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Technology Stocks : Sony Corp - Sony -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ms.smartest.person who wrote (313)	8/30/2000 10:56:05 PM
From: ms.smartest.person	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 497

Sony CLIE The Palm has undergone yet another face-lift, this time from the masters of high-tech design at Sony. The CLIE, Sony's tiny, new handheld, adds two features not seen on previous Palm organizers: Memory Stick expansion and a jog dial to aid in navigation. These changes aren't a revolution, but they are enough to earn our top recommendation. The Hardware On the outside, the CLIE is a tad smaller and more angular than the Palm Vx. Both contain the same Dragonball processor, and both come with 8MB of RAM and a crisp 160-by-160-pixel monochrome display. We found no real performance differences between the two high-end handhelds in normal use. The differences started to appear when we used the jog dial on the upper left corner of the CLIE. So long as you're not a southpaw, you'll find that it's easy to quickly scroll down long lists and activate programs as you do using Pocket PC devices. We also liked the Memory Stick expansion slot for storing superfluous files and programs. It's a snap to navigate, copy, and delete files both to and from the stick, especially since Sony throws an 8MB Memory Stick in its package. This is generous compared to the memory offered by the Handspring Visor Deluxe and the TRGpro, which also support extra storage but require you to purchase the media separately. However, you can't run programs directly off the Memory Stick with the CLIE as you can with the Visor Deluxe and the TRGpro. According to the folks at Sony, you can use the CLIE for 15 days before you need to recharge its lithium-ion batteries. We were especially happy to see that the CLIE ships with a small travel charger so that you don't need to bring the whole USB cradle on trips. Software Bundle of Joy That USB cradle has other uses, though. By syncing up with the cradle, we were able to swap files and programs at ample speeds. But there's no provision for Windows 95 or Macintosh users. They'll need to look elsewhere. Aside from the now-standard Palm Desktop/AvantGo bundle, Sony includes two interesting new applets. The PictureGear Pocket software enabled us to view 160-by-160 monochrome images and associate them with names in our contact list. The video application from gMedia, which plays grainy, low-resolution movies, is fun but is more of a gee-whiz feature, like the movie player bundled with the Casio Cassiopeia E-115. The CLIE ships with Palm OS 3.5.1; however, this latest version of the OS is incompatible with some third-party software. For the same US$399 you'd pay for a Palm Vx, you can pick up the equally stylish Sony CLIE with an 8MB Memory Stick, a jog dial, and extra software. Palm and Handspring also sell less expensive models, but for those who believe small size and sleek design justify the expense, this is an excellent choice. singapore.cnet.com