Sony Clié N710C appearing in retail stores

Yahoo/GeoCities deleted his site for some obscure fascist-like reason. The new links are:

http://members.nbci.com/nxt/cliepicture.html

and

http://members.nbci.com/nxt/710review.html

The links *do* work, but I had to hit the reload button a couple of times before I got them. It seems that NBCi has some sort of serious bandwidth problem.

Stephen

Just got back from the Best Buy store in West Des Moines, Iowa. 9 (nine) CLIE N710C in stock...now only eight left....
Hurry....

interesting charts. Shows 505 with and without backlight on vs. PPC in a battery test.

505 with backlight on has similiar battery life then the other PPC. But without backlight, the 505 has over TWICE the battery life.

This is exactly the point! 505 does not need backlight on all the time (not in direct sunlight and in good indoor light) therefore the battery life is much better then PPC in the practical world.

I love my 505 and only use backlight when in poor lighting. In the office the screen is fine without the backlight.

I would also say that the 505 with the backlight on in a dark room (e.g. movie theater) is 1000% better then the reverse backlight of the Palm Vx.

As of 05/26 around noon, San Diego Frys:

I believe there were four in stock when I first walked past the shelf to go look at the demo model; when I came back to pick up a box there were three left (including the one I took), then when I walked past 30 minutes later before getting in the checkout line, the shelf was bare :-)

The Clie is twice as thick as the m505, but it's not as wide. It actually fits in the typical jeans pocket BETTER.

The Clie is 5/8 inch thick, the m505 is 1/2 inch. That's a difference of 1/8 inch, or 25 PERCENT, not "twice as thick". The m505 is also about 1/8 inch shorter, and 3/8 inch WIDER than the Clie.

I pre-ordered the m505 (the night before they were announced); I cancelled when they started showing up in the stores and I saw first-hand how dim the screen was. I went to see the new Clie on Saturday, not intending to buy it, just to look... and ended up plunking down my money and taking one home (this, after comparing the "floor model" extensively against the m505 sitting next to it; I had a friend with me, she wanted to know where the brightness control was on the m505).

The Clie is smaller than my old Palm IIIx (a teensy bit shorter, 3/8 inch narrower, the same thickness), and has by far the best screen ever seen on a PalmOS handheld. I'm running with the backlight at about 25 percent -- at 100 percent, you could use it as a flashlight. At 320x320, the screen is simply breathtaking, and at 160x160, there is _no_ trace of the dreaded "black grid".

If the m505 had the Clie's backlight (I'm not talking about the hi-res screen, mind you, just the bright, adjustable, backlight), I would have gotten the m505 instead (weeks ago) -- I *like* the m505, it's sleek and sexy, and will no doubt be more widely supported. But, to me, the whole point of color is to make the information on the screen easier to read, and I found the m505's dim screen to be an impediment, not a benefit.

Folks, it's time to stop all the bickering; wait until you have a chance to compare the Clie and m505 side-by-side in a store somewhere, and *then* decide which is best for *you*.

According to this Sony website in Japan http://www.sony.co.jp/sd/ProductsPark/Consumer/PEG/PEG-N700C/tv.html You're supposed to be able to download and watch TV on your Clie. I didn't see that mention anywhere on the USA box at Fry's.

Here ya' go...direct link: http://www.genericmedia.com/news_pr09.html

Remember, to have the Japanese have with their CLIE's, you'll have to have a large harddrive to capture a 1-hour long TV show or a really big one to capture a 2-hour long movie, then you'll have to have a much higher capacity Memory Stick than the 8MB one that comes with the CLIE. The 64MB Memory Stick goes for around $100 on eBay and the newer 128MB Memory Sticks go for around $200. These prices will come down eventually but as you can see it is going to be an expensive proposition to make the CLIE a portable movie player, which is EXACTLY what I plan to use mine for :)

Can't get your page up

Also, the nipponese clie doesn't play MP3. The American one does.

I realize the Sony has Mp3, Attrac, etc. play back; however, will these movies be encoded with sound via gMovie Maker and can they be played back with sound on gMovie Player?

I saw the new Sony at a local Fry's and was impressed. The size and weight between the 505 and the N710c were comparable, one's a little wider, the other a little thicker. The screen was obviously sharper on the Sony, but when comparing the color, the Palm was actually richer. I was surprised. The brightness is great on the Clie, but the colors look washed out. Is there any way of increasing the contrast?

>>One other question, how big would say an hour long show encoded in MPEG-1 wind up. In other words, how much could you fit on a 128 meg memory stick?

It would depend on the frame rate but I have several mpeg files and a 50minute 17 sec mpeg is 489.6 MB. Good luck getting that on a memorystick.

Matt

with sound. The gMovie Maker reformats the video to 320x320 resolution. A decent quality picture at a decent frame rate will get you about 1 minute of video with sound for every 1MB on the MS. Thus, a 128MB MS will let you watch a 2-hour movie.

Ummm... You could put a bullet through the front of the Clie and the screenshots would look the same. Those do not show what the Clie's display does, it shows us what our computer moniors do.