Sony Vaio GT3/K: You Spilled Your Laptop on my Camcorder 219
Anonymous Howard writes "This article talks about Sony's new, limited production Vaio GT3/K. It's a mixture of laptop and full fledged camcorder that uses the Transmeta 600mhz Crusuoe chip. Weighing in at 2.4 lbs, this hybrid has an amazing battery life of up to 17 hours, 30 GB drive, ATI Rage Mobility-M1 and 128 MB of RAM, and a swiveling screen.
This is definately a very unique device, one that completely blows away Sony's previous attempts of the laptop/video combination machines, mainly due the fact that the video camera is not a wimpy little video lense, but an actual full fledged digital camcorder."
For similar items... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:For similar items... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:For similar items... (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.dynamism.com/gt3/index.shtml
Re:For similar items... (Score:3, Informative)
Might? They want $2500 for a slimline PC & LCD with a 1.8ghz & 80gigs. [dynamism.com]
think that speaks for itself
Add a little ... (Score:2, Interesting)
it's from Sony (Score:5, Funny)
right hand vs. left hand (Score:2)
FYI, Sony makes one of the most advanced DVD recorders on the market at the moment. The DRU-500AX was the first dual-format DVD-R/DVD+R drive on the market.
Re:Add a little ... (Score:4, Funny)
Hibread? (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, we, uh, have this new kinda bread for our sandwiches... it's, uh, got a "special ingredient". We call it "hibread".
Re:Hibread? (Score:2)
Re:Hibread? (Score:2)
I am all for lazyness, but I am dreading the day todays H.S. students begin running the world. GWBush will look like a freaking genius.
Re:Hibread? (Score:2)
Re:Now tell me... (Score:2)
Note to Sony Re: combination laptop camera (Score:5, Funny)
You plug it into shit
This is the technology that allows the internet to be on seperate computers (as opposed to one big one).
Re:Note to Sony Re: combination laptop camera (Score:4, Insightful)
This camera has some distince advantages because it is not standalone. However, it seems like they could have done this in a much better way. Just have the guts of a camcorder (that doesn't work on it's own), and have it hook-up to a notebook with a PCMCIA adapter... I don't think Firewire is quite fast enough, but maybe that would be an option, too.
Firewire is used for this, kinda (Score:4, Informative)
Of course, in that case, it's a $15,000 dollar DVCAM connected to a G4 laptop, not a consumer cam built into a consumer computer. You know that embarrassing geek thing where you describe computer technology as unbearably sexy? I hate that.
Re:Note to Sony Re: combination laptop camera (Score:2)
I don't assume without some decent evidence to support my opinion.
Re:Note to Sony Re: combination laptop camera (Score:2)
I wourd recommend keeping some moist towelettes [slashdot.org] handy, to wipe the shit OFF the wires when you're done.
Um, why? (Score:5, Insightful)
Thanks, but I'll stick with Firewire and my Canon GL2
HiDef... (Score:2)
Dog vomit. (Score:2)
Re:HiDef... (Score:2, Funny)
Last time I used a miniature camera there it only had a small lens, so I had to use the flash to take pix at 1/30s. Camera -> Flash -> into oncoming traffic -> Swerve -> BIG PILE UP.
I'm not doing that again, so give me BIG LENSES!
graspee
Re:HiDef... (Score:2)
Re:Um, why? (Score:2)
the digital stills out of these things suck (Yes i have one of those tiny VAIO's linux runs on them quite nice WITH support for that camera) and ends up never getting used. the video is worse out of them.
You are not going to get low-end DV quality out of them and nowhere near the still quality of a 2.1 megapixel digital with good glass lenses.. (Yes, kiddies my 2.1 megapixel camera blows away the 3,4 and 5 megapixel cameras... all because of the sill
Did you bother to read the articles? (Score:2)
Re:Did you bother to read the articles? (Score:2)
No, no I don't. (Score:4, Funny)
I drool for elegant stuff that works (Score:2)
The latest vertical-model miniDV camcorders (Sony's DCRPC ones for example) have what you're talking about: they probably don't give you the best image or (especially) sound next to horizontal models, but the design is amazingly compact and cool. (Even they suffer from the combo-device problem, though; camcorders right now might give you a little more than a 1 MP still, which is crap, but you still pay $150 for a memory card slot and a card to take still shots.)
But this? This is The Sh
Sony very please? (Score:5, Funny)
Not half as please with the editing job me bet.
Re:Sony very please? (Score:2)
Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday April 30, @10:55PM from the you-spilled-camcorder-on-my-laptop dept.
Must have been way too busy racking thier brain trying to think of a witty department...
But how much does it cost? (Score:2)
Re:But how much does it cost? (Score:2)
New? (Score:5, Informative)
Looks amazing but is 30gig enough? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Looks amazing but is 30gig enough? (Score:5, Interesting)
Compression is possible though. I don't know if there's any built-in compression, but a Crusoe/600 isn't going to provide much. With my AIW Radeon (original), I could just barely encode to MPEG2 with a Duron/600. With a 1.8GHz Athlon XP I can record straight to divx (from TV, 640x480) at about 1GB/hr, 60-80% CPU usage.
30G probably is a good match for the battery life of the unit, using whatever compression Sony built in. They, as a company, have better sense than to make something horribly mismatched like that. Chewing-gum memory slot excepted, of course.
Re:Looks amazing but is 30gig enough? (Score:5, Informative)
DV is about 13G/hour and the compression is through hardware. The unit probably uses that format and has a software codec.
The article doesn't say if this unit has a tape mechanism and the picture doesn't look like there is one. If it's only using the HD, no, 30G is not enough. You could work on 1 hour at most.
This is just a geek toy to try to impress the other geek in the next cubicle. It's not beefy enough or powerful enough to do any real work. It's also too awkward to use as a camcorder. Might be fine for shooting a few seconds at a time or recording part of a meeting but that's about it.
Re:Looks amazing but is 30gig enough? (Score:3, Informative)
no that is with a TON of quality loss.
when I capture and edit from my XL1 camera a 15 minute long project has about 1 hour of footage. this takes up 10 GIG on my media raid drive.
when I slam it down to a 8000kbps bit rate Mpeg2 for dvd authoring it ends up being slightly less than 1 gig in size.
the compression rates you are talking about are for really REALLY low end and low quality.
Yup. (Score:2)
Re:Looks amazing but is 30gig enough? (Score:2)
Isn't that the great part about filming. We spent 4 hours one night and got about 3 minutes worth of usable footage.
For a consumer product, this thing is good. They don't need high-quality images. Solid-state digital cameras with MPEG or QuickTime encoding also do the job, just 15 seconds at a time. The price is what is going to keep this out of the American mar
I have one (Score:5, Informative)
I use one of these but is more a Camera Toy than a real laptop the keyboard is almost unusable. The battery life is not so good. and the screen is very tiny. But the movies it takes are clear and you can use the optical zoom.
Why does SONY love Windows ME so much? (Score:5, Funny)
Anyone know why?
Re:Why does SONY love Windows ME so much? (Score:5, Informative)
If you notice on the web-site, buying the OS is an OPTION. The mere fact that you can choose not to buy windows when you buy this machine puts it head and shoulders above almost every other PC-type product out there in terms of the OS.
I mean really, if you want to buy this device and don't like ME, just don't pay for it.
Re:Why does SONY love Windows ME so much? (Score:3, Informative)
have a look at:
http://www.dynamism.com/gt3/specs.shtml
they will even put xp on it if you really want them to. And personally I would as the latest Avid DVxpress only runs on XP, and its posibly the best consumer level package behind final cut pro
Re:Why does SONY love Windows ME so much? (Score:3, Insightful)
They are not a software company, so I don't see why they don't release some specs on their devices, but they don't.
Re:Why does SONY love Windows ME so much? (Score:2)
I"m sure what you meant to say was "I never understood Sony's passion for the SHITTIEST Windows release with its notebook." I like all other slashdotters and non-slashdotten can all agree that Win ME is easily the worst Windows produced since 1.0
Anyone remember that comercial? (Score:2)
Reese's Peanutbutter Cups (Score:2)
"You got peanut butter on my chocolate!"
"You got chocolate in my peanut butter"
HMMM!
*cue music and announcer*
Reese's Peanutbutter Cups
The commerican ran for ages.
hibread for the masses (Score:2, Funny)
swiveling screen (Score:4, Funny)
Re:swiveling screen (Score:4, Funny)
The screens on Star Trek swivel.
Price? (Score:2)
Somehow I tend to be suspicious of things with no price tag..
Re:Price? (Score:2, Informative)
better, but.. (Score:2, Interesting)
I am reminded of that Russian MiG which was flown out to Japan. The reverse engineering team was stunned by what was achieved with "old" technology that was tightly tuned and integrated. I look forward to innovations coming from places where technology has only trickled in due to economic or supply factors, making development more deliberate and well considered.
Why all the hybrids? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Why all the hybrids? (Score:2)
This whole "universal machine" idea is going nowhere. Quick, someone call Alan Turing.
Re:Why all the hybrids? (Score:2)
This idea that "integration is bad" in the computer age is just stupid. There has never been a tool as flexible and extensible as the PC, and there is no reason not to connect two devices together to share (processor, storage, user interface) resources.
You want to carry lots of standalone devices? That's fine, Batman, but I like the idea of product integration.
Re:Why all the hybrids? (Score:2)
Integration is bad when you're integrating devices with mutually exclusive goals.
I want a digital camera to be small and light so I can easily carry it and move it around.
I want a laptop with a little weight (1-2 kilos at least) so it doesn't slide down the desk as I type on it, and with a form factor large enough to have a reasonable keyboard.
You can't make it both ways without bizarre compromises (something like the famous "
Re:Why all the hybrids? (Score:2)
>Good news? The free market serves us both.
It can't really. At best, one of us will get fairly shoddy service. There are finite resources for support, stocking of spares, and manufacture of aftermarket parts. Are they going to make those items for a model that sells 600 units, or the competing model that sells 60,000 units?
Comparison: Look at the spares availability for a common, conventional Thinkpad or Satellite, and compare it wit
Re:Why all the hybrids? (Score:2)
Yes, a product's support lifespan is definitely related to the number of units produced, but that has little to do with its suitability to my purposes, particularly in the case of portable compute
Re:Why all the hybrids? (Score:2)
so put a normal computer, camera, fax, printer, scanner, tv, mobile phone, kitchen sink, etc, into one unit.
problems
a) price
b) what happens when a single part of the unit breaks down?
c) what ever happened to do one thing, and do it well?
d) interface, how are you going to operate all that shit at the same time, better yet how are you going to operate one part of it when the controls for the rest of it are getting in the way?
e) looks, is it just me or does tha
Re:Why all the hybrids? (Score:4, Interesting)
With mobile devices, a PDA, phone, MP3 player, and camera (for example) have about 70% common components (by weight). So, if I'm clever, I can glom together four devices, each of which would weigh four to six ounces or so, and glom them into one eight ounce device (yes, I just made up those numbers). Yes, you need to solve a battery life problem, but I'd rather carry one spare battery for my Uber-Device than four separate devices.
The One Device hasn't yet been created, but I've seen a couple that are awful close. Kyocera's PDA/phone/MP3 players are awfully attractive.
Interface design: Do you need to be able to operate your PDA and your camera simultaneously? No? Then why would there be an interface problem? Several PDA/phones have arguably better UI than their individual components because you don't have to hold the PDA in one hand and dial with the other.
It just takes smart UI design and clever engineering. It can be done, and done well.
Is Sony's lap-camcorder an example of a good convergence product? Dunno. I'd have to play with it and evaluate the ergonomics. But I'm glad they made it, and I'll be glad to see the machines that replace it.
Re:Why all the hybrids? (Score:3, Interesting)
That's the whole point - "connecting together" is fine, "putting in the same box" is not. The PC would never have been successful if they were not upgradeable. How many people on
Re:Why all the hybrids? (Score:2)
An MP3 player
A PDA
A phone
Add a CCD and it's easy to integrate a camera. Even if the camera isn't as powerful as a nice standalone digital, the fact that it's easy to carry on your person at all times increases its utility.
A friend of mine just got a Qualcomm camera-phone, and it was a hell of a lot of fun to play with taking candid shots, where I might ha
Re:Why all the hybrids? (Score:4, Insightful)
They are experiments, a celebration of both people and technology. nobody knows what will work, really, and people always find unintended uses for stuff. so yeah, a swiss army knife is an inferior replacement for all the separate components, but the swiss army knife is about convenience, not being the best corkscrew or tweezer in the world.
A Bit Late (Score:2, Insightful)
New? (Score:3, Informative)
"Sony says they had no intention of releasing this prototype computer/camera for general sale. That is, until the flood of interest at PC Expo 2000 Tokyo. It was quite a show for the GT3/K; whether a brilliant marketing tactic or just pure good decision-making by Sony, we're very pleased with the outcome."
Its still pretty cool though. Btw, here [dynamism.com] is a link to the dynamism page. Or is this supposed to be an article about an american release of the same product?
I'll pass (Score:5, Insightful)
Reasonable quality digital camcorder? kewl!
Trying to stabilise the camera with the added, needless weight of a laptop? No thanks.
A camera that has to be upgraded when the laptop is passe'? No thanks
Sending my laptop back when the camera dies? No thanks
Or sending the camera back when my laptop HD dies? No thanks.
Re:I'll pass (Score:2)
Re:I'll pass (Score:2)
Decent specs, and it's priced right around $1500.
I'd be curious to hear how well the keyboard can be operated, though - it's only about six or seven inches wide.
Re:I'll pass (Score:2)
About the keyboard. I had a Jornada 680. It was prolly smaller than this. But I could type reasonably well. Certinaly not like a normal laptop, but good enough for small amounts of typing.
It's new to you! or not... (Score:2, Interesting)
Sounds sweet (Score:2, Interesting)
Damn (Score:2)
I don't think this is new.... (Score:2)
Bad Logic, no Cookie (Score:2)
After reading the release, about how DVD growth is because of File Trading, I was reminded again how these arguments hurt. Not just us, but the entire cause of file-trading.
First off, the rise in DVD sales is due to the emmergence of digital technology and the market penetration of Digital Devices, on things like Computers, Playstations, etc. Sales of individual films has risen because of the drop of prices of the discs while things like rental costs and PPV fees have risen. Paying $15 for a DVD ful
Re:Mod Parent Up (Score:2)
File-sharing just serves as a convenient excuse for a decline in an industry as a whole, and not a root cause. True, maybe people buy a few less CDs than they would if they couldn't download them, but I've always noticed that the worst offenders wouldn't buy CDs anyway. I personally keep a very l
*cough* (Score:2)
What exactly were you doing with that laptop to make it more liquid than solid?
"very unique"???? (Score:2)
Maybe it's because I cut words for a living but I *hate* it when I see people abusing the English language like this.
The word "unique" is an absolute, not a relative adjective. Something is either unique or it's not, you can't have "slightly, moderately, or very" unique!
Call me pedantic but I call it sloppy coding to misuse words like this
A near miss (Score:2)
Re:"very unique"???? (Score:2)
If you think you're coding when you write, then you're going to miss 90% of what makes writing interesting. Human language is not machine language. "Very unique" is a way to stress how unusual the product is. Of course it can't be literally true... but
Re:"very unique"???? (Score:2)
I am unique - there is no other person identical to me in the world. A man born with wings would also be unique - guess which one more deserves the title ?? Hence, I would argue, he would be "more unique".
If you insist on treating language as pure logic, remember that maths at certain points also does things like compare infinities, whereby some infinite values are taken to be l
Re:"very unique"???? (Score:2)
128 whole megabytes of RAM? (Score:3, Informative)
Seriously
Re:128 whole megabytes of RAM? (Score:2, Insightful)
Not that new... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Not that new... (Score:2)
Uh? What sort of specs would you say are not pedantic then? "A fairly slow processor and not that much RAM?" Being pedantic is kinda the point of giving you specs.
Config? (Score:2)
know if this thing puts a config on screen.
Most camcorders have a bunch of buttons that you
have to get used to. Does allow you to use usual
GUI interface to set camcorder options? Does it
have help to go with it? If so then this may have
its uses.
Sony Trapper Keeper 9000 (Score:2)
SCIFI prediction (Score:2)
hybrid devices (Score:4, Insightful)
Instead of mixing these 2 devices together, I suggest just let those two device support some kind of wireless protocol (WiFi or something similar) so they can have the same functionality as this device, but they need not be connected to eachother physically...
Okay, it might add up a bit to the weight (extra battery pack for the 2nd device), but then, you don't need to carry the whole device in your hand...
680,000 pixel CCD is not exactly top? (Score:2)
Johan Veenstra
Re:680,000 pixel CCD is not exactly top? (Score:2)
Just add 802.11xx (Score:2, Interesting)
Amstrad E-Mailer (Score:2)
Rus
17 hours? (Score:3, Insightful)
Does anybody think this looks like the Vaio MST3K? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:hibread (Score:5, Funny)
Re:hibread (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Windows ME/2000 ??? (Score:2)
Two features... (Score:2)