Comments on: NS Review: Sony Speaker Dock for iPhone

By: Nathaniel Salzman

Nathaniel Salzman — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 19:04:23 +0000

Oh I certainly wouldn’t cry if my TV were bigger and had multiple gaming consoles plugged into it. My original setup with this TV actually used a Mac Mini as the DVD player. The up-convert on Quicktime was stellar. I just used the Apple Remote and Front Row. The rest of the time, I had a bluetooth keyboard and mouse and so I could check my email from the couch, then switch over and watch Mythbusters. Those were the days. Couldn’t justify having $600 laying around under my TV though. I may go back to that someday.

By: C4

C4 — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:56:46 +0000

I hear you. My “hardcore gaming days” were in the eighties with the Atari 2600. That thing is ancient by today’s standards but back then it was a lot of fun and the game library was impressive (And it is still to this day). The Sega Genesis had a more realistic “Arcade” flavor to the games but It did manage to bore me a lot quicker than the Atari ever did. After that came the falling of Sega from the gaming console business and the advent of the Sony Playstation 1-2 and the original XBox. I missed all of those.

The Playstation 3 also up converts 480I/P native DVDs to 720p and 1080p respectively and it does a fine job with the upconversion. Since the HD DVD vs Blu-Ray format wars were decided in January ’08, the idea of upgrading from my very trusty but decidedly outdated 1999 Panasonic A-120 DVD player was very palatable. I could now get not only a respectable gaming console with cutting edge technology but also a solid and virtually future proof Blu-Ray disc player. hey, what’s not to love?

But if you are happy with what you have, enjoy and wait and see what else will be coming down the pipeline. Then again I tend to change my TV and entertainment systems every 8-10 years.

By: C4

C4 — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:50:44 +0000

I remember when the first Sony Walkman compact cassette players first came out in the 1979-80 time period. That was the iPod of the post-disco era. They were bricks, with big earphones but you were a trendy guy or gal if you had one and strapped it to your waist. I think those things were like $100-$150 at the time (A lot of greenbacks back then).

Sony had the Walkman market mostly to themselves for the better part of the 1980s and early 1990′s. But they fell asleep at the wheel and Apple completely took away that market from under their feet. I honestly don’t think they’ll ever get it back.

By: Nathaniel Salzman

Nathaniel Salzman — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:47:25 +0000

I have NEVER owned a gaming console. To this day. Although I have had a computer since I was three years old. Now I want all three of them but can’t bring myself to buy one. I’ve thought about the BlueRay thing, but I’ve got an up-rez DVD player, so DVDs look great on my HD TV. Maybe someday. I also avoid them just because I know what a monumental time suck it would turn into. TV is bad enough. I’ve got to sleep at some point.

By: C4

C4 — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:41:03 +0000

You may have wondered what gaming console I had before the Playstation3? Well, my last game console purchase was a then brand new Sega Genesis 16-bit console that came bundled with a ROM “Sonic the Hedgehog” cartridge. It was a pretty cool and respectable game console for its time (Circa 1993). Before that, I had an Atari 2600 (I owned 2 of them, the first one was given to me as a gift in 1981).

So here I am at 37 years old, I have owned probably 3 of the most notable game consoles in history…. An 8-bit Atari 2600, a 16-Bit Sega genesis and the state of the art Sony Playstation 3 with the Cell processor.

What a ride its been!

By: Nathaniel Salzman

Nathaniel Salzman — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:39:15 +0000

PS: Oh the Irony! Sony, the company that invented the Walkman, lost their market to Apple in 2001 with the release of the iPod. Now they have had to join the enemy!

Ha ha! That is pretty ironic. I’ve got an old Sony Walkman tape player laying around somewhere. Man I had a love affair with that thing when I was a kid.

One thing about the size, it’s really not big at all. It looks kind of sprawling in the photo, but it’s really pretty compact in person.

By: C4

C4 — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:35:23 +0000

I always liked Sony products and as a former CRT TRINITRON color TV owner of 20 years I have come to appreciate the quality of their stuff. I think Sony is coming out of a “dry” product period that started sometime in the 1990′s until a year or two ago. I think their most successful unit has been the gaming console business. Just two weeks ago I purchased my first ever Sony Playstation 3, the new “Bundle pack” model with the 80GB hard drive and wireless “Shock 3″ controller. It is an impressive little machine. I didn’t buy it just for the gaming aspect of the console itself (Which is sensational I might add while playing Gran Turismo 5 Spec II) but it also comes with a Blu-Ray Disc player (Spec 2.0 update), wireless network support, Bluetooth remote control, etc. For $399 I have gotten myself a fully integrated entertainment system like no other. Blu-Ray playback is excellent, and according to CNet, the Playstation 3 is hands down the best Blu-Ray disc player in the market today and future proof due to its wireless capabilities (It can receive updates on the fly).

Going back to your review, I like this iPod dock night stand solution. Looks a little big for my tastes. For $99 you can’t really ask for much, really. I have the now defunct Apple iPod HI-FI speaker cube/dock and doesn’t have a radio or a better remote control integration. The HI-FI has one thing going for it: Great sound…Fills the room like no other iPod speaker dock based solution out there. But Apple did not conceived the product well and they priced it way too high. I paid for mine $350 in late 2006. What killed it, aside the price, was the lack of bundled wireless networking support. A lot of people agreed that if the HI-FI would have come with wireless support, it would have been a hit and the $350 admission price would have been better justified. Too bad Jobs gave up on it fairly soon and allowed it to die a quiet death. I often wonder about the potential of Apple’s own iPod dock solution had they spent the time and money fixing some of its shortcomings.

Enjoyed your review and will definitely check out this Sony iPod solution.

PS: Oh the Irony! Sony, the company that invented the Walkman, lost their market to Apple in 2001 with the release of the iPod. Now they have had to join the enemy!