Sony Clie NZ90 - RIP

Sony Clie NZ90 Review

Ah, my Sony Clie NZ90. (See the review for some nice pix.)

I think it's dying. It insists that batteries are unsuitable for use even though they worked fine the day before.

At one time I had a great Bluetooth ecosystem designed around my Clie. This was in 2003, and I could connect to the web anywhere via my cell phone and surf for just the cost of minutes. The cell phone companies plugged that hole eventually. I had the Wi-Fi adapter for faster surfing when that was available. I stored music playlists on it. It took nice 2 megapixel pictures until the camera CCD died one day. It had a big display - still big even by today's standards - and could show beautiful color pictures.

I always had trouble getting the Wi-Fi to work with 128-bit WEP. The 64/40-bit WEP would always work. One day, a year ago, it started working. Then two weeks later it stopped. What a mystery that was.

It could access Memory Stick Pro devices - so I had 2 gigabytes of memory in it at one point. That was impressive for a PDA from 2003. Now I just keep a little 128 megabyte stick in it with a few tunes.

It did a lot of what an iPhone does, but four years before the iPhone came out.

I'm getting an iPod-Nano (3G) for Christmas. It can do most of what the Clie could do, except surf and take pictures. But I have nicer cameras and a laptop with pretty good battery life for surfing. I might want a PDA again someday. I'm not sure. Generally I think the time of the PDA has come and gone.

Sony Clie - RIP.

© 2007 Stephen Clarke-Willson - All Rights Reserved.