Sony's Netfront vs Apple's Safari Questions

[Olley]

Originally Posted by mgillespie

Personally, I like my devices to excell at their primary purpose, if additional functionality sucks, then I don't mind to much.

Personally, I like my devices to excel at everything they do. There is no reason to assume a player would have to be bad at some things to be good at some.

The Samsung P2 does an admirable job with Photos, Videos, Music, Radio (set to EU for RDS), Text, and even the few games it has. The P3 follows, but puts in pointless (IMO) features like widgets and haptic which may work perfectly, but get between me and my media. Still, the P2 took a little evolving to get where it is now. There is hope for the Sony. They could certainly update it with a better browser (assuming they can come up wth one).

[$ony$tyle]

Originally Posted by Olley

Personally, I like my devices to excel at everything they do. There is no reason to assume a player would have to be bad at some things to be good at some.

u got my vote there. great post. today a single device is able to carry out so many functions and this is a matter of which device can excel the best overall.

to some people's early comments, let's review sony's walkman history a bit. sony has never said X WALKMAN is a music device only, just check out in sony japan or even hongkong, from day one sony has promised x1000 to be "top of the mountain and the combination of all portable technologies", this is the direct translation of their promotions. It's about music, nc, wifi, photo, video, youtube. sony is saying everything is SO GOOD and UNREAL with X, because it can do so much.

The only time when sony has introduced a pure DIGITAL MUSIC WALKMAN would be the early E SERIES, W SERIES, HD SERIES, NW-A1000/1200/3000, NW-S700, B SERIES (fill in if i miss out some other model). Sony is also justifying high price due to X's arrays of functions and power(which majority of them don't work well anyway), sony has never said X costs alot simply because of its SQ.

Therefore sony has done a poor job one more time. because it hasn't delivered what it promised from the start. If i just want good sq, i may as well stick with A series or S series, they deliver good performance with small price tag. The X1000 NC still doesn't work well just like the S700 at times. I feel like i am holding a pure music device with a multimedia device price tag. when X starts to sell in Australia, I would like to sell it off and use that amount to try other brands. I feel ripped off now just to spend 470AUD to get an atrac enabled music "only" device. I miss HD5, A1000 and A800, sony was able to stir up the market and discussions with those devices, but they were years ago

[sony4ever]

Originally Posted by $ony$tyle

u got my vote there. great post. today a single device is able to carry out so many functions and this is a matter of which device can excel the best overall.

to some people's early comments, let's review sony's walkman history a bit. sony has never said X WALKMAN is a music device only, just check out in sony japan or even hongkong, from day one sony has promised x1000 to be "top of the mountain and the combination of all portable technologies", this is the direct translation of their promotions. It's about music, nc, wifi, photo, video, youtube. sony is saying everything is SO GOOD and UNREAL with X, because it can do so much.

The only time when sony has introduced a pure DIGITAL MUSIC WALKMAN would be the early E SERIES, W SERIES, HD SERIES, NW-A1000/1200/3000, NW-S700, B SERIES (fill in if i miss out some other model). Sony is also justifying high price due to X's arrays of functions and power(which majority of them don't work well anyway), sony has never said X costs alot simply because of its SQ.

Therefore sony has done a poor job one more time. because it hasn't delivered what it promised from the start. If i just want good sq, i may as well stick with A series or S series, they deliver good performance with small price tag. The X1000 NC still doesn't work well just like the S700 at times. I feel like i am holding a pure music device with a multimedia device price tag. when X starts to sell in Australia, I would like to sell it off and use that amount to try other brands. I feel ripped off now just to spend 470AUD to get an atrac enabled music "only" device. I miss HD5, A1000 and A800, sony was able to stir up the market and discussions with those devices, but they were years ago

It would still be great if sony did continue making their HD more and make it touch screen to match Zune HD i think that would be good.

[BlindBandit]

Man Sony keep pissing me off with the X series because of the damm delay, this has been going on for two weeks or more & still no X series in the US. i'm about to get a iTouch June 21,2009 because my brother in law going to buy me the X series or iTouch on Father Day & i'm not gonna pay a thing, but it's true that the SQ suck on a iTouch because i really want a X series since april 2009 but Sony keep delaying it.

today was the day that the X series support to come out in the US June 20,2009 but Sony said in NYC that they don't have it on stock >_<. well i will see at 3:00am NYC time if Best Buy going to bring the X series in there ad for Father Day or Sony web site, if not going to get a iTouch.

i know there better mp3 players out there like the S9 but i'm getting a free mp3 player from my brother in law on Father Day & i'm not going to miss that. also the second reason why i did't get the X series in japan because it did't had english support which sucks.

[mixed_gears]

why is sony not whipping up a special version of netfront for the walkman x?? the ps3 got one...mobile phones get netfront 3.5. why not the x? a part of me REALLY wants to get this due to great sound, oled screen, wi-fi podcast download and little extras like youtube and even the crapfest web browser. the other part doesnt cause its price, limited video support and its price. is this an upgraded version as the psp's netfront?. I REALLY hope sony can upgrade the browser in future firmware releases, if they did, this(for me)would be the perfect all around media player.

[Olley]

It looks like the ZuneHD will beat the Sony X in every category. Larger, higher resolution OLED screen. Multitouch, G-sensor, etc.. Their audio quality should be up there as well. From my point of view the sony X is overpriced and underhwelming.

[sony4ever]

Originally Posted by Olley

It looks like the ZuneHD will beat the Sony X in every category. Larger, higher resolution OLED screen. Multitouch, G-sensor, etc.. Their audio quality should be up there as well. From my point of view the sony X is overpriced and underhwelming.

Yeah, but it can't beat the headphone cos sony has noise cancelling on their sound which sound more good for anywhere while zune hd player should have made noise cancelling then i would get it.

[Olley]

Originally Posted by sony4ever

Yeah, but it can't beat the headphone cos sony has noise cancelling on their sound which sound more good for anywhere while zune hd player should have made noise cancelling then i would get it.

Sony's noise cancelling only works with the earbuds that come with it. It's a feature that goes away of you happen to prefer another set of headphones. If I need noise cancelling I've got two or three pair of noise cancelling headphones I can plug into a Zune, a Samsung, or any other player.

[$ony$tyle]

Originally Posted by Olley

Sony's noise cancelling only works with the earbuds that come with it. It's a feature that goes away of you happen to prefer another set of headphones. If I need noise cancelling I've got two or three pair of noise cancelling headphones I can plug into a Zune, a Samsung, or any other player.

Great point man, and I am so looking forward to that zune HD, sexy piece of hardware for sure.

[sony4ever]

Originally Posted by Olley

Sony's noise cancelling only works with the earbuds that come with it. It's a feature that goes away of you happen to prefer another set of headphones. If I need noise cancelling I've got two or three pair of noise cancelling headphones I can plug into a Zune, a Samsung, or any other player.

Cool so it will work on Zune HD player to use nose cancelling like sony x series right?

[$ony$tyle]

Originally Posted by sony4ever

Cool so it will work on Zune HD player to use nose cancelling like sony x series right?

i have a pair of sony MDR-NC22 from long time ago. it's a nc earphone and i can plug it onto anything i like, mobile phones, laptop, other portable audio players. i can get nc feature instantly on anything.

btw the nc feature on x player hasn't stepped up in the game at all, with previous NW atrac walkman that got released in japan last year, many models had nc features while the international (non atrac version) got sold without nc feature. sony just moves it over to x

[sony4ever]

Originally Posted by $ony$tyle

i have a pair of sony MDR-NC22 from long time ago. it's a nc earphone and i can plug it onto anything i like, mobile phones, laptop, other portable audio players. i can get nc feature instantly on anything.

btw the nc feature on x player hasn't stepped up in the game at all, with previous NW atrac walkman that got released in japan last year, many models had nc features while the international (non atrac version) got sold with nc feature. sony just moves it over to x

Great i think i might get Zune HD and buy nc so i can listen to my music peaceful

[BlindBandit]

Originally Posted by sony4ever

Great i think i might get Zune HD and buy nc so i can listen to my music peaceful

I'm not sure about this but i'm going to test it out with Rock Band for PSP, the plug that came with the X series you can hook it up with the X series to a difference device, for ex...

X series with the audio plug to PSP & you get Digital NC on the PSP using the X series as source.

[kiyu727]

As long as I can check my Emails, watch some youtubevids, check forum posts and check my auctions on ebay, Im fine with it... Can you zoom in ?

And about the Itouch ...
(when I had it ... it destroyed my life .. every 3 min checking my mails .. all day playing around with some apps .. to sum it up I was only doing shit all day .. Im so happy that I sold it... Music ? I only put 3 songs on it and it felt so horrible .. (had P3 before) I think it sounded worse than the ipod 80GB I had long time ago ....... )

[sony4ever]

Originally Posted by BlindBandit

I'm not sure about this but i'm going to test it out with Rock Band for PSP, the plug that came with the X series you can hook it up with the X series to a difference device, for ex...

X series with the audio plug to PSP & you get Digital NC on the PSP using the X series as source.

oh right.

[BlindBandit]

Originally Posted by sony4ever

oh right.

Yup it work, PSP now has Digitial NC when using the X series

[Muka]

Originally Posted by gino_76ph

i have had my 2nd gen ipod touch for a while now and whenever i go to a "free" wi-fi hotspot (say a shopping centre or a fastfood chain) i can't go to the internet. i do not know why. i think you need to "register" first with the existing network on the place but sometimes there are dead bits on the site i.e. the site loads incompletely.

how is Sony's Opera browser on the new X-series walkman? does it accept Flash? does it "scans" for free and paid wi-fi signal on a given area? or can you manually find it?

The browser is actually NetFront rather than Opera. In use it's little more than a basic WAP browser. If you're used to Safari on the Ipod Touch you'll be very disappointed by NetFront on the Sony.

Things would have been much better if they had put Opera or a Webkit based browser on here, instead of the NetFront WAP thing. Rich sites like anythingbutipod or ebay are almost a complete no go, wikipedia is unusable and scrambled.

The thing is NetFront itself when run on something like a Windows Mobile mobile phone is OK, it's just badly implemented here.

BTW the multitap T9 text entry system is a chore to use, surely something better could have been done here?

[Muka]

Originally Posted by mgillespie

Like the iPods horrible sound quality?

Personally, I like my devices to excell at their primary purpose, if additional functionality sucks, then I don't mind to much.

Unfortunately for me the Sony X failed even for it's primary purpose. Yes the sound quality is brilliant, certainly better than the current Ipods. But what good is it if it can't play continuous mix tracks gapless? Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon with half second gaps in it is completely unacceptable.

From what I've been reading the lack of gapless playback has been an ongoing problem for some Sony Walkmans. Sony minidisc players have always been able to play gapless. Other manufacturers have fixed the problem of gapless playback on MP3 players, it's about time Sony done the same.

[amit]

Originally Posted by $ony$tyle

Apples' Safari is holding the first spot when it comes to wifi browsing on the go, it is truly amazing, which i don't think anyone would disagree with that.

.....

Opera Mobile 9.7 is the newest offer from opera, it is set to battle out with safari. it's faster and has scored 100 out of 100 in the Acid3 test, which tests a browser's compliance with the HTML standard.

If you mean this in regard to Portable Media Player (where you can't install a browser & are stuck with whatever comes bundled) then yes Safari is best there so far. But if you are referring to mobile devices in all (including PMPs, mobiles & all mobile pocketable devices) then no, Safari is not king there. Many better non-Apple choices available then, most on Windows Mobile platform (because Microsoft was sleeping with regards to PIE). Opera 9.7 is one good choice, its still lacking & buggy though, it needs a lot of work in terms of memory consumption & need to be stable as well, still a beta.

A good browser on WM platform is Iris Browser by Torch Mobile. Its based on the webkit engine as well just like Safari but it passed the Acid3 test with a score of 100/100 much earlier than Safari on iPhone/iPod did.



This I took just now just to show, otherwise Iris Browser had 100/100 score much earlier as well before it reached v1.0.

Another browser is Skyfire, which is not a full browser in itself but is rather a kind of VNC client which shows on the mobile client what the browser on Skyfire servers render. The Skyfire servers use Firefox, which though still doesn't get a 100/100 on Acid3 test but can render just almost anything on the web. The good thing about Skyfire being a kind of VNC client is that without any extra plugins etc it can render multimedia content on the mobile device, meaning without having flash installed you can watch YouTube videos on mobile device. Even though its not a full browser, I think it trumps all existing mobile browsers at the moment.

And then there's upcoming IE6 Mobile as well, thankfully enough Microsoft seems to have woken up as the competition races past them & they are scrambling to get their act together. From the demo videos of IE 6 Mobile (still in beta phase, unstable) it looks quite promising with ability for multimedia content & AJAX etc. & full pc like rendering of websites.

As for Netfront, sadly they seem to have lost their marbles. They used to be quite good & ahead in the game some 3 years back but then dunno what happened & where their focus shifted. The company got busy with other stuff I think.



This I took from the concept version of their v3.5 browser for Windows Mobile. Its not even in testing, its just a concept version, they said they don't plan to develop for Windows Mobile but still a score of 11/100 is..... its a pity!! It renders a number of websites ok though & others are still usable with Javascript & all. I used to use this on my Windows Mobile phone but after Iris Browser & Skyfire came I stopped using it.


Personally I hope that Opera gets its v9.7 stable soon, Microsoft gets IE6 Mobile stable & fixed & released soon & then we might start seeing some good browsers on PMPs as well.