Crusoe ahoy
Sony could be the first notebook PC supplier to launch a system powered by Transmeta's new Crusoe processor, instead of an Intel or AMD chip. But when Sony showed off a wide range of forthcoming products at its annual European sales conference, held in Venice last week, the PCG-C1VE was overshadowed by other devices. These included the Clie palmtop (What's New, September 7), a new Cybershot digital camera, and the feature-packed J5 mobile phone.
The C1VE notebook is small: it has much the same casing as the PCG-1, and the same swivelling Motion Eye camera built in to the lid. And with its 600MHz Crusoe chip, 128 megabytes of memory and 12GB hard drive, the C1VE packs a lot of power into a 1kg package. However, the Crusoe chip's compatibility remains to be proven, and Sony was claiming a only 2.5 hour battery life for its notebook. This is a lot less than the 10-12 hours we expected from the Crusoe's power-saving design.
With an estimated price of £1,499 plus VAT when it appears around the end of October, the C1VE may find it hard to win sales.
The reverse could well be true with the new PCG-SR11K notebook PC, which is not quite as small but looks more stylish. The SR11K has a 600MHz Intel Pentium III SpeedStep chip instead of the Crusoe, a 10.4in instead of a 9in screen, and Microsoft Windows 2000 instead of Windows Me. It also comes with an external CD-rom drive that costs extra on the C1VE, and while it is a little shorter on memory and hard disk space (64MB, 10GB), it still only weighs 1.36kg.
The CMD-J5 mobile phone is like the Z5 launched in June but offers even more features. For example, it lets you record your own ring, so you could use your dog's bark or your better half's titter. It has Tegic's predictive T9 software for fast text entry, and the SMS capability has been extended so you can send images and sounds to other J5 owners, as well as text messages. Like the Z5, the J5 includes Microsoft's Microbrowser, so it can handle HTML as well as Wap pages.
Sony had to admit that the J5 could not talk to its Palm-compatible Clie electronic organiser, but said that when the Clie appears in the UK next year, it will.
Both new notebook PCs, the Clie, and the J5 phone have slots for Sony Memory Sticks. All four also have Jog Dials, Sony's circular menuing system.
The new DSC-P1 camera uses Memory Sticks too, and Sony claims this has helped it make this Cybershot model noticeably small for a 3.34 megapixel camera. The design is unusual because the 3x zoom lens is right at the end of the body, but the whole thing is only 113mm long. The P1 Cybershot can be used to produce images from 640 by 480 pixels (VGA resolution) up to 2,048 by 1,536 pixels, and it can also record short MPEG movies.
Sony also showed many other new products: video cameras, a projector, an electronic photo printer, a Digital8 Video Walkman, more notebook PCs and even some desktop PCs. (The desktops are already on sale in the US and Japan, and will eventually reach the UK.) And if the stream of new gadgets grew tiring after a while, we could at least be grateful for the absence of new audio and hi-fi systems, video recorders, TV sets, television set-top boxes and other Sony devices from the Aibo robotic dog to PlayStation 2 games console.
At least it makes sense of Sony's design strategy. It has to make all its gizmos as small as possible so that customers still have room to buy more.
Born in the UK
Most British people are not descended from Americans, but no one would know this from the American genealogy software sold in the UK. However, Sierra Home - an American subsidiary of France's Havas Interactive - has finally done something about it. It is releasing its Generations software in two localised editions. Generations Starter Kit 8.0 UK Version provides everything most people need, and comes on 11 CDs. Generations Grande Suite 8.0 UK Version includes a lot more data on 20 CDs. It is the one to get if you really need the Magna Charta Sureties, Griffith's Valuation, and various historical records such as the UK Deeds Index Database, the US Civil War Muster Rolls, and the Titanic passenger list. The Starter version goes on sale tomorrow for Microsoft Windows 95/98.
Sounds safe
Smart cards would be more secure if they could only be used to the sound of their master's voice. Domain Dynamics, based near Swindon, has now shown that this is possible by developing voice authentication soft ware small enough to fit on to an 8KB smart card. The system uses Domain Dynamics' Tespar (time encoded signal processing and recognition) technology to store a template of the card owner's voice. The user provides a speech sample, which is then processed and checked against the template stored on the card. Ian Taylor, a director of the company, says mobile commerce is an obvious application but can "foresee a range of applications from access control for confidential data to payments made via TV set-top box or PC". Domain Dynamics is now looking for companies to license the technology for various devices. See www.ddl.ision.co.uk
