Rumz

There's so much to love about the Vaio Pocket, I hate to complain. It used to be that every once in a while the g-sense pad would go erratic on me and become unusable. No big deal, just re-calibrate it and you're good to go, right? Well it's reached a point now that re-calibrating fixes most the problem, but the bottem left corner-- the area you need to press to scroll down faster-- doesn't respond. I've tried switching from the different g-sense modes and it doesnt make much difference. The G-sense pad was an innovative and interesting concept, but it seems glitchy to me. I'd rather have a touch screen than a g-sense pad. I'm starting to wonder how long I can put up with this and am looking forward to Sony releasing a next-gen walkman with more than 20 gigs... who knows how long that will take, though. Any other Pocket owners ever have problems with the g-sense pad? Even if you haven't, how long have you had your Pocket? I'm coming up on 11 months of use now.

It can't hurt to have more than 20 gigs. Until recently the only problem was that there was no 40 gig walkman option for people who needed more than 20 (I know the Vaio exists but it's not a walkman technically and it's not that tiny). Another problem is that now the main competition is offering 30gigs as a minimum on their full sized hard drive players. I've used 20 or more on my Vaio-- half of that is just film scores and I don't even have them all on there. Maybe it's that I'm lazy and the point of having an HDD player with 20+ gigs is to not have to swap music on and off-- it's convenience. Plus, if you have extra space it becomes handy for other file transfers, etc. Bottom line is that I will continue to acquire new music and will continue to want to take it on the go-- more space is better and if the technology is out there. I think the NW-A1000 fits great for those people who don't need a lot of space. I just think of the 3000 is going to be the one for people who need lots of space... why keep it at 20 per se? Bottom line is that for $400 bones you can now get a 60 gig iPod that's pretty dang slim. It just needs an EQ and gapless to secure me, because otherwise the new black one is pretty slick.

These are becoming more and more interesting to me. I just want Sony to bump up the hard drive space (can we have a 30-40 gig version of the NW-A3000 next spring please, Sony?)

The radio issue is the only one I know of. Want to pick a blue one up for me too? =D (it'd cost me nearly $300 to import one, gah...) I imagine it would come with japanese connect software, but that shouldn't be a big deal as you'll be able to get Connect or Sonic Stage 3.3 in English.

I think WMA is smart. Sure most of us in this forum are picky about our audio quality and codecs, but the average person who doesn't know anything else will start ripping their music in WMA because all they know is windows media player (I know people like this-- it's true). Besides, the more codec support the better, that's just more people that will be attracted to Sony's products and thus a better chance at Sony succeeding. I think it's great they're doing WMA.

Gapless and EQ (even simple bass/treble boost make me happy). Those are why I still consider Sony. The killer for me will be price / value. I have a handful of albums where gapless really is important, but the majority of my music I probably wouldn't miss it. If the sound quality is good enough I might be able to do without much EQ as well. Value. $300 for 20 gigs or 30 gigs + other features like (however gimmicky) video and photo? Or what if 20 doesn't cut it for me? The 40 on my Vaio Pocket is going fast. Accessories: I wish I had a wireless remote for m Vaio Pocket so I could hook it up to my stereo and control it from accross the room. It's kind of a pain having to move over to it each time I want to change groups/albums. They're even saying the new iPod will have full stereo 44khz recording (i take it you just need the right accessory)-- suddenly it becomes really convenient to record on an iPod (I suppose that remains to be seen depending on the implementation of recording features). I think Sony is on the right track, but they've lost some precious time.

Here's what I want out of Sony's new players / Connect software, besides being competitively priced: PLAYLISTS. I love my Vaio Pocket, but dang. The only way to do playlists is on the fly, I can't create them in SS. Playlists are what connect a MD mix maker to the HDD world. I love mixes, and I love the way playlists work on the iPod... Sony please give me something along these lines so I'm not duplicating files making custom groups. Or will groups be done away with entirely?

Bluetooth would rule on a portable player: - Bluetooth remote to control a player that's docked to a stereo - Bluetooth headphones (obviously as Chris mentioned with all the codecs involved) - data transfer (but how fast is the latest gen. bluetooth, really? Maybe not bad for adding the occassional song) I'm not familiar with how bluetooth interfaces with cars (it's for hands free on cell phones pretty much, right?) If it were fast enough that'd be cool if you could stream music to your car stereo via bluetooth. Maybe I'm dreaming =P

What interests me is that he says it no longer asked him to initialize his player. Unless he initialized it upon installing 3.2, then did 2.3. The main reason I'm still using 2.3 with my Vaio Pocket is that I'm too lazy to re-transfer all my music to my Pocket-- the U.S. version of SS 3.2 requires you to re-initialize / wipe clean the pocket before you can upload tracks to it, no? Maybe I should just get the Japan version of SS 3.2...

That would be seriously cool if they made the walkman so it could interface with the PSP to stream video off it. I watch movies on my phone (Treo 650) and often wish there were a way I could use a portable storage medium to have more movies on hand at all times (right now I'm limited to my 1gb compact flash card in the phone). As it is I need a computer to transfer files to/from that memory card. Also, if Sony does things right with the new Connect Player and DRM, etc., they could score a lot of points. Usually people shun Sony players simply because they don't like Sonic Stage...

Nice! I might finally have to upgrade from SS 2.3, haha...

The color screen on the Vaio Pocket is nice-- but it's not necessary for me to enjoy the player. It's a fringe benefit to me, really. I don't need it to view photos, and I can't watch movies on it, so it's not crucial. Music is about what I hear, not what I see. If these players are streamlined and do what they're suppoesed to well-- that is, play music-- I'm completely happy. And can't they do color OLEDs? Of course that would affect the color/design of the player, but still.

It's easy for me to say this since I'm not in the market for one right this moment, but I'd wait. If I understand correctly these newly announced players represent a bit of a change of direction for Sony. If it were me I'd want something I was certain was going to be supported under this new direction (ie firmware updates, greatest potential for codec support, etc). I'd want something I could be sure would work with the new Connect player that's coming out. I'd want that screen. Between the 2 I'd want the a3000, but that's me. I'm sure the HD5 would do the job nicely for you. Sonic Stage isn't the greatest but I don't mind it at all.

Do we know anything about the new Connect player yet, besides those pictures? I want to be able to create playlists on my computer to playback on those portables... Man. I'm remembering a time not so long ago when I thought $130 was a lot to pay for a portable player (CD walkman).

Just looking at these pictures again... doesn't the OLED (or whatever it's called) make the LCD on the iPod Mini just look archaic? I've been holding out on a new jukebox since the Pocket is working nicely for me, but one of these days I have to get *something* with one of those screens...

So are all the release dates being mentioned Japanese release dates, I take it? Any idea what we'll see in the states and when?

Hell yes, I want to wear a bean around my neck. I will be so cool, no one will even know I'm cool.

Especially when you have other 1 GB players (shuffle) going for less than $150 (even if they are screenless and stripped down feature-wise). And the difference with the 500 series is basically FM radio, right? Will all the 600 series include FM radio? It's kinda worthless to me, so it'll be too bad if there isn't a $200 2GB flash player from Sony.

I just have to say I'm glad there's something to take my eye off the Nano. Although I'd love it if prices were a bit more competitive state-side with Apple. Those flash players are hella expensive.

It'd be kinda silly if they didn't play the new bitrates seeing as it comes bundled with SS 3.2... but who knows, stranger things have happened.... I'd like to see how small they really are and how much they'll cost...

Just a thought... There are gobs of armbands on eBay. A quick search for <a href="http://search.ebay.com/mp3-armband_W0QQsofocusZbsQQsbrftogZ1QQfromZR10QQsacatZ-1QQcatrefZC6QQsargnZ-1QQsaslcZ2QQsadisZ200QQfposZ84092QQftrtZ1QQftrvZ1QQfsopZ1QQfsooZ1QQcoactionZcompareQQcopagenumZ1QQcoentrypageZsearch">"mp3 armband"</a> turns up quite a few, and a lot of them are advertised for the iPod Shuffle and other mp3 players such as iRiver, Rio, etc. Take a gander--- they're generic enough that they'll fit a number of similar form-factor mp3 players but should be snug enough. I suppose any one of them would be a gamble but they don't look terribly expensive either. Although not designed *specifically* for the E400 / E500 series, I bet there are a few that would work quite well. The Sony is a similar form factor to the shuffle, only thicker, correct?

Who knows, there may be one coming-- or maybe not. I bought my E107 used in May-- I don't recall when it was officially released in the U.S. except that it was before the E40*/E50* series. In any case, it was another month or so after I bought the E107 before I was able to track down an armband and then it was direct from SonyStyle.com... I thought I remember hearing there was one coming. I've heard nothing like that about the E500/E400 series so far.

Talk of the E507 not including a lanyard leads me to ask the next question-- what options are there out there for lanyards? Suppose I want to get one and it's not included with my device-- any thoughts on where to look or WHAT to look for? I suppose any number of gadgets could benefit from a lanyard....

At Ishi's request I snapped a couple of (poor camera phone) pics of the E507 packaging at Circuit City (so this would be the U.S. packaging). (No Ishi didn't request a camera phone be used to take the picture-- I just didn't happen to have my regular digicam with me). It doesn't look like the blister-pack from hell if you ask me (by which I mean those products that are only packaged in plastic with perhaps a thin colored piece of cardboard inserted for packaging information/logo/etc... a memory card, for example). Although the product is also locked inside a plastic security box, you can make out that most of it is a box with a plastic front... I imagine it's one of the less painful ones to open. Maybe I'll have to buy one just to find out... anyone want to buy an E107 used? =P

So if you import another album, say, from a CD, can you add cover art to that? Or does it seem to just be "broken"? I guess I usually add the cover art after CDDB looks up the cd information and before I actually rip the CD. I haven't often added cover art to music files that were imported other than from CD... I'll have to go home and fiddle with it, but I never use the "add" button... I usually just drag and drop the cover art to the album and Sonic Stage 2.3 asks me if I want that cover art applied to all the tracks in the group.