REVIEW: Sony CLIE PEG-S320

[Steve]

Read the Brighthand review at http://www.brighthand.com/html/palmo...320_page1.html

[imported_thadrool]

Saw the S320 at best buy today and must say it is a fine device indeed. IMO, it's the best monochrome Palm out there today. The size was TINY, to say the least and the screen was very, very sharp. Only negative I can think of is a lack of a cover over the memory stick slot. Why they didn't put it on, I don't know. But, I'm sure putting in a MS will solve the problem.

Anyway, very nice unit. The other Palm OS hardware manufacturers better come out with something that compares before Sony cleans up.

[kittykatt]

Ive wanted a sub $200 palm to buy ever since i dumped my vx for an ipaq. The ipaq is great but i am just really against bringing a charger on a trip so im very happy to live with palm. im very glad this is out. it looks great and the price is perfect.

Anyone actually compare the "feel" with the 300? i tried one at best buy (under those silence of the lambs restraints so i couldnt really hold it) and the buttons didnt feel very nice.

[imported_benw]

I've been looking at a Clies to go alongside my iPaq for sometime now and at $200 this has got to be the one!

Anyone know of anywhere else apart from best buy selling them? They don't seem to be listed on cnet/pricewatch.com yet.

[kittykatt]

best buy actually has it on sale this week for $189.

[rldunn]

Originally posted by kittykatt
Anyone actually compare the "feel" with the 300? i tried one at best buy (under those silence of the lambs restraints so i couldnt really hold it) and the buttons didnt feel very nice.

I had an S300 for 6 months and now have the S320 (screen fracture, not choice). IMO, the buttons on the S320 are one of the biggest improvements over the 300. The buttons on the 300 felt very cheap to me. On the 320, they fell very sturdy and like metal. They may be plastic, but since they're so flush in the holes in the chrome faceplate, there's no wiggle at all. Of course, I don't play games on mine, so gamers may have a different opinion.

[imported_Guest]

the S300/E has only just been released here in England (not too long ago)... so we wont be seeing S320/E for a long time yet. the uk s300 now ships with 3.5.2 in it, and other software updates.

(msgate still sucks no matter what version you have, mcfile all the way).

[JLP]

Now if only Sony can gets some of those Memory Stick modules to market.

I'm afraid these mockups we have seen at different places are all you will get for a long time. Technology is far from there yet to be able to bring to market such devices as GPS, digicam, MP3 players, finger print readers, modems, LAN cards, etc. in such tiny form factors; this is valid for MemorySTINK as well as MMC/SD.

Some devices are only available in the much bigger PC Card format and some barely came out on the market in CF card size which is still quite bigger than MemorySICK or MMC/SD.

BlueTooth cards are reported to come in MMC/SD package soon but I'd be surprised if it comes before a year to a year and a half.

In the early nineties, when the first PC Card type III HDD came on the market (40 MB), companies announced their plans to make type II and even type I PC Card HDDs. It took almost a full decade to produce the type II one and the only type I HDD (in a CF package BTW) that was announced 2 years ago by Halo Data doesn't seem to exist yet. IBM, the inventor of the Winchester technology found in today's desktop and notebook HDDs is the only company producing CF HDDs. Tho some other competition has been announced by an unknown Far Eastern company. It's quite strange that HDD giants like WD, Conner and Quantum haven't announced anything yet, 3 years after IBM announced their MD.

Back to MemorySINK products, don't expect the above mentionned I/O products to come on the market before 3-4 years.

I believe MemorySTINK is the new Betamax-like "coup foireux" from Sony.

jlp

NB: "coup foireux" is French and has nothing to do with "coup fourr?" that you heard about in the now famous "Mille Bornes" French card game; in fact it's just the opposite meaning: lame or lousy. But since it is quite close phonetically I had to put it here . If you need pronunciation help, just ring me.

[bradhaak]

Are you sure that Memory Stick isn't the new 3.5" floppy??

[JLP]

Originally posted by bradhaak
Are you sure that Memory Stick isn't the new 3.5" floppy??

YES I'm sure the MemorySICK isn't the new 3.5" floppy, it's Sony's new flop !!!

When Sony Came out with their (THE if you will) 3.5" floppy there was just the 5 1/4" one on the market. And IBM was THE reference in computing. Today it's M$, i.e. software not hardware.

Anyway IBM adopted Sony's FDD and everybody else had to follow.

When Sony's FDD came out Sanyo also tried their shot with a 3" floppy (this one was 3 not 3.5"). It didn't have a mobile door to cover the magnetic media and... IBM had chosen Sony's floppy anyway.

The market is totally different today: First, about 10 years ago, there was the PCMCIA standard based on a specification by a Japanese developer association: JEIDA (Japan Electronic Industry Development Association). At first it was to harmonize, standardize on memory card formats, and later developped to what we know today (I/O, CardBus, Zoom Video; 16 then 32 bits).

Then Sandisk developped a smaller version specifically for memory cards too: CompactFlash; that also was enhanced to accept I/O functions.

Intel tried to make a competing format called MiniatureCard that never caught on. The only commercial product that featured this card (that I know of) was an Olympus digital PearlCorder if memory serves right.

Toshiba developped the SSFDC, aka SmartMedia, and the only "smart feature" is in the name . It succeeded somewhat in the digital camera and in the earlier MP3 players sectors.

And then Sandisk did it again with a once more smaller card, the MultiMediaCard. This one doesn't have anything to do intrinsically with multimedia, BTW; guess it was a nice enough buzzword to name a brand after it.

Now Sony used to use CF cards in their earliest digicams, but they soon realized that they could make big bucks by making their own standard and try to impose them like they did with the CD (and MD to some degree).

Only MAJOR difference is that the CD and MD have NO competition (Philips failed with their DCC), while the MemorySTINK has plenty that came much earlier, are more potent, offer much more capacity, more functionalities and are NOT PROPRIETARY. Also competition offers free, uncrippled and unrestricted usage contrary to Sony's MagicGate (MG).

MG was invented thanks to the Columbia/Sony Entertainment division that lives by controlling music and movies copyrights on a very large chunk of the multibillion $$$$$$ entertainment industry.

Because of the MG cards, you can't use what you legally aquire (music, movies and soon ebooks, games, you-name-it-digital), the way you want it but THE WAY SONY WANTS YOU TO USE IT: with many restrictions about which they keep very silent of course.

Talk about Big Brother.

Now some companies have created the same kind of restrictions associated with MMC cards: the so called "Secure Digital".

By using a crafty and sly wording, Secure (every body loves security, wants to feel secure, needs security, craves for security) they are hammering their restrictive, crippling, limitative designs into the unsuspecting consumers' heads: ours. It is deemed secure as: you can't copy your legally aquired MP3/WMA, etc. files back from your portable device to your computer, you'll have to delete them and reload them later, you can't listen to them in another device of yours: notebook, PocketPC, etc.. After 3 times loading any song, etc. you'll have to check the original CD/whatever, or you'll have to rip the song from the CD again.

It's kind of like a lock: you can put everything you want inside, and you can access your information and others can't; except here you can't get them out even yourself (at least with many limitations) and you neither can't use them elsewhere than in the original device.

This is what SDMI (1) is all about and all new MP3 players have to conform to the SDMI specifications. The RCA Lyra (based on a CF slot BTW) was one of the very first MP3 players to incorporate this more than a year ago. While transfering your MP3 files it encrypts them so you can't use them in your PocketPC or notebook for example if you'd wish.

Just like the DiVX DVDs did not so long ago (2). Before becoming well known as a compression algorhythm name, DiVX was a modified version of the DVD disk standard for movies with a pay per view scheme. You could buy a DiVX DVD disk for cheap, view it once and any subsequent view would cost you extra dollars. You had to plug a phone line into the DiVX player before you could watch anything. It dialled into a server that spied on your watching any movies billing you for any additional view, the first being "free"; i.e. you already paid it once when buying the disc.

It's a good thing it never really cought on, but today countless people are left in the cold with millions of unusable DiVX DVD discs.

And soon it will most probably be the same with the MemorySINK/MG when it will go the way of the BetaMax, leaving unsuspecting customers with crippled, restricted, limited and maybe unusable cards and devices in the near future.

So go buy Sony, before your devices become museum material/paperweight .



jlp

1) Secure Digital Music Initiative, made up by all the Majors in the music industry with technology companies (IT & hardware) that "had" to follow: www.sdmi.org

2) read more at http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/B.../7423/divx.htm