Comments on: Rumor: Sony Beginning to Phase Out the NR Series (Updated)

Thanks, Robrecht

c_Blue

My guess is that they are both right - and talking about different models.

Even better would be Sony performing a FUD campaign (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) to hide the fact they are buying Palm, Inc., and their next device will infact be the Oslo, except with the screen and virtual graffiti of the NR, and dual SD/MS slot config.

I strongly doubt there will be a version of OS 5 for the Dragonball processor, considering the major point of OS 5 is the switch to ARM-based processors.

Please, don't anyone make a decision on whether to buy any current handheld on the hope that there will be an OS 5 upgrade for it. The odds of such a thing being released are very small. If you definitely want OS 5, the best thing to do is wait for the first handhelds to ship with it on it.

---
News Editor

NR70 screen with T665 battery?

Sony finally innovate a palm-powered device with less than 3 hours usage with middle backlight on. And, if you cannot recharge it in 1 or 2 hours, you will lost all the data you write on the road.

Fantastic as a toy, garbage as a tool. Its a sony.

An SD card is physically wider than a MS card, so it is impossible to make an adaptor unless it protrudes quite far out of the device.

"...or add an SD card slot as well as the memory stick slot! That way I could buy the new SD Wireless Card that is due out around the end of the year."

That move would totally undermine Sony's big push behind the MemoryStick. Sony has spent millions upon millions of dollars putting MS slots in nearly every portable (and many stationary) devices they make. To suddenly give people a choice would be stupid (from a financial standpoint.) On top of that, Sony is now ramping up the MS Duo, a smaller version of the MS, and with an adaptor these will work in existing devices.

In short, this would be just as weird a move as Sony deciding to put Palm's UC on their devices alongside their HotSync connectors.

I hope this post makes sense as I am righting it while majorly jetlagged and at 2 am.

Peace,
-Bartman007

PIC needs a joke of the week section - this wins for this week:)

www.palminfocenter.com/view_Story.asp?ID=3123

Unfortunately the handheld arena deals in parts that really can't handle that paradigm. That's why repairing the stupid things often costs nearly as much as purchasing them.

Sony has the right ideas, now if they'd only stop making so much proprietary hardware and support more standards (memory stick, video APIs come to mind) they would help out the whole PalmOS family of devices.

Oh! Wait! They want to make more profit?? How dare they!

DELL Should die! Sony All the way!!!!!

With OS 5 , the power (and the hi-res API) is there to do these games - no problem.

I've had an Inspiron 8000 and 8100 for quiet a while and they are still like the first day, working perfectly. Dell sells A LOT of computers so 1% of problems equals thousands of people complaining like you, but if you go with Compaq or HP you will have 30% which is thousands (the same amount) of people complaining. Absolute numbers can be deceiving.

oh oh! i know. because we get to read about rumors on PIC and people's wacky reactions to all of this.

honestly. if sony wants to come out with new products on the third friday of every month, let them. if palm wants to come out with new products every third year, let them. be at peace. why get so upset? do, however, keep the fun comments coming. my favorite comment so far today was posted by Sandbuck:

>> What else is new? You are new-- the newest addition to the Whiner's Dirty Diaper Corps. Let the innovators innovate for crying out loud.

all i know is i'm laughing out loud.

hmm, perhaps i should have titled this: "Why I love PIC."

Funny. I think you are more of a whiner who couldn't stand anybody not agreeing with your beloved Sony master. If Sony sells diapers I'm sure you'll be wearing one.

I think it is great that Sony is releasing new models/upgrades.

The only problem I have with this is the fact that 3rd party companies have a hard time committing. It took a while for companies to release products for the S/N Clie connectors. Once companies started committing Sony switched it on then and introduced the T series connector. No one produced a folding keyboard, one of the staples in the geek-sector. Sony finally had to make their own.

Sony needs to learn from Palm's mistakes and stay committed to a connector for a while...

Peace,
-Bartman007

Whaaaaanh!

I've got the NR70V ultimate PDA and now Sony has the gall to come out with something more ultimate!! If I don't upgrade right away, my status as the geekiest kid in school is going to suffer big time!!!!

As a high-school student do you guys have any idea what kind of sulking tantrum I'm going to have to pull to get Mommy and Daddy to buy me ANOTHER new PDA (I mean it has worked every time in the past, but I wanted to guilt them into a new 24" LCD display for the high end PC they just bought me...)

That does it!!! I'm going to lie on the floor kicking and screaming for a good solid hour; then go into a destructive rage and throw my Aibo through the screen of my new Wega; and then hold my breath until those good-for-nothing parents of mine ante up.

#$@%#@%$@&%#@

I hate Sony!
I love Sony!
I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it!

Or did you mean to say that in 5 months it won't be the newest model on the market any more, but will still run as well as it did when you drooled over the specs and bought it?

It's great for me, though, because I can wait the three months for the model to be discontinued, then grab a handheld for cheap that's still better than anything the other companies are releasing.

that's really why you hate sony ...

They could be like Palm and introduce the same things over and over in different casings for years.

In the last two years Sony has brough MP3, HiRes, HiRes+, built in keyboard, built in camera, simple memory expansion (memory sticks may be proprietary, but they have more acceptance and uses than Springboards ever did), faster processors, etc, etc, etc.

Be glad that they keep advancing the ball. Most people don't go buy the newest PDA as it is released. Plus, as someone else said, it just means that the previous "latest and greatest" gets its price lowered more quickly.

"NR-70V is the best PDA in the world, and always will be. "

Yeah, that's why MS is scrambling to rework everything around it in order to stop the sinking ship that it is . . .

Who cares if the NR90 is out, or some NX100 500MHz OS 5 model, as long as the NR70 keeps working and does what I need...

The only reason I'd switch from my T615 would be for the brighter display, virtual graffiti, and thumboard, all of which I find compelling. OS 5 doesn't sway me much... Unless I was sure I could upgrade later to OS 5.5 or OS6, etc.

Your point is well taken, however, it is frustrating because the NR70 has been out for under 4 months. I bought mine early May. The real problem is that Sony needs to stick to one standard for peripherals so that even though may no longer make the NR70/V at least there will be enough options to continue using their device.

I don't care how many PDA's sony puts out a week, as long as they use a stable connector for peripherals.
Anyway, PIC would be boring if not for the "new sony" story every week.



=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
13yrs Old, Flat Broke
Odds of ever affording a palm without resorting to crime: 1765:1

That would make a load of sense - they already have
a keyboard, a gamepad and other things. It's better
to have these peripherals as an add on for those
who want it, vs packaging it on the PDA like the
keyboard in the NR series.

what's ironic is what's going to be phase out by sony is far more advanced than any palm PDA on the market.

I will agree when it does.

re: the April 17 PIC article you reference ("Rumor: New Handhelds from Sony and Nextel"), Sony did come out with the T665C in June as well as the SL10 in July and the SJ20/SJ30 in August :)

A lot more stable than on PPC. :D

Come on MS PPC2002 is almost right now and any shortcomings will be fixed in 2003 or .NET or 2004. Or the MS phone will do them in. WTF, has palm done in 2 years? Same hardware same rehashed OS same limitations.

Funny you mention this, b/c the only reason
Toshiba is making PPC's is because Palm rejected
Toshiba's bid to create palm units for fear of
another Sony that will decrease Palm's market
share. So Toshiba's first choice was to be w/
loosers too, if you put it that way. I'm sure
you read Brighthand, PDA Buzz and all the other
PPC Forums and know that.

"Come on MS PPC2002 is almost right now and any shortcomings will be fixed in 2003 or .NET or 2004. Or the MS phone will do them in. WTF, has palm done in 2 years? Same hardware same rehashed OS same limitations."

Funny you mention this again. You know, as well as everyone who follows PDA's know, that PPC2002 will
not be optimized for XScale in the near future.
By 2003 or 2004, every company will have their next
generation out, so it's a moot point. Intel is only
STARTING to get developers to optimize their software.
for the PPC.

Why, because for half the price of your $600 PPC I get many times the battery life, more usable OS, and essentially identical expansion options? I can use WiFi for hours without a worry.

> Come on MS PPC2002 is almost right now and any shortcomings will
> be fixed in 2003 or .NET or 2004. Or the MS phone will do them in. WTF,
> has palm done in 2 years? Same hardware same rehashed OS same limitations.

Palm's OS limitations will be solved this fall, and Palm rehashes the hardware because they already know what people want. PPC will be losing marketshare by the end of the year.

Why the yelling? Who cares what you deploy for your wireless network!

It doesn't work on your Toshiba either genuis, that's the point (and neither does anything else once your battery goes dead). Just another case of lofty and unrealized expectations of PPC.

Only one problem. We allow acccess to medical images and color patology specimens, HandEra 330 can't do that yet.

For that kind of capital investment and size penalty, a micro laptop (such as the C1 PictureBook) would be superior in many ways.

During the next year it is very likely that superior solutions will be available on the PalmOS platform (particularly w.r.t. battery life). It will also be interesting to see what the new Tablet PC platform has to offer in terms of real-world functionality.

- MacClie