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Handhelds Portables Hardware

Sony U-70 Micro PC Reviewed 170

Posted by michael from the finger-cramps dept.
Anonymous Coward writes "jkendrick has posted a detailed of review of Sony's dream handheld, the U-70. Slightly bigger than a PDA, with a SVGA screen, 20Gb hard drive, and 1GHz Pentium-M processor, this device could replace your PDA, laptop and desktop. The price is high, though. Oh to be rich (or at least richer than I am...)"
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Sony U-70 Micro PC Reviewed More

Sony U-70 Micro PC Reviewed

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  • The "guts" of the U-70 (Score:5, Informative)

    by Joseph Vigneau ( 514 ) * on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @01:36PM (#9814220)
    Here's [beyondthetech.com] what the machine looks like with the case removed. Quite compact.

  • Size (Score:1, Redundant)

    by Klar ( 522420 )
    Seems like an odd size, and the buttons(or whatever that is) near the screen look weird to use, hard to tell from the pic though.

  • It's interesting... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Sheetrock ( 152993 ) on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @01:37PM (#9814239) Homepage Journal
    But for that price, it should be able to handle some common storage device like CD or even DVD media. Half the reason of wanting something like this is so that you can easily watch movies or listen to music (although I suppose one could do the latter with MP3).

    20GB in a handheld does sound pretty good. I always worry about how you get these things repaired, though, especially when they're on the cutting edge like this.

    • Re:It's interesting... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Why people want CD/DVD drives in an ultraportable device is beyond me. I mean, there you have this small, beautiful device. Are you really going to bring your CD collection along? Why don't you just copy 1 or 2 movies onto the harddisk? And if you want to load more on the go, I'm sure a drive which you can leave at the hotel would be a much better choice than making this bulkier and heavier.

    • Re:It's interesting... (Score:4, Informative)

      by doctor_no ( 214917 ) on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @01:59PM (#9814537)
      It's a basically a ultra-compact PC, it has four USB 2.0 ports as well as a Firewire port. You can obviously just connect an external CD, HDD, or DVD+/-RW, ipod, whatever, to it.

      For multimedia, it should also run any app or codec that is available for WinXP, if they could get the price below $1,000 I'm sold.

      But the U50 and U70 aren't available in the US, these guys [icube.us]sell them here, but they charge $1999 for the U50 and $2599 for the U70. Yikes.

    • In doing so you've added at least a full inch to the length of the device, and the big attraction of the device is it's size.

    • it has a USB port. Plug 'n' Pray.
    • 20GB in a handheld does sound pretty good. I always worry about how you get these things repaired, though, especially when they're on the cutting edge like this.

      You don't get it repaired. If it breaks, you ship the thing back to Sony, or wherever you bought it from. And *hopefully* you've bought one of their expensive *extended warranties* that they want you to buy with it so that they can ship you a new one. Otherwise, you're screwed!

      So if you don't spend boo-coo $$$ on the extended, you better pray t

  • Not sure about the idea (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Dominatus ( 796241 ) on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @01:37PM (#9814240)
    I like having a PDA and a laptop, I use them for completely separate purposes.

    Combining a phone and a PDA sounds good, because both are items I keep in my pocket. My laptop, however, I use when I want most of the experiences of my desktop, away from my desktop. This includes the keyboard.

    Small keyboards and small screens are OK for PIM, checking email, and what not, but any more than that and it get's ridiculously tedious. I know there is a market for this kind of thing, but I'm probably not very interested.
    • Not to mention gaming while at a meeting.. I mean that thing isn't gunna be able to play Doom3 when it comes out... you might actually have to listen to what your boss is saying during a meeting..

    • Re:Not sure about the idea (Score:4, Interesting)

      by amliebsch ( 724858 ) on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @01:43PM (#9814313) Journal
      My dad has been waiting for something like this for a long time. He works in production control at a local manufacturing plant, and while he does a lot of work at his desk, he also has a great need to access spreadsheets and data on-the-go on the shop floor. A tablet PC is too big and too expensive, and a PDA isn't quite enough (he uses one, but the screen is too tiny to display spreadsheet data). This seems just perfect, especially if you could get/build some kind of docking solution.
    • Looks good to me- but then again I use a PDA regularly at work, and having twice the screen resolution real estate would be nice.
      • I'm not saying about that, they are already rolling out PDAs w/ PocketPC that will have VGA res, that's awesome. But is all the RAM and HDD space necessary for a device that can't do that much due to size limitations (comfortably)

    • Re:Not sure about the idea (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Pieroxy ( 222434 ) on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @03:02PM (#9815198) Homepage
      Nothing prevent any constructor from building a "UC" as a PDA/cellphone, with crappy screen and keyboard. When you're home, you plug your DVI and USB keyboard/mouse in and you're done.

      That's just what I'm looking for for so long now. I think it's still a little early, but I'm sure we'll get to it pretty soon.

      Imagine: Everything in one box the size of an iPod: Phone, PDA, desktop, laptop, etc...
      You just plug it into it's station at home and... bang! Keyboard, screen and all the rest are as big as you want them to be. You can even have additional storage (CD/DVD/HDD,...)

      You can even have a "portable station", the size of an actual laptop which will add some of these features as well as some more battery power.
    • The article said that the author used it with a standard 17" LCD monitor, so unlike the typical PDA, it has a video jack. It also has USB, so with modern operating systems it should be able to work just fine with a USB keyboard. That means that you can just take it with you , use it as as desktop computer with real screen and keyboard when you're at a desk, and use the dinky screen and keyboard when you're not, and it's quasi-pocketsized. Sounds like a real win to me, except for the price, which is only

  • Sony.... (Score:1, Troll)

    by wobedraggled ( 549225 )
    No thanks, thier hardware has slid down in quality steadliy... I'd rather get an OQO...
    • If only the OQO [oqo.com] would update its specs. It's an antique and it's not even available yet. I'd put at least:
      1) 1Ghz Pentium M (instead of Transmeta)
      2) 512MB RAM (instead of 256MB FIXED)
      3) 40GB Hard Drive (instead of 20GB)
      4) 802.11G (instead of B)
      5) USB 2 (instead of USB 1.1)
      6) Compactflash and SD card slots (None available)

      I Guess based on this list the only things I really like about the OQO are the form-factor, built in keyboard, and the transflective TFT for indoor/outdoor use. I really wish it wa

    • Re:Sony.... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by doctor_no ( 214917 )
      If you're worried about quality why would you bother with the OQO? Cheap Sony-basing aside, Sony is a company that at least has shipped a product.

      OQO has made years of promises, has no reputation for quality (good or bad), and has specs that are already outdated before its released. We can make a fair comparison of between the Sony U50/U70 and the OQO if and when the OQO hits the market.

  • Slightly? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by glamslam ( 535995 ) on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @01:39PM (#9814266)
    If that's slightly bigger than a PDA, then I guess PDAs have gotten alot bigger since the last time I checked into them.

    This thing looks too big for a carry-it-everywhere device, but too small for anything more than basic functionality... so I guess I'm wondering, "What's the point?"

    • Re:Slightly? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by NanoGator ( 522640 ) on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @01:46PM (#9814360) Homepage Journal
      "This thing looks too big for a carry-it-everywhere device, but too small for anything more than basic functionality... so I guess I'm wondering, "What's the point?"

      Niche market. Mainly business types that travel a lot. My uncle's probably the perfect customer for this product. He needs a small laptop that he can use on a plane, he needs small and mobile as possible, and he's got the money to spend on making his life as comfortable as possible.

      Nothing wrong with it not being everybody's cup of tea. If the price was right, I wouldn't mind having one that I could tote around the office. I've ordered a TabletPc for that, though.
      • Ummm....let me reword this a bit....

        Niche market. Mainly business types who will request a demo from the vendor to place on their desktop as the coolest new toy that our department is looking at, but will never use, nor even attempt to learn how to, nor even give to line employees who actually might find a use for the toy. Will never use on the plane because it's still on the desk (and still powered off). Will continue to use latest, greatest, and most powerful laptop that the company provides to create

      • Re:Slightly? (Score:4, Informative)

        by jaredcat ( 223478 ) on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @02:57PM (#9815149)
        I have one of these things and I love it, but yeah, you're right... Its too big to carry everywhere like my phone (because it wont fit in a pocket), and its no-attached-keyboardness makes it too difficult to do real work on it without using the dock or carrying around the tiny external usb japanese keyboard. It ends up being more like one of those tablet PCs that everyone was talking about a couple of years ago.

        Mostly I use it for web surfing in Starbucks, AIM while I'm walking around my house (its lite enough to carry everywhere at 1.2lb-- just too bulky for carrying everywhere outside of the house), and watching ripped DVDs in airplanes, and thats fine.

        Maybe I should just get a new tiny USB keyboard with english letters on it? What have handspring/treo/ipaq people come up with?
      • I do technical consulting, which includes having conversations with customers and doing Powerpoint slide presentations, which means hauling around a laptop and plugging it into video projectors (we used to also haul around projectors, but most of my customers have them these days.)

        When the MS WinCE machines came out, with pocket-format Powerpoint on them, it sounded like they'd be great - I could carry something much smaller and lighter than my laptop and use it. BUT NO, because they only had LCD screens,

    • Re:Slightly? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by mblase ( 200735 ) on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @01:48PM (#9814388)
      If you look at this picture [blogs.com], you'll see that it's still sized to be easy to carry in one hand. It looses something in usability this way, granted, but it's not too big for anything except your pants pocket.
    • No kidding. People complain about how big the Palm III series was; this thing's huge. You won't be just sticking it in your pocket anytime soon. And even 6 hours of battery life is limiting. My Palm only needs battery changes every couple of weeks at most. I suppose if you really need a laptop, this thing would be more convenient, but sheesh...

    • Re:Slightly? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Nogami_Saeko ( 466595 )
      Looks like about the same size as the Newton, which is far too big for a PDA in my books.

      For my money, the Vaio TR-series is vastly more useful in a slightly larger form factor, has built-in optical drive, full keyboard, etc.

      N.

    • If that's slightly bigger than a PDA, then I guess PDAs have gotten alot bigger since the last time I checked into them.
      This thing looks too big for a carry-it-everywhere device, but too small for anything more than basic functionality... so I guess I'm wondering, "What's the point?"

      Size-wise it reminds me a bit of the Newton. And while I personally found it a bit large (I prefer my small PalmOS device), some people still use the Newton daily (my dad for one). So, as an in-between device, I'm sure it'

  • Ummm... (Score:1, Interesting)

    by okmnji ( 791276 )
    How much is it, anyway? Yes, I RTFA... so it can run StarCraft, the five year old laptop in the closet collecting dust could do that too (well, slowly, but it can do it).

    • Re:Ummm... (Score:3, Informative)

      by Cpt_Kirks ( 37296 )
      I wondered how much, too.

      Dynamism has them at $1899.00 for the U50 and $2649.00 for the U70. Which is about what I thought when I read the article.

      Maybe, if Sony ever sells them direct in the US, the price may drop about $500.

      Damn nice toys.

      • Re:Ummm... (Score:2, Insightful)

        by ballwall ( 629887 )
        This page [sonystyle.com] from Sony Japan lists the U70 at 210,000 yen, or $1892.55 in USD.

        Basically they're charging $750 to reinstall the OS. I need to get into the import business.

  • Wi-Fi on-off switch is nice.... good design (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I like it - evry nice design. I could happily see myself using one of these pretty heavily with some nice syncing with my desktop. I want one...

    I would particularly like the Wi-Fi on-off switch. I'm fed up with dodgy software solutions to that.

  • Obvious Question... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by tilleyrw ( 56427 )

    When will someone port NetBSD/Linux/your-OS-of-choice to run on it?

    • It's standard x86 hardware, BSD/linux already runs on it.
    • "When will someone port NetBSD/Linux/your-OS-of-choice to run on it?"

      Out of curiosity, would Linux support the touch sensitive screen? That been done yet? What about over in the TabletPC arena that uses Wacom digitizers?

    • That's next :-)
      • ... and eventually we'll learn that, like the Tablet PC, it was for sale running linux in Asia a year before it came to market in the US. But it won't be sold with linux in the US, because that was a requirement for the license to sell it with Windows in the US. Americans will have to pay the MS tax and install linux themselves if that's what they want.

        Anyone know how it's being sold in Asia? I wouldn't be surprised to hear that it's available there with a number of different OSs, for different markets.
    • I run Linux on my U101. It works fine, except ACPI. I'd assume this is a descendant of the U101.

      Bruce

  • I'm waiting until we can combine a PDA, laptop, cell phone, wrist watch, T.V. remote, car keys, wallet all down into one compact device. I call them the other personal unit.

  • Ow (Score:1)

    by Apiakun ( 589521 )
    My Eyes! My Eyes! This color scheme... oof.
  • Sweet! An mp3 player!

    I wonder: if, by the time you packed a USB mouse and k/b, and all the stuff you'd need for a LAN party, you'd be carrying all that much less weight than a laptop for the price difference?
    • I wouldn't want to use that computer to play games, though! The screen is way too small and I don't see how the sound would be good, either. Not to mention that they've probably skimped on the graphics card, too (Doom 3 probably wouldn't even run - at least according to the specs I've seen).

      Yes, this thing is definitely meant for very specific users - I don't even think Sony is thinking of selling more than 10,000 of them (if even that many). This is very similar to the Toshiba Libretto, which came out in

      • Don't know about these units, but here in Japan Toshiba sold a LOT of Librettos. I used to see tons and tons of them in Akihabara when they were comming off their lease.

  • What's with the ultra ugly color scheme? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @01:46PM (#9814361)
    Light barf on white is not a good color selection...
  • The idea for a portable device is the ability to quickly turn it on and use it. This appears to be using a version of XP, which to me sounds like a boot sequence to start it. Does not make it very practical for keep track of PDA type stuff.

    If it is intended for a laptop, why in the world would you want to restrict yourself to a screen that size and require yourself to have to buy extra hardware for it? The concept of a laptop, at least as I saw it, was to have everything you need built in. So the devic
    • They could easily (and probably do) use the hibernation/suspend feature to boot more quickly. But I see your point.
    • from the article:
      [...] a Standby button on the top of the device that puts the U into standby, and also resumes it. It takes maybe two seconds to either enter or resume from standby mode by hitting this button. It's lightning fast. Hibernation mode only takes a few seconds longer with my unit entering or resuming from hibernation in less than 10 seconds.

      Also, you have everything bult in, you can type with the on screen or fold-up keyboard which comes with the device.
    • The idea for a portable device is the ability to quickly turn it on and use it. This appears to be using a version of XP, which to me sounds like a boot sequence to start it. Does not make it very practical for keep track of PDA type stuff.

      Modern PCs have a "sleep" function that uses minimal amounts of power while avoiding boot time when you need to use your computer.

      There are many valid complaints about this device. Boot time isn't one of them.
  • I can tell you right now, sales people will love this, because it is light... the down-side is that IT support for this is going to be horrible. Sales people are going to ask all kinds of silly, hypothetical questions about this and demand answers. The problem is, they are not going to be any more productive with this, because they just do not like to be productive, it's their nature.
    • Actually, in terms of sales success, they probably would be more "productive" with it, but not in the sense that you and me think of the word. They would be more productive in the sense that when they're doing a demonstration for a client and whip this ol' bad boy out, the client will go, "WOW!" and it will immediately generate a response by them that tells them that this salesperson is slick and organized, and on top of things (it will also probably help the poor slackers get laid, too). So in the long run
    • Why is IT support going to be horrible? It's an XP box, so it can be fixed remotely, should anything go wrong. Is this another ridiculous jibe at microsoft? :)

  • The price: it's no PDA (Score:5, Informative)

    by mblase ( 200735 ) on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @01:51PM (#9814435)
    The U70 will ship on 29 May for around ¥210,000 ($1871). Sony will also offer a lower spec. model, the U50, for ¥179,000 ($1595), which contains just 256MB of memory and a 900MHz ULV Celeron processor. It ships with Windows XP Home Edition.

    -- from the Register [theregister.co.uk]

  • slashdot'd??? (Score:4, Informative)

    by infonick ( 679715 ) * on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @01:56PM (#9814497) Homepage
    the page looked like it would /. so i made a mirror complete with the gallery. the server seems to be holding up thou.

    here it is anyway:

    THE U70 [members.shaw.ca]
  • But will it run OpenBSD?

  • anyone else think that its funny... (Score:4, Funny)

    by chrisopherpace ( 756918 ) <cpace.hnsg@net> on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @02:02PM (#9814565) Homepage
    This unit has a built-in three finger salute, to quote:


    Around the sides:
    Compact Flash slot
    Memory Stick Pro slot
    Hold switch
    Standby button
    Ctrl-Alt-Del switch
    • I'm know that you're just making a joke here, but in case you didn't know it has become standard practice to put a single easily accessible button for Ctr-Alt-Del on Tablet PCs. My M200 has one, and I use it regularly in tablet mode (cue the M$ sux and BSOD jokes here)...
    • This unit has a built-in three finger salute, to quote:

      ...

      Ctrl-Alt-Del switch


      No, not particularly. Most large-scale Windows rollouts require Ctrl-Alt-Delete to bring up the login.

    • It wouldn't surprise me if that is intended for logging in (if you happen to enable the ctrl-alt-del to log in option).

      IIRC ctrl-alt-del is handled differently from any other keypress so normal apps don't respond to it. This makes it harder to fake the log-in screen since you're app won't recognize the ctrl-alt-delete and pop up a log-in box. This causes problems with poorly written remote desktop programs that aren't capable of sending an artificial ctrl-alt-delete to log in to a remote box (the app can't
    • It's a Windows system. It runs XP. It may even be part of a Windows Domain.

      Which key combination does Windows wait for to bring up the Domain Login Dialog?

      Ctrl-Alt-Del.

      I'd pity the person using this system when this switch breaks. Nice toy, but no easy way to log in. D'oh.
      • Everyone is aware this is just a policy that can be edited, correct? Its not that useful of a feature anyways, due to the numerous vulnerabilities that Windows has. In any event, if an attacker can get as far as to display a page requesting a login (presumably at boot), you're already hosed anyways. In any event, having a mobile device tied to a domain would be a pain, always having to select "logon to local computer" at boot.
    • This might actually be funny if you were talking about Windows 98. As other posters have pointed out, Ctrl-Alt-Del is used to log on to Windows. Also, as far as I know, Ctrl-Alt-Del WON'T restart Windows no matter how many times you press it. So clearly it's not there for rebooting purposes.

  • Reverse Freudianism (Score:5, Funny)

    by gbulmash ( 688770 ) * <semi_famousNO@SPAMyahoo.com> on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @02:03PM (#9814575) Homepage Journal
    Only in gadgetry will men proudly step forward and proclaim "Mine's Smaller!"

  • First the /. intro makes an allusion to the "high price" and then the review says, "That makes the price much easier to swallow," but then doesn't say what it is. Would it have been too much trouble to actually STATE HOW MUCH IT COSTS? /Grumble

  • It's cool, but here is what I'd like to see.... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by StressGuy ( 472374 ) on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @02:05PM (#9814612)
    Would it kill battery consumption to have it output to virtual display goggles? What would really make this attractive to me is if I could take it on an airplane, plug in a trackball and virtual display goggles and work on things like AutoCAD drawings or Word documents on a full sized virtual screen without taking up the entire tray table or trying to get the screen/lid to unfold and not bump into the seat ahead of me.

    How hard would it be to make something like that?

  • Just in case... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Antihero77 ( 602539 ) on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @02:06PM (#9814617) Homepage
    The entire article text:

    Japan has always been ahead of the curve when it comes to mobile devices, especially computers. Importers such as Dynamism, Kurns & Patrick, iCube, and Kemplar have stepped into the void for these innovative devices that US consumers crave. While Japan has been producing very small laptops for a few years a lot of interest has been sweeping the internet recently about ultra-portable computers. Slightly bigger than a PDA but much smaller than even the smallest laptop, UPCs have been anxiously awaited by consumers. Devices like the OQO and FlipStart have been vaporware for years and yet they stay in the news and anxiously awaited by many prospective buyers. The manufacturers of both device are claiming they will be released late this year.

    It was into this climate of consumer clamor for ultra-portable devices that Sony entered and surprised everyone with their announcement of their U-50 & U-70 UPCs. Slightly larger than a PDA yet packing an entire Windows XP powered laptop smashed inside it's small case, the two Sony UPCs were not only announced without prior information leaking but Sony has actually released the devices in Japan. The first units hit the market in Japan months before the other two UPCs mentioned above are expected to be released. Unfortunately, if you don't happen to live in Japan then you'll have to obtain one of these little PCs from an importer like the ones mentioned above.

    I have been using a U-70 for a few weeks now, and I have been totally impressed with the thoughtful design Sony has put into this computer in almost every way. So, can you use one of these UPCs in your everyday mobile lifestyle? Read on to see how it works for me.

    Photos and screenshots of the Sony U-70 [blogs.com]

    What you get in the box

    The Sony comes in two flavors, the U-50 & U-70. There are three differences between the two models which are otherwise identical. The U-50 comes with a Celeron 900 MHZ processor, 256 MB of RAM, and Windows XP Home Edition. The more powerful U-70 comes with a Pentium M processor running at 1 GHZ, 512 MB of RAM, and Windows XP Pro Edition. Of the three differences noted above the amount of RAM is probably the most significant, as anyone running Windows will certainly attest to. The different processors might exhibit different battery consumption too, but I don't have two devices to compare. So what do you get in the box? The specs:

    U-50 / 70
    Internal:
    20 GB hard disk
    CPU (one of the two mentioned above)
    256/ 512 MB RAM
    Around the sides:
    Compact Flash slot
    Memory Stick Pro slot
    Hold switch
    Standby button
    Ctrl-Alt-Del switch
    1- USB 2.0
    DC in
    Docking connector:
    Hold switch
    WiFi on/off switch
    Power switch
    Headphones jack
    Front of the device:
    Three mouse buttons (L, M, R)
    Three indicator lights
    Zoom button
    Rotate button
    5" LCD screen (landscape orientation default)
    Scroll pad with Enter button
    Track point stick with Enter button
    Tools button
    LCD brightness button
    NextText button
    External:
    1800 mAh standard battery
    Docking cradle
    I/O connector
    4 - USB 2.0 ports
    1- i.Link port (fire wire)
    DC in
    Plastic stylus
    Mini surf board style
    VGA/ Ethernet dongle
    Fontopia style headphones with remote control (LCD display)
    Sony AC adapter
    Fold-up USB keyboard (Japanese and Engl

  • here are a lot of pictures... (Score:4, Informative)

    by ptorrone ( 638660 ) * <pt.adafruit@com> on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @02:11PM (#9814664)
    i took a lot of pictures [engadget.com] of the unit i reviewed...

  • portability in multiple sizes (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mblase ( 200735 ) on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @02:13PM (#9814684)
    I don't really like multi-gadgets, even ones as cool as this, for the simple reason that they always get the size wrong somehow. There are three types of "portability" that I usually come across in business:

    1) hand-sized -- the mobile phone, which fits easily into any pocket and is comfortable to grip with the whole hand, but is unsuitable for reading more than about twenty characters per line.

    2) palm-sized -- a small notepad or PDA, which can be easily gripped between the thumb and finger for reading or writing but still fits into a large, flat pocket in my coat or pants. GameBoys fit into this category as well.

    3) tablet-sized -- a large pad of paper or a laptop PC screen, possibly a Tablet PC, but not a laptop computer (too thick and heavy).

    A phone is simply too small for displaying large quantities of text, no matter how high the resolution. Contrariwise, a palm-sized PDA is too wide to be useful as a phone. And the idealized Tablet PC, complete with handwriting recognition and an all-day battery in a 1-lb. package, is still being pursued by many companies because it takes a screen that size to display more than a small amount of text or spreadsheet data.

    But no matter how much you fold and hinge a device, it's nearly impossible to turn a gadget designed for one of these form factors into another form factor. And any device that tries to sit halfway between two of these form factors -- like the Treo smartphones or this Sony U70 -- generally fails to attract widespread interest. Most people find it easier to carry two devices that are correctly sized to two different form factors than to try to use one that uses neither.
    • I really think the solution to all of these problems was seen in the final fantasy movie. Everything had a 3d/holographic display and motion tracking. Aren't some of the newer 3d displays getting close in this area. Where the user can percive something sticking out deom the device. Those redlaser keyborads seem pretty good at motion tracking. I think the whole Idea of having a physical "screen" is a dead end. Overlay my reality with something and track how I interact with it.

      and run in 640K of memory :)
    • >A phone is simply too small for displaying large quantities of text, no matter how high the resolution.
      While this obviously depends on personal preferences to some extent, I'd have to disagree. Whenever I go on holiday I make a point of copying two or three Baen (http://www.baen.com) Free Library books on to my P800 Smartphone - it's much lighter than carrying a bunch of paperbacks around with you, and I must have read at least a dozen novels on it now.
  • It's missing bluetooth, which is IMHO mandatory for cordless kybd/mouse sans dongle, and there's no camera.

    However, it could be the perfect Linux PDA: full programmability and USB master integrated. Plug it into a USB hub with GPS receiver, HDD, etc, and you'd have a nifty car/bike PC..
  • I wonder if some of the parts on this thing (eg the screen) are the same as will be used in the PSP ; it would make good sense to reap some of the research costs for that piece of hardware on their other product lines.
  • Now that I have moved from consulting into engineering, yet still do onsite work at customers I have found that having 1G of RAM in my laptop is not sufficient to run what I really need. I need 2G of RAM. So, while the size and of this would be great for this Road Warrior, unless it can hold 2G of memory, it won't help me.
  • this handheld is great except it has very little advantage over a laptop... untill a device has a built in querty keyboard, it cannot be an "on the move" hand held. Graffiti is obviously only good for 1-10 letters at a time... Onscreen keyboards Ditto foldable keyboards basically require a desk to operate (especially if there is no rigid connector between the device and keyboard) I have Tmobile hotspot and a Wired PDA, I still use the Sidekick [danger.com] at airports despite my 800k connection on the pda and the w
    • Your problem is with the keyboard, not the PDA. PDA's are meant to be used with one hand holding the device and one hand doing the input. Yes, Graffiti takes some getting used to, but anyone capable of handwriting can do it. My nine-year-old son was able to form letters after I showed him how. Including a thumb keyboard wastes space that could be better used to display data and using an external keyboard incurs other problems that you are familiar with. If you used that device as it was designed, your exper

  • Sony's "dream" handheld? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Still looks like a brick... it'll be a dream handheld when it's about 4"x3"x.25", indestructible, 1024x768x16m, 4ghz+, 1tb+, beautiful screen that doesn't wash out in the sun, runs for about 30 days without a recharge, and can get 3Mb wireless downstream anywhere on the planet, and is affordable.


  • He ordered it a month or two ago. To replace his way oversized Dell 8000 series laptop.

    They're really too small and fragile to use. It's a nice novelty item, but I'd want something a little more rugged for every day use. The 12" Apple laptops are quite nice, and the Dell X300 is a pretty nice Wintel model.

    Once you get down to a certain size, they lose usability.

  • How can you be richer than yourself? That doesn't make sense.
  • is that a server I smell melting?
  • Conics [conics.net] (Japanese based Aussie retailer) has the U-50 for $1,749, and the U-70 for $2450.
  • I can see why they'd offer XP pro on the thing, but I fail to see why they wouldn't offer linux on it as well.

    Sony prices are overinflated enough, without the $150 XP Pro OEM license tacked on. Especially when you consider you can't sell it to someone else or even run it on another pc (just like any other OEM windows license).

  • I have a U50 (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Diclophis ( 203740 )
    It fucking rocks. The footprint of the device + cradle + unfolded keyboard is still smaller than a laptop. It also serves as a nice light VNC frontend to my HTPC (built in wireless internet). I even made a movie on it with a shitty 50 dollar USB webcam, with the included microsoft movie maker software (a little tricky since I dont read japanese... I am trying to find a spot to put this... I could probably upload a torrent somewhere since I am running bt on the device). I could write all day about the vari

  • Fan (Score:3, Funny)

    by LS ( 57954 ) on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @04:28PM (#9816070) Homepage
    The thing has a fricken fan! A fan I tell ya! I wonder if it can be overclocked! Water cooling anyone? How about a clear acrylic case for the thing!?

    LS

  • RTFA (Score:3, Interesting)

    by technoviper ( 595945 ) <technoviperxNO@SPAMyahoo.com> on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @04:48PM (#9816235)
    the way he got it the system was far from perfect to use...

    he had to install Windows XP Tablet PC Edition to get it to work the way he wanted.

    XP Tablet PC edition is only available to OEM's or MSDN subscribers (which is $2500 a year) so i think the average user may find the system a little frustrating
  • I'm getting one of these- at least, if I get the new job I'm waiting on. Good chance of it too, so ... I had to sell my computer to pay for the gigantor school loan payments I'm having to make while still in school. *sigh* But ...

    At least this thing is out. Beats the OQO on that front. :P

  • Exactally what consultants need (Score:3, Interesting)

    by invisik ( 227250 ) * on Wednesday July 28, 2004 @12:35AM (#9819328)
    Hey,

    This thing is great. I need to get one to replace my IBM Thinkpad X31. It's big enough (size and power) to do some actual work if you need to and if you don't have a PC at a client site (a little VNC or remotedesktop, etc or some e-mail checking etc) but small enough to carry. Would definately lose the PDA and X31 and just carry the U70 and cell phone. No bluetooth phone dialing, which I'll miss, but I think it would be worth it.

    I don't like it has a dongle for ethernet, as everywhere doesn't have wireless, but I suppose stick it in the glove box and get it when you need it.

    Batt life sounds great, too. I wonder how big the power cord is. Needs some cell phone internet integration so you can be "always on"....

    It's on the list. Just too bad we didn't see them when we visited Japan earlier this year.... :(

    Keep the good stuff coming, Sony!!!

    -m

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