Thursday, September 26, 2002
Sony steps up to the plate with a WiFi Palm OS 5 device
Posted by Ed Hansberry in "THE COMPETITION" @ 03:00 PM
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/27307.html
Things are a bit slow on the Pocket PC hardware front for now, but the competition is sure busy. We showed you last week Palm's offerings due in the next few weeks. Sony is now readying their first OS 5 device. Very high end. It looks virtually identical to the NR70/NR70V. In fact, the name is only slightly changed - NX70V. Here are the stats:
Launches in November for $599
Proprietary Sony wireless card slot for proprietary Sony 802.11b card. Did I mention this was all proprietary? Didn't Sony learn from Handspring's mistake?
200MHz ARM chip, don't know whose it is
16MB of RAM
310K pixel camera
320X480 TFT screen
MP3 Player
Video support
3" X 5" and 8oz
New Sony UI - see image
This is the UI - standard 160X160 Palm, new 320X480 Sony with what appears to be virtual Graffiti, and the Sony Launcher. Doesn't that look like a Start Menu? I don't know if it comes from the top, bottom, side or comes in with a Star Trek transporter effect. Doesn't matter. Egads! All that scrolling. All the complexity. Will people be buying this thing and just staring at the screen in horror unable to figure out how to stop the clock from blinking?
Seriously, I think it looks good, but what do I know? I think the Pocket PC is intuitive.
So, what do you think? Will this "inject some life into a platform that is severely threatened by the Pocket PC juggernaut?" Thanks to Foo Fighter for the pics.
Things are a bit slow on the Pocket PC hardware front for now, but the competition is sure busy. We showed you last week Palm's offerings due in the next few weeks. Sony is now readying their first OS 5 device. Very high end. It looks virtually identical to the NR70/NR70V. In fact, the name is only slightly changed - NX70V. Here are the stats:
Launches in November for $599
Proprietary Sony wireless card slot for proprietary Sony 802.11b card. Did I mention this was all proprietary? Didn't Sony learn from Handspring's mistake?
200MHz ARM chip, don't know whose it is
16MB of RAM
310K pixel camera
320X480 TFT screen
MP3 Player
Video support
3" X 5" and 8oz
New Sony UI - see image
This is the UI - standard 160X160 Palm, new 320X480 Sony with what appears to be virtual Graffiti, and the Sony Launcher. Doesn't that look like a Start Menu? I don't know if it comes from the top, bottom, side or comes in with a Star Trek transporter effect. Doesn't matter. Egads! All that scrolling. All the complexity. Will people be buying this thing and just staring at the screen in horror unable to figure out how to stop the clock from blinking?
Seriously, I think it looks good, but what do I know? I think the Pocket PC is intuitive.So, what do you think? Will this "inject some life into a platform that is severely threatened by the Pocket PC juggernaut?" Thanks to Foo Fighter for the pics.
