01-10-2005, 06:30 PM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 15,171
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Incompatibility Threatens Digital Lifestyle
"For the digital lifestyle to become a reality, consumer electronics makers need to overcome one major consumer frustration: incompatible technologies, a panel of experts agreed Friday. Many hardware makers at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this week are showcasing devices such as entertainment hubs, digital media players, gaming devices, cell phones, and digital cameras, as well as a plethora of multipurpose gadgets, but many of those products don't work together."
No kidding; we could have told them. If I could highlight my main source of incompatible frustration, it would be DRM. :evil: It's frustrating that the most popular music player handles a DRM scheme that can't be used by my Pocket PC or Smartphone without cracking the DRM, and it serves as a reason as to why I'm sticking to a lot of legacy technologies -- like CDs -- and I'm a technophile! I can't imagine what the average consumer would think. But it's not the only thing (wireless, sync, and so on), and I'm sure you have your own "digital lifestyle" incompatibility stories. I wish companies would grow up and realize standards are actually good for them. :|
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01-10-2005, 06:35 PM
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Sage
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 717
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I agree with you but it seems that companies are trying to come up with their own �must have standard� and have everyone license it so they can make more money, in the end that is all that matters in Corporate world. Consumers are secondary.
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01-10-2005, 07:16 PM
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Editorial Contributor
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 5,411
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The great thing about standards is that there are enough of them that everyone can have one of their own. :roll:
__________________
Sometimes you are the anteater, sometimes you are the ant.
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01-10-2005, 08:03 PM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 6,305
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If we could just get rid of the Sony Memory Stick the world would be a much better place.
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01-10-2005, 08:09 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 148
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Lasher
If we could just get rid of the Sony Memory Stick the world would be a much better place.
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AMEN!
I have been able to completely avoid the memory stick until... this Christmas my wife fell in love :roll: with the cybershot W1. Guess what the second purchase was? :evil:
Oh and to top it off my 2yr old memory card reader didn't support Memory stick "Pro" so guess what the third purchase was?
All this and I have a drawer full of sd and cf cards and 2 unused card readers. :evil:
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01-10-2005, 08:23 PM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 6,305
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I feel your pain. I can even live with the MiniSD and TransFlash because they have adaptors.
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01-10-2005, 08:23 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,079
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Lasher
If we could just get rid of the Sony Memory Stick the world would be a much better place.
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I should add: get rid of all the 8 mostly incompatible variations of Sorry MemorySH!T formats (regular, Pro, Duo, Duo Pro, MagicHATE, Select, etc.) AND all the dozen of mostly incompatible variations of the MMC or SD card formats (miniSD, RS-MMC, MMCplus, MMC mobile, Transflash, etc.)
SD is small enough for ALL the current electronic devices: a total SD slot with rails and connectors only takes up a tiny 1 to 1.5% of a total device volume. In other words, putting a smaller slot only gains an insignificant volume, namely only about one half of a percent. The gain is ridiculous, yet incompatibility is intolerable.
For example, some cellphones feature MP3 playback, but the largest tiny card capacity is 256 MB, with rare ones at 512MB; Sandisk makes 2 SD cards with 2 GB; that's 400 to 800% more. However transfer speed of tiny cards is lower, max capacity is much lower (obviously subjet to get better but so will SD capacities in parallel, if not higher; see the increasing rate between CF and SD). Also prices are much higher up to twice as much for the higher capacity cards.
So for the same price do you prefer 512MB or one GB?! The answer is in the question  .
Actual example: the Moto MPx-200 has a full SD slot, while the MPx-220 has a miniSD slot. And the whole device is the same size.
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01-10-2005, 08:51 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,079
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Lasher
I feel your pain. I can even live with the MiniSD and TransFlash because they have adaptors.
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Adapters are good.
However, for obvious reasons it doesn't allow you to put the millions of higher capacity, less expensive, easier to find, faster cards in a tiny card slot.
Let's say you have an SD card in your PDA, you want to get one with a higher capacity; what do you do with the older one? if all your devices use SD cards only, you can use it in, say, your new cell phone, MP3 player, digicam, etc. But you can't put it in a miniSD, TF, etc. slotted cellphone.
And there's no need to buy yet another 126-in-1 card reader .
Remember, one of the main reasons CDs took off was because of a unique CD audio format. OTOH video laser discs came 1-2 years before but never succeeded because there were 2-3 standards even tho higher image quality and friction less playing was like CD vs LP. Laser discs media prices vs tapes was comparable (at least like CD vs LP).
Speaking about video tapes, they caught on the market the moment VHS became predominant and editors only had to release their movies in one format and blank media manufacturers could make higher numbers of one single format such lowering prices, making them more attractive to consumers who didn't have to choose between incompatible tapes vs VCRs.
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01-10-2005, 09:22 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 51
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I agree! Everybody is in a huge push to get media to mobile devices this year, but formats, DRM issues and compatibility are hardly being addressed. It's going to be like a huge train wreck.
It seems a lot of people are going to buy a lot of gadgets hoping they'll work like they're advertised. Then they'll end up finding out they need extra software, hardware or worse new operating system.
Legacy formats are the way to go. I stick with MP3, MPEG/AVI formats for my media. My TiVo is a TV Tuner card with GUIDE PLUS and I use CF when I can � but I have had to use SD (for my smaller digital camera). I won't buy something that doesn't accept those formats.
My method may sound stoneage, but it's worked for a while now. Every morning when I wake up I have a 30 min capture of Headline News, Podcast and RSS feeds are on my Pocket PC waiting for me to take them and go. It's a pretty unique setup, but what else do I have to spend my money on? A new PVR...not! 0X
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01-10-2005, 10:41 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 392
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Lasher
If we could just get rid of the Sony Memory Stick the world would be a much better place.
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agreed!!!!
burn sony to the ground...
:twisted:
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