10-29-2005, 06:00 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Yet Another Sony Fumble - New Memory Sticks Don't Work With Some Vaios
http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000980065097/
File this one under the heading "No duh!" "We�ll have to award Sony a few points for remaining steadfast in the face of adversity: the company has announced that a some models of Memory Stick with capacities 1GB and above flat out don�t work with a few series of their VAIO desktops and notebooks. Their response? �Use an external card reader.�
First Sony releases the memory stick then finds out their spec is bad and maxes out at 128MB. Then they come out with the "Duo" stick that is 256MB, but is really 2 128MB sticks shoved together so you have to remove and reverse it. Then they come out with the Memory Stick Pro which worked in exactly 0% of their previous Clie handhelds. Now their big cards may not work with $1,500 and higher laptops. Needless to say, if some of you have a Sony Clie that has a Memory Stick Pro slot, make sure these new large cards work with your system before buying them. Sony probably isn't making any effort to test those anymore.
Why in the world anyone would buy Sony products with that kind of company standing behind it is beyond me... :evil:
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10-29-2005, 06:22 PM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 6,305
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Unless you are stuck with one of their memory stick only products this is not a big deal. Why anyone would use a memory stick instead of a cheap reliable USB flash drive is beyond me. I would never buy any of their cameras (or PDAs for obvious reasons) that use one of these silly sticks. The Vaio is a good laptop though. I have had 4 of them and just ignored the stick "feature". 
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10-29-2005, 07:05 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 171
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Another Betamax?
Perhaps Sony think that if they hold out, they won't have to admit they've chosen the wrong horse.
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10-29-2005, 07:38 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Re: Another Betamax?
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Originally Posted by unxmully
Perhaps Sony think that if they hold out, they won't have to admit they've chosen the wrong horse.
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Yeah. Any day now it will be proclaimed "The Year Of The BetaMax" :rotfl:
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10-29-2005, 07:39 PM
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Developer & Designer, News Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 12,959
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I can't wait for them to release a Cybershot, only for them to say two weeks later, "Oops, our new Cybershot fails to read any of our existing Memory Sticks."
It's a crippled format. Sony make great products, but I think it's high time they embrace the world of CF and SD/MMC and start to focus on working with other companies in promoting this key theme of "integration". No one is bent enough to buy Sony for everything.
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10-29-2005, 08:05 PM
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Editorial Contributor
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 5,411
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I love my Vaio. It is probably the most consistantly used and longest owned laptops (or PCs) I have. I own exactly one Memory Stick to keep dust out of the slot. My Vaio works as well with SD, CF, PC Card hard drives, as any other laptop. You just get the PC Card adapter. I do believe I've seen Sony laptops starting to have SD slots, so maybe they aren't embracing other formats, but they may be acknowledging them. Just because they cling to that MS format doesn't detract from the fact that they make some very nice consumer electronics.
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Sometimes you are the anteater, sometimes you are the ant.
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10-29-2005, 09:25 PM
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Theorist
Join Date: Jun 2002
Posts: 301
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I'm surprised at just how long these format wars keep going on. You would think that it would be pretty obvious to even the most die-hard manufacturers (even one like Sony) that SD is going to win this game.
It does remind me about the Lexar UFC product though:
http://www.lexar.com/ufc/index.html
Anyone know what's the status of that? I haven't seen it on any products yet. I think it would be even better than SD to be able to have a camera, mp3 player, and PPC that all have a tiny USB slot that fits a standard (as long as that's a royalty-free physical standard any OEM can copy) size extremely small USB drive. I've seen the SD-with-a-usb-interface-stuck-on-it designs and they look pretty flimsy. The UFC looks like it would be solid and I'd love to be able to go to any client site/random computer and know I can move files without having to carry a card reader since everyone's got USB.
It's a lot like my PQI iStick
http://www.pqi1st.com/products/istick.asp
That's the smallest USB thumb drive I've been able to find. If the USB forum would only agree on some formal standard size like that that all forum members could produce royalty-free, that would solve so many problems. (Imagine an 4GB iPod Nano that could swap the micro-thumb-drive which could be read/written on any PC. Sign me up!
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10-29-2005, 11:20 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,329
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I stopped using any MS enabled device after I dropped a grand down on a Cybershot 707 only to find out two weeks later that they are bringing out a new memory stick and opps sorry it doesn't work with all those other devices. My bad.
A thousand dollar camera rendered obsolete because of the MS. Screw memory stick. Screw it into the ground and into the grave.... But I'm not bitter. Not in the least. :wink: :?
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PDA History: Palm Pilot 5000 -> Apple Newton 2100 -> Casio E-11 -> iPaq 3650 (64MB Upgrade) -> iPaq 3700 -> Casio EM-500 -> HP Jornada 568 -> HP iPaq hx4705 www.spreadfirefox.com |
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10-29-2005, 11:23 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,329
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Sven
I love my Vaio. It is probably the most consistantly used and longest owned laptops (or PCs) I have. I own exactly one Memory Stick to keep dust out of the slot. My Vaio works as well with SD, CF, PC Card hard drives, as any other laptop. You just get the PC Card adapter. I do believe I've seen Sony laptops starting to have SD slots, so maybe they aren't embracing other formats, but they may be acknowledging them. Just because they cling to that MS format doesn't detract from the fact that they make some very nice consumer electronics.
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Yah you will notice that they started embracing SD in a big way after the new CEO took over. I'm thinking that wasn't just chance. Here's hoping the PSP will include a SD or CF slot in the next version because that is the only way I will ever own a PSP.
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PDA History: Palm Pilot 5000 -> Apple Newton 2100 -> Casio E-11 -> iPaq 3650 (64MB Upgrade) -> iPaq 3700 -> Casio EM-500 -> HP Jornada 568 -> HP iPaq hx4705 www.spreadfirefox.com |
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10-30-2005, 12:18 AM
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Pupil
Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 39
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Speak up Johnathon1
Don't be shy. Tell us what you really think of Sony's Memory Stink!
I thought I was taken for a ride with my $500 Clie NR70V. I am 99% certain that I would be using a new Sony Clie TH55 today and have a pair of them in storage just in case I neede them......EXCEPT........ Sony lied to me. They had charts out showing how they were going to release 1 gig MS cards. Well, those cards never arrived. What arrived were a whole bunch of oddball memory cards of different sizes and styles. None of them over 128 MB work a Clie like mine. So, SO LONG SONY.
I just got a new Cannon camera. It offers all any comparable Sony does for much less and I got a 1 GB SD card with it for $30. Why would I spend $70 for a Memory stick of that size? Moreover, Sony's cameras are overpriced, but nowadays are being sold at huge discounts. Why? I think it is because people don't want the MS. It won't work with their other equipment.
I have about had it with Palm doing the same thing only looking like they are only doing it out of incompetance. They never release a full-featured model. No matter what is in there, there is always some feature lacking or some oddball junk added that is a PITA(nterior). The latest Palm has a very full feature set, but lacks a microphone.
Stuff it Palm and Stuff it Sony. My next PDA will be an Axim or Acer.
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