What's new? (June 2001 Archives)

Monday, June 26th, 2001: Sony release three new devices!
Go and check Sony's site (or go to the Comparison page here on €uroClie) to discover those new devices. Here's a brief description:

• PEG-N610C/S and PEG-N610C/V: these are the same units, one in a silver case, the other in a violet case. Basically, they're like the PEG-N710C without MP3 capabilities, they're also sold without any MemoryStick at all, but the screen is natively able to display 65535 colors thanks to the new PalmOS 4.0 included. The US models are equiped with 4Mb Flash ROM and 8Mb RAM, the CPU is unknown at this time, but probably the same as in the PEG-N710C, i.e. a DragonBall VZ running at 33 Mhz. Those two models are listed at 399 US$ (470 €).
• PEG-S320: this model is certainly going to replace the old PEG-S300. It comes in the same case as the PEG-S710C, in dark silver tone, and has the normal 160x160 monochrome screen (no high resolution). From the pictures, I'd say that it also lacks the "back" button near the jogdial. It comes with 4Mb FlashROM, 8Mb RAM, a MemoryStick slot but again no MemoryStick is bundled with the PEG-S320, you've got to buy it separately. The CPU is also unknown, I hope that they put a faster CPU than the DragonBall EZ 20Mhz that was found in the S300, otherwise there'd be not much use releasing the S320 in place of the S300... The PEG-S320 is listed at 199 US$ (230 €).

Thursday June 21st, 2001: Big Update (it was about time!)
Sorry for the (very) long delay since last update. You know how life goes, sometimes, you just can't seem to find enough time to do all that you need to! ;-)

So here we go: in this update, I've redesigned the Software page, as one big page wasn't particularly fast to load or easy to browse. Now the software page is just a table of content, allowing you to jump directly to the Software category you want to browse (Built-in, MemoryStick, JogDial, High Resolution, Audio, Miscellaneous, Incompatible). Also, big update because I included most of the known High Resolution-enabled programs (if you know some that are not listed, let me know).

I remind you by the way that there is an EuroClie AvantGo channel (I really should advertise it more clearly on the main page, probably add another menu), in which you'll find this page (recent News) and also a summary of the Software page, with the name and version number of every program that's listed on the site.

Last but not least, here are a few news from the Clie world, for those (like myself) who would have been in a cave or on a desert island (without net access) for the last four weeks:

• The PEG-S500C has been stopped by Sony. They won't sell any more nor develop new software (patches, OS) for this device. :-(
• The PEG-N700C and PEG-N710C screen can display 16 bits color. (check Red Mercury's site at http://www.red-mercury.com/sixteen.html) At this time it's still unknown whether Sony will release a patch or new OS version to include this officially, but at least it can be hacked by programmers. Don't hold your breath for high color high resolution games, though, because it's not certain if the current hardware can handle both color and resolution and keep the game's speed to something useable. But expect to see 16bits 320x320 pictures display programs in the future! :-)
• There's been rumors about new Clie devices, the PEG-N610C and PEG-S320. The first one is rumored to be a PEG-N710C without MP3 capabilities, while the last one could be a monochrome replacement for the PEG-S300, hopefully with a High Resolution screen. The 610 would cost around US$400 (470 €) while the 320 would remain below the US$200 (240 €). The sites that listed those devices for pre-order have removed any reference of the new devices, but it's nevertheless rumored that they would be released in August 2001...