I’ve just upgraded to the Sony Ericsson W950i – I like SE phones, because they’re Mac-friendly (with iSync, at least) and the music sound quality’s excellent. So here’s a good example of what the iPhone’s up against – the process of transferring contacts and tunes from your Mac to a w950i.
- Connect phone to Mac via USB. Nothing happens.
- Connect via Bluetooth. The phone isn’t iSync-compatible.
- Manually select entries in Address Book and send via Bluetooth file exchange.
- Open resulting vCard in phone and save to contacts.
That was the easy bit. Now, transferring music to the phone.
- Set up a network between your PC and Mac. You do have a PC as well as a Mac, don’t you? And a network card and ethernet cable?
- Transfer your music to the PC manually via the Finder.
- Install SE software on Vista.
- Discover – at the very end of the installation – that the software isn’t compatible with Vista.
- Restart the PC and boot into XP. You do have a dual-boot PC, don’t you?
- Install the SE software again.
- Discover that a mysterious install error means the install can’t be completed.
- Download a new version from the SE support site. Better hope you have broadband, ’cause it’s 34MB.
- Install the new version of the SE software.
- Watch as a mysterious error stops the install from proceeding.
- Update ActiveSync and reboot the PC, remembering to choose XP instead of Vista.
- Install the SE software yet again.
- Drag and drop the files using the Sony Ericsson file manager.
As you can see, IT JUST WORKS!!!!!
*weeps salty tears of rage*
Comments
0 responses to “How can the iPhone possibly compete with this?”
Weirdly, I found that my 800i worked better with my eMac than my intel iMac. Although, that could have something to do with having been able to upgrade the firmware on my pre-lost one. It won’t do it on the replacement. SE’s solution? spend £30 getting it couriered to their service centre (allow 28 days for upgrading). Sorry, for your site/hardware not working properly?
I bought an imac and my W810 committed suicide.
That’s really disappointing. My SE T610 was much more Mac-friendly than my Razr, and because of the Salling Clicker, pretty cool to boot.
Why is Sony seemingly on this downward spiral where things just get worse? I recently picked up an old 32″ widescreen Trinitron, and wow, it’s a fantastic TV alright. Not sure I would buy a new Sony, though…
> Why is Sony seemingly on this downward spiral where things just get worse?
I honestly don’t know. Is it that they’re committing slow corporate suicide, or is it just that in these days of blogs and user reviews we’re seeing how they’ve always been?
Actually my gut feeling is that it’s the former. For me at least Sony was *the* brand in the old-fashioned sense, ie a guarantee of quality. Sony monitors were more expensive than anyone else’s, but they kicked arse. Sony TVs, Sony radios, Sony CD players, Sony hi-fis… all ace. But now…
By all accounts Sony is stopping all monitor production this year.
When I was a kid, our family TV was a little old Trinitron from, I think, the 1970s — maybe even the late 60s. It didn’t even have buttons: you had to turn the dial to change channels. And it was still fucking ace: brilliant picture, superb colour, etc. Lasted well into the 90s.
Would anyone realistically expect that from a Sony now?
My Dad had a sony seperates system which he bought when remote controls were still wired. Over about 15 years bits gradually fell apart but it was the best sounding stereo I think I’ve ever heard. Gary and I both ended up with it when Dad bought a new Sony to replace it. The new one wasn’t a patch on it.
God yeah, that was the stereo of the gods.
I still love my Sony clock radio: it’s got two rotary dials on the front, one for setting hours, the other minutes. I have no idea why no other clock radio copied that simple idea, instead of this stupid “hold one button down while pressing another one a million times” model of setting the time. I’ve had it for at least twenty years.
this stupid “hold one button down while pressing another one a million times†model of setting the time.
That bright idea was a major step backwards civilisation-wise.
>>I’ve had it for at least twenty years.
Exactly. 20 years ago pretty much everything Sony made was amazing. Pretty much up until the Playstation.
All is not lost.
Transferring your music from your Mac to your W950i is as straight-forward as your first step: “Connect phone to Mac via USB”
Your phone will change to the USB transfer screen. Choose “fast file transfer”. Your phone will now appear in your Mac finder, just like a USB stick. Copy your pictures into the “Pictures” folder, your MP3s into the “Music” folder… you get the idea. I’m sure you could write (read, “download”) some kind of AppleScript that might sync an iTunes playlist with your phone…if I can’t find one myself I might write one… I’ll let you know ;-)
MP3 Podcasts look great on the W950i: complete with cover art, artist info etc…
I can’t for the life of me get the USB connection to work on the powerbook – it’s fine on the PC but the Mac just isn’t happy. Bah.
You’re right about the podcasts, but I’ve decided to downgrade and go back to my W810: there’s just too many things about the 950 that drive me daft. The predictive text, the low volume on headphones (and the rubbish equaliser), the desperately quiet ring volume (I’ve missed several calls when the phone was in my pocket), the way missed calls remain on screen even after you’ve viewed them… there’s more, but I’d rant all day :)
I don’t have trouble with sending MP3 file via USB (except for the annoying .DS_Store files it leaves everywhere) but as for converting video to the right format, size etc… well no luck as yet.
Any clues… anyone… please?!?!?
If I recall correctly it supports MP4 and AVI, but only at certain resolutions. If you’ve got QuickTime Pro it should be able to convert happily enough. That’s happily, not quickly :)