Beauty only skin-deep

[tamaranth]

And so farewell, dear little purple Sony NWA1000 Walkman. You are so lovely to look at, and your sound quality is excellent: but your Connect software is appalling, slow and buggy and defective; and your website not only doesn't run under Mozilla Firefox, it doesn't seem to run on a machine where Firefox exists.

I (in common with hundreds of other dissatisfied customers) have had a spirited exchange with Sony, who shamelessly admit that they have shipped a product with defective software, and advise me to download Sonic Stage instead. Sonic Stage apparently had its own problems -- and certainly doesn't have the full (dys)functionality of Connect. I pointed out to them that part of my problem involved their insistence on using Internet Explorer. They replied:

Unfortunately, it is necessary to use Internet Explorer as the NWA1000 is an internet compatible device. We have no alternative suggestion for you with regards to this particular enquiry.
With regards to you not being able to load the Connect site, this is a problem that some customers are experiencing. The problem with this is that the reasons are individual to your PC. I understand that you have attempted to contact Connect directly for support but have not received a reply. Regrettably, I can only advise that you try this again as we cannot provide the support you require on their behalf.

I've emailed Sony again to enquire about their use of the third person. As far as I am aware, the Connect site is part of Sony -- it's certainly the site from which Sonic Stage can be downloaded.

And I also emailed them to point out that 'necessary to use IE as the NWA1000 is an Internet compatible device' is arrant nonsense.

It's a shame. I love the player and feel quite sad to see it go. But Amazon have been very understanding -- I suspect I'm not the first person enquiring about returning this item, which isn't in itself faulty! -- and are giving me a full refund.

Moral of this tale: buy in haste, repent at leisure. If only I'd done my homework ...

Can't imagine any of you will be in the same boat, but here's a message board describing many of the problems, and some solutions. There are comments and contact details from a reporter who's writing a piece for one of the major UK newspapers; and there are links to consumer organisations (Watchdog etc) and the press.

Comments

[aca.livejournal.com]

That is a shame, it is teh pretty.

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

looks great, sounds great: software, however, sucks big time (and Sony's attitude contributed massively to my decision to return it: tbh I could have lived with the problems, though obviously it wouldn't be ideal and certainly not what I'd expect from a brand-new product!)

[autopope.livejournal.com]

Archos are (or used to be) a whole lot more open about their gear -- their current PVRs run on top of an embedded Linux kernel IIRC, and even though it's plug-ugly and ancient, my old Archos Jukebox Recorder 20 is user-friendly in a way that Sony kit never is. (It just shows up as an external USB 2.0 hard drive, and you drag and drop MP3s onto it -- it derives track info from either the directory hierarchy or the ID3 tags, and you can whomp up your own M3U playlists any way you like.)

Apple would like you to give them your soul. Sony insist they own it and threaten to sue if you say different.

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

By coincidence, I am looking hard at the 3GB Archos player -- especially like the drag'n'drop USB connectivity. So you'd recommend, yes? (have decided against Nano, having heard horror stories of cracked screens etc).

[gummitch.livejournal.com]

I don't know what price range you're looking at, but iRiver might be worth considering. The H10 is rechargeable a HDD player, but you can get spare replaceable batteries. And it has a built-in radio. And it records.

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

Paid (and am being refunded) ~£145 for Sony, so comparable to that. iRiver look pretty, but what is the software like?

Still not convinced of the need for a colour display on an MP3 player!

[gummitch.livejournal.com]

I thought the radio and the replaceable batteries might appeal (which, I notice, Amazon sell as an accessory. Not sure about the software, allegedly you just need an up-to-date WMPv10 (and Windows XP). The colour display is so you can view the photos you can store on the thing.

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

20gb Creative Zen Touch for £150 on amazon.

But then, look where my last "ooh, look at this pretty product I've found" got you.

[autopope.livejournal.com]

I haven't played with any Archos kit in the past three years.

I have a nano: no cracked screen, but I would advise strongly to buy an aluminium case via eBay and put the nano in it as soon as you unwrap the bugger. And yes, it'll tie you to itunes. (This is no hardship for a Mac bunny like me, but YMMV.)

Archos stuff

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

... I've got the old Jukebox Recorder 20 v2, which I'm using right now (it was cheap from Amazon about 18 months ago, with a good size rebate)

I recently "upgraded" the software on the player to the RockBox software (community written replacement for the internal Archos software) which does some nice things (like moving the volume up/down from a submenu onto the up/down buttons on the front of the device! MP3 IDv3 display etc.) and adds things like a few games and the ability to have grainy b+w images displayed.

At some point I'll upgrade my MP3 player to something that can display photographs and play video, but there's no rush on that as the Archos works fine.

And as you say, plug it into the USB port and it just appears as another 20Gb drive on your machine so you can drag&drop files (music or anything else) to from it.

[reddragdiva]

Your contract is with whoever you bought it from - it's their problem to refund your money. Then they have to take it up with Sony. http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

Amazon have given me a refund straight off, without any questions, and asked me to send the thing back. (I don't think I'm the first to return an NWA1000!) But it's not Amazon who are at fault -- it's Sony, for selling (and continuing to sell) a faulty product.

[reddragdiva]

Oh yes. But anyone buying anything from Sony these days is being foolish - their shit don't work no more, when it's not actively trying to sabotage your PC.

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

Bought in a hurry, without doing my research. Have repented at leisure. Won't be buying Sony ever again, given current sentiments!

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

though I should add that the actual player is wonderful: the problem is (a) the software and (b) the customer relations attitude.

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

A survey by Which?, carried in one of the major newspapers last weekend, placed Sony top of the "big brand" list for multimedia kit. I've certainly always found their tv / video equipment well up to scratch.

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

hardware great -- one of the nicest MP3 players I've had -- but software? not their forte.

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

That sounds about right.

One of the saddest falls from grace in recent years is Goodmans, which used to be a name you could trust in the hi-fi field (my friend Geoff Hill designed cutting-edge speakers for them). Then it was bought by Alba, who - judging by the crap digital radio I ended up having to take back because of its lousy reception - simply stuck a Goodmans logo onto their own junk.

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

It seems OK as long as I don't want to use the internet for anything - as I don't download things, it's merely clunky rather than useless (and I'm in love with the hardware). The other annoying thing is that in order to register my product for software updates, I also have to accept their bloody spam about all other Sony products and services, which is fucking annoying.

This is the second heap of bollocks from Sony recently (after the copy protection debacle). They really should learn from these two examples.

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

Cheers for the links - my brother has just acquired one of those little cutenesses - and the bundled shiteware.

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

'necessary to use IE as the NWA1000 is an Internet compatible device'

Can't believe they actually said that. Microsoft strikes again.

[reverendjim.livejournal.com]

People seem to have been complaining about the Sony software for ages, though it's sounding like it's got worse. I bought myself an NW-HD3 (a 20 gig thing) last year and although the software wasn't great (Sonic Stage) it's bearable. Then again I don't use their store to download music and with 20GB you don't need to swap stuff around much. Like the new purple ones it's a lovely little machine. Shame the software lets them down.

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

Defeat snatched from the jaws of victory.