clie | strudel.org.uk

Memory Stick

Perhaps this should be lack of memory stick as the NX70V doesn't actually come with one. You need a memory stick for recording video, taking pictures and playing music and it is very annoying that SONY don't include even a basic one as standard. Luckily I had realised this before I bought it so I had ordered a memory stick at the same time. As far as I can tell there are normal memory sticks and MagicGate memory sticks. Both work in the NX70V but the MagicGate is designed for digital rights management I think i.e. putting copy-protected music onto it. The provided software for putting MP3s onto the PDA, SonicStage, will not use anything other than a MagicGate stick if you are converting from a CD but, if you use your favourite ripping software, you can manually put the MP3s on a normal memory stick without using SonicStage. So I don't see any real reason for getting a MagicGate stick as they cost more too. Also you will find that you can buy a non-SONY memory stick cheaper and as far as I know there is no real difference.

The latest I've read is that a company called Eruware has created a driver to allow you to use Compact Flash memory cards in the Wi-Fi slot that sits behind the memory stick and camera. It sells for USD27 and would allow you to expand the memory from the 128MB limit set by the Memory Stick, up to 1GB. Now that would hold a lot of video! Having said that, the Movie Player only copes with files up to 128MB so anything very long would need to be split into 128MB chunks.