MS Pro

[Spiral]

I'm curious how you fellow Nr-er's are feeling about the fact that MS pro will not support the NR (or vice versa, but the result is the same). I'm slightly annoyed, if you want music on a memory stick, it's no fun to take it out, flip a switch and only be able to listen to half your songs.

[JC2K]

Originally posted by Spiral
I'm curious how you fellow Nr-er's are feeling about the fact that MS pro will not support the NR (or vice versa, but the result is the same). I'm slightly annoyed, if you want music on a memory stick, it's no fun to take it out, flip a switch and only be able to listen to half your songs.

I have a T665C and feel slighted by Sony. As the 665 was released after the NR, it seems that this should've been a "consideration" with these devices. They were obviously working on MS Pro for a while and knew about the compatibility issues.

With that being said, however, I'm waiting for the T-series OS5 VG device. By the time this comes out, MS pro will probably be more affordable (i want 512) and upgrading won't be quite the "pill" to swallow

MS Select is not a solution ... it's simply duct tape on a punctured tire. Thinking anyone will actually accept this illustrates the way Sony "values" its customers. :mad:

[rob_squared]

I too feel the urge to break Mr. Sony's back in 3 places.

[thack]

As much as I would like to use MS Pro, I'm not completely surprised. I never really expected Sony to go beyond 128. If they had, it would have been a good move. I'm used to not believing technology companies until something is available. Too many companies with vaporware out there.

[ClieMarty]

i would have liked being able to use pro in my nr. but i won't blame sony that much. having in mind that the memstick startet with 4 mb those days it is at least understandable that there was a limit. speaking about the select stick with switch providing a driver or something for accessing the parts would have been better but if anybody wants to have more than 128 mb with him it's at least a little alternative.

the only thing i do not like is that i won't be able to exchange sticks between camera and my nr in the future, whereas the day will come where i might upgrade to nx (speed reasons).

i currently have one 128 stick; i hope pro sticks will lower prices of the standard ones. then a 2nd one for just mp3 will fit my needs. i mean come on, the nr/675 audio player won't support play lists. what good would it be to have 100+ songs with you then?

[zzarg]

I guess disappointed is the right feeling...
I'm writing this on my Sony C1MT Vaio, with my NR70V in it's cradle next to me any my DCR-PC5 (MiniDV) and PD150 (Pro DVCAM) cameras on charge in the next room
All of them have memory stick slots
None of them will support MS Pro
I currently have 2 128MB sticks, and a collection of 4MB sticks
I think the format is great, but the lack of foresight Sony showed with the current technology bottoming out at 128mb is sad

The NR70V saga has been interesting watching just how fast Sony has superceeded it's premier Clie with very little in the way of patches / updates / support for the early adopters. I am sure that the NR70 series developers could have been made aware about the upcoming MSPro format.... makes you wonder why ?

The Vaio has slower product cycles so less of a surprise there. The DVCAM well.... it's a fairly old one, but the MiniDV was superceeded in the catalogue within a couple of months of launch with the MicroDV and a couple of much better MiniDV products....

I guess with Sony you have to be aware that what you get is for today. If you want future proofing and/or an upgrade path.... you're better off getting Lego (I mean.... still no word from SOny if the NR70 will get the PalmOS update with Grafitti2 and other fixes)

[ClieMarty]

totally agree; have a f717 camera which will support ms pro, whereas some friends f707 won't. it might be a sony only that they focus more on pushing out new devices and show little care for their installed base.

i had a Vx once and support from palm (os- and device-maker in one those days) was great with regards to updates.

on the other hand also had an ipaq 3660 once which was sold with flash ROM for upgradability. now never was willing to pay some extra 50$ just for PPC2002.

so whereever you look, there are good and bad examples.

[zzarg]

I wonder if Sony realise what a huge market there is for updates / upgrades if make available, communicated well, and priced right is.
I'm not going to buy anything for a while now... will probably wait for a PalmOS6 Clie (assuming they make it smaller than the NZ !)
If they had an update path, I'd probably pay a few bucks for OS patches (but as long as I don't feel I'm being ripped off)
On the Vaio and camera fronts.... will probably lease future cameras and pick from Canon, Panasonic, Sony with no more pro Sony bias...

[leo_clie]

Is it really so, that they are not compatible? I thought I've read something there will be an adapter to work on the 'older' devices. Or not???

Could someone give me a link where it's mentioned, that there will be no adapter fitable for the NR-series resp. other Sony-devices? I don't see the difference between the NZ-Modell which sould work with it and an adapter + NR-modell.

[pixelated]

Thank god I got an NX :-)

[Spiral]

There is no need for an adapter to use the mp3 pro, however, i think all the devices besides the NX and NZ lack the ability in hardware, not software. I remember reading somethign off the sony website that said the f-717 (i think), NX, NZ support ms pro, and some vaio's too.

Maybe the adapter you heard about was to use Memory Stick Duo cards with Memory Stick Slots.

I do agree with the analogy of memory stick select to "duct tape on a punctured tire."

For the 50 dollar upgrade on the ipaq...in some ways it's better than no upgrades like from sony

Sony makes nice hardware, but their software is lacking (their support wasnt' too bad, i broke my clie, sent it in, and they fixed it)

[thack]

I don't think Sony ever intends to upgrade their units. Upgrading an old unit doesn't seem like a Japanese thing to do. As I understand it, the Japanese gadget freaks place a large value on the most recent model with the most features. Given the Japanese obsession with digital photography, the NZ will probably sell very well over there.

I think Americans use PDAs as organization and business tools and Japanese look at them more as gadgets. There is a 802.11 fad in Japan with hotspots in places like McDonalds. Thus Sony comes out with the NX. I really think their models and marketing are designed for the Japanese first and then the rest of the world.

I do wish that Sony would release upgrades and provide better service and support. The MS-Pro would be great to use as it would enable the NR to be an MP3 or Kinoma monster. Then again their prices are insane for the 512 and 1 Gig versions.

I had a Palm V and in some ways that was a pretty good experience. I was able to update it to 3.5 and update the desktop to 4.0. Then again, I paid $500 when it was first released and the bill of materials on that unit was probably less than $50. 6 months later they came out with the Vx at the same price point.

Now Sony definitely has better and more innovative hardware and I think Palm after Dubinsky/Hawkins left has had a lot of problems. The m505/m515 were not innovative and the Tungsten lacks the sleek appeal of the Sony units. I don't have much faith in Sony's service, support, or upgradability. They don't have a very good track record on these things. I really wish they did or that another quality company would release innovative, cool Palm platforms. I guess that's the price you pay for having hi-resolution, MP3, virtual graffiti, integrated camera, etc. before the other guys.

Personally, I'm going to wait until the NX70V gets discontinued before I upgrade. That way I can either get a deeply discounted NX70V or go to the NX70V successor. Maybe future features such as a TV Tuner/PVR might be extremely compelling. We'll probably know in 3-6 months what the next NX will be like.

[Spiral]

TV tuner would be useless in my area, tv reception is so bad that everybody has cable, I actually get satellite

Actually, I doubt that the NZ will even be released in Japan soon. I read that the Sony design team in the US that designed teh NZ and the Japan design teams that designed (other stuff) are compeltely separate. And also, on the japanese sony site, there's not even one mention of the NZ. When the NX was released, it was announced in Japan a day or two before it was on the sonystyle.com website.

I think it's actually mostly americans who are interested in huge stuff (SUV's for one). I think they prefer want more in the way of cellphones in japan.

[thack]

You have a good point. Japanese do like small cute things. I hadn't heard that the NZ was designed in the US. It sort of makes sense since the NZ is such a radical departure from the NR/NX series.

I downloaded the Sony OS5 SDK and I was reading through some of the header files. They have various notifications when you plug in things like the speaker cradle, wireless, memory stick, etc. One of the notifications was for a tuner cradle. It could very well be for FM radio but I think it will allow you to plug cable into your PDA. Then the PDA could have PVR functionality to record TV.

According to this article (http://discussion.brighthand.com/palmhandhelds/showthread.php?threadid=4253) Sony is going to concentrate on these areas in order of importance:

Entertainment
Software
Memory Stick Expansion
Wireless
Powerful Hardware

We've seen the last three, some of the second and first. Maybe the TV Tuner will be horribly executed but I really think they are going to do it.

[rob_squared]

That's not too bad of an idea... if it works.

[thack]

Looks like the NZ will be on sale in Japan:
http://www.sony.jp/CLIE/index_pc.html

It's pictured on the Clie homepage. It will be interesting to see if people will buy it. Ultimately it seems that the NZ is good for people who want a digital camera with a PDA built-in but not the other way around.