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Dear Sony Ericsson,

Though we've known each other for some time, this is the first time that I've written. For the most part, our relationship has been a good one. Back when AT&T was still AT&T Wireless, the Sony Ericsson T68i was one of the very first phones I ever owned (it's so old that I can't even find the CNET review). At the time, I was the envy of my friends since I had a nifty new feature called Bluetooth. What's more, I was the very first person that I knew to have multimedia messaging.

Sony Ericsson T68

(Credit: Sony Ericsson)

Though I had to ditch the T68i by the time that I arrived at CNET almost exactly six years ago (happy anniversary to me!), I continued to use your phones periodically as my personal device. And in my official role at CNET, I've reviewed no fewer than 33 of your handsets. On the whole I've enjoyed what I've seen. You've given us brilliant displays, your Walkman and Cyber-shot phones can offer fantastic multimedia quality, and you regularly introduce conversation piece models like the Xperia X1.

But after reviewing T-Mobile's recent Sony Ericsson Equinox, I no longer can overlook one of my frequent complaints. And no, I'm not referring to your unfortunate tendency to over-design your keyboards and controls at the expense of usability. Instead, I'm talking about Sony's proprietary ports and memory cards.

Now I know that you've pledged to adopt the Micro-USB charger standard, but the rest of the cell phone world is rapidly leaving you behind. Even Samsung, a company that put a different charger port on almost every phone, has largely moved in that direction already. In comparison, you're beginning to look dated and frankly, a little stubborn. So please, drop that pesky proprietary port without further delay.

On the upside, I was pleased to hear last summer that you'll be dropping the Memory Stick Micro format in favor of microSD cards. With the exception of the X1, you've stuck firmly to the costly Memory Stick Micro cards until just recently (the Equinox requires them). I'm pleased, however, that newer models like the Yari, the Satio, the Aino, the Jalou, and the Xperia X10 all use microSD. Not only will that save your customers money, but also they'll be able to transfer data onto their phones from other devices.

The W995's lovely 3.5mm headset jack.

(Credit: Kent German/CNET)

Lastly, I have to ask that you stop using your proprietary headset connection and adopt a standard 3.5mm jack. I know you're capable of doing this, but I need to see more effort. One of the best features on the W995 was its 3.5mm jack. I was very pleased that I could use my own headset while listening to tunes without having to fumble with the awkward adapter. Even better, I could use more than one peripheral at a time.

You already offer great phones, but these changes will make them even better. Plus, you'll be showing your customers that you want to offer them the most choice possible. That's a small price to pay for a lot of user goodwill.

Regards,
Kent German

P.S. I'd also like to see more of your phones come to U.S. carriers--I fear that we'll never see the Google Android-powered X10--but I'll save that for another column.

Sony's little pain in the wallet.

(Credit: Sony Electronics)

Last week I posted a review of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX1, but this post is not really about my review. It's about two user reviews (written by users I doubt have actually used the camera). One calls my review flawed, while the other praises the camera and then gives it a half-star rating out of five stars. Why? Sony's use of Memory Stick media for storage.

According to the first user review, the reason my review was "flawed" was because I didn't mention the use of Memory Stick media as a con and a reason not to buy the camera. I'm sorry, but I don't see what the big freakin' deal is with buying a Memory Stick. Yeah, it would be swell if I didn't have to pay $30 for an 8GB Memory Stick Pro Duo and instead could get a generic 8GB SDHC card for $18. But, honestly, Sony's use of proprietary media, I/O ports, and miscellaneous other technologies shouldn't be news to anyone--it's been doing it for forever. In the case of Memory Stick, since 1998. Get over it already.

The other review complains that there are only two manufacturers of Memory Stick media--Sony and SanDisk--and when the user used a SanDisk card, the WX1 popped up a message saying it may not record. Problem is, I did and do all my testing using the SanDisk card mentioned and never got an error or any other kind of message. I'm not saying it didn't happen, but I'm willing to bet there's something else going on.

Regardless, cutting a rating down to half a star strictly because you don't like buying a proprietary memory card makes no sense. It doesn't help readers or potential buyers.

There are benefits to a closed system--just ask anyone using an Apple computer. And, well, licensing fees keep a lot of companies in business. Does it suck that you are forced to buy a Memory Stick? If you already have SD cards for other products, then yes, sure. But, frankly, no one made you buy Sony products, and hey, at least be grateful it's not an xD card.

(Credit: Quirky.com)

I've seen a lot of designs for USB drives: the nerdy one, the credit card one, the key one, the prosthetic finger one, and the San Francisco cable car one. You've probably seen even more.

Now there's another one to add to the repertoire: a double-sided USB drive that's called the Split Stick.

Announced Thursday by Quirky, the Split Stick does just want its name states: it splits its storage into two. This is essentially two storage drives put into one housing. You can use one side for personal files and the other for work-related files.

Quirky is a community that engages participants to collaborate on product creation, where people can summit their ideas about different products. The Split Stick is the sixth product designed and developed by the Quirky community since its debut on June 2.

The drive combines two 2GB drives to make a total of 4GB. The USB drives are retractable and each come out of one end of the housing, which takes the regular shape and size of a typical USB thumb drive.

The Split drive comes in many different colors.

(Credit: Quirky)

The Split Stick is made of an anodized aluminum body and encased in a protective rubber membrane. It comes in a range of colors: orange, blue, pink, red, black, violet, gray, or green. It has a plastic button on top that allows for easily navigating between the two sides of the drive.

Personally, I think this design is rather useless as you can use folders to organize different type of data. And if you forget what folder is for what purpose, chances are you'd mistake one side of the drive for another. Also, splitting the storage means you can't carry larger files with it. For example if your "personal" drive is 1.5GB full, you can't put another file that's 600MB on it, even when the "work" drive is still empty.

It would be a much more useful design, though, if the two drives were combined into one storage source and one of the sides allowed for read-only access, while the other side allowed for both writing and reading. This keeps you from accidentally erasing data or catching viruses when using the drive on computers you don't know are safe.

So, that's my first Quirky submission. Until it becomes reality, you can get the Split Stick now, and it costs $20.

The SDHC microSD to Memory Stick MS Pro Duo Adapter Sleeve costs just $2.85.

(Credit: DealExtreme)

For anybody who complains that Sony's Memory Stick Duo memory cards are too expensive compared with other forms of flash memory, DealExtreme has a solution. It's the StarJade SDHC microSD to Memory Stick MS Pro Duo Adapter Sleeve, which retails for a mere $2.85, including free shipping. Unfortunately, the only problem is that it's illegal (see "update" note at the bottom of the post).

A quick comparison on Amazon for prices of microSD and Memory Stick Duo reveals that an 8GB microSDHC card costs around $20 (with shipping), while an 8GB Memory Stick Duo card comes in around $34 with shipping. (Yes, the adapter supports higher-capacity SDHC microSD cards). Step up to a 16GB card and the delta is about $25, with entry-level 16GB microSDHC cards retailing for around $50.

The description on the product page says the adapter works with a wide variety of portable electronics devices, including cameras and audio players. We can't vouch for the reliability of the adapter but we did order a couple to test out, which we now realize may have been a no-no.

Note: This adapter won't work with the new PSP Go, which uses Sony's Memory Stick Micro (M2).

Update: Mike McCarthy of SanDisk writes: "The microSD-Memory Stick adapter is illegal, unlicensed and infringes on Sony Corp patents. Maybe it's cool to promote this stuff as a 20-year-old blogger, but I thought CNET would have higher standards." As a result of Mike's comment, we have summoned some maturity and edited the post.

That's 2,000GB or 2,000,000MB of flash storage for noobs.

The Memory Sticks don't have an official name yet, and Sony and SanDisk are temporarily calling them collectively "Memory Stick format for Extended High Capacity." Format licensing is expected to begin this year. Once completed, we'll see storage capacities for these flash media (Memory Stick Pro DUO, Memory Stick Pro-HG, Memory Stick Micro, and Memory Stick HG Micro) hit up to 2 terabytes, with maximum data transfer rates of 20MBps (on a 4-bit parallel interface) and 60MBps (on an 8-bit parallel interface) for the HG card formats.

(Credit: Sony)

Sony is also announcing Friday the availability of 16GB Memory Stick Micro (M2) cards. These will be available in the Asia Pacific region starting next month and are bundled with a USB adapter, though there's also an option to purchase the flash card separately.

According to the Japanese outfit, the 16GB M2 card comes with a five-year warranty and can withstand temperatures from minus 13 degrees Fahrenheit to 185 degrees Fahrenheit. The supplied adapter doesn't support the MagicGate content protection technology, though. We are still checking with Sony Ericsson to find out which phones are compatible with the new 16GB card and will update once we have the information.

(Source: Crave Asia)

Related story:

SanDisk's microSD card hits 16GB

If recent blog posts about the increase in capacity of CompactFlash cards and small-size hard drives make you wonder what's in store for your mobile phones, then I have some good news.

(Credit: ScanDisk)

On Monday, SanDisk announced its new microSD high-capacity (microSDHC) card that offers up to 16GB in storage space. While 16GB doesn't sound like a huge deal compared with other media that offer hundreds of gigabytes, this is actually very significant for two reasons. First, microSD cards are by far the smallest in size among consumer storage devices--about the size of your little finger's nail. Second, it's also the most popular media for smartphones and PDAs, and it is becoming more popular thanks to its tiny size.

The introduction of the new size lets cell phone and PDA owners really use their devices for storage-intensive purposes, including music and video playback, high-definition digital camera functions, gaming, and GPS applications. The new card also works with other devices that have a microSDHC reader, such as digital cameras, GPS receivers, or MP3 players.

Together with the new microSDHC, SanDisk also introduced its new 16GB Memory Stick Micro (M2) mobile memory, which is the micro version of Sony's Memory Stick card.

SanDisk's new 16GB microSDHC and M2 cards will be available in October and cost about $100 and $130, respectively. They will also be available in 4GB and 8GB versions. The new microSDHC might not be compatible with all devices that support the legacy microSD cards (that caps at 2GB). Make sure to check your devices' compatibility or update them to newer and supporting firmware before purchasing.

(Credit: Asus)

Asus has announced its first-ever motion control wireless joystick that the company is calling the Eee Stick. Now where have we seen this before? Ah that's right; it's almost an exact copy of the Remote/Nunchuk combination that you use with your Nintendo Wii. The Eee Stick uses a 2.4GHz RF USB dongle and requires two AA batteries for each controller.

The Eee Stick will allow you to "get into the swing of gaming" as it will be bundled with certain Eee PC and Eee Box products. While the Eee Stick will work with any PC, Asus recommends using it only with games designed for the device (which come packaged along with it). Unfortunately, there is no information about what any of these games are or what they actually look like.

The Eee Stick can operate in three modes: 3D Motion mode will emulate any movement along any axis on screen, Pointing mode will be used as a "light gun," and Tilt mode, which will sense movement forward, backward, and to the sides.

(Via Engadget)

(Credit: Equinux)

Some people love their Macs so much that they want to do everything with them. Actually, let's qualify that--we're talking about watching TV. And if you're a Cupertino loyalist who isn't quite sold on an Apple TV, there's a convenient way to get basic reception on the computer.

Equinux has released its "TubeStick," a hybrid tuner that comes in the form of a USB key that includes two receivers for HD broadcasts and digital or analog cable signals. It was announced earlier this year but is now for sale at $129.

Also included is an antenna and software for the iPhone and iPod as well as the computer for portable viewing, with some basic TiVo-like functions (scheduling, rewind, etc.). The TubeStick can be used with Windows machines too, but it's clearly being marketed for the Apple Nation with a paint job in basic white.