Sony Vaio Pocket VGF-AP1L review
By Dan Wu 
posted October 1st 2004 6:30AM
posted October 1st 2004 6:30AM
The Register took a look at Sony's newest music player, the Vaio Pocket VGF-AP1L, which not only plays music, but has picture viewing capabilities in a package, you know, roughly the size of the first iPod. In additional to a three-line LCD remote and solid design and construction, the most unique feature of this unit is still, of course, the touchpad, which corresponds on the LCD to the position you press on it. Though they looked at a pre-production unit which doesn't play MP3s, we hope that Sony does turn it into an MP3-zilla before the product's release next month, since they've finally succumbed to supporting MP3 (supposedly).
The firmware update has been released which solves a number of 'flaws'. The biggest plus is that it now has native MP3 support without the conversion to ATRAC being necessary. It also has seamless playback, so no gaps between tracks - this works better than any other player I've used. There are also a few updates to change templates and the like. This update turns the AP1 in to the player it should've been in the first place.
Available from: http://vaio.sony-europe.com/ShowArticle.do?site=ite_en_GB&article=1101282398590