My SONY!!!! anyone know how they work?

[aim54x]

Sony strikes again. I am the not so happy owner of a Sony Ericsson W980 mobile phone. It is a great phone but the supplied software really sucks. The PC Suite appears to work fine, letting me back up and restore my contact list from the phone (does not let me import/export to another format), but tells me there is new firmware for my phone.

BUT the Sony Ericsson Software Updater (program to update the phones firmware) does not work, despite following the instructions very carefully it fails to get beyond the connection stage. Furthermore there seems to be mo user manual for this software and online support is non-existant.

Lets try to get some music onto this 'Walkman' phone, drag and drop/bluetooth works well, but inorder to maximise the features of the phone you should use the Sony Ericsson Media Manager program. This is meant to work on either USB mass storage mode (which it does, albeit very slowly) and in Media Transfer mode (which my computer fails to recognise but is meant to allow me to backup the media on the phone).

The hardware works well, the software is a let down. I guess that video really does speak the truth.

[NeoTiger]

Yeah I have the SE W960i, and while I love the phone, the PC software does indeed suck a lot.

I have managed to get mp3's onto the phone using the Media Transfer mode however... I'm running the software on Windows XP and it does work, although very slowly. Are you on XP or Vista?

[aim54x]

Microshit Windoze XP SP3. In the end I got the phone to update its firmware, and got mp3s on using drag and drop. Media manager did work, but decided to recode everything and that was going to take a VERY long time.

Hardware is good, software really sucks

[wider]

i had similar 'joys' with a 20gb mp3 player i owned a couple of years ago. it would convert all my mp3s to ATRAC3 (sony's proprietary format) when dumping the music into the player. you can imagine how long this would take if you were doing a full 20gb. the mp3 player can play mp3's but no, you werent allowed to do that until many months later when they revised the software.

instead of downloading the 110mb installer for the software i reverted to the light version which was about 5mb and was simple drag and drop.

it seems they enjoy making things inexplicably complex for no reason? no wonder apple is so popular...

[aim54x]

I have to agree that is it one of the reasons that Apple are so popular. BUT I am not a huge fan after my 20gb G4 Ipod (colour/photo), and itunes is still another program that you ahve to use - drag and drop is still my favourite. Maybe I should go down the road of an iPhone, but then again I dont need the smartphone features nor does it have the long battery life that i need (I talk on my phone heaps).

Yes drag and drop kicks arse, shame the mp3 player/phone cant do its 'senseme' function onboard. It is a pretty cool function though, from my experience wiht the preloaded music.

[Grev]

PHONES!! Excuse me but being a member of generation Y, I've never had a phone that has bluetooth or infrared, I'm pretty clueless, haha. Always just had the basic phones without much else, never thought they were a neccessity like the other kids. My latest phone has a built-in camera, WOW.

Once phones like that starts to become more and more like a computer, the more I want a phone that I can only receive calls and make calls and no other stuff.

[aim54x]

PHONES!! Excuse me but being a member of generation Y, I've never had a phone that has bluetooth or infrared, I'm pretty clueless, haha. Always just had the basic phones without much else, never thought they were a neccessity like the other kids. My latest phone has a built-in camera, WOW.

Once phones like that starts to become more and more like a computer, the more I want a phone that I can only receive calls and make calls and no other stuff.

Dont worry, the mp3-player in the phone was an added bonus, I was shopping for battery life