Some Vaios Can't Use New Memory Sticks

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pcworld.com/resource/article/0,aid,123221,pg,1,RSS,RSS,00.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.pcworld.com/resource/article/0,aid,123221,pg,1,RSS,RSS,00.asp</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Three models of Memory Stick Pro memory card recently launched by Sony and one to be released Friday won't work with some of the company's Vaio desktop computers, Sony says. The announcement is the second admission within a week from the company that a new version of one of its products isn't completely backward compatible. Late last week, Sony Computer Entertainment, the Sony division responsible for the PlayStation game console, said that a new version of the PlayStation 2 due on sale in Japan on November 23 has problems running almost 50 existing software titles."</i><br /><br />As if I needed another reason to dislike Memory Stick technology, but here it is anyway. :roll:

[Jeremy Charette]

"Late last week, Sony Computer Entertainment, the Sony division responsible for the PlayStation game console, said that a new version of the PlayStation 2 due on sale in Japan on November 23 has problems running almost 50 existing software titles."

Interesting. I wonder if this has to do with Sony's continuing focus on component integration and cost-cutting improvements in the PS2? They've openly admitted that as the PS2 has gotten older, they've changed the components to reduce the number of parts they need, as well as making certain components faster or smaller. While they've apparently saved money by doing so, it seems they've also "broken" something along the way.

Microsoft on the other hand has made the Xbox with essentially the same core components over its' entire 4 year life cycle, which has caused some problems for them. The expected cost reduction of the primary components hasn't happened as quickly as they'd like, and they're having problems sourcing certain parts like the CPU and GPU in the past year or two. Intel doesn't want to make 733 mhz Pentium III CPUs anymore, nor do they want to continue to maintain the facilities necessary to do so. Microsoft still loses money on every Xbox sold, despite the fact that it costs about half as much to produce today as it did when first released.

The upshot is that every Xbox game still works on every Xbox console. :wink: