Sony's latest NetJuke, the NAS-A10
posted Feb 17th 2005 9:36AM
You're crazy if you think we even get half of
Sony's good stuff over here in the states, but
until now the lack of NetJuke products hasn't been
hurting us all too much—afterall, they were strictly ATRAC3-based devices. But in Sony's
(slowly) increasingly more
populist age, they've announced their latest NetJuke, the
NAS-A10; sure, it will still only rip your CDs to ATRAC3 on its internal 40GB hard drive (it uses Gracenote's CDDB for
tagging info—no comment), but can still play MP3s if you want to load them up via its USB 2.0 connection, Ethernet port
(which we assume also stream media, putting the NAS in NAS-A10), or Memory Stick Duo slot. In case you were wondering,
ports include analog in and out, composite out, and a headphone port, but we wouldn't dwell too much since we hardly
expect to ever see one of these outside a Tokyo flat. And even still, they're going to run you about 6 Bens in Japan,
so an American importer can expect to tack on another 20-50%. Have fun!
[Via Akihabara News]
I have just one question: How long is going to be before Sony’s (slowly) increasingly more populist age forces them to abandon the Memory Stick (Duo (Pro)) format for something that actually has broad industry support?
Never.
I love answering rhetorical questions.
My question is where is the display on this thing? It looks pretty cool, but with 40 gigs of ATRACs or MP3s on it, I think it'd be a little hard to navigate without a screen. Unless of course we're all going with this "shuffle" idea invented by Apple.
Is the composite out there so you can use your TV for a display/interface?
i have to wonder where Sony has its head sometimes. sure USB 2.0 is better than USB 1.X, but why not add an iLink/Firewire port on this thing, especially since they helped develop the technology and it's NOT that expensive to add. you would think they'd want to promote it even! moving 40G of data would just be that much faster, making the customer that much happier. many sony laptops and even desktop come with iLink already built it, as do many other manufacturers.
this strikes me as being incredibly cheap on Sony's part, especially for the money one would have to pay to get one...plenty of cheaper devices have iLink/Firewire as a standard connection. Hell, even my $45 external disk enclosure has both USB 2.0 and Firewire!
The design intrigues me, and confirms the direction that multimedia technology is taking. Formerly PC-based technologies will gradually sprout nice cabinets and consumer-like features - dials, displays, etc. - as the convergence trend takes greater hold on the living room.
We may not be able to buy this in North America now, but it's clear that this kind of product will be here soon.
Carmi
http://writteninc.blogspot.com
What are better alternatives to Gracenote's CDDB?
Is that indeed a MS Pro Duo slot or a MS Pro slot? It doesn't make sense not tu support the normal sized format which they are still using in a lot of products (most Cybershot cameras, for example), especially in a relatively big product like this where size is not an issue.
i think the name netjuke is already taken
I thought Netjuke was an open source web based music steaming package? I've been using it for a couple of years.
It's available here:
http://www.netjuke.org