moar chrome OS leaks

Same source as last time. Looks great for my grandma.

20 minutes at Sony Style

I'll admit. A few years ago when my idea of being a techhead was surfing CNET reviews, I was a bit of a Sony fanboy. I even payed a premium for their ATRAC CD player. (490 songs, dude!) and a pair of active noise cancelling earbuds that broke after 2 weeks (that background buzz was not worth it anyway).

Since then, I've gained some important perspective and have returned from my sinful ways. Still, you have to admit that, for better or worse, Sony keeps pushing the envelope when it comes to next-gen hardware.

I was dragged into the mall yesterday, where I spent a few minutes browsing Sony Style. Here are some of my thoughts:

OLED – Sony has clearly been ahead of the pack in turns of integrating OLED into their devices. I played a bit with the crazy thin and gorgeous 11” TV and touchscreen DAP. The DAP is crippled by unintuitive software (what’s new, Sony?) and the TV is obviously too small and expensive. What I don’t get is why Sony won’t integrate OLED into their camera line.  Laptops are understandable, as the 11” display costs close to $2000 by itself.

Vaio W – I actually thought they did a decent job with this. The build quality was tops for a netbook and it looks pretty good too (better IRL than in pics). Of course, $500 is too much for the performance, but their branding has to be worth something over Asus, Acer, and MSI.

Vaio P – Its a work of art. Let’s just leave it at that.

eBook Readers – They had the older PRS-505 and the (apparently not yet released) PRS-600BC, which sports a resistive touchscreen. If you’ve heard my thoughts on Windows Mobile, you’ll know that if there’s one thing I can’t take in a mobile device, its a resistive touchscreen. At this point in the game, you’ve gotta go capacitive or bust. But eBooks are different. The icons on the screen are plenty big, so a stylus isn’t necessary (although Sony does include one). And if I’m going to spend most of my time reading on a device, I’ll put up with a less sensitive touchscreen. However, there are a couple of lingering issues. Firstly, the on-screen keyboard was unusable, although that might just be due to the abysmal refresh rates of e-ink displays.  Secondly, the outer plastic coating leaves a blurry glare over the e-ink. You’ll know what I’m talking about if you’ve used an old Palm device. (I’m talking Palm V old.) Quite frankly, readability is NOT something you can sacrifice on a reading device! Then again, at least it obviates the need for the cluster**** of buttons found in its non-touchscreen brother. Bottom line: its a complicated issue. Kudos to Sony for at least letting the consumer make the decision.

 

Chrome OS leak

Dudes, I just came across these from a credible source. Have to sleep now. More later.

Palm Pre first impressions

Ok, I'm late, and nobody cares what I have to say. Not unlike Heidi Klum. (Yeah, I had to Google "pregnant celebs.")

But I did finally get to check out the long awaited Pre in a Sprint Store today.

I would have bought one at launch, but as those of you following my Twitter stream know, there's no way I'm ditching my $25/month all-inclusive Sprint plan for the $70/month required Everything plan. I guess I'll have to wait for Sprint to pick up Android. Or maybe the Eos. Sigh.

So here are some my thoughts after spending about 15 minutes with the device:

1. Beautifully designed. Reminds me of a Sony product how the display just blends in with the rest of the hardware. It actually makes the black borders around my iPod touch look pretty unattractive in comparison. The feel in the hand is great, and its just the right size for my thumb to hit all four corners of the screen without having to readjust my grip.

2. The software experience is 95% there. Palm nailed this. They managed to make innovation in the productivity-geared aspects of the phone, while keeping it simple and gorgeous. The animations could be smoother, but I'm sure Palm will work on optimizing WebOS soon enough. Synergy is something I was pretty skeptical about coming in, but reviewers say it works great.

3. The keyboard is tiny. On his podcast, Ryan Block says this is a non-issue after a week of practice, but the Treo Pro gave me no problems out the gate. I guess this is something I'll have to try out for myself before coming to a conclusion.

Fine. That's all for now. At least I managed to pump something into the tubes.

welcome, josh

Ok. I have nothing to say.

But some people think I should write more.

And there are time when I wish I had somewhere to write.

So I guess this is the first step.

Hello World!