Felica reader?

[Akfreas]

Does the NZ-90 have the Felica reader like the Japanese one? I think it is like a smartcard reader on that thing that says clie on the american ones, that little square.

[Partridge]

Somehow I doubt it. The hardware was probably not included as a cost cutting measure since 99.999999% of us would never be able to use it.

I did wonder what was in that space though, as it really looks like there should be some hardware there.

FYI, from looking at the japanese website, it appears that the J-spec clie NZ90 has hardware capable of reading proximity smart cards as used on the metro there as well as on some credit cards as a smart-cash sort of thing. Quite cool.

[Jeffry]

Once again, Sony is ripping you off by excluding one software from the Japanese version. I wish they compensated this issue.

[nike33]

Simply stated, Sony is a North American and European Customer BASHER!!!

[Hong Kong Nick]

I wondered about this too. In Hong Kong we have the same technology ... called Octopus but built by Sony ... they even trumpet it on their Felica site. Amazing piece of kit. You can keep it in your wallet or bag and just brush the wallet / bag past the sensor in the mass transit, buses, trams, even pay for stuff in 7-11 or McDondalds. I tried my octopus card on my NZ-90 and got nothing.

Damn.

It really does seem like there should be something sat in that CLIE space at the bottom of the keyboard.

Tight bastards ...

Nick

[Marudine]

This issue has been discuss in another thread. However, some had mentioned that if SONY provide the Felica for the US version, lots of people will be unhappy since it is redundant to them, therefore SONY might as well exclude it.

This is also known as 'contactless' technology, where the card does not need to contact with the device and yet information can still be transferred vice versa. Some companies also uses this kind of technology for their employee's security pass.

[fc2003]

The mystery and disappointment is the fact that the Japanese version with Felica reader is selling at a discount to the US version. Bagayalu :-(

[Marudine]

Yes, I heard from one of the threads mentioned that the Jap version is cheaper as compare to the US version which does not come with the Felica reader. One of them even thought of buying a Jap version and convert it to US version by mean of s/w.