Sony Geeks Out

Posted on September 23, 2003

Sony today officially crossed the line from “huh, that’s cool” to “huh, that’s… wait, that’s waaaay too geeky.”

They’ve long been pushing the boundaries in power and form factor for PalmOS devices, and most of their experiments have been great successes. Today, though, they announced a new accessory that costs almost as much as most as their PDAs do. The PEGA-VR100K will — get this — hook up to your TV, cable box, or satellite dish, and record up to 16 hours of TV programming onto a 1GB Memory Stick, so that you can then carry it with you and play it back on your Clie PDA. That’s right, it’s a Tivo for your PDA. And all for a cool $299.

Now, this might be interesting if it connected somehow with the PVR I already have (which this doesn’t), or with the PDA I already have (which this doesn’t), but alas, Sony continues down the One True Proprietary Way, so this goes from potentially interesting into the Geek Novelty Bin. The price doesn’t help either, although I suppose if you’re the sort who has $800 to drop on a PDA, you probably can afford to shell out a few hundred on gizmos like this too. As for me, I’ll keep cruising eBay to see if I can pick up a used T665C for less than $100, I suppose…