO has different specification for sound output.
[quote author=“tifosiv122”][quote author=“gr00vy0ne”]Well, I don’t have an iPod .
Would you like to borrow mine to review for a few days?
Erik
Thank you for the offer. :wink: I actually played with my sister’s iPod mini to get the info. From what I understand, Apple does copy the MP3s over but hides them.
For some people, it’s an inconvenience about not having the actual files but it doesn’t matter to me. Being able to transfer the files over directly is simply what I needed. I don’t plan on transferring music off the device to any other computer.
