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Wait and see. It'd be crazy if you see new equipments from Sony every months. It takes time to come up with a new design and all.

It's great to see overwhelming positive reviews for the latest DAP from Sony. At least, it's a very nice comeback for Sony Walkman, no doubt about that. I haven't seen a negative user review from CNET either so far. While dropping SS was a good move for most people, I also believe that the bundled earphones (MDR-EX082) is a major contributor for the reason why this DAP is having such popularity now.

I also bought my EX90sl from "BuyFromJapan" on ebay as well. The package was shipped very quickly and the package is genuine as well. Everything was there. What was surprising for me was that they declared that the package is only worth $30 USD and I didn't have to pay any custom duties at all. I'm very happy about that. Speaking of knockoffs, it's not surprising though because a lot of manufacturing plants are installed in China and those people can produce extra quantities secretly then sell it under the table. If you look in ebay, you can find so many cheap EX71sl for about $20 USD. I might be interested to try one of those and replace my broken EX71sl after 2 years of service.

I think you can also format the player in the options from settings. It might help.

The point is that backward compatibility won't look as good on HDTV regardless the upscaling option. Upscaling doesn't do much, honestly. The image is interpolated by smoothing up the edges. As a result, the image may become a bit blurry depending on the game. However, upscaling is best used on DVD movies. Personally, I find that the best way to enjoy PS2 games is still on a normal TV. If you really want backward compatibility, consider buying a PS2 memory card adapter if you still have valuable game data in those cards.

Congrats on your purchase. I haven't tried connecting my mp3 players to my PS3. However, you can copy mp3/atrac files into the PS3 hard drive by using an altenative method, such as a USB flash drive or memory stick.

There is one thing that most consumers fail to realize when they speak of backward compatibility. PS2 games will rarely look good on HDTV since most of them only play on 480i natively. HDTV are best viewed on their native resolution. Plus, some HDTV has a small lag when you play games on a non-native resolution.

You might be interested looking at ebay. There are tons of auctions for earbud replacements.

Which could possibly be interpreted as CNET giving the A818 a lower score than it deserved.

I don't know but DVD Upscaling is the firmware's job. If you get the latest firmware, you will have DVD upscaling. As for the controller, the Sixaxis is the standard controller since the PS3's debut. The Dual Shock 3 is coming next year. You might want to wait until Easter mainly because it has been said that Sony will bundle Metal Gear Solid 4 with Dual Shock 3 together for European release.

Just like the A810, you can create/import the playlist from Windows Media Player 11, which is the only software included in the CD. I barely touched the playlist since I never use it.

For transfers, simply drag the file and drop into the mp3 player just like the A810. I don't think that there is a simpler solution than that. I haven't found any issue at displaying any Asian letters on the unit. The choice on which one to buy is yours while we can only help you sort out the factors based on your needs.

A816 comes with MDR-EX082. You can easily find that on ebay for about $20-30

Yeah, I would recommend an upgrade on the headphones if you're getting the S610. You don't miss much if you don't go for the A810. In fact, I believe the S610 was a better deal than A810. With CAD being on par with USD, I bought the EX90sl from ebay for less than $90 CAD (shipping included) from Japan and had no extra custom duty fees. To sum up: S618 + EX90sl + FM Tuner I think it's better than A818 + EX082 Then again, it will only depend if you are able to buy online or not.

The A810 series is only sold in the website and Sony Store only carries the new S610 series for now. Sony Canada's Press states the following: "The NWZ-A810 series will be available exclusively online at www.sonystyle.ca and at Sony stores across Canada later this Fall" Here's link if you want more info: http://sony.ca/view/press_419.htm

Connect the unit to the computer, then go check Device Manager, see if theres any yellow exclamation mark somewhere related to USB or Sony mp3 player. If there is, try to reinstall the drivers or something.

Yes, I have the S618F Silver as well and the sound is identical to the A810/A800 if you compare them with the same headphone. Since I already own a pair of EX71 and didn't want to pay extras, I went for the S618 instead of the A800/A818. (Also because of FM tuner, I can listen to my NHL games when returning from class!) Chinese/Korean/Japanese letters are shown on my player perfectly so far. I doubt there will be any problem displaying them because the player has multi-language support for the menu similar to the PSP. The S618's playlists can be created from Windows Media Player/Rhapsody/etc... There is a CD that comes with the package: - Windows Media Player 11 Installer - Mp3 Conversion Tool (converts your ATRAC files back into MP3) - Operation Guide in pdf format That's about it.

The iPod doesn't sound bad if you have a decent headphone. In fact, I've tried my EX71 earbuds on an iPod Shuffle (1st Generation) and it sounded much better than the stock headphone as one would expect. Most people around me just use whatever is included in the box; they won't spend extra money for fancy headphones. In 6 years since the debut of iPod in 2001 (from 1st Gen to 6th Gen), I felt that Apple was only rehashing the same iPod year after year with minor modifications and revisions. The iPod is still the very same iPod. I know that the storage capacity has gotten much bigger over time and eventually, picture and video features were added, but was there any other significant change in the internal software in the player itself? I would like someone to check that for me. Apple introduced variants such as the Mini (now discontinued), Shuffle, Nano, and now the iPod touch. I don't know for you guys but for me, the iPod touch is the only one that I consider to have gone through some drastic change. In other words, iPod 2. I agree with Shinji regarding the iHype. My girlfriend's sister wanted the Macbook 13.3" so badly to the point where she asked me if I could install Windows on it. Now, Windows Vista is running on her MacBook instead instead of Mac OSX. I found that funny. lol

Sony isn't mainly the one to blame. If you look at everywhere in Canada, including big retail stores such as Best Buy and Future Shop, or even car dealers, they are all selling their products at high price, ignoring the currency rates.

So far, I have not noticed any fingerprint on the silver case. However, the LCD shows fingerprint as expected.

I just picked my S618F Silver and I love it. I'm currently using the same old EX71sl but my EX90sl should be shipped by next week. I am currently experiencing a very odd problem. The unit automatically disconnects from my laptop then becomes unrecognizable by Windows XP. It appears that the drivers are corrupted for some reason. However, I am not having any problem in other computers at home. Very odd!

The A810 is sold in Sony Style Canada website for but it won't carry the 8GB version. It has been said that the model will be in local stores later this Fall. Personally, the difference in the LCD size of those 2 players are insignificant as they are too small for me to enjoy a movie. I still prefer watching a video on the PSP.

As for battery life, my E507 is still working fine after 2 years of daily usage but it's probably slightly lowered by now. Yes, I agree that for a bit of extra money, the A810 beats the S610 with better earphones. However, headphones are replaceable. It makes me want to think that releasing both the A810 and S610 at the same time isn't a very smart move by Sony. Something that has annoyed me is that in the US, the A810 directly competes with the new iPod Nano in terms of pricing, while in Canada, we have the S610 who competes with the Nano in terms of pricing. Sure, we had the A800 for a while now but it was overpriced (8 GB was $300 CAD). The A810 series (sans 8 GB) are still overpriced here. Canadians are missing out the hot competition that our neighbor, the US are having and I'm not going to bother going into the subject of our currency parity with the US.

It appears that most people, if not everyone, here are crazy over the S810 series, which leaves its sibling, the S610, in the shadows. So what makes the A810 so popular? Is the form factor that important?

I'm pretty much in the same boat as you, Ascariss. I recently sent my PSP to Sony for repair. Now I can't listen to music anymore when I'm outside. I would love to wait for the A900 series but I expect it to be much more expensive. I would also love to hop to the US and grab a 8GB but now isn't a good time for me because of University