Sony Connect Launches

[fener]

nope
i had one of the original minidiscs for jogging. it was worthless. skipped all the time. and i hated that you could really only record once on a disc... i think this technology is useless... why doesnt anyone do anything with flash memory yet?

MiniDiscs are built to be OVERWRITTEN SEVERAL TIMES!

U can record on them, then delete, then record, then delete....

Also, with Lp2 and Lp4, Minidiscs are SKIP FREE!

Also
You gotta check this OUT!
1 GIG of data on 1 MD! -- Sony's New HI-MD TEch.

http://www.minidisco.com/mz-nh1.html
Here is a Very VERy cool Hi-MD player which will be available in a month or so:

 

[Abstract]

Other than the fact that ATRAC is supposed to suck arse, the service itself, along with the minidisk, aren't bad. The service will probably be similar to most other online music stores around.

Minidisks are very difficult to skip, whereas the iPod.....well, a 7 minute anti-skip feature that doesn't have a continuously refreshing memory buffer is quite useless for serious joggers. This explains all the complaints about iPods that skipped so much after 3 minutes of jogging that they were unusable. Or how about the complaints of iPods with dead HD's. Why oh why would anyone want to jog with a HD-based player?

The minidisk player is small, will have a huuuuge carrying capacity later on, and gives amazing battery life. I have 2 friends with minidisk players who love theirs. I love AA batteries and battery life as I realize that I'm not always going to be near a power outlet, but I'm always going to be able to get AA batteries no matter where I am in the world. You can't do that with an iPod with 6 hour battery life.

iPod isn't really much better than minidisk, if at all. Both have their downsides, if you're too blind to see. Apple loyalty goes too far, sometimes. I wouldn't buy a minidisk ever since it isn't compatible with my PB, that's all. However, I'm aiming to buy an iRiver 256 MB flash player with 20 hour battery life. No iPod for me.

It would have been smart for Sony to support WMA as well, which they'll probably do eventually.

 

[chasingapple]

I am so glad I own a Mac, thankyou Apple, thankyou for iTunes and the iPod, thankyou for the Macintosh computer, and thankyou for always being the best at what you do.

P.S. Mr. Jobs, can you bring back the cube please?

Cheers.

 

[chasingapple]

MiniDiscs are built to be OVERWRITTEN SEVERAL TIMES!

U can record on them, then delete, then record, then delete....

Also, with Lp2 and Lp4, Minidiscs are SKIP FREE!

Also
You gotta check this OUT!
1 GIG of data on 1 MD! -- Sony's New HI-MD TEch.

http://www.minidisco.com/mz-nh1.html
Here is a Very VERy cool Hi-MD player which will be available in a month or so:

Man that thing is OOOGLY!

 

[Abstract]

It doesn't look THAT bad. I wish the iPods were more Powerbook in appearance than iBook...

 

[chasingapple]

It doesn't look THAT bad. I wish the iPods were more Powerbook in appearance than iBook...

No really it is ugly.

 

[Bhennies]

I had a Minidisc. I will never buy a Sony product again.

 

[fener]

Docks

It seems more companies choose to adopt DOCKS for their products after the success of the iPod Dock.

Dock for MZ-H1 is pretty cool. (it says thats MD player is out of Magnesium, not alluminum) I think iRiver is also coming up with Dock for there next releases.

 

[AndrewMT]

Why has no-one mentioned Sony Connect compatibility with Sony's portable game system PSP? The PSP is going to do for the portable gaming world what the iPod did for portable music market. Millions of people are going to have these! That's why sony is sticking with the minidisc format and the larger capacity disc (UMD-Universal Media Disk) that fits in the PSP.

 

[Abstract]

You're all foooogly!!!

Don't some of the iRiver have docks already? I know they have new models with an internal battery as opposed to the AA battery models (NOOOO!!!), but I'm not sure about the docks. I really don't like docks anyway, so I'm hoping that the answer is no.

 

[bertagert]

Maybe this isn't part of the apeal for everyone but one of the biggest reasons I want an iPod is so I can all of my music w/me in a very small, convient, easy to use device.

I'm totally with you on that. I bought my ipod so I could use it when walking around, hanging out on the deck, working out/skiing, driving in the car, and listening to the home stereo. I do all this with my entire music collection in something the size of my wallet. My ipod has replaced my hugh 300 disc player next to the home stereo and also my car cd player. Not to mention that I no longer have to carry all my cd's with me (or become POed because I forgot the one cd in the home cd player).

A mini disc player just won't cut it for me as I want all my music with me, no matter where I go, all the time.

 

[Savage Henry]

I love the way all the pretender services don't support the best selling player in the universe !??! Even Apple aknowledged the need to support WMA.

They'll make a cool looking piece of kit, eventually. But it will go the way of the mini-disc.

They're all fools, I tells ya, fools!

 

[frankly]

I have changed my tune (pardon the pun) on this music service. It sounds like they're not trying to directly compete with iTMS, but instead recognise a need that their customers have (those who have already bought sony music devices) and are trying to service that need. Sounds good to me.

Is that really how you read that quote? I read it as a really dumb executive that thinks he is going to get someone that is stealing music to suddenly pay for it. For the life of me I can't figure out how someone thinks the people stealing music are going to be their market.

Frank

 

[frankly]

MiniDiscs are built to be OVERWRITTEN SEVERAL TIMES!

U can record on them, then delete, then record, then delete....

Also, with Lp2 and Lp4, Minidiscs are SKIP FREE!

Also
You gotta check this OUT!
1 GIG of data on 1 MD! -- Sony's New HI-MD TEch.

http://www.minidisco.com/mz-nh1.html
Here is a Very VERy cool Hi-MD player which will be available in a month or so:

It may "look" cool but how practical is it? The thing that has made the iPod a blockbuster is the incredible display/UI/controls. The thing is so damn easy to operate. I haven't seen any player make it that easy to access thousands of songs yet.

Frank

 

[Doctor Q]

Nobody said anything about the music to be offered by Sony's "Connect" service. Sure, they have the Sony music library, but did the competing record companies give them the same deal that Apple got? Have BMG/EMI/Universal/Warner Brothers agreed to let Sony sell their music and get a cut of the profits? Aren't they worried that Sony can favor (e.g., promote and discount) its own library over theirs?

 

[SiliconAddict]

Craptacular

I'll try just to see if they have any music that iTMS doesn't have. If nothing else I can buy, burn to a CD in standard uncompressed WAV then reencode in AAC. I'm installing now and not impressed that can you can't download the entire installer its one of those install from the server things.
I've never been that impressed with Sony software so we will see.


[Update 1: The installer is convoluted as hell. At least 4-6 installer sessions for each peice of software it installs. Plus the required reboot.]

[Update 2: OK I’m dealing with only laptop speakers, good laptop speakers with a sub in it but laptop nonetheless, and the sound quality for the previews SUCKS. I have noticed there are some Sony Music CD’s that I want. I’ll try and d/l one tomorrow and see how well the experience is. I can say this. The interface is a pure joke. It looks like it was designed by a two year old. The entire GUI is flat and not very pretty to look at. Normally I wouldn’t care how pretty an app is but since I spend so much time dealing with my music App I want the interface nice, clean, and easy to use. AFAICT SonicStage ain’t it.
Since this service was primarily designed for minidisk and since it blows like a hurricane I don’t think Apple has anything to worry about yet.

 

[Windowlicker]

GREAT!

this will make even more people see the superiority if iTMS. i don't really think this is gonna steal any customers from apple. so, let's welcome sony's service!

oh and what comes to atrac, i don't think it's that bad. i've used it on my md (that i sold last summer to get an ipod) and it's very good.. or well, now that I think of it, it only compressed the music to half the original size (LP2) and I could already tell the difference ;I SO I'M TAKING MY WORDS BACK!

 

[Windowlicker]

The interface is a pure joke. It looks like it was designed by a two year old.

I totally agree here.. why the hell does the app need that space behind the actual windows?! it takes more room whan it's supposed to. it's also very nice to see that they haven't had the talent or will to make an own interface for Mac I have OSX so that I don't have to use windows. so sony has done pretty much everything wrong here...

 

[dontmatter]

MiniDiscs are built to be OVERWRITTEN SEVERAL TIMES!

U can record on them, then delete, then record, then delete....

Also, with Lp2 and Lp4, Minidiscs are SKIP FREE!

Also
You gotta check this OUT!
1 GIG of data on 1 MD! -- Sony's New HI-MD TEch.

http://www.minidisco.com/mz-nh1.html
Here is a Very VERy cool Hi-MD player which will be available in a month or so:

How much? and is that cylinder in the lower right ATTACHED! good lord...that would not fit well in a pocket. looks smaller than an ipod otherwise, but shape is more important than volume.

Edit: OK, I checked the site, clearly the cylinder is part of it's dock, and so that's OK. Looks nice and small, that's a plus. But, $400????? For 1 gig of music? And it's not even out yet? Jeeze, a mini carries 4x the music! And yeah, minidiscs may make it have infinite capacity, and be smaller than CD's, but.... I know I'd lose them, break them, not know what's on what and have trouble listening to the music I want, when I want.

Not to mention, look at the screen. How are you going to browse your music with that? I guess if you only have one gig, but....

I'd go with flash before I'd go with that, and of course ipod beats all of that. Nomads and stuff beat it to, I'd say.

Replaceable batteries, I assume with a long life, and to a lesser degree the option for multiple discs/rewritting and it's small size are still definate pluses. Not worth it to me, but it makes it's own market with that.

 

[dontmatter]

still don't know, although I would assume-this in japan? Anywhere else? (besides US, of course)

 

[sushi]

Man that thing is OOOGLY!

Actually, they are quite nice in person.

And for those who ride the train to work, much nicer to use than an iPod because of the feature rich remote control.

Sushi

 

[dontmatter]

Man that thing is OOOGLY!

That's just your mac bias (and, slightly better taste b/c mac stuff does look better). It doesn't have that pure aesthetic appeal of apple stuff, but the brushed metal, etc.... it does look pretty good, at least high tech and expensive.

Of course, still not my choice on functionality....who the hell doesn't give you an LCD screen where you can actually see something, but does give you the option to record? LCD is essential, recording should be done by third party products. Then again, big difference is that there are 3rd party minidisc players...

 

[sushi]

It may "look" cool but how practical is it? The thing that has made the iPod a blockbuster is the incredible display/UI/controls. The thing is so damn easy to operate. I haven't seen any player make it that easy to access thousands of songs yet.

Very practical. That is why they sell very well here in Japan.

Sushi

 

[aswitcher]

Nobody said anything about the music to be offered by Sony's "Connect" service. Sure, they have the Sony music library, but did the competing record companies give them the same deal that Apple got? Have BMG/EMI/Universal/Warner Brothers agreed to let Sony sell their music and get a cut of the profits? Aren't they worried that Sony can favor (e.g., promote and discount) its own library over theirs?

Good point. Sony love proprietry stuff like sony memory stciks etc that no one else can use, but without the song range they wont get far...

 

[Windowlicker]

In a sink-or-swim scenario, Sony has chosen "sink". This looks like pretty poor planning on their behalf.

this made me think one thing. I started thinking about the history, where apple has been the leader for several years. when the imac was introduced, all my friends using pc said it's not worth a crap. well, we all know what happened with the lovely colorful iMac...

then we have USB, FW, etc etc etc... and now, I realized it just now, that before iTMS there were some online music stores (that didn't quite make it), but now, when once again an invention by apple has been a success, everyone's trying desperately to get onboard -- even SORNY, which indeed has chosen "sink".