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Handhelds Hardware

Sony PCG-U1 256

Posted by michael from the please-steal-me dept.
hexdcml writes "Just found this whilst browsing, Sony has now brought out the My Little Vaio range, (probably for rich kids..tsk) All I can say is WOW, this thing is tiny. Makes me wanna ditch my lurvely little iBook and get this! The site's in japanese, so you'll need to translate (for those how are non-japansese literate) using Babelfish or something." Dynamism.com has specifications in English.
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Sony PCG-U1 More

Sony PCG-U1

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  • ...I had tiny little Japanese fingers!

    Seriously, the Japanese always seem to have cool small-form factor electronics that are not sold here. I guess there's no market for them.

    • Re:If only... (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      It's designed for thumb typing (a pretty thumb idea if you ask me).
    • Completely agree. I have encountered the "sausage fingers" problem on a PCG-C1F since day 1 (C1F is the oldest pre-Crusoe Picturebook). This is almost twice smaller. It will be almost unuseable by anyone but 5 year old kids.

      On this one I would need to hire a 5 year old kid and dictate to him and get sued for using child labour...
      • It's nice twice as small- it's the same dimensions more or less except it's not as wide- i.e. the width of the keyboard is less. The screen is proper aspect ratio though, which the C1XX were not.

        graspee

  • Looks nice, but why would you need such a thing? Does it do anything a palm or other pocket pc wont do?
    • Yes. You can play Unreal Tournament/Half Life/Quake III/Your Favorite Game Here. Try that on a Palm. And this sure beats the processing power of my TI-89's 10 MHz MC68HC360.
      Bad thing is, though, that when someone tries to steal it from you and you hit them with it, it's too light to leave a lasting imprint.
    • I've had an IBM PC110 since 1994 - similar size machine but 486 era, much smaller disk/memory and only a 486 CPU. Its still vastly more useful in many ways than palmtoilets and the various other PDA devices that people use. The PDA's are slowly getting there but the PC110 has a real keyboard, runs X11, runs x86 binaries, supports every PCMCIA driver the x86 platform in general does and so forth.

      Its close to pervasive computing - it lacks vga out to images projected onto mirror shades, it lacks a cable link down the sleeve to a chord keypad/mouse and it needs a nice microphone/earphone for voice/audio/encrpyted phonecalls via a GSM modem and 802.11 card
      • I still have my PC110, and it still works well. I don't carry it around much anymore, but it still blows people away when I do. (All the moreso when I tell them that it's an 8-year-old computer).

        Right now I'm working on turning mine into a sort of desk clock/weather station/wireless AP, since it doesn't really have the oomph to do much else anymore (esp. w/ only 8 megs of RAM), and my P-series Lifebook is at least an order of magnitude more powerful and only twice the size.

        Anyhow, thanks, Alan, for putting/keeping the PC110 touchpad driver in the kernel! I still crack a smile every time I do 'make menuconfig' and see that option, even when I'm not on the wee beastie.

        -Isaac

    • It runs Windows XP, so you dont need to deal with the crappy 'Pocket' versions of apps, run the real Win32 thing.

  • The Article from Dynamism (Score:3, Informative)

    by Devil's BSD ( 562630 ) on Wednesday May 08, 2002 @07:29PM (#3487905) Homepage
    Sony's latest prototype, the PCG-U1, is a wonderful and exotic piece of technology. The "U1" is the smallest and lightest model of the entire "Vaio" series. Indeed, it has long been Sony's conception to shrink a full-featured laptop into an always-carry device; they have succeeded with the Vaio U1. The entire package, including a Crusoe 867 MHz processor, 6.4" (XGA) TFT-LCD, 20gb HDD, 384mb RAM (max), weighs merely 1.8 pounds, and boasts an incredible footprint of only 7.3" x 5.5". The U1 is designed for easy operation even if the user is holding it in a standing posture. Assuming use with both hands holding the chassis, the PC has a "wide-stick" for the thumb of the right hand which functions as a mouse cursor. The left thumb rests on a button that works as the left and right mouse buttons. There is also a built-in zoom function, which works at the touch of a button. A scrolling "Jog Dial" is also mounted above the keyboard, and integrated ports include a PC card slot, firewire, LAN, a headphone/audio output. Additionally, a pair of built-in USB ports and a VGA output allow the machine to double as a desktop unit. The U1 demonstrates why Sony is recognized, even by hardened competitors, as the world's leader in miniaturizing consumer devices. Any individual, company, or organization could find a unique use for the U1. Whether the needs is for an eye-catching model unlike anything that has come before, or a powerful tool for use by a sales force out in the field, the Vaio U1 is an unprecedented and unrivaled powerhouse in an ultra-small package.
  • The keyb looks way too small. Doesn't seem too good for typing. And if your computer's input stream is crippled, what use is the whole thing? I mean, you could buy a dedicated mp3/dvd portable just as well.

    Then again it does look k3w1 and it has a Crusoe.. *wipes off drool*

  • *ching ching* (Score:2, Interesting)

    by kwishot ( 453761 )
    With a base price of $2199....umm...yyeeeaaaahhhh
    A 128mb RAM upgrade is.....$399

    A toy for the rich kids is right!
    • the japanese price is actually just around $1150 or so... Dynamism always costs an arm and a leg, the mini camera they have for sale (the SpyZ I believe) that they sell for $139 actually costs $65 I'm in the process of trying to get this machine, check out http://shop.conics.net/sony-vu/ for a more reasonable price (no affiliation nor knowledge so caveat emptor)
      • I worked out the yen to ukpounds and it came to about 750 ukp, which is at least half, if not one third the price it would be if it were available in the uk...

        I missed buying one of these in Tokyo when I went last week as I didn't have enough money with me. It hurt. I have vowed to return...

        I just hope I get away with taking an empty laptop bag with me and claiming I took it with me if I get my bags inspected on the way back; Putting English ver. of XP on it while out there would help my argument.

        graspee

    • Re:*ching ching* (Score:4, Informative)

      by FrenZon ( 65408 ) on Wednesday May 08, 2002 @09:05PM (#3488232) Homepage
      With a base price of $2199....umm...yyeeeaaaahhhh

      So buy it for USD $1329 from here [conics.net], instead. Looks like a shop in Japan that ship direct to you (as opposed to Dynamism's ship to them then to you)

  • Noicvre, buiut././/. (Score:5, Funny)

    by oever ( 233119 ) on Wednesday May 08, 2002 @07:33PM (#3487923) Homepage
    tjhe kleybpoard ois a vbit as,mall

    • It's designed for the "Thumb Generation", the Japanese who have taken to 3G wireless technologies with abandon. Because they use cell phones for messaging, they're developing amazingly adroit thumbing skills. The suggested thumb use for this Vaio is demonstrated here [www.sony.jp].
    • Making keyboards portable is hard. As you mentioned, making them smaller is not ideal. Making them virtual (drawn with lasers) [ananova.com] is another option.

      My friend has a touchstream [fingerworks.com] keyboard which he used full-time for a couple weeks. His emails constantly looked like the parent post. He attributed this to lack of tactile or auditory feedback.

      On the other hand, I use a small two-way alphanumeric pager (size comparison [idg.net], closeup [revophth.com]). You end up typing on it preying-mantis like, holding the front with your thumbs nad the back with your pinkies, and typing with your two pointer fingers. Typing is definitely slower, but you don't end up making constant mistakes like with the other keyboards mentioned.

      May point is... as far as I know, mini keyboards are the best solution so far, there are worse solutions available.

  • Up till now I was trying to rationalize getting a Fujitsu [http].
    Lots of websites on how to put linux on it and it also comes with a DVD/CD-rw. That and 5 hours on the optional battery....

    I'm not a laptop guy - they are like infants - although the actual package is small, all the other junk you need to bring along: power supplies, extra battery, mouse, network cord, phone cord, teething ring...
    Right now I have a Dell c400 which is small, but still a monster next to the transmeta types.

    Oh well, after the recession. I promise I won't waste the next upturn!

    • Try this link [fujitsupc.com]. Doh!

    • all the other junk you need to bring along: power supplies, extra battery, mouse, network cord, phone cord, teething ring...

      I feel the same way about laptops in general - there are some out there that solve almost all of this, however. Personally I carry the following:

      • white ibook
      • thin little ethernet cable
      • power brick (into which apple conveniently put cable management)
      And that's it. Nothing else. Occasionally I bring a mouse, but not often.

      I suppose that leads me to a point about this Sony laptop we're supposed to be discussing: no builtin ethernet, no builtin wavelan, no builtin modem. Hmm. That would drive me insane, as I would end up carrying two or three pcmcia cards and their dongles around with me, and that's when things get broken in my backpack. I'd forgive it if it had builtin wavelan. In fact, that would be marvelous. It doesn't, however. And, I might add, I actually had a Sony SR7k (followed by an SR27k) for a year and a half, and I sold it in favor of an iBook for this exact reason. Oh well.

      Moral of the story: I'm keeping my iBook. :) You can have it when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers.

  • gibberish (Score:3, Interesting)

    by tps12 ( 105590 ) on Wednesday May 08, 2002 @07:35PM (#3487935) Homepage Journal
    Whilst? Lurvely? WTF?

    Seriously, I'd have to agree with the submittor here. I am all for giving your kids the best, but kids in the My First X demographic (under 8? at some point primary colors get embarrassing) don't really have a use for a laptop. Even if they did, a retired laptop (even from ebay) would probably a better choice than this product, which just screams "status symbol."

    I didn't get a current system until college, always learning on and using yesteryear's tech. It's a good way to go, b/c you don't take the cutting edge hardware for granted. I think it made me more aware of issues like backwards compatability, which is important.

    • Look at the site...

      Its not made for kids. I guess Japanese people just dont mind owning a product called "My Little Whatever" even if they are in their 30s. Everything on the site suggests these are for the types of people who normally use laptops but just want a real small one.

    • Re:gibberish (Score:2, Flamebait)

      by Nurf ( 11774 )

      Whilst? Lurvely? WTF?
      Um.

      "Whilst" is a perfectly legitimate English word, and is in common use by many people.

      "Lurvely" was obviously used for effect. This is a mild form of "humour". (Note that it is permissible to spell "humour" with a "u".)

      You wouldn't happen to be American, would you?

      Whatever your nationality, I suggest you travel more and read more.

      (A list of your spelling errors is omitted for brevity.)
    • The Japanese name for this thing is "Ichiban chiisai Vaio", which translates directly as "number 1 small Vaio". An idiomatic translation would be "The smallest Vaio", although in Japanese as well as English "Number 1" also connotes "best".
      There's no suggestion in the Japanese name that it's aimed at kids; rather that it's ultra-portable, something you could put in your purse, fit into your 3-square-meter million-dollar Tokyo apartment, or use on a packed Shinkansen.
      The English trademark "my first Vaio" gives a different impression of the device, at least to native English speakers, but native English speakers are not the primary audience for this.
      • The English trademark "my first Vaio" gives a different impression of the device, at least to native English speakers, but native English speakers are not the primary audience for this.

        Don't forget that in Japan, English is "cool". They will use English phrases, without necessarily understanding the phrases fully.

        I think Kanji is "cool", and I would love to have a T-shirt with a few Kanji characters on it. Same thing with them, only with English. Most Japanese may not even care what "My First Vaio" means.

        steveha
    • Would you buy a machine called a "play" station? it sounds like something for little kids!
  • Nice and small... not quite as small as my libretto I don't think but still small enough to make it easy to take around. Plus I've noticed that the small sony keyboard layouts are much roomier than the Libretto layout (especially the one on my 50CT).

    Unfortunately Dynamism is charging $2000 to import it. Then again, the Libretto 50CT cost that much when it first got here too.

    For those of you who like large notebooks, large screens etc. surprise! this isn't the laptop for you! Unfortunately "Texas size" laptops are more popular here in the US and small laptops like this one and the Libretto series have had to stay in Japan.
  • One of the first words on the page that appear in english - "Microsoft Windows XP".

    Personally I would have prefered to try and decipher "Ú@ZíÅSEÅEÅOEy--Ê*ðZÀOE.

  • I'd buy one of these, makes me wish I hadn't just built a desktop system a few months ago for ~$1500. This little thing is COOL. Probably would do wonders for on-the-run workers like salesmen and road/transportation engineers.

    I wonder, does the Crusoe have MMX/SSE compatibility, etc? Is it even x86 at all? I don't know much about those chips.

  • I'll buy one... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Wire Tap ( 61370 ) <frisina AT atlanticbb DOT net> on Wednesday May 08, 2002 @07:39PM (#3487951)
    ... if I mine comes with a cute Japanese girl [www.sony.jp] hiding behind it. ;-)

  • Erm (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Mwongozi ( 176765 )
    How on Earth do you control the mouse on that thing?

    • Re:Erm (Score:3, Informative)

      by PeterClark ( 324270 )
      Look at the pictures; it's intended (Torvalds' mother only knows why) for two-handed use. The right side has a knob/button that acts as the pointer, while the left side has two knob/buttons that act as the mouse buttons. Although it weighs only 1.8 pounds, I wouldn't want to use it in two-handed mode for long, and this layout seems like it would be hopelessly impractical unless you also carried along a USB mouse.

      On the plus side, it looks like it would be fairly easy to defenstrate, except for the modem, which is almost certainly a winmodem.

      I've been looking at the Japanese site, trying to find out how much it costs in Japan. I'm fairly certain that it would be cheaper there. Any takers?

      :Peter
      • just in case my previous message gets missed, this thing costs about $1150 in Japan, and I found a site that does it a bit cheaper than arm and a leg Dynamism : http://shop.conics.net/sony-vu/ (caveat emptor, no affiliation nor experience)

  • This always happens. It's no fair!
    • A couple of years ago a rep. of one of the major Japanese manufacturers told me that there were at least three major reasons this stuff always showed up first (and sometimes only) in Japan:
      • The market there is (proportionally) more interested in miniaturization for its own sake.
      • The initial prices for high-end consumer electronics are higher than in the U.S., so they can afford more of a risk.
      • The market is smaller than in the U.S., so it costs less to launch something new.
      The latter two are important because the smaller devices generally involve more custom engineering, and thus have a higher initial cost and greater risk to the company.
      • I asked a Japanese co-worker why we don't have all the nifty technostuff Japan does. Interesting explaination:

        In Japanese culture, women are not allowed to bring any money into a marriage. In centuries past, this made sense as they rarely had any money to bring. Today, Japanese women (like Americans) get married significantly older, and often have high-paying careers before getting hitched. Since they socially can't save that money for use in marriage, they have a relatively HUGE disposable income - coupled with miniscule apartments, no other big-ticket items (like house or car), and a fantastic telecom infrastructure (due to dense population) - they have the money & motivation to buy lots of really nifty communication-oriented (remember, these are women) gizmos.

  • Sometimes smaller is not better (Score:3, Interesting)

    by geoffsmith ( 161376 ) on Wednesday May 08, 2002 @07:44PM (#3487968) Homepage
    The guy is typing with his thumbs! And the icons look pinhead-size. This is all very neat how we can shrink things smaller and smaller, but... ergonomics anyone? How about keeping your eyesight past your 20's?

    I think the whole PDA/Tablet PC/Subnotebook thing is in general pretty silly. For general use they are horrible. Better to get something like the Hitachi WIA [hitachi.co.jp] with an input device like the Twiddler [handykey.com] and keep your wrists and eyes healthy.

    Websurfing done right! StumbleUpon [stumbleupon.com]
    • It all depends on the market; smaller is great for portability, big screens are (practically) required for a "desktop replacement."

      While the trend (here in the US) IS for nicer screens, look at all the people using wheely carts to lug around their laptops! People have found an (absurd) way to manage the weight, but does it meet their needs?

      What do "most people" need to lug home / to meetings / to onsite locations? While I do use some applications that lean towards having the extra power and screen real-estate, if I could drop a couple kilos out of the messenger bag I would do it in a flash!
      • Check the links I provided in my post. The solution I offered has the portability of pda/laptop/tablets (in fact, I would argue they are more portable) while still maintaining and even exceeding the ergonomics of a desktop workstation. It's the best of both worlds, whereas where we seem to be going with these small desktops is the worst of both worlds, with progressively worse display and input devices.

        I think wearable computers are the future of computing, and they are available today. The problem with this mini laptop is that they have just mindlessly scaled down a device that was barely comfortable to use in the first place. To make an interface that is usable at that size, you have to change more than just its scale.

        Websurfing done right! StumbleUpon [stumbleupon.com]
    • People type with their thumbs on Blackberrys [blackberry.com]. I use my thumbs to type on a Palm i705 [palm.com] with mini-keyboard [palm.com]. I suppose with such a small laptop Sony thinks people will do the same thing.

      And Slashdot back in late March mentioned a recent study [slashdot.org] that showed that "'...the use of gadgets such as mobile phones and GameBoys has caused a physical mutation in young people's hands. The use of the thumb is a deviation from the use of the index finger...'"

    • They seriously called it the WIA?

      HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAA

      Whatcha got? It's my WYE-ah! Set you on FYE-ah!

      Sorry, it's bedtime I think...

  • but what was the deal with the "thumbphrase" what does that do, eliminate typing? Where's the mouse thing exactly, on the side? Anyway, here's the address. I don't want to mess with html, haven't done it in a while so here http://www.sony.jp/products/Consumer/PCOM/PCG-U1/f eat2.html
  • Even a kid's hand look too big on the keyboard. There's small and there's usable after fifteen generation of some, uh, serious genetic engineering.

    Man, you're supposed to use a mouse to move the cursor, not to help you type by running over the keys.

    Can you say "Tinkerbelle's PC?"

    • There's small and there's usable after fifteen generation of some, uh, serious genetic engineering.

      The first generation of pen / tablet computers didn't go over so well, because they were too big. I think the wide acceptance of PDAs, combined with the miniaturization demonstrated by the this little VAIO, sets the stage for a second wave of pen computers.

      At this size, give me just the screen, or give me two screens that fold up like a book. I could probably write graffiti faster than I could hunt and peck on that keyboard, to say nothing of the mouse.

    • Fifteen generations? Bah. If the Japanese will bind the feet of their girls and women, why not bind the fingers and hands when they're small, to keep them compatible with the microelectronics that will fill their later life?
  • But usable, no. Tiny keyboards only allow one finger at a time typing. You can't get much work done on it and it'll cramp your game playing.

    • Re:Cute, yes... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by djmurdoch ( 306849 ) on Wednesday May 08, 2002 @08:21PM (#3488101)
      Tiny keyboards only allow one finger at a time typing. You can't get much work done on it

      I can touch-type on the Libretto 70 keyboard which has a 14.5mm key pitch. I'd guess I could do it on this 14mm keyboard too. Once on the shuttle bus from an airport to a conference, I was sitting beside someone who thought I'd never be able to type on it. We had a race, which I won (or I'd never be telling this story, obviously).

      There was a big advantage in having the computer not take up much space, so my hands weren't as cramped as his. This is also an advantage on planes in economy class.

      and it'll cramp your game playing.

      The game playing also affects how much work you get done...
      • I think the local target audience is Tokyo commuters who will use it while standing on a crowded train.
        Believe me, doing that, you get good at typing with your thumbs - touch typing isn't really an option unless you manage to get a seat - in which case you are more likely to try and catch a bit of sleep.

        The small footprint will also appeal to people who have no extra desk space but want to peek at their personal mail at work or carry their MP3s with them.

        Things get crowded here - more than you'd imagine if you've never commuted to and worked in a Japanese office, so I guess that's why it's been introduced here and not in the US...

        Cheers,
        Jim in Tokyo

  • very pretty, and pretty amazing (Score:3, Insightful)

    by blamanj ( 253811 ) on Wednesday May 08, 2002 @07:50PM (#3487995)
    I might even consider replacing my Newton if it weren't for the price
    ...if it had a built-in microphone
    ...and if it had decent battery life
    ...and if it had handwriting recognition
    ...and it didn't come with a bloated desktop OS
    ...and did I mention the price?

  • My little Vaio? (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I'll just have to bring along My Little Magnifying Glass to be able to do anything on it.
  • ...but not so cool to have to lug a huge pair of bottle-bottom glasses to have to wear to see the screen! 1024x768 on a 6.4" screen?! I thought the smaller (normal) Vaios were a bit hard on the eyes, but this!...

  • Why you shouldn't trade your ibook for a vaio (Score:4, Insightful)

    by seanadams.com ( 463190 ) on Wednesday May 08, 2002 @08:00PM (#3488028) Homepage
    I have a powerbook and a VAIO (model 503GCX or something). Originally I bought the VAIO because I needed a good Unix laptop, and both LinuxPPC and OSX were not up to snuff at the time. Now I've switched to OSX for pretty much everything. Anyhoo, here's my experience with VAIO vs (i|power)book:

    • VAIOs have absolutely horrible keyboards. Why do most laptop makers feel that they're doing us a favor by rearranging all the keys from what we're used to on our desktop machines?
    • the Vaio is thin, which is nice, but you sacrifice batterly life, built-in CDROM, and built-in standard expansion ports - gotta use dongles.
    • utterly useless Sony proprietary memory stick port
    • poor mechanical design. To get to the hard drive it takes about 20 minutes of carefully removing snap-in panels, and about 12 screws on the underside of the thing. Once you get the thing open, there are all kinds of little wires strung everywhere for speakers, trackpad, jog dial, etc. These have to be carefully disconnected in order to get the case open and get to the disk. Same sort of BS for swapping memory.
    • clunky power cord. the new white ibook power supplies are very slick. I wish I could get one for my bronze powerbook, but they're a little different so I hear.
    • no built in 802.11 option. Gotta have that stupid antenna nub hanging off the side.


    I don't know what kind of improvements Sony might have made since I bought my Vaio, but I can't imagine they're anywhere near up to speed with Apple yet. I'm comparing a powerbook and a Vaio that were bought around the same time.

    These are all the reasons why I don't get excited about the ever smaller/flimsier/less expandable offerings from Sony. If you want the mother of all laptops, get yourself a Mac, and take your pick between Linux (haven't tried the new Mandrake PPc yet - looks sweet) or OSX (I'm a sworn Mac convert now).
    • My Vaio SRX77 has built in wireless that works in linux, too.

      Ethernet, Firewire, modem, and USB all work in redhat too. The memory stick is VERY useless, I agree (but it works, though I don't know what it's good for. . )

      Can't comment on getting to the harddrive- not like you replace it that often. Dropping in new memory took like 5 minutes, pretty simple.

      Honestly, I think the keyboard is excellent, myself. Took me an hour or so to get used to it, but it's about as good a keyboard as I've used on a laptop. . .

      From my experience, Vaio's are MUCH better now than what you had. . .

      I tried out the iBooks, but I thought that OSX was way too slow, especially for all the stuff I do in the shell. OSX was really sluggish in the shell. . . I'm very glad I went with my VAIO.
    • When I the ethenet card for my laptop, the drivers came on a floppy disk. Sure I could get drivers off the 'net, but not without the eth card.

      A friend of mine happened to have a Sony digital camera that let you mount it as a drive on a PC. We copied the stuff over to the cam, and then used the stick to install drivers. Pretty convoluted but it worked...
    • I once opened up the front pannel to see if I could fix a power problem (I couldn't charge it back up after I sent it electricity with the wrong polarity in a botched attempt to use a car adaptor... I couldn't fix the problem)

      Anyway, the layout was pretty straight forwared on the sr33k I have. One little wire for the touchpad, and the RAM and hard drive were right there for you to remove/replace.
    • I don't know what kind of improvements Sony might have made since I bought my Vaio, but I can't imagine they're anywhere near up to speed with Apple yet. I'm comparing a powerbook and a Vaio that were bought around the same time.

      Let's see. A bronze PowerBook and a Z505. Hate to tell you, but your cache is stale. Sony now has 7 models to choose from, so you can get something as feature-packed/small/expandable as you like. And if they're built anything like my XG, they aren't getting flimsier. Sony still hasn't pulled off an ultra-thin design with a built-in CD/DVD drive, so the Ti PowerBook still has that advantage. But that's about the only advantage.

      utterly useless Sony proprietary memory stick port

      <sarcasm>How dare they! Adding a feature you don't use. The nerve of some people.</sarcasm> I'm sorry, but you're triggering a pet peeve of mine. I have no use for the microphone, IR port, modem, or jog dial on my notebook right now. As long as they don't adversely affect the system (and they haven't), I can't bring myself to care, let alone complain bitterly.

      • utterly useless Sony proprietary memory stick port

        How dare they! Adding a feature you don't use.



        When you're making hardware, you have a certain allowance of weight, power, size, heat, r&d cost, and production cost. Why spend it on crap like jog dials and memory sticks in lieu of useful things (like an expansion bay that accepts your choice of CD-ROM or extra battery, or a full-size VGA connector, or an extra pcmcia slot, etc.). Those gimmicks are *BAD*, not merely useless.
  • since Apple obviously aren't interested in supporting even basic accelerated video drivers for it.

    I feel sorry for the poor people who paid good money for an iBook.

    This thing might have a small keyboard, but i bet it is at least able to repaint it's screen in a reasonable timeframe.

    • silly, silly.

      OS X is fast enough already.

      Jaguar has been accellerated for larger cards.

      Special accelleration does not mean obsolescence. After all, you should bitch more about having a G3.

    • Before you front on the thing, try it out... I've used several computers, and I'm starting to really fall in love with my iBook (the new, white version with 14" screen). In fact, I'm even using my desktop machine less and less - and that has a 21" monitor.

      -- passion

  • Sony rocks (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Hero Zzyzzx ( 525153 )
    I'm typing this on a Sony SRX77 running Redhat 7.2 right now. IT'S AWESOME! 2.76 pounds, 4 hours of battery life, 1-1.5 inches thick, and fast as hell in linux.

    The install was kind of a pain, but the end result is a fast, super-portable linux box that makes iBook folks drool. I've run Apache, MySQL, and mod_perl for client demos on this, and it's pretty impressive. . .

    I honestly wouldn't want a smaller laptop than the SRX77, though.
  • This is for the japanese market, where small gizmo's are hot. Just think of all the great gizmo's Japan has had the last 10 years. Most of them never reach the US. Any body who complains the tiny laptop isn't expandable is missing the point. If it does email, word processing, web browsing, and downloads photos from a camera that's all 50% of the people need.

    the /. crowd is not the intended market.

  • Any idea if it will be coming to the US? In an English version? (the keyboard has chinese characters).

    And any idea what the "Zoom in" [www.sony.jp] button does (on the monitor under power button)?
    There doesn't seem to be a zoom out button either...

  • Kids and technology (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 08, 2002 @08:17PM (#3488078)
    My 16-month old has already broken a cellphone and 2 DVD-ROM drives. Yeah, you can bet I'll be buying her one of these real soon...
  • That thing would make a very interesting PDA, looks like its running WinXP, wonder how hard it would be to put a decent os on it. And use it as a fold up PDA with thumb keyboard

  • better pictures (Score:3, Informative)

    by Profe55or Booty ( 540761 ) <greg@pcras[ ]jb.net ['h.c' in gap]> on Wednesday May 08, 2002 @08:40PM (#3488160) Homepage
    this place [conics.net] has some nice pictures of it. big pictures though, will take a while to load, esspecially after some of you get to it.

    greg clarke
    • Nice pics. I especially like the one of the ports on the back. At first glace, I thought,
      "What are those two huge ports on the right side?"
      Then I realized that they were the USB ports. Normal sized USB ports. That laptop really is unbelievably small.
  • i think just about everyone who is literate in another language is "non-japansese literate".

    i could be wrong, it's happened before. twice.

  • babelfish needs some work (Score:3, Interesting)

    by danox ( 232017 ) on Wednesday May 08, 2002 @09:45PM (#3488376) Homepage Journal

    What the hell does this mean?

    My Little VAIO.

    Worldwide smallest * most light weight * it actualized in the Microsoft Windows XP on-board type the " bio U ". The imagination it loads the prejudice function of the extent which is not attached from that compact body. Removing from the bag, you can use directly. It can enjoy casually, it is birth of biology.

    Babelfish is col and all, but I can't wait until AI's are advanced enough to translate thigns properly.

  • ... that dynamism.com stole images from Sony's web site and proceeded to watermark them with their own logo.
  • Personally, I want one of these (the top one =)): Fujitsu P-2000 [fujitsupc.com]. The specs beat the Sony one hands down, it has a modular (!) cdrw/dvd bay that can be used for a second battery, built-in 100baseT/wavelan, faster Crusoe, all for an ultra-low $1800. The graphics adapter sucks, but I can live with that.

    And it's 10.6"(w) x 7"(d) x 1.59"(h), which makes it only a tiny bit less portable than the Sony one. I admit the Sony can look more attractive, but you'll have to haul around an extra cd drive and pcmcia card for equivalent functionality.

  • Offtopic: web page in Japanese (Score:4, Offtopic)

    by steveha ( 103154 ) on Wednesday May 08, 2002 @11:00PM (#3488645) Homepage
    I took Japanese classes a few years ago. I tried looking at some web sites in Netscape 4.x on a Windows system. I even downloaded a few fonts to try to get it to work better. It never looked good.

    Just now, using Galeon, I clicked on the link to the Japanese page, and oh my gosh wow! The whole thing looks like it should. Hiragana, katekana, kanji, English text, it's all there and it all looks like it should.

    Kudos to the Mozilla and Galeon developers.

    By the way, it still bemuses me how the Japanese like English words so much. They will use their Katekana phonetic alphabet and spell out English words by sound.

    Their phonetic spellings look odd to English-speakers. In Japanese, the consonant sounds don't appear alone; you can never have just "k", it has to be "ka", "ki", "ku", "ke", or "ko". The sole exceptions are "m" and "n" (e.g. "Nisan" can end with just "n" instead of "nu"). There is no "l", so they use "r" for "l" when doing foreign words. They often swallow or drop the "u" sound, so a Japanese speaker pronouncing the word "mobairu" will say something like "mobile" (i.e. he will get it pretty much correct, even though the spelling looks odd to us).

    Examples on that page: "katarogu PDF" is the link to the PDF Catalog; "rainuppu" is the link to the "lineup"; and the picture showing two hand thumb-typing says "mobairu gurippu sutairu" (mobile grip style).

    Note that the name "Vaio" is very difficult for the Japanese to pronounce; the phonetic spelling is "Baio", much easier for them. Japanese doesn't have a "v" sound.

    steveha
  • (paraphrased)
    "We're sorry, but the fingers you are using to type are: TOO FAT. If you would like to aquire a special typing wand, please mash the keys: NOW"

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