MemoWare Features is an editorial column covering a variety of topics related to PDAs and handheld computing.
All opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily shared by MemoWare or Handmark, Inc.

 November 12, 2002 -- Kenneth Rhee's Clie Corner: Comparing Sony's NX-60 and SJ-30 - Part II

Well, it has been almost two weeks since I received the NX60 (I guess time flies when you are having fun), and I have had a lot of time to fiddle with the new device. One of my readers commented on my last article that I spent too much time on the NX and not enough on the SJ. Can you blame me? Anyway, to do justice, I'm postponing the SJ review till later so that I can fully focus on the NX this time. However, I have to say the Sena case for the SJ30 is really one of the best PDA cases I have owned (believe me I have owned quite a few over the years). So, stay tune for the rest of the SJ review and the Sena case in a week or so. The Sena case for NX was not available at the press time, but when it becomes available, you can expect a review in this column.

Let me just say before we begin that this is the best PDA I have seen up to date. I think that says it all. Yes, I have seen the new Tungsten, and yes, it is a great device, but I don't think it comes close to offering the type of functionalities that the Clie NX offers. So, let me get on with the rest of the review to reveal to you why I think it is.

Speed
It's darn fast. The Clie NX loaded the programs in the card loaded much faster than previous Clie devices. Also the loading of preference panel after soft reset was completed almost instantaneously (no more waiting after reset). I've been using MSBackup to back up my RAM (JBBackup doesn't work any more in this device), and it's much faster to save/delete a backup set. The photos from the memory stick loaded less than a second (using SplashPhoto). Craig Froehle, President of Memoware, and I did a few interesting experiments while I was visiting his office, and one of the experiment was to send an e-mail with a JPG file attachment (about 45K) to my Clie NX and his HandEra 330-each running its own Wi-Fi card. My Clie NX received the e-mail so much faster than HandEra that it was simply amazing. So, the Clie NX with Intel 200 MHz really rocks.

Keyboard
Those of you who haven't used the thumb-type keyboard in the past might need some time to get used to the keyboard. It's different. You won't ever reach the speed you get from the full-size keyboard. Also, the shift key doesn't stick so that if you need to type an “A,” you need to hold down the shift key with your left thumb and bring your right thumb to type the character “A.” Now, that is really awkward. I wished Sony would change this ASAP.

Also right now there is no OS5 driver for Sony Compact keyboard (KB-11). Hopefully Sony and/or Think Outside would be releasing the updated driver soon. I tried to load the beta keyboard driver for Tungsten, but it did not work as expected.

Screen
The 320x480 screen is something else. Its brightness and color fidelity make it probably the best PDA screen available period. I have compared it to the Tungsten, Compaq Ipaq, HP Jordana, and even Sony's own NR70, T665, and SJ30, and I still stand firm with that assessment. You got to see it to believe it. The extra real estate in the screen really does make a difference

Launcher and Standard Applications
The new Clie launcher is much better than the regular high resolution launcher also included in the device. Once I created categories and assigned applications to the categories, it worked pretty well. I also figured out if you write or type a letter, the launcher will cycle through all the programs starting with that letter. For instance, by hitting the letter M on the keyboard, I was able to quickly go from McFile under one category to Movie Player under another category. That is great since it was awkward to select and navigate the categories in the category view (top left box in the picture). The jog dial and back button help (If you hit the back button and use the jog dial, then you can navigate through the category view, but I'm used to other launchers that are much more powerful and easier to use).

Well, I have looked high and low to find the right launcher for my NX, and it wasn't easy. Most of the launchers did not work or those that did did not support the VG area of NX. I finally found a few programs that worked: Yishow 5.1, Silverscreen 2.92 (but they crashed too many times) and Zlauncher 1.03. The new version of Zlauncher fixes the shortcut errors and other OS5 incompatibilities in 1.02. Among these, Zlauncher offered the best stability and features

I was hoping to try out two of my favorite pre-OS5 launchers-Launcher X and Megalauncher, but ML is still in beta and not fully functioning. Fortunately, Bozidar sent me a beta copy of OS5 compatible Launcher X. One of the reasons I like Launcher X so much is that not only tabs are customizable, but tab placement (left, right, and top), tab fonts, application icons, fonts, and many others are all customizable. I can pretty much make it to look the way I want to, and that's a real advantage. Also the categorization of applications in the MS card is possible without creating separate shortcuts, and the beam and card tools are built into the launcher. Needless to say Launcher X is my launcher of choice for now.

As far as the standard PIM applications are concerned, they are pretty much the same as the OS4 brethrens, and that may be a good thing in terms of minimizing the learning curve, but if you are looking for any type of enhancement, it needs to be sought elsewhere. Sony however made all four applications high resolution plus compatible by taking advantage of the Virtual Graffiti area.

Multimedia Functions and Applications
I believe this is where the Clie NX really shines. Sony has promised me to send me a NX70, and perhaps when it arrives, I would update the camera section, but all the other multimedia functions and applications that I have used is outstanding. Sony is the first company to include Macromedia Flash Player for Palm OS and a sample Flash file. I ran the sample file both in my NX and my PC, and they looked identical. I was quite impressed.

The Movie Player, Voice Recorder, MP3 Player, and Remote Commander all worked flawlessly. I only wished that the Remote Commander application had a setting for the cable box, and as a result, the program became less useful for me.

Office Applications: Docs to Go Premium
Sony bundles Dataviz's Docs to Go Standard with the Clie NX series. Docs to Go Standard includes Word To Go and Sheet To Go (Word Processing and Spreadsheet). You can upgrade this to the premium edition, which will add Slideshow To Go (PowerPoint), DataViz Mail (Palm mail program and conduit), Pics To Go (picture viewer), Smartchart (Spreadsheet charting), and PDF To Go (PDF file reader). All of the programs are OS 5 compatible and support Clie's high resolution. Word to Go and Sheet To Go also support the Clie's VG area. The program also include a DocSync technology that provides seamless synchronization of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files without losing formatting in the desktop document.

However, the biggest advantage I see for the Clie NX owners might be that it's VFS compatible. You might say, what's so special about that? We've had that capability for awhile. Yes, but with this version, you can store almost all the applications and data files in the memory stick and sync the data files stored in the Memory Stick Yes, you heard me correct-store application files in the card and also sync data files in the card to your PC. Once you keep the main shell program in RAM (about 145K), you can move close to 1.5 MB of application files to the memory card. Given that the NX-60 has 11 MB of useable RAM, this is a big time RAM freeing technique in my book. Also, the quality of views on all the programs is not bad, but there are some quirks such as the scroll bar not being flush against the edge and no font smoothing in Word To Go. If you need the extra features and capability the Premium edition offers, I would encourage you to upgrade from your standard version.

3rd Party Application Compatibility
In the part I of the review, I talked about the incompatibilities that I had experienced with my Clie NX with a number of programs I had been using. It seems Sony changed its HR API for OS 5 devices, and any program that used to support Clie's high resolution in OS 4.x had problem properly displaying its fonts under OS5. I'm happy to report that most developers have found a way to overcome this. Right now, I have my most frequently used programs such as Launcher X, Supernames, Daynotez, Palm Reader, and Isilo are all working properly. Sony USA has released the programming tools including Sony OS5 simulator, and I'm sure the rest of the developers will be updating their programs as soon as possible. So, this is no longer an issue for me at this time.

Wi-Fi Card I couldn't wait for Sony to send me a card; so, when I heard that my local CompUSA had one in stock, I rushed over and got one. Boy, am I glad I did. I've been surfing the Net wirelessly for the last several days, and it really is sweet.

The Sony Wi-Fi card is actually identical to the Intel Pro 2011B CF card. Intel also manufactures the card for use in the Toshiba PocketPC devices. The card sticks out about 3/4 inch from top of the unit. Once inserted, you won't be able to rotate the screen in the fully-open position. I installed the driver that came with the card and it went smoothly. The driver installs a new service called “Wireless LAN” in the networking preference panel, and you can create a new profile by tapping Details. I was able to create 5 different profiles without any problem. The setup afterward was really simple. I simply specified the network ID (SSID) and selected the encryption level and entered the WEP key (for encrypted environment). The network ID is all you need if your wireless access point doesn't enforce encryption. Within few seconds, I was able to connect and surf the NET as well as to download my e-mails. This to me is a prime example of Zen of Palm. The driver also supports the power save mode as well.

As already mentioned, Craig had a Symbol CF Wi-Fi card and a HandEra 330, and we tried the Symbol card in the Sony NX. UNFORTUNATELY, it did not work. Interestingly, when we put the Sony card into his HandEra 330, it WORKED (HandEra 330 has a Wi-Fi driver built into its OS). So, the Sony card is nothing special, but it seems you need the Sony OS5 driver to use the card in the NX. It also seems that the Sony OS5 driver is also checking the hardware ID to make sure we had the Sony card inserted into the slot. When we tried a CF memory card as well as the Pretec 56K CompactModem, they did not work at all. The Clie NX alerts the user of the insertion, but we couldn't do anything with the memory card or the modem. Nevertheless, this experiment was encouraging since if anyone writes a driver for any type of CF device (including memory, modem, camera, etc), we can probably use it in the Clie NX. Also, since the Sony Wi-Fi card retails for $150, and you can purchase a generic Wi-Fi CF card for between $80 to $100, you do the math.

Internet software
Clie Mail 2.0 comes preloaded in the Clie NX, and it is a decent e-mail program. However, when I tried to set up multiple accounts and download e-mails from those account, it did not work at all. Although the manual states it's possible to download e-mail from multiple accounts, the program simply did not allow me to do so. I had to select one account at a time in order to make it work. Since I have 4 to 5 different accounts, this became cumbersome pretty quickly. Luckily, Iambic has released the update to Iambic Mail (3.02), and I tried it. The program allows downloading e-mails from multiple accounts at the same time, and it also support attachments. The program automatically strips the HTML code for easier e-mail viewing and saves attachments into the memory stick automatically. I was able to view the jpg image file that was sent to me by Craig without any problem using SplashPhoto. Also you can filter message from each account easily by selecting the account from the sliding menu command. All in all, a very useful program. I was also impressed with SnapperMail, but it doesn't support the VG area of the Clie NX as yet.

Probably everyone is interested in finding out about the Netfront 3.0 web browser that came with the Clie NX. In short, it's a dandy browser. Is it comparable to IE in terms of features and sophistication? No. Is it an excellent PDA web browser? The answer is yes. As you can see below, the browser has 3 different views (“Show As It Is" , "Zoom Out" , and "Wrap Content" modes . The quality of page and photo/pictures in the page was excellent, and I had no problem browsing a variety of pages (e.g., NY Times, CNN, USA Today, etc).

However, to say the browser is perfect would be an overstatement. It is after all a PDA browser, not Internet Explorer 6.0. It nevertheless supports a vast majority of features such as Tables, CSS, JavaScript, Cookies, Cache, and Animations. If you go to the Netfront settings, you can change the setting for those features.

One thing that was really annoying was two frequent error messages: “Page is too large . . . may not be displayed properly. Continue” and “Cannot open another window.” Netfront 3 does not support pop-up windows or multiple pages, and you get the second error when the browser encounters them. The first error was just annoying. You get this about 75% of the time, and I wish the browser had an option to turn this thing OFF. Other than that, I enjoyed my first Broadband Palm wireless surfing experience. The previous one with a cable and a cell phone (with my 760C) was not enjoyable due to slow speed.

Battery Life
I'm sure everyone is by now asking, “What about the battery life?” With the Wi-Fi card inserted, I was down to about 80% after surfing the Net for 45 minutes. So, it does drain the battery more quickly, but I think I can probably surf the Net a couple of hours w/o any problem if the power saving mode is checked. After a heavy day's use, the battery level went down to about 1/4 of full. It's probably safe to say, you would have to recharge the unit each day after heavy use, and it may not be a bad idea to invest in an extra recharger. Overall, I was never in danger of running out of battery power. I also got a Fellows USB hotsync/recharge cable for $18, and it recharged my battery in a couple of hours. Although the battery doesn't seem to be user replaceable (no extra battery accessory from Sony), the battery compartment can be opened, and the battery can be replaced.

Overall Assessment
Loving it! If you are thinking about getting a new device and has the money to spend, this is the device to get. If you are on a budget, I suggest getting the NX60 and the Wi-Fi card ($499 + $149 = $648) rather than NX70 ($599). If you are only getting the device, I suggest NX70 since you are getting a decent PDA camera and software for $100 extra.

I know some of you might be waiting for OS6, but that's probably a year away, and in high technology, a year can be a lifetime.

I think I covered most useful features and functions of Clie NX. I could probably write more about each program and function, but perhaps another time. Rating: Go out and get one ASAP with one caveat. Sony has not announced whether this device is OS upgradeable. Given Sony's past track record, I am not sure we can count on it any way. So, my advice is to enjoy the unit for what it is. I am certainly doing that.

Let me know what your thoughts are on this at clieandbeyond@fuse.net

Past Features:
• November 1, 2002 -- Kenneth Rhee...Comparing Sony's NX-60 and SJ-30 - Part I
• September 23, 2002 -- Kenneth Rhee...Waiting for my next Pilot 1000
• August 5, 2002 -- Kenneth Rhee...Sony T665C Review Part II
• June 30, 2002 -- Kenneth Rhee...Sony T665C Review Part I
• May 13, 2002 -- Kenneth Rhee...Sony at Crossroads?
• April 22, 2002 -- Kenneth Rhee...New Clies on the horizon and beyond?
• April 15, 2002 -- Craig previews some new PDA-related hardware & devices
• April 1, 2002 -- The Pocket Goddess Speaks...on Wasting Time with your PDA
• March 25, 2002 -- Kenneth Rhee...in search of the Holy Grail of high-res programs
• March 11, 2002 -- The Gadgeteer looks at some interesting accessories for Palm PDAs
• March 4, 2002 -- Craig clears up some confusion about PDA document formats
• February 25, 2002 -- The Pocket Goddess speaks about a bright future for PDAs
• February 18, 2002 -- Kenneth Rhee examines a disturbance in the PDA universe
• February 11, 2002 -- Craig goes to PalmSource 2002 and likes what he sees
• February 4, 2002 -- The Gadgeteer looks at hard case options for m500 series Palm PDAs