#Data Diskman
4 messages in this thread
Hello,
I saw an ad the other day for Sony's CD (not nessassarily CD-ROM)
products where they had all their products displayed and a little blurb
about each. (I don't own a CD-ROM drive, although I'm quite interested, so
I may be totally out of it.) Among the products displayed was one called a
Data Diskman. It was a portable CD-ROM drive with a keyboard and LCD
screen around the size of a thick paperback. Has anybody heard of this
product and if so could you tell me a bit more? Many thanks.
-Sean
– via Whap!
I lived in Japan for many years, and the Sony Data Discman has been
available there since about 1989. It is a self-contained unit with a small
screen and a keyboard. As far as I know, it is completely text-based,
although there are plans to introduce units with more graphic capabilities
in the future. Some of the CD titles available for the Discman in Japan
included a database of popular song lyrics, a movie guide, and language
dictionaries. The most useful to us foreigners in Japan was a kanji
dictionary, which made it easy to decipher Chinese characters on signs
without having to lug around a 20 lb. book.
I think an American version is now out in the States, but I don't know
about what kind of software they're offering.
–Andy
Thanks for the tip. I guess I'll do some more digging.
-Sean
– via Whap!
Sean,
The DataDisc man plays the small cd's. It is mostly a text based system
(although rudimentary b&w graphics are possible) with a built in search and
menu system. It is limited if you compare it to full CD rom systems, but it
is selling rather well. The US titles include mulit-lingual dictionaries,
resturant/tour guides, books, etc. My client, Xiphias, has produced it's
Time Table of History series for the Data Discman.
There is a tremendous interest in the DataDiscman for use with private
databases (a company price list, etc) for use by traveling business folks.
Sony is actively developing (read 'encouraging developement of') more
titles for the product. The product is marketed by a New Jersey branch of
Sony. There is also a sony cd publishing group in Montery CA that has done
a lot of DataDiscman titles.
Jerry Isdale