Here's an Apple, Sony Boy

Last night, shortly after work, I took the trek into Virginia to Tyson's Corner Mall. This mall is so large that it's in two parts, one across the street from another. Although I was at the main mall over the weekend, I hadn't been to that mall in quite a while before that. Montgomery Mall, while not as nice, is so much closer to where I work, that I don't consider heading down to Virginia much.

I used to go there all the time when I rarely drove on the Beltway (I drove so little in high school and college, that I never got a sense of where anything was while driving. This driver's internal navigation is something most people seem to develop as a matter of course of driving. I'd get lost very easily, not have a sense of where I was going, and that bothered me a lot.) Tyson's was 495, exit 46 (I wouldn't remember the exit, but it would say Tyson's on it), get in the left lane quickly, and head into the parking garage across from Bloomingdale's.

I used to park there all the time. Amazing.

Yesterday, I wanted to get closer to Hecht's because I wanted to try out this Indian restaurant called InFusion, which would make you think it's a fusion restaurant. I suppose, in a peculiar way, it is. They serve some Chinese food. But it's only like two items. They're an Indian restaurant in pretty much every other respect. A bit of false advertising, but the food is good.

My main reason for going to Tyson's was to head to Sony Style. This is, I'm sure, Sony's answer to the Apple Store. But man, where is it located? Deep in the depths of Tyson's bowels. From Hecht's, it's about as far away as you can get (although it's even further from Bloomingdale's).

In fact, I didn't even recognize that part of the mall. It must have been a new addition since the last time I checked that part of the mall out. I had to walk and walk.

Anyway, once I found it, it was mostly what you'd expect. Sony stores ought to do well, because they carry a much greater product line than Apple. They not only have computer and MP3 players, but they also have cameras, televisions, walkmans. All sorts of stuff. And yet, the place was fairly empty. To be fair, it was almost 9 PM on a Monday night, and it's buried deep.

But I think there's several reasons why Apple stores do so well. First, the Genius Bar. Something's always breaking, so you get a few people in there, no matter what. Second, their product line is so small, that any new product gets fanfare. Basically, they have their high end laptop, low end laptop, Ipods, and desktops. For such a small product line, people know what they are, and follow it religiously.

Sony, on the other hand, has a great deal of products. They carry a dozen different digital cameras, if not more. It gives people choices, but no one remembers one from the other.

Ah, that was the main reason I wanted to go. I wanted to get a close-up look at the DSC-W50, the 6 MP compact camera made by Sony. In the past, I haven't liked Sony for two reasons. First, they use their own memory stick. No one else uses this but Sony. It's the Betamax (invented by Sony) and VHS all over again.

Second, they were known to not be very good about repairs (basically, you have to buy a new one).

Two things. First, I don't think I care anymore about the memory. The price is in the same vicinity as other memory cards. Second, digital cameras are cheap enough that you just get something new if the old breaks. It's like VCRS once they got cheap. It's so expensive to repair, that you just don't bother. You get a new one.

So that's how I thought about it.

The reason I wanted to check it out is because Canon cameras have a feature I just can't stand. When you turn off the power and turn it on again, it goes into auto-flash mode. I almost always want to take pictures without flash. But Canon thinks users are stupid, and that they'll forget which settings they left it on. Well, they should have the option to let power users like me turn that default off.

Second, Canon cameras have this annoying orange light which it uses to determine how far subjects are away. It shines it on the subject, and the cameras can more accurately detect distance. But it is annoying for the subjects, and makes it plenty obvious you're taking a picture.

I thought about the Casio, but they recharge using a dock, which makes it a pain. Sure you don't lose your battery (easily), but then you have a bulky dock to use to recharge. So I zapped the Casio.

I just wanted to make sure the Sony make could remember the flash setting and didn't have a dock. Turns out it's 6 MP, at $250, which is cheap for this kind of camera. Like PCs, cameras have gotten more powerful for the same price. The W50 also has a huge screen (2.5 inches, to my 2 inches). Older cameras have 1 inch screens and are tiny. Manufacturers realized customers wanted big, big, big screens.

But alas, they are sold out. I mean, really sold out. They aren't at the Sony store. They aren't at Newegg. They aren't at Zip Zoom Fly. I hope they get some soon, but this doesn't look good.

Oh yeah, it's June 6, 2006 (6-6-06). Nice.