SonicStage 5.1

New version of SonicStage 5.1 (Japanese only as far as I know, but then again you shouldn't be sad because non-Japanese Walkmen aren't locked to SS) was released by Sony Japan a couple of weeks ago, and I definitely had to follow my own instructions to get rid of the stupid promotions frame again. At least the same procedure worked, but let's see how many versions it will take until I get sick of fixing it...

It's getting cold...

Need a break... from school work... ie Random doodling:

life? by ~tamumu61 on deviantART

Personally a fan of VAIO wallpapers at the moment.  Scroll down to 'Artist,' not the PC history crap.

SonicStage V

I'm sure not many people were as excited as I was when Sony announced the release of SonicStage V, a rather crash-prone and cumbersome application that manages your music.  Well, a Walkman user like myself, and especially those with the Japanese models, is pretty much stuck with SonicStage for now.  Even worse, the A820 series apparently has some incompability issues with SonicStage CP that made me reflash the memory a couple of times...

The upgraded player isn't too exciting except maybe that you can find whatever song you're currently listening to in the library with one click (yes, it used to be really lame), for rating purposes in my case.  Maybe I like the colors more... or something.

My biggest complaint was the "info" tab with a flash ad, which is not only annoying to look at but wastes resources.  Luckily, I found a way to get rid of it thanks to these blogs: http://blog.livedoor.jp/orcinus_/archives/51757103.html and http://taiseiko.blog.so-net.ne.jp/2008-10-13 (both Japanese), but it does also get rid of some other new features like album art and artist visualizers.  That's okay though.

Here are the English instructions to do so (I take no responsibility if anything goes wrong):

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Getting rid of the box:

1. Close SonicStage V

2. Go to C:¥Documents and Settings¥All Users¥Application Data¥Sony Corporation¥SonicStage V¥Data¥XML¥Blue (Windows XP) or C:\ProgramData\Sony Corporation\SonicStage V\Data\XML\Blue (Windows Vista)

3. Open FullMode.xml in editor of choice (optional: back it up).

4. Under ＜！-- PortWindow --＞, on line 354, change160 to 0.

5. Under ＜！-- ContentsArea --＞, on line 363, change 160 to 0.

Getting rid of process:

1. Close SonicStage V and go to regedit

2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sony Corporation\SonicStage V

3. Export key Promotion to backup, then delete it.  

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Voilà.

PSP Firmware 4.0 out

This latest upgrade adds a google search function right from the home menus, video playback at different speeds, and closed caption for oneseg TV if you have that. Not ridiculously exciting for me but worth checking it out.

PSP-2000 Revealed

After about a week of stalking the SonyStyle.jp (I was bound because I had a discount from buying a VAIO) website, I finally got to order the new and slim PSP, PSP-2000. I hadn't been this excited to get some gadget in a while. Sorry for the terrible picture quality:













Although there were 6 different colors, 3 almost entirely exclusive to Japan, I couldn't resist getting the black one, or piano black as they call it. Interestingly, as I chilled for a while on the product page, the black sold out in about 3 hours (apparently this happens every week) then went white, then silver within a day or so. I guess people are more interested in the sleek, monotone style. As of now there are two other colors out in Japan, red and mint green. I thought to take some pictures from December 2007.












First impressions first. I've never touched a first generation PSP, but I felt no bulkiness or heaviness - something about it being ~2/3 the thickness and ~4/5 the weight. The screen is massive and amazing. More about my experiences, including comparisons with other devices, thoughts on games, etc. will come up among other things in this blog~