I like that the English transliteration from the Japanese pronunciation can be 'data eater' which I suppose makes sense. You can scan and import lots of documents, in essence, eating them.
This is a pretty cool gadget and definitely representative of the time it was released. However, that little Vaio.....I'd love to see it get it's own video (unless it already did)!
MiniDisc was such a lost potential, when we think about how quickly MD Data and audio could have been one thing, but very likely due to piracy paranoia didn't, and only way too late Net-MD arrived, it's kinda sad. It could have replaced floppy and killed out Zip Drives if they didn't get so paranoid about the inevitable, and already occurring. Not to mention been the king of MP3 music (heck maybe ATRAC would be our lossy audio format of choice now) when the - again - inevitable Internet music revolution began. Imagine how popular it could have been if we could rip our CDs to MD on a normal household PC (not counting that special Sony Vaio one with MD drive, FM radio and even an amp built-in).
It’s also possible that Wacom had to use different frequencies in different markets and a modern stylus from Japan would work on the old tablet. Just a guess though.
"I needed a missing part so I ordered another complete unit." Story of retro-collecting. Sometimes a complete unit is actually easier and cheaper than hunting down a specific individual part.
I've seen that stylus before. Same colors. It was used with a wacom tablet attached to an SGI Indy and Octane 2. We had a pile of them when I worked for a University in ~2000.
Had this device been available in Canada, one of the faculty at the University I attended would definitely have bought it when it launched. She had several different styles of e-readers and similar devices; they were related to her research.
Damn Sony really really loves that SM-26L connector. I first found it on a psp dev kit, then Shelby from Tech Tangents found it on a sony dvd vcr of some kind iirc. And now you found it on a Document Reader. It's not necessarily a sony connector, 3M also made it back in the day, but a few other Chinese manufacturers make it now as cheap replacements / if you wanted to make your own cable if you can find the pin out for this device.
@@babyboomertwerkteam5662 look i don't know how well things did I'm just saying I thought my Sony phone with built in PlayStation controller and emulator was neat and i miss it. I wish They'd be willing to take chances more often
They were pretty much on the top of their game starting in the 80's up past the 90's. They could afford to try things like this and see if they stuck. I really miss the Sony that came out with tech that seemed impossible for the time.
Yeah, I don't miss the era where Sony made one proprietary and overpriced thing after another. I had a lot of Sony products back then, including a programmable 300x audio CD changer and a MiniDisc recorder, and I'm glad I don't have to put up with these products anymore.
From my experience with standalone Wacom tablets, it seems that the styli have unique device IDs that they report to the tablet, and generally only one kind of stylus works with a particular kind of tablet. Wouldn't want consumers to have the freedom to mix and match, after all!
Yeah, I’ve been able to use an early Bamboo stylus with later Bamboos, including my one’s eraser which their one never came with. But it didn’t work on an Intuos from a similar era as my Bamboo was from.
That is a chonker. Got to hand it to devices in the 90s. Pushed the boundaries of what was possible even if it meant that it was bulky. At least now we have foldable phones but it seems a lot of tech companies play it too safe.
Sony, like Apple, seems to have a very interesting attic. It contains very interesting tech that met a need at the time, but was bypassed by advancements in other areas. Thanks for bringing this oddity to light, I still think Sony should bring back the mini disc, but I don’t get a vote…….
went to japan in 2000 and bought Sony's Glasstron , the first portable viewing glasses with headphones. around 600 USD at the time. I connected them to a mini Playstation and played my games on the go in my Ship. still to this day, the best audio quality ive ever heard portable was on a sony MD player with a pair of Bose Headphones taking advantage of Sony's personal digital sound enhancements. Sony Was ahead of its Time. what happenned ?
Wrt paper-based business processes turning digital, you might be surprised by the fact that in Japan, the fax machine is still very much in use. This device was only sold in Japan, which makes all the more sense then.
MD Data is intriguing, exactly the same as Minidisc technology. But included enough deliberate format differences to make them incompatible with each other. For music copyright reasons no doubt. Great video, thanks.
Definitely Sony's own paranoia as a record label killed their product. If they were just one and the same, and you could rip CDs to your PC's MD drive and take the small device with you, then a few years later chuck some downloaded music to the MD like a floppy (before the way too late Net-MD), it might have been extremely popular.
Wacom's pens/sensors have used a number of incompatible protocols over the years, so it isn't surprising that your pen (oh look! Graphire4! my first tablet!) didn't work. Looks like that Sony may be using Wacom's "UD" tech , which would be similar to many older tablet PCs. I believe the S-Pen is based on UD, so it could be an interesting mash-up!
The stylus is the earlier version of the Wacom tablet pen. The early version has 256 steps in it's brush sensitivity, the version from your Wacom tablet has 1024.
That's an amazing bit more than a 'minimum viable product'. Also Wacom intercompatibility is so low I assume it's intentional. Even in the same era I don't think Graphire and Intuos pens were cross compatible.
I'm curious: the auction price for these units was not expensive at all, as a matter of fact, quite cheap, but what about shipping, custom fees, and whatnot? Those are usually deal killers for buyers outside Japan.
Amazing. Japan has so much clever and Innovative old tech just waiting to be discovered. But what's even MORE amazing is how PRACTICAL it is. You can advance technology, but you can advance Good Sense.
Can it be converted to "English"? Users of the "Sharp Zaurus" (which were only sold in Japan) PDAs had different "ROMs" that modified or replaced the onboard OS and converted them to English.
"while many are familiar with sony`s vaio computers. the company also make computer-like product line you`ve probably never heard of" - come on. It's such a common thing that even I have one.
Get a Samsun S-Pen or a TabletPC stylus. I'm willing to bet that it would work. The stylus that you have should work on a Galaxy Note, or a TabletPC. Next you visit a computer store take it with you and test it out.
That is an insane amount of features for a totally custom piece of kit. Golden age of Sony, when they were actually ambitious and willing to take risks.
Like Palm Pilot on steroids. Always showing off what was possible from hard and software side on this platform. Oh how much I wanted a Clie back in the days. Good ol‘ Sony…
I remember one of my teachers had a similar device. They used it to scan and correct our copies then print them out later on. I have no idea what it actually was tho. I'm in Canada and it was back in the mid 2000's
Did you try a Samsung S-pen stylus? The Wacom branded drawing tablets don't generally have compatibility with other Wacom stuff but a lot of the tablet/phones from other manufacturers work. For example an S-pen will work on the ThinkPad X200t, the original Surface Pro, my Oynx Boox eReader, and obviously Galaxy Notes and some Samsung tablets.
I think I would have dreamed relentlessly of owning one of these if I'd known it existed back when I was like 13 or so. It's funny to think about now, but there was this highlighter pen I saw on Computer Chronicles that could scan text line-by-line and then view as a text file on your computer and I wanted it sooo bad. If I'd been aware of this device, my young weirdo brain would have been floored.
That stylus reminds me to the pen used in the Panasonic Toughbooks CF, I have one and uses the exact same stylus. I feel bad for being late to this....
That stylus looks exactly like the same kind used on the IBM Thinkpad 710T, 730T, 360P, and 750P units. I wonder what kind they are because I would love to get another stylus for my 730T.
The stylus looks similar to one I had for a Panasonic Toughbook, which used Wacom EMR/Penabled, which, yet again, is different to what their tablets use(d).
"On the left side is a sheet-fed, B&W scanner." "but if you had a number of pages to go though, the scanner is detachable" Me: "that's great and all but what about-" "the scanner can open-up and roll across printed material." Me: _"I'LL TAKE YOUR ENTIRE STOCK!"_
The SH series was common on 1990s devices, especially Japanese ones. It was sega's preferred CPU, appearing on the 32X, Dreamcast, and Saturn, as well as lots of Windows CE PDAs.
I don't know why but seeing this screen interface and the scanning functionality gives me a rather odd but familiar smell of hot inked paper, even though this thing is not a printer.
Even though it's extremely simple in reality, the scanner rolling itself over the page is so badass.
Just when you think you've seen weird piece of 90s Sony tech, you see a portable scanner that stores on mini-disc.
Incredible.
I like that the English transliteration from the Japanese pronunciation can be 'data eater' which I suppose makes sense. You can scan and import lots of documents, in essence, eating them.
Then again, we do say "feeding" something into a machine in English. It might be that idea.
A friend in High school, his mother was from Japan and had one of these. She had all kinds of cool tech from the late 90s
This is the sort of hardware Techmoan would be totally into - especially the dual MiniDiscs!
I bet he's kicking himself he didn't get it first
Man likes his NOS stuff, he might very well buy the 250 USD one
He's done something at least like this before
I thought this video was gonna be him until checking the channel name
My mind was blown when the scanner was introduced and then further when it was revealed that this thing has TWO MiniDisc drives. Damn.
This is a pretty cool gadget and definitely representative of the time it was released. However, that little Vaio.....I'd love to see it get it's own video (unless it already did)!
That VAIO hasn’t gotten its own video yet, but very well may some day. I need to track down restore media for it first.
Rest easy tonight, viewers, as your fears have been allayed: The serial numbers for the minidisc drives are sequential.
Every time I see examples of using MiniDisc as memory media other than music and Atrac, I geek out so much. It’s so cool.
Isn't ATrac just music too?
MiniDisc was such a lost potential, when we think about how quickly MD Data and audio could have been one thing, but very likely due to piracy paranoia didn't, and only way too late Net-MD arrived, it's kinda sad. It could have replaced floppy and killed out Zip Drives if they didn't get so paranoid about the inevitable, and already occurring. Not to mention been the king of MP3 music (heck maybe ATRAC would be our lossy audio format of choice now) when the - again - inevitable Internet music revolution began. Imagine how popular it could have been if we could rip our CDs to MD on a normal household PC (not counting that special Sony Vaio one with MD drive, FM radio and even an amp built-in).
It's those little squares of wood they shoved into panels from Star Trek, but actually real.
Every time I read about atrac I remember the pain in the ass it was to rip CDs into this format and write an atrac CD for my discman.
@@Kalvinjj many japan pcs had md drives
It’s also possible that Wacom had to use different frequencies in different markets and a modern stylus from Japan would work on the old tablet. Just a guess though.
"I needed a missing part so I ordered another complete unit." Story of retro-collecting. Sometimes a complete unit is actually easier and cheaper than hunting down a specific individual part.
I'm sure he sold the incomplete unit off to someone else... and so the story continues.
The peripherals that accompany my retro tech purchases are usually worth more to me than the main item.
When I used to mod GBAs I often bought a whole new one just for the motherboard
Ok the scanner function and cable manager is pretty awesome. 🤯
I had to stop the video at 3:19 after a few seconds to confirm the scanned documented is actually the next phrases. Great video, as always!
That scanner was really well made, I wouldn't mind have something like that even now.
I've seen that stylus before. Same colors. It was used with a wacom tablet attached to an SGI Indy and Octane 2. We had a pile of them when I worked for a University in ~2000.
Had this device been available in Canada, one of the faculty at the University I attended would definitely have bought it when it launched. She had several different styles of e-readers and similar devices; they were related to her research.
Damn Sony really really loves that SM-26L connector.
I first found it on a psp dev kit, then Shelby from Tech Tangents found it on a sony dvd vcr of some kind iirc. And now you found it on a Document Reader.
It's not necessarily a sony connector, 3M also made it back in the day, but a few other Chinese manufacturers make it now as cheap replacements / if you wanted to make your own cable if you can find the pin out for this device.
I love the era where Sony was making neat stuff.
I don't think Sony misses it considering 99% of these products were complete flops and cost Sony a lot of money.
@@babyboomertwerkteam5662 look i don't know how well things did I'm just saying I thought my Sony phone with built in PlayStation controller and emulator was neat and i miss it. I wish They'd be willing to take chances more often
They were pretty much on the top of their game starting in the 80's up past the 90's. They could afford to try things like this and see if they stuck. I really miss the Sony that came out with tech that seemed impossible for the time.
Yeah, I don't miss the era where Sony made one proprietary and overpriced thing after another. I had a lot of Sony products back then, including a programmable 300x audio CD changer and a MiniDisc recorder, and I'm glad I don't have to put up with these products anymore.
@@graealex you chose to buy them.
This was so good, Colin. Absolutely amazing piece of Sony tech.
From my experience with standalone Wacom tablets, it seems that the styli have unique device IDs that they report to the tablet, and generally only one kind of stylus works with a particular kind of tablet. Wouldn't want consumers to have the freedom to mix and match, after all!
Yeah, I’ve been able to use an early Bamboo stylus with later Bamboos, including my one’s eraser which their one never came with. But it didn’t work on an Intuos from a similar era as my Bamboo was from.
That is a chonker. Got to hand it to devices in the 90s. Pushed the boundaries of what was possible even if it meant that it was bulky. At least now we have foldable phones but it seems a lot of tech companies play it too safe.
Sony, like Apple, seems to have a very interesting attic. It contains very interesting tech that met a need at the time, but was bypassed by advancements in other areas. Thanks for bringing this oddity to light, I still think Sony should bring back the mini disc, but I don’t get a vote…….
Just came here to check on the sequentiality of the mini disc drives. Wasn’t disappointed.
went to japan in 2000 and bought Sony's Glasstron , the first portable viewing glasses with headphones. around 600 USD at the time. I connected them to a mini Playstation and played my games on the go in my Ship.
still to this day, the best audio quality ive ever heard portable was on a sony MD player with a pair of Bose Headphones taking advantage of Sony's personal digital sound enhancements.
Sony Was ahead of its Time. what happenned ?
Wrt paper-based business processes turning digital, you might be surprised by the fact that in Japan, the fax machine is still very much in use. This device was only sold in Japan, which makes all the more sense then.
MD Data is intriguing, exactly the same as Minidisc technology. But included enough deliberate format differences to make them incompatible with each other. For music copyright reasons no doubt. Great video, thanks.
Definitely Sony's own paranoia as a record label killed their product. If they were just one and the same, and you could rip CDs to your PC's MD drive and take the small device with you, then a few years later chuck some downloaded music to the MD like a floppy (before the way too late Net-MD), it might have been extremely popular.
I love Sony’s design of that era. Also, watching this on an iPad makes me realize that we are spoiled today 😁
That scanner addition is amazing, could do with a Bluetooth version now (a quick search says no)
I always thought it was pronounced "way-com". You learn something new every day.
Wacom is a Japanese company, so it’s only fitting that’s how it’s pronounced. :3
Wacom's pens/sensors have used a number of incompatible protocols over the years, so it isn't surprising that your pen (oh look! Graphire4! my first tablet!) didn't work. Looks like that Sony may be using Wacom's "UD" tech , which would be similar to many older tablet PCs. I believe the S-Pen is based on UD, so it could be an interesting mash-up!
The stylus is the earlier version of the Wacom tablet pen. The early version has 256 steps in it's brush sensitivity, the version from your Wacom tablet has 1024.
That's an amazing bit more than a 'minimum viable product'.
Also Wacom intercompatibility is so low I assume it's intentional. Even in the same era I don't think Graphire and Intuos pens were cross compatible.
The significance of this device would be lost on some, but it's interesting to see the evolution of the technology. Nice video.
I love that it has the capability to use not one, but two MiniDiscs for its storage option.
I don't miss those type of screens.
Another excellent video. Thank you
I'm curious: the auction price for these units was not expensive at all, as a matter of fact, quite cheap, but what about shipping, custom fees, and whatnot? Those are usually deal killers for buyers outside Japan.
This is a prime video. Love weird tech like this.
I want one!
I saw one of these on an LGR video so I’m glad to learn more. That scanner is so cool!
This reminds of the 24-inch tablet I saw in a Japanese bank a few years. One of those items that could only be viable there.
Amazing. Japan has so much clever and Innovative old tech just waiting to be discovered.
But what's even MORE amazing is how PRACTICAL it is.
You can advance technology, but you can advance Good Sense.
Can it be converted to "English"?
Users of the "Sharp Zaurus" (which were only sold in Japan) PDAs had different "ROMs" that modified or replaced the onboard OS and converted them to English.
Unfortunately no, as these were only sold in Japan, Sony never localized them to other languages.
Nice to see you scan the script before reading it out loud :D
i had one of these when i was a kid, got it for $20 at a garage sale. Was great for school.
This thing blew my mind, so cool! TWIC used to have a segment on weird technology, always fun to listen to.
I just love the minidisc format and the tech that it was involved with.
What a cool device. I imagine it was very useful for business people who could afford it. I love the scanner.
Your content is getting better and better, congrats!
"while many are familiar with sony`s vaio computers. the company also make computer-like product line you`ve probably never heard of" - come on. It's such a common thing that even I have one.
Get a Samsun S-Pen or a TabletPC stylus. I'm willing to bet that it would work. The stylus that you have should work on a Galaxy Note, or a TabletPC. Next you visit a computer store take it with you and test it out.
Never Knew these were a thing, but now i need one.
Love that scanner. Of course, anything Minidisc is interesting.
Gotta say, it's pretty neat seeing essentially an S-Pen in 1999. I honestly didn't think the tech was that old.
That is an insane amount of features for a totally custom piece of kit. Golden age of Sony, when they were actually ambitious and willing to take risks.
This is so cool from its era, wow just wow
Don’t forget de Clié. It’s was computer like too 😀 they where great pda based on palm OS
Like Palm Pilot on steroids. Always showing off what was possible from hard and software side on this platform. Oh how much I wanted a Clie back in the days. Good ol‘ Sony…
I remember one of my teachers had a similar device. They used it to scan and correct our copies then print them out later on. I have no idea what it actually was tho. I'm in Canada and it was back in the mid 2000's
Fantastic video, love your channel! 💜
This is basically the same as the modern day Sony DPT tablets where you can read PDFs, take notes with the stylus, and more.
Did you try a Samsung S-pen stylus? The Wacom branded drawing tablets don't generally have compatibility with other Wacom stuff but a lot of the tablet/phones from other manufacturers work. For example an S-pen will work on the ThinkPad X200t, the original Surface Pro, my Oynx Boox eReader, and obviously Galaxy Notes and some Samsung tablets.
Wow, great attention to detail.
Pretty awesome if I must say, ofc it’s not good now but I’d be impressed back then in Japan 🇯🇵
I think I would have dreamed relentlessly of owning one of these if I'd known it existed back when I was like 13 or so. It's funny to think about now, but there was this highlighter pen I saw on Computer Chronicles that could scan text line-by-line and then view as a text file on your computer and I wanted it sooo bad. If I'd been aware of this device, my young weirdo brain would have been floored.
That stylus reminds me to the pen used in the Panasonic Toughbooks CF, I have one and uses the exact same stylus. I feel bad for being late to this....
Hello, the video is very illustrative, thank you very much, I have a question, is this device compatible with Hi-MD?
Thank you very much, regards
This is the sort of device that I thought we would have commonplace in the future.
I need one of these, I love the scanner
That's amazing little machine shame it did not have a thermal printer as well great vid thankyou
I wonder if the scanner can scan full pages with color, even though the display can not output it, is it possible?
Thats a cool device! I like the built in scanner.
If it were lighter, I would SO want one now.
FYI, Wacom is pronounced like Walk-umm
First time I heard it called Whack Em!
I always heard people say Wack-Com
That E-Reader could be very interesting…
With dual drives, I wonder if it was ever used to copy music Mini-Discs...
It’s like cool Sony devices never seem to end! This is a really interesting device, plus the portability factor makes it that much cooler!
The Remarkable 2 of the 90s
That stylus looks exactly like the same kind used on the IBM Thinkpad 710T, 730T, 360P, and 750P units. I wonder what kind they are because I would love to get another stylus for my 730T.
I always chuckle when you buy a second unit Colin, hah.
that scanner would be useful for invoices on road calls
Data Eata. The Japanese supply of dad jokes is forever.
Very interesting! Thank you!
You sure it doesn't do OCR? In the Scan Mode settings you have two options, 文字 (text) and 写真 (picture).
Could you please share the URL of the Japanese auction site used to get these units?
if youre in japan then yahoo auctions, in other regions then use a proxy service like buyee or zenmarket
The stylus looks similar to one I had for a Panasonic Toughbook, which used Wacom EMR/Penabled, which, yet again, is different to what their tablets use(d).
Through the magic of buying two of them. 📱 📱 🖋
Did the yellowed unit that came with the stylus also work?
For the most part yes, though the scanner unit seems to need its capacitors replaced.
Pro Tip for you Colin: Always buy two pieces of each model. It will save a lot of time.
What model is the Sony laptop you show in the video?
Cool device! :)
Have a good weekend!
"On the left side is a sheet-fed, B&W scanner."
"but if you had a number of pages to go though, the scanner is detachable"
Me: "that's great and all but what about-"
"the scanner can open-up and roll across printed material."
Me: _"I'LL TAKE YOUR ENTIRE STOCK!"_
Risc architecture? They were way ahead of their time!
The SH series was common on 1990s devices, especially Japanese ones. It was sega's preferred CPU, appearing on the 32X, Dreamcast, and Saturn, as well as lots of Windows CE PDAs.
Fascinating !
On a side note, what happens if you load an MD Data disc into an MD audio deck (or vice versa)?
sony made the coolest stuff
Looks like a GridCase Convertible 386.
I don't know why but seeing this screen interface and the scanning functionality gives me a rather odd but familiar smell of hot inked paper, even though this thing is not a printer.
I remember buying a 128mb memory stick for $100 and felling like I had infinite space 😂
i belive as is time was very nice to have and to use
Hello Colin!
Way ahead of its time. It’s a shame that today Sony is synonymous with Playstation, and little else.
This is amazing!