Netfront 3.1

[Pathfinder81]

can i get a copy of netfront 3.1

[winexprt]

You can find it right here:

http://images.bestbuy.com/BestBuy_US/images/products/6295/6295136cv1a.jpg

[ux50guy]

so for $400 or so, you can have your very own copy of Netfront 3.1!! Cool

[Dougf]

LOL!!!

[Fez]

Thats it, The Fez Hammer is down. Anyone disscussing Warez (Either Getting them or Serials) shall be reported. GO AWAY PIRATE!

[Hari Seldon]

I think some moderator of this site did say to stop blatantly asking for Netfront 3.1 in these forums.

But to imply wanting the app for a device most likely containing an older obsolete version of the SAME application is akin to requesting "warez" or "pirating" is plain ignorance. Netfront 3.1 is not commercially available, or all these threads would be moot, we would simply buy it. But since it is not, there is no pirating, per se. Perhaps installing the program on non Netfront 3.1 devices is a violation of copyright, but I hate to say that in this case the ends justify the means. For Sony to say to UX-50 owners that if you want Netfront 3.1 you must "upgrade" to a TH-55 or other is laughable. To not provide a slightly upgraded version of their core software to the owners of their flagship PDA, yet put it on a stripped down model introduced scant months later is disrespectful to loyal Sony cutomers. Plus, I haven't yet seen any direct messages here or anywhere else from Sony dissuading us from using Netfront 3.1 as we see fit.

Just as importantly, there is precedence for doing just that. If I recall, there was a time when CLIE users had to install updated CF drivers on older NZ and NX model handhelds to make the CF slot useable. There was no outcry from Sony at this. Even Microsoft, which guards it's intellectual property (ie software) more tyranically than almost anybody else supports third party modifications of older unsupported software. Case in point the newly released "service pack 1" for Windows 98 just released by a private programmer and linked to on Microsoft's own site.

Last but not least, and a horrible example in scope but perfect in principle, it was probably called "pirating" when back in the late 1700's a group of Beantown residents dressed up like injuns and tossed a bunch of cases of Earl Grey off the pier in Boston Harbor. Giving birth to a fairly decent country. Hopefully our actions here will help give birth to better Sony handhelds.

[hamsammich]

I second that, Hari.
Fez, settle down.
Sony should take responsibility and give us the darned updated NF.

[JustaNoob]

Well, I had some nasty comments all prepared for hypocrites and holier-than-thou thumpers, but Hari summed it up much more nicely than I ever could.

[winexprt]

Originally posted by Hari Seldon
I think some moderator of this site did say to stop blatantly asking for Netfront 3.1 in these forums.

But to imply wanting the app for a device most likely containing an older obsolete version of the SAME application is akin to requesting "warez" or "pirating" is plain ignorance. Netfront 3.1 is not commercially available, or all these threads would be moot, we would simply buy it. But since it is not, there is no pirating, per se. Perhaps installing the program on non Netfront 3.1 devices is a violation of copyright, but I hate to say that in this case the ends justify the means. For Sony to say to UX-50 owners that if you want Netfront 3.1 you must "upgrade" to a TH-55 or other is laughable. To not provde a slightly upgraded version of their core software to the owners of their flagship PDA, yet put it on a stripped down model introduced scant months later is disrespectful to loyal Sony cutomers. Plus, I haven't yet seen any direct messages here or anywhere else from Sony dissuading us from using Netfront 3.1 as we see fit.

Just as importantly, there is precedence for doing just that. If I recall, there was a time when CLIE users had to install updated CF drivers on older NZ and NX model handhelds to make the CF slot useable. There was no outcry from Sony at this. Even Microsoft, which guards it's intellectual property (ie software) more tyranically than almost anybody else supports third party modifications of older unsupported software. Case in point the newly released "service pack 1" for Windows 98 just released by a private programmer and linked to on Microsoft's own site.

Last but not least, and a horrible example in scope but perfect in principle, it was probably called "pirating" when back in the late 1700's a group of Beantown residents dressed up like injuns and tossed a bunch of cases of Earl Grey off the pier in Boston Harbor. Giving birth to a fairly decent country. Hopefully our actions here will help give birth to better Sony handhelds.

Great article (link below) that shows how far Sony has it's head up its @ss at the moment. Sony is f-ing up BIG TIME currently. They seem to have no idea how to get things right. (except for my UX50 of course.) ;)

http://www.ipodlounge.com/articles_more.php?id=3924_0_8_0_C

[Blu3Sab3r]

Wow, what a beautiful speech. If I were to known the problem sooner, I would have said the same myself. Hari is an inspiration to me. Good use of words too, wow I need to work hard to improve my sophisticatedness (not a word, I know, sounds smart though!). ^^

Sorry I did not read the whole thing before I posted and I found the historical parable to our situation. I have not yet figure out whether you are talking about how the term piracy came to be or lending a allusion to help us understand what we are coming across with Sony. I take your words both ways and sort of reject the thought of even using history as an example of what goes on in business and in the modern world, also as a practice for my writing skills.

To begin with, the usage of historical events as allusions as to business and the modern society is inaccurate. As mentioned, in the late 1700s the group of Beantown residents dressed up like injuns and tossed a bunch of cases of Earl Grey off the pier in Boston Harbor, these people did this action for a revolution, as so to speak. These acts are not one bit simular to the case we are discussing. The piracy we are familiar with today are illegal operations in which to obtain softwares.

From that parable, your message is that hopefully, Sony will give birth to better Sony handhelds. Now we switched topics from softwares to hardware and in no relation to the main idea, which is piracy, I believe. Also, if anything, piracy does not encourage developers but rather discourage them as income will be dispersed and so not a very promising industry no longer. If anyone has paid attention, Sony does not care less what we say for the people in charge is in Japan. The North Americans can only influence so much but cannot make the change. The Beantown residents created a better country perhaps but today, business-wise, if there is no profit there is no action.

Now, if we were to take the story into another aspect and to use it to define "piracy" then it is certainly not suitable for our situation. From what you say, the story seems like another Boston Tea Party. I would imagine the piracy would be from the tales of pirates and the internet being the seas; the victums are developers.

Anyhow, I get the main message you try to send across. Although there are some flaws, and many in mine. I'll doing a sloppy job of just praciting writing. No hard feelings, not attacking your words. By the way, your literature shows lots of inteligence, it is sophisticated and demonstrate your knowledge of the past. Good job.

[winexprt]

Full text of that article. Like it or not! lol ;)

How Sony Cemented iPod's Supremacy

By Jeremy Horwitz
May 19, 2004

In the March 2004 article "Heir to Walkman's Throne," iPodlounge
examined three companies - Sony, Microsoft, and Apple - and the products
they have touted as successors to Sony's Walkman, or "iPod killers." We
ended the article without reaching a conclusion as to which of the
companies' products will actually replace the Walkman, though we did
have some feelings on that subject at the time.

After three separate events last week, we now strongly believe that one
company has effectively eliminated itself as a contender to the
next-generation Walkman crown: Sony. Controversial though it may
initially seem, we will explain our conclusion in light of the three bad
moves Sony made over only several days time, including our hands-on
experiences with the PlayStation Portable music, movie and game playing
"Walkman of the Future," Sony's unexpected premiere of a completely
separate "iPod killer," the hard disk-based VAIO Pocket, and finally,
its disappointing launch of the Sony Connect music store.

PlayStation Portable

Los Angeles is not the first place you'd expect a Japanese electronics
giant to unveil its newest product, but with generally friendly
journalists already in town for the annual Electronic Entertainment
Exposition (E3) show, Sony couldn't have picked a more receptive
audience. And, in fact, it did pick its audience, restricting
invitations to its downtown pre-E3 press conference, selectively denying
advance requests from journalists to attend the event, and posting
security screeners at its gates to turn away unwelcome attendees.
There was good reason for Sony to be concerned; skeptical journalists
would have seen through the artifice it had planned. The debut of its
PlayStation Portable (PSP) was to be a carefully stage-managed event,
starting with the presentation of a supposedly working prototype of the
device that appeared to be physically larger than the product Sony
promised to deliver. Compounding the intrigue, Sony would never actually
show the prototype playing a game; instead, it would only be used to
show six or seven minutes worth of pre-recorded music video and movie
trailer content. Finally, key developer Electronic Arts would present
upcoming software on a large video screen - rather than on the prototype
- and precede its showing with an unusually legalistic disclaimer: the
audience would be watching a video capture from a PC emulating "early
specifications that Sony released in their public statements about the
PlayStation Portable."

The quote seemed to confirm what developers had been whispering for days
if not weeks before the event: as of May 2004, Sony hadn't finished the
device they were supposed to be manufacturing for a huge fourth-quarter
2004 Japanese launch, and no games were really ready, either. Only days
earlier, The Wall Street Journal had reported that key game developer
Square Enix - minority-owned by Sony - was "still not sure what Sony
wants to do with [the PSP] - that's a problem[,]" and didn't know
whether PSP would "be a game machine or a Video Walkman[.]"
Consequently, Square Enix's contribution to the PSP press conference was
merely footage from a straight-to-video movie it planned to release. As
the United States release date of the PSP had already slipped to 2005,
even members of Sony's hand-picked friendly audience began to wonder
when and how the company actually intended to sell its new device. If
PSP was to be the "Walkman of the Future," some began to suspect that
the future!
wasn't about to start any time soon.

Many observers hoped that Sony would leak additional details on one of
the three official days of the E3 show, but it didn't. A small,
roped-off section of Sony's booth allowed people to stand in line to
photograph or touch actual-sized prototype PSP shells, which were wired
to display Evanescence music videos, the Spiderman 2 movie trailer, and
pre-recorded game footage. Three kiosks, rumored to be PSP casings wired
to PC emulation hardware, displayed modestly interactive game
demonstrations. The Sony representative on the floor would not confirm
whether the prototype PSPs were actually running the games they were
showing, or whether they had working UMD discs inside. After extended
probing, two noted journalists claimed that the only "real" prototype at
the show was a larger-sized unit being carried in the jacket pocket of
Sony COO and PlayStation creator Ken Kutaragi, a claim we could not
independently verify.
More importantly, Sony refused to disclose at E3 two critical facts
regarding the new platform: its price and actual battery life. Though
developers have been led to believe the PSP will launch at a price point
between $249 and $299, one Sony executive previously went on record with
a 48,000 yen price estimate - translating to approximately $420 U.S. or
350 Euros. Sony representatives at E3 would only say that the company
was waiting to see what component prices looked like closer to the
unit's release, and that the PSP's battery might range in performance
"comparable to portable DVD players" at "two and a half hours," and
music players at "approximately eight hours."

Finally, as we discovered at the show, the weakest link in the PSP's
chain of Walkman appeal is its utility as a music player: you can't
record on its discs, only on Memory Stick Duo Pro flash cards, which are
sold separately. As of today, it's a foregone conclusion that any device
based on pre-recorded discs or flash cards doesn't have a prayer of
beating the iPod, and this is especially true if either medium is a
proprietary new Sony format. (Recall Betamax, MiniDisc, and any number
of other Sony format flops.) But those are the only media the PSP uses,
so unless your favorite artist releases music on UMDs or you want to
shell out for the expensive newest-generation Memory Sticks (512
Megabytes = $250 and up), the only music you'll hear on a PSP will be in
the background of a game.

In sum, even if Sony's PlayStation Portable turns out to be a popular
portable game console - which would itself be a historical anomaly given
Nintendo's dominance with sub-$100 portable game hardware - we think
that the chances of the device becoming the "Walkman of the Future" are
close to zero. Unless there is a dramatic breakthrough in flash memory
prices, the immediate future of portable audio entertainment is in hard
disk-based solutions.

VAIO Pocket

In order to appreciate what we're about to describe, it's important to
understand the corporate bureaucracy that is Sony, a Japanese
corporation that includes several distinct subsidiaries, each a separate
fiefdom with unique assets and a prince-like leader. Though all of the
subsidiaries are overseen by Sony's CEO Nobuyuki Idei, who was
incidentally named one of the world's worst corporate managers by
Business Week magazine last year, each subsidiary operates more or less
independently, developing products that compete with other Sony
offerings almost as frequently as those from other companies.
Sony's internal conflicts manifested most dramatically last week when
two of its subsidiaries unveiled products that arguably contradict each
other: in the Western hemisphere, a U.S.-based Sony executive was
unveiling the "Walkman of the Future," PlayStation Portable, only one
day after his Japan-based counterparts had debuted the "iPod killer"
VAIO Pocket, a hard disk-based handheld jukebox with a color screen.
Assuming that the devices came out at roughly the same time - as they
might if Sony intended to stick to its announced release dates - they
would be competing iPod alternatives, each based on different
technologies, media formats, and marketing schemes, yet both from the
same company.

Clearly, the VAIO Pocket is Sony's most desperate attempt to clone the
iPod: it acknowledges the strength of Apple's packaging by trying to be
stylish, the simplicity of the iPod's large touch wheel interface by
using an odd square of touch-sensitive nubs called "G-Sense," and the
power of Apple's chosen storage medium by including a hard disk.

More interestingly, the VAIO Pocket avoids all of Sony's prior music and
portable brand names, including Walkman, Network Walkman, and CLIE,
instead relying on the branding of the company's personal computer line.
And it adds two features the iPod lacks: extended (20 hour) battery life
and a color screen. The color screen can be used to display digital
photos, but apparently not movies or other video content.

But in addition to being physically larger than the iPod - an issue that
has dogged other iPod competitors - the VAIO Pocket, like the
PlayStation Portable, has two critical Achilles' Heels: the first is
Sony's proprietary standards. As is the case with Sony's other digital
music devices, the VAIO Pocket requires users to convert their songs
into the proprietary Sony ATRAC audio format, which takes more time and
hassle than transferring MP3s straight onto an iPod. Notably, users of
other Sony devices have previously complained loudly about the poor
performance and stability of Sony's ATRAC conversion and uploading
software.

The second problem is a high price: at 53,000 yen (currently $468 U.S.
or 390 Euros), the 20GB VAIO Pocket will cost about as much as a 40GB
iPod, itself currently a low seller relative to Apple's more popular
mini, 15GB and 20GB iPods. Given that consumers have complained about
the iPod's price, the prospects for a product that is relatively more
expensive, larger, and requires ATRAC conversion software are very weak.

The Final Nail in the Coffin: Sony Connect

It would have been a bad enough week for Sony if the company had only
shown two products that were unlikely to knock the iPod off its perch,
but on May 7, the company launched Sony Connect, a competitor to Apple's
iTunes Music Store. Relying on a digital jukebox program called
SonicStage, which pales in comparison with the sophisticated iTunes,
Sony Connect cloned parts of Apple's pay-per-download music strategy,
but poorly.
Within days of its debut, Sony Connect had been roundly criticized from
all corners, including deep complaints from The New York Times ("almost
embarrassingly crude," "maybe they ought to call it Sony Disconnect"),
USA Today ("a flop," "poorly designed," "confusing"), and others. Not
only did users and critics complain about the software and Sony's music
library, but prices earned scorn as well: Sony decided to ask double
their standard charge for tracks longer than seven minutes in length, a
perceived "price creeping" violation of Apple's consistent and popular
99 cent per track philosophy.

Sony Connect's biggest limitation: like Sony's audio devices, it only
uses songs in ATRAC format, which renders the service next to useless
for both iPod users and those with WMA-based audio players. And its
biggest "uh oh" for the future? Sony has touted Sony Connect as its
centerpiece for selling music, and potentially downloadable games, for
both the PlayStation Portable and VAIO Pocket devices. That's only a
good thing if you can accept the fact that you can't easily convert
anything you bought from iTunes, Napster, or other paid services and use
it with Sony's products.

Historically, Sony's record with personal computer software has been
terrible: application bugs, refusal to update drivers for anything other
than recently-released computers, and other issues have plagued Sony's
PC development efforts. As a result, we remain skeptical of their
ability to fix the problems with Sony Connect any time in the near
future - and certainly even more skeptical that the company will catch
up with iTunes or the iTunes Music Store.

Concluding Thoughts

Stepping briefly out from the curtain to offer a personal opinion as the
primary author of this piece, I would like to add the following: after
roughly a dozen years writing about electronic entertainment products,
I've seen plenty of interesting new technologies - enough to know the
difference between likely hits and certain misses. Last year, I was one
of the first writers to publish a print article tearing apart 2003's
false prophet of consumer electronics, Nokia's $299 N-Gage, which
tantalized some writers and analysts by blending MP3 and game playing
features with a cellular phone. Nokia's size and large advertising
budget encouraged less than critical early journalism on the platform,
and it was only after the N-Gage crashed spectacularly on launch that
supposedly informed critics were willing to publicly condemn it.
Given the tricks Sony appears to be pulling with the PlayStation
Portable, from manipulating journalists to refusing to disclose key
launch details, as well as the mistakes it has made with its ATRAC
format, its consistently high pricing, and the near-universal
condemnation of the only legal download service available for its
platforms, I and we at iPodlounge feel quite strongly that Sony is too
organizationally confused to mount an effective challenge to the iPod
juggernaut. Even if we are wrong, and the company releases the PSP for
$199, we think that its proprietary media formats and likely release
date will cripple its appeal as an iPod-competitive audio device. At
best, it will be the Gameboy of the Future, and nothing more. Similarly,
even if the VAIO Pocket was cheaper and offered direct MP3 playback
support, Apple's lead with the iPod now is so large that Sony would be
hard pressed to match it.

Some may prefer to dismiss our conclusions, especially in light of the
otherwise under-critical press the PSP and VAIO Pocket have previously
received, and particularly given that iPodlounge is, after all, an
iPod-specific site. Bear in mind, however, that we continue to keep an
eye on all emerging technologies, and have previously complimented iPod
competitors when they have bested Apple on features or pricing. Our
feelings about Sony's PSP, VAIO Pocket, and Sony Connect should
therefore be understood for what they are: critical, but reached after
hands-on testing and serious consideration.

When Sony first disclosed the concept for the PlayStation Portable last
year and called it the "Walkman of the Future," it was clearly jabbing
at Apple's global success with the iPod. But after using and learning
more about the PSP last week, we're now convinced that Apple, not Sony,
has already landed the knock-out punch in the Walkman wars. Only time
will tell whether Sony will keep trying for a rematch, or take the wiser
road and join forces with a clear winner. The sooner it abandons its
obsession with proprietary encryption and storage mediums, the sooner
consumers will return en masse to its products. In the meanwhile, the
digital music revolution definitely won't be waiting around for Sony.
Jeremy Horwitz is Senior Editor of iPodlounge and practices intellectual
property law in his spare time. His recent book, Law School Insider, has
been called the "best book about law school - ever," and he continues to
contribute to Ziff-Davis electronic entertainment magazines.

[Blu3Sab3r]

Wow digital music has never been as complicated as the stage it is in now. Lots of formats, copy protection, even on Kazaa, music is cut off. Now we have hardware competition which some of them to me is a dilema, others are just comparing apples and oranges.

My idea for this is: UX50 + my future 2 GB MS-Pro.

[Vagrant]

I ripped all of my CD's to MP3 using Musicmatch over the course of several weeks and backed it up on DVD's. I then created several CD's worth of MP3 files and purchased a portable Sony MP3 player. Plays for around 80 hours on 2 AA.

No problems, or confusions here. (Music was never cut off, just go to the store and purchase it)

I still use my Sony CD Jukebox though with the home stereo. Call me old fashioned. :p

Wait, what was this thread about ;)

[winexprt]

Hey Blu3Sab3r...is this you?

'slim_fifty'?

[Sumocomputers]

We are not even talking a major upgrade (i.e. 3.x to 4.x) we are talking a minor point release, which should be free from NetFront or Sony no matter what.

I am sorry, this is not piracy or warez.

[arth1]

Originally posted by Hari Seldon
I think some moderator of this site did say to stop blatantly asking for Netfront 3.1 in these forums.

But to imply wanting the app for a device most likely containing an older obsolete version of the SAME application is akin to requesting "warez" or "pirating" is plain ignorance. Netfront 3.1 is not commercially available, or all these threads would be moot, we would simply buy it. But since it is not, there is no pirating, per se.

Yes, it is, per se. You did not buy a right to future upgrades of the program. Whether you can buy the newer version in the stores or not is irrelevant -- you still don't have any rights to copying it, and doing so is pirating.

This is the same situation as with Win95B, which was only bundled with systems and not available for purchase. Owners of Windows 95 were pirating software when they copied the OEM SR2 files to their system, or spread the files through BBSes (remember those?) and Internet.
Whether you disagree with Microsoft's decision not to let people have FAT32 support without buying a new system with a bundled version of Windows is all well and fine, but you still wouldn't have any rights to pirate Windows 95B to run it on an older system. This is just like with Netfront -- unless Access starts selling a PalmOS version for it or Sony releases an upgrade, it's piracy to use a newer version on a UX.

If you can't use Netfront 3.0, either get a newer device or (gasp!) get a different browser program that is legally available! If you decide to pirate the program, it's at your own risk, and don't come here asking for files or help.

--
*Art

[peterb123]

Technically, you are right, under the law it is piracy.

But then again, in the U.S. slavery was legal for nearly 200 years.

Just because it is legal or illegal doesn't make it right.

When Sony came out with the betamax, they paid their lawyers to argue that the law should allow for "fair use" and they won. Once Sony got into the music, movie and television business, they paid their lawyers to argue against "fair use" and they won.

The law should protect the people in the sense of fair and right, but usually it protects the corporations bank accounts regardless of if its fair or right.

[moUk]

Piracy or not, NF 3 stinks and 3.1 doesn't.

The truth is you can find 3.1 in hundreds and hundreds of places on the internet - just look if that is what you want!

If you get caught - then suffer the consequences......but in a world where I could easily list about a billion worse crimes, anyone caring as much as some people do about such a legal technicality as this deserves some sort of labotomy.

I love Sony but they have basically abandoned some of their users in my opinion.

Mo

[ksjenkins]

Finally, a Netfront 3.1 upgrade is available!!! I think the price is a little steep tho ;).....

Boy this thread is gotten a little long winded.... :D

[madmaxmedia]

I don't think there will be any consequences for loading NF 3.1 on NF 3.0 units... ;)

However, it is not legal (even if I don't consider it a great sin). That's why Cliesource can't allow such posts. Don't get them in trouble-

[Blu3Sab3r]

Sorry to bring back old news but where is the upgrade?

[jordebbb]

My NX80 came w/ 3.0, should and can upgrade to 3.1, if yes, how?

JR

[jordebbb]

My NX80 came w/ 3.0, should and can upgrade to 3.1, if yes, how? and where can I get it (3.1)

JR