The

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professiona ...

CLIÉ (creativity, lifestyle, innovation, emotion, formerly communication, link, information and entertainment) is a series of

personal digital assistant A personal digital assistant (PDA), also known as a handheld PC, is a variety mobile device which functions as a personal information manager. PDAs have been mostly displaced by the widespread adoption of highly capable smartphones, in part ...

s (PDAs) running the

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also i ...

(OS) ''

Palm OS Palm OS (also known as Garnet OS) was a mobile operating system initially developed by Palm, Inc., for personal digital assistants (PDAs) in 1996. Palm OS was designed for ease of use with a touchscreen-based graphical user interface. It is pro ...

'', developed and marketed by

from 2000 to 2005. The devices introduced many new features to the PDA market, such as a

jog dial A jog dial, jog wheel, shuttle dial, or shuttle wheel is a type of knob, ring, wheel, or dial which allows the user to shuttle or jog through audio or video media. It is commonly found on models of CD players which are made for disc jockeys, an ...

(or jog wheel) interface, high-resolution displays, and Sony technologies like

Memory Stick The Memory Stick is a removable flash memory card format, originally launched by Sony in late 1998. In addition to the original Memory Stick, this family includes the Memory Stick PRO, a revision that allows greater maximum storage capacity an ...

slots and ATRAC3 audio playback. Most models were designed and manufactured in Japan. The name was initially an attempt at a new coinage term, though it means ''tool'' in the Jèrriais language. The CLIÉ handhelds were distinguished from other Palm OS models by their emphasis on multimedia abilities, including photo, video, and audio playback, long before any other Palm OS PDAs had such abilities. Later models have been credited with spurring competition in the previously stagnant Palm market, closing many of the gaps that existed between Palm OS PDAs and those using

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...

Windows Mobile Windows Mobile is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones and personal digital assistants. Its origin dated back to Windows CE in 1996, though Windows Mobile itself first appeared in 2000 as Pock ...

OS, more so for multimedia, but also with Sony's proprietary application launcher interface.

Closure of handheld line

In the summer of 2004,

announced that new CLIÉs would, from then on, be manufactured and available only in Japan, and in the spring of 2005, Sony announced the end of its CLIÉ line of products. The last models to be released worldwide were the PEG-TJ27, PEG-TJ37, and PEG-TH55. The last model released in Japan was the PEG-VZ90. Soon after the closure of the CLIÉ line, Sony stopped providing original installation drivers, including Sony's version of Palm Desktop for the CLIÉ, which are necessary for Hotsyncing with the PC and otherwise taking advantage of the handhelds' many features for which a PC may be needed. Several CLIÉ fans took it upon themselves to offer these drivers freely for download at www.sonyclie.org.

Models

CLIÉ handhelds were released in series, usually with a few models released in each series. In later years, multiple series would be in production at the same time.

Motorola Dragonball CPU: Palm OS 3.5, 4.x

* S series (2000–2002) * T series (2001–2003) * N series (2001–2002) * NR series (2002) * SL/SJ series (2002–2003)

ARM compatible CPU: Palm OS 5.0, 5.2

* NX series (2002–2004) * NZ series (2003–2004) * TG series (2003–2004) * UX series (2003–2004) * TJ series (2003–2004) * TH series (2004) * VZ series (2004–2005) (Japan only)

Macintosh support

Officially, the CLIÉ line did not support the

Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software en ...

, and Sony never provided any software with the handhelds for Macintosh operating systems. However, as a Palm OS device, every CLIÉ handheld was inherently capable of

HotSync Palm OS (also known as Garnet OS) was a mobile operating system initially developed by Palm, Inc., for personal digital assistants (PDAs) in 1996. Palm OS was designed for ease of use with a touchscreen-based graphical user interface. It is provi ...

operations with a Mac OS computer. This allowed for synchronizing the basic

personal information manager A personal information manager (often referred to as a PIM tool or, more simply, a PIM) is a type of application software that functions as a personal organizer. The acronym PIM is now, more commonly, used in reference to personal information manag ...

(PIM) functions, and for installing new software, though this ability was unusable because the Mac HotSync software would not recognize the handheld. PalmSource, however, silently added the ability to recognize older CLIÉ devices when providing new versions of its Palm Desktop software for Mac. This was necessary for those who could synchronize only via

USB Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard that establishes specifications for cables, connectors and protocols for connection, communication and power supply (interfacing) between computers, peripherals and other computers. A broad ...

. The CLIÉ user community soon discovered that these "updates" were simply a matter of adding a few lines to the USB-detection property-list file. Since then, detaile
instructions
have been posted online for those who want to synchronize their CLIÉ handhelds. No modifications are required for

Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limi ...

synchronizing, but

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wav ...

synchronizing is impossible because the Mac OS HotSync software does not support network synchronizing. Some workarounds for the multimedia features also exist. For those who desire stronger Mac OS/CLIÉ integration, the product Missing Sync made by the company Mark/Space is also available. This does make unencrypted

synchronizing possible but a bug in the CLIÉ network stack reverses IP addresses which means that the Macintosh involved needs a palindromic IP address such as 10.0.0.10.

References

External links

Sony repair/parts replacement website
- Buy replacement parts for current unsupported Sony CLIÉS.″″
One Source
formerly CLIÉ Source, is an enthusiast site which changed its name when Sony ended the CLIÉ line. It is still the more popular site that still covers the Sony CLIÉ line of products through its forums.
SonyClie.org
- Downloadable PC-Clie drivers which are no longer provided by Sony.
Openomics
- Step-by-step instructions to add Apple iSync support for a Sony CLIÉ TH55 {{DEFAULTSORT:Clie Sony products Palm OS devices