Sony CLIE PEG-T415 PDA

The variety of PDAs that are now on the market can make picking one as personal a decision as choosing a new pair of shoes. Capabilities are certainly important, but as with larger electronic purchases, the deciding factor is likely to have more to do with what you can afford than what you really want. At around $300, Sony's new CLIE PEG-T415 handheld, falls right about in the mid-range of it's line of PDAs. It runs Palm OS version 4.1, and is powered by a Motorola Dragonball VZ 33MHz processor and 8MB (7MB available) (DRAM)/4MB (Flash) memory. The PEG-T415 also includes an infrared port and Memory Stick media slot, a 320 x 320 pixel backlit EL display (monochrome), and a Lithium-ion polymer rechargeable battery (internal). It measures 4.65 (L) x 2.83 (W) x 0.39 (H) inches, weighs 4.3 oz and comes bundled with Documents To Go 4.0 Standard Edition by DataViz. One interesting feature of the PEG-T415 is that it can be used as a universal remote control for most DVD players, TVs, VCRs, and AV receivers, though it's questionable whether you'll want to use a $300 remote instead of a $20 one. The new CLIE also has a built-in speaker and a feature that lets you use preset system sounds or create their own with MIDI and WAV files converted on your PC with the bundled Sound Converter (v. 1.0) application.

Sony also told us about an optional Memory Stick camera module (PEGA-MSC1) that lets you shoot and view digital photos directly from the CLIE T415 (as well as the N760C and N610C CLIE). The PEGA-MSC1 camera module will be priced at around $150. The module fits into the devices' Memory Stick slot and pictures taken with it are saved to the handheld's onboard memory, where they can be viewed with the PictureGear application. The CLIE T415 is also compatible with Sony's PEGA-SA10 Audio Adapter, which plugs into the serial port located at the base of the gadget. The module reads MP3 audio files stored on Memory Stick media and supports stereo sound on gMovie application video clips. It's priced at $130. All told, if you want a monochrome PDA/Camera/MP3 player, the CLIE T415 with these optional modules will set you back around $600.