I like that the English transliteration from the Japanese pronunciation can be 'data eater' which I suppose makes sense. You can scan and import lots of documents, in essence, eating them.
MiniDisc was such a lost potential, when we think about how quickly MD Data and audio could have been one thing, but very likely due to piracy paranoia didn't, and only way too late Net-MD arrived, it's kinda sad. It could have replaced floppy and killed out Zip Drives if they didn't get so paranoid about the inevitable, and already occurring. Not to mention been the king of MP3 music (heck maybe ATRAC would be our lossy audio format of choice now) when the - again - inevitable Internet music revolution began. Imagine how popular it could have been if we could rip our CDs to MD on a normal household PC (not counting that special Sony Vaio one with MD drive, FM radio and even an amp built-in).
This is a pretty cool gadget and definitely representative of the time it was released. However, that little Vaio.....I'd love to see it get it's own video (unless it already did)!
"I needed a missing part so I ordered another complete unit." Story of retro-collecting. Sometimes a complete unit is actually easier and cheaper than hunting down a specific individual part.
It’s also possible that Wacom had to use different frequencies in different markets and a modern stylus from Japan would work on the old tablet. Just a guess though.
Had this device been available in Canada, one of the faculty at the University I attended would definitely have bought it when it launched. She had several different styles of e-readers and similar devices; they were related to her research.
@@babyboomertwerkteam5662 look i don't know how well things did I'm just saying I thought my Sony phone with built in PlayStation controller and emulator was neat and i miss it. I wish They'd be willing to take chances more often
They were pretty much on the top of their game starting in the 80's up past the 90's. They could afford to try things like this and see if they stuck. I really miss the Sony that came out with tech that seemed impossible for the time.
Yeah, I don't miss the era where Sony made one proprietary and overpriced thing after another. I had a lot of Sony products back then, including a programmable 300x audio CD changer and a MiniDisc recorder, and I'm glad I don't have to put up with these products anymore.
Damn Sony really really loves that SM-26L connector. I first found it on a psp dev kit, then Shelby from Tech Tangents found it on a sony dvd vcr of some kind iirc. And now you found it on a Document Reader. It's not necessarily a sony connector, 3M also made it back in the day, but a few other Chinese manufacturers make it now as cheap replacements / if you wanted to make your own cable if you can find the pin out for this device.
I've seen that stylus before. Same colors. It was used with a wacom tablet attached to an SGI Indy and Octane 2. We had a pile of them when I worked for a University in ~2000.
Sony, like Apple, seems to have a very interesting attic. It contains very interesting tech that met a need at the time, but was bypassed by advancements in other areas. Thanks for bringing this oddity to light, I still think Sony should bring back the mini disc, but I don’t get a vote…….
From my experience with standalone Wacom tablets, it seems that the styli have unique device IDs that they report to the tablet, and generally only one kind of stylus works with a particular kind of tablet. Wouldn't want consumers to have the freedom to mix and match, after all!
Yeah, I’ve been able to use an early Bamboo stylus with later Bamboos, including my one’s eraser which their one never came with. But it didn’t work on an Intuos from a similar era as my Bamboo was from.
That is a chonker. Got to hand it to devices in the 90s. Pushed the boundaries of what was possible even if it meant that it was bulky. At least now we have foldable phones but it seems a lot of tech companies play it too safe.
That's an amazing bit more than a 'minimum viable product'. Also Wacom intercompatibility is so low I assume it's intentional. Even in the same era I don't think Graphire and Intuos pens were cross compatible.
Wrt paper-based business processes turning digital, you might be surprised by the fact that in Japan, the fax machine is still very much in use. This device was only sold in Japan, which makes all the more sense then.
I'm curious: the auction price for these units was not expensive at all, as a matter of fact, quite cheap, but what about shipping, custom fees, and whatnot? Those are usually deal killers for buyers outside Japan.
Wacom's pens/sensors have used a number of incompatible protocols over the years, so it isn't surprising that your pen (oh look! Graphire4! my first tablet!) didn't work. Looks like that Sony may be using Wacom's "UD" tech , which would be similar to many older tablet PCs. I believe the S-Pen is based on UD, so it could be an interesting mash-up!
The stylus is the earlier version of the Wacom tablet pen. The early version has 256 steps in it's brush sensitivity, the version from your Wacom tablet has 1024.
MD Data is intriguing, exactly the same as Minidisc technology. But included enough deliberate format differences to make them incompatible with each other. For music copyright reasons no doubt. Great video, thanks.
Definitely Sony's own paranoia as a record label killed their product. If they were just one and the same, and you could rip CDs to your PC's MD drive and take the small device with you, then a few years later chuck some downloaded music to the MD like a floppy (before the way too late Net-MD), it might have been extremely popular.
went to japan in 2000 and bought Sony's Glasstron , the first portable viewing glasses with headphones. around 600 USD at the time. I connected them to a mini Playstation and played my games on the go in my Ship. still to this day, the best audio quality ive ever heard portable was on a sony MD player with a pair of Bose Headphones taking advantage of Sony's personal digital sound enhancements. Sony Was ahead of its Time. what happenned ?
Amazing. Japan has so much clever and Innovative old tech just waiting to be discovered. But what's even MORE amazing is how PRACTICAL it is. You can advance technology, but you can advance Good Sense.
Can it be converted to "English"? Users of the "Sharp Zaurus" (which were only sold in Japan) PDAs had different "ROMs" that modified or replaced the onboard OS and converted them to English.
"while many are familiar with sony`s vaio computers. the company also make computer-like product line you`ve probably never heard of" - come on. It's such a common thing that even I have one.
Get a Samsun S-Pen or a TabletPC stylus. I'm willing to bet that it would work. The stylus that you have should work on a Galaxy Note, or a TabletPC. Next you visit a computer store take it with you and test it out.
Did you try a Samsung S-pen stylus? The Wacom branded drawing tablets don't generally have compatibility with other Wacom stuff but a lot of the tablet/phones from other manufacturers work. For example an S-pen will work on the ThinkPad X200t, the original Surface Pro, my Oynx Boox eReader, and obviously Galaxy Notes and some Samsung tablets.
That is an insane amount of features for a totally custom piece of kit. Golden age of Sony, when they were actually ambitious and willing to take risks.
Like Palm Pilot on steroids. Always showing off what was possible from hard and software side on this platform. Oh how much I wanted a Clie back in the days. Good ol‘ Sony…
I remember one of my teachers had a similar device. They used it to scan and correct our copies then print them out later on. I have no idea what it actually was tho. I'm in Canada and it was back in the mid 2000's
I think I would have dreamed relentlessly of owning one of these if I'd known it existed back when I was like 13 or so. It's funny to think about now, but there was this highlighter pen I saw on Computer Chronicles that could scan text line-by-line and then view as a text file on your computer and I wanted it sooo bad. If I'd been aware of this device, my young weirdo brain would have been floored.
"On the left side is a sheet-fed, B&W scanner." "but if you had a number of pages to go though, the scanner is detachable" Me: "that's great and all but what about-" "the scanner can open-up and roll across printed material." Me: _"I'LL TAKE YOUR ENTIRE STOCK!"_
Is the created file a PDF file? Adobe launched their Acrobat PDF around the same era, so the model name PDF could not just be coincidence...I'm just guessing.
That stylus reminds me to the pen used in the Panasonic Toughbooks CF, I have one and uses the exact same stylus. I feel bad for being late to this....
The SH series was common on 1990s devices, especially Japanese ones. It was sega's preferred CPU, appearing on the 32X, Dreamcast, and Saturn, as well as lots of Windows CE PDAs.
That stylus looks exactly like the same kind used on the IBM Thinkpad 710T, 730T, 360P, and 750P units. I wonder what kind they are because I would love to get another stylus for my 730T.
I am going to cash out my retirement, and mortgage my home so I can buy the rights for this marvelous machine, and re-introduce it to todays business workers. so will make a bundle so I can enjoy my 80’s without worry of being evicted from my home again
The stylus looks similar to one I had for a Panasonic Toughbook, which used Wacom EMR/Penabled, which, yet again, is different to what their tablets use(d).
I don't know why but seeing this screen interface and the scanning functionality gives me a rather odd but familiar smell of hot inked paper, even though this thing is not a printer.
That stylus looks like a slightly different model wacom stylus that I got with a serial unit. Maybe yours was to new? That said the Samsung galaxy note pens the first generation are cross compatible with Wacom and Acer travel mates.
