Comments on: Sony Japan Posts Fix for Memory Stick Problem with NR Series (Updated)

Yeah the new Ipaq's ARE trouble free when it comes to hardware, always have been. Good job Sony, next time get it right. BTW--Compaq and Ipaq are one in the same incase you didn't know that....

This is only a guess, but I suspect the software fix lengthens the amount of time the Memory Stick can be out of contect with the slot before the handheld decided it has been ejected. That's the only way I can think of that software could fix what seems to be a hardware problem.

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News Editor

Wow, is your Palm V having trouble reading a memory stick?

Very odd.

I suggest you write a formal complaint to Palm and see what they say.

On the other hand you might want to engage your brain, read the article and then examine your Palm V, read the instructions and at that point realise it doesn't support MS... or SD or any other expansion system....

bit like Palm's Universal Connector then? Least I can buy into MS if I want to use it... Can't say the same about Palm's UC

The original poster was whingeing about Sony's use of proprietry technology. i.e. MemoryStick in its products.

I merely pointed out that Palm also uses propritry technology i.e. the universal connector.

However if I as a potential PDA producers wish to use either of these two standards, Sony will allow me a licence for MS, while Palm will not let me use the UC.

So which is best? Proprietry technology which is easily and fairly cheaply licenced, or proprietry technology that no one else can use at all?

In this case, I think Sony wins on the basis that they are willing to share.

"I am disdainful of the proprietary approach that they employ like Apple."
There is nothing proprietary about Apple, you rotten idiot.

"I still have to stick with the PPC as my main squeeze."

LOL, the PPC sucks. I hope it breaks on you soon.

You have to have your products licenced in order to use A memory stick interface in them. The whole point of having licencing over an interface is so that you can control who uses it. An example of the diffrence:
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Sony is more than willing to licence the Memory Stick protocol to people who are making computer readers for Memory stick, or (Just lately) to people making the media itself. They are NOT willing to widely licence MemoryStick to portable device makers - Hence why you don't see third party MP3 players, video cameras or PDAs using Memory Stick. Even if they DO eventually allow use, it will be so they can just revoke/restrict/charge for that usage at a later date, after it has gained them a wider market share. See: Apple and the CHRP for an example of how that works.
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Palm is using Secure Digital, which is an industry standard owned by a consortium, and not a corporate standard. As a result, you CAN buy third party MP3 players, Cameras and PDAs(Handera) that use the Secure Digital interface. Manufactuers are more willing to create hardware for a consortium-owned interface because they know that it isen't licenced at one company's whim. See: Any of the Springboard makers who are now basically without a platform to run on or a market to sell to since Handspring orphaned the interface and refuses to make PDAs that use it(*).
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As far as the Universal Palm Connector - I guess I could see your point if there was such a thing as an industry-standard cradle connector before Palm created the UC standard. CF was around YEARS before Memory Stick.

Face it. Sony's trying the old BetaMax trick again, except that, unlike Beta vs. VHS, Memory Stick is actually WORSE than CF, or even SD.(**)

(*) - I realize that there's more to the orphaning of the Springboard plaftorm than just a desire to shank Springboard makers - If nothing else, the Springboard interface is so closely tied to the Dragonball hardware that designing an ARM unit with a Springboard would probably be a nightmare.

(**) - From VFSMark: Sorry if this misformats. Lower numbers are worse.

Device H330 H330 S-T415 M515 M515
Media-Size SD-64 CF-192 MS-32 MMC-16 SD-16
--------------------------------------------------------------
File create: 78 120 33 60 86
File delete: 51 95 20 74 76
File write: 115 238 10 39 44
File read: 34 92 77 40 118

H330 - Handera 330
S-T415 - Sony T415
M515 - Palm m515