I GET A LOT OF VALUE from unconstrained mobile storage of personal media and Sony's new Walkman Z1000 looks like it will allow me to carry all the HD video clips that we produce in the creative multimedia curriculum at LIT-Clonmel.
The weakest link in the latest generation of mobile phones is a lack of removable storage. That's what I face with both iOS and Nokia Lumia. Consequently, I cannot sync the collections of HQ audio and video I receive every week from dozens of students as they prepare scratch work for final assessment. I have to step gingerly through collections as they arrive, then manually direct specific clips onto my mobile devices. This is a time sink because of the limited storage space on my personal media players. Sony's Z1000 comes with a 64 GB offering along with 512 MB of RAM, certainly big enough for my personal DVD and academic work for the next two years. The only problem is a cost point around EUR 380.
But there's a lot for that money. The Walkman Z1000 has a nVIDIA Tegra 2 dual core processor, runs Android 2.3 with full Android Market access, and it has an anti-reflective 4.3-inch capacitive touch-screen LCD display.
I don't need cellular connectivity on my personal media player. I do need HDMI output and that's the way the Z1000 is set up to communicate with our big screens.
I've headphones that appreciate the built-in S-Master digital amplifier MX along with other audio technologies that enhance my tracks.
I've developed groping habits with my gear so I'm a big fan of the compact xLoud W.button that controls Sony's music player application with a single button to start playback. I like having complete music library navigation control that I can use without looking down at the handset.
The Sony Walkman Z1000 is basically a non-cellular Android 2.3 handset with Bluetooth, WiFi and DLNA for streaming media wirelessly. I plan to put Skyfire onto the handset to browse Flash sites and to use Exchange Mail services on the Z1000 to sync my calendar just like I do on my iPod Touch, Xperia Arc and Nokia Lumia. Unlike iOS and Windows Phone, the Z1000 permits direct drag-and-drop file management. This means I can actually render files directly to the phone from Sony Soundforge and Sony Vegas. I can save a lot of time in the process.
More about Sony Walkman Z1000 in discussion and comments.
