Sony Japan Unveils the Clie TH55 and TJ37

Zodiac2/T616

Clamshell design
OLED screen
802.11b
Bluetooth
Landscape view
Portrait view
Good keyboard
PalmOS 6
MP3
1 MP digital camera
New Sony custom desktop + applications
12 hour battery life
128 MB RAM

All for only $599

If you want it all, don't settle for the TH-55. You'll just end up kicking yourself in a few months. The new UX series will be astounding. If you have a Bluetooth cellphone, you might finally be able to dump your laptop once the new UX is released.

And to the posters below who say they prefer the Palm T3: Keep it. You can keep your Palm with its third rate, sloppy construction and I'll buy a CLIE. Guess who's PDA will still be working flawlessly in three years? And guess who's PDA will be in a landfill dump?

It's just too big.

Did he swallow this time?

It's just too big.

Meaning his overinflated ego. =)

_________________
Sean

Always remember that you are unique. Just like everyone else.

Always remember that you are unique. Just like everyone else.

And what are the odds you'll either find yet ANOTHER reason to not buy a new PDA or will buy one and return it a few weeks later? Probably close to 100%. Can't you at least do something different for once?

It's just too big.

-Ryan

The picture that you saw is for "Clie Movie Player" which supports landscape play mode. It already exists in NX series so it doesn't mean the TH55 should have landscape support.

I kind of agree except that with Palm, the d-pad found on the TT, the T2, and even the TC was actually a huge step forward for game playibility. So then they fix almost every complaint about the TT line with the T3, but then go and screw up the D-Pad. I actually decided against the T3 (still have my TT) just because of this stupid d-pad. WHY palm? Wtf? Im a palm developer and i use my PDA for lots of things - but gaming is essential to me (how else to kill time on my 2hrs+ per day on the subway? the only 'guilt free' gaming i get).

>>So that leaves me thinking that Sony has something big up their sleeve...something niftier than the PSP that'll be based on Palm architecture.

No - this leaves me thinking the opposite: Sony has deliberatley messed up the Clies for gaming SO they can sell more PSPs. They want the PSP to be a success - they don't want people to spend $100 more and get a mobile internet terminal/video player/mp3/PIM/office doc editor that also is a kick ass game machine. Who would buy the PSP? Many would of course; not as many if they saw that the Clie was a great PDA AND was great for games for only a little more. Thats my guess anyway.

I find that the dpad on the Treo600 is great for games. Shame it isn't supported by more apps.

Edward Green
--
http://www.khite.co.uk

True - but who wants to carry around an extra, dorky looking device? wheres the mobility? The point is to have an all in one device - its especially silly to add this silly thing on top of yr clie just to get a d-pad that would cost $0 if they just built it in ( a d-pad is just a bunch of cheap buttons under a round, single peice of cheap plastic - and they want to charge me for that?

While im ranting - the price of the Japanese version of the th55 works out to $375 us. Dells X3i (400mhz, 64mb, built in wifi)is only $285. Im a Palm OS fan - so i'll continue to resist the PPC lure. But the point is that Sony has some gone from leader to lame follower here. This offers crap in the way of value. We are supposed to be snapping this up because they have finally given us a full VG screen in a tablet device?? That should be standard on ALL palm os devices now (just like it has on all PPCs for almost 4 yrs - including low-end $199 PPCs). Instead companies like Sony slowly 'dole out' features like this and we are supposed to be excited like they've just invented the damned wheel or something. And the 'Sony handheld Engine' is as yet unproven. It has problems ramping the speed up as it is suppoed to and developers are complaing about not be able to get enough juice out of it (ranges from 8mhz to 123mhz to save power). Hell - i'd go with the low-end device here - at least the 200mhz motorola IS a solid 200mhz (i know - mhz isnt everything but the motorola has proven better thus far in everyday applications - also used in the Zodiac no?). I'm not exited by this. I don't mean to come across as overly negative but i this should have been here 12 months ago or realsed now at $250.

They definitely have the right idea whereas Sony has failed miserably on button design (tiny buttons, tiny munchkin keyboards, and wacky uncomfortable button layouts).

It seems like they made it and then said--"oh yeah, we need buttons too don't we? Where can we fit these... this'll work"

However, in fairness, I think this is probably the best button layout they've had since the first one they released--it does fit one's hand more naturally than the awful T6xx layouts.

1. I got my new issue of PSM magazine today. It has some juicy info on the PSP that I hadn't read about online. It said that it has digital d-pad arrows around the analog stick on the left side of the unit, along with two "shoulder" type buttons next to the screen. It said the unit's internal memory is being increased to 40mb (it was going to be 32mb last I heard) and will use a NON-touchscreen 480*320 Clie screen. The whole story was given a "high" probability rating by the magazine. So having read this, it sounds like Sony is indeed positioning the PSP as a hardcore gaming platform and relegating the Clie to multimedia-type stuff. Might we someday soon see the abandonment of all hard buttons (sans power & reset) from a high-end Clie? Very possible, IMHO.

2. I cannot stand the T3's button layout & d-pda. That combined with the yellow screen on my replacement T3 and the continued horrors of G2 are making me seriously think about (I never thought I'd say this) jumping back to a T2 or selling my T3 and using my T|C full-time. For the record, the Treo 600's 5 way navigator is excellent and probably the best PDA controller yet. I'd love to see Palm release a Zire 71 replacement with that navigator and decently sized hard app buttons. It wouldn't compete directly with a Zodiac, but it'd be fine for light gaming usage.

3. The best Sony button layouts were either the original 710/610 series or the cheaper S320/360 monochrome units. I briefly owned an S320 and played many a mean game of Zap! 2000 on its impressively usable buttons!