Sony HID-C10

This is a great "internet device" but it is NOT a tablet, and one does not carry it around. It has to be plugged in and it has to have access to WiFi. Now, having said that, let's talk about the perks and features of this little beauty! First, it's a great hi-tech alarm clock. Customizable alarms that can be set for different times for different days simultaneously, and offers the option to wake to sounds you can choose, or to audio or video. Next, it's super for streaming music (Pandora, Shoutcast, Slacker, etc.) and you can plug in your own url for a station with internet streaming. The speakers aren't terrific, but you can plug in external speakers and it sounds great. The streaming video apps are wonderful! Amazon Video on Demand, Hulu+, Crackle, Netflix...all work well, and the picture quality is impressive. As for the apps in the Sony market...on the surface they may seem "limited" and "only" 1000, But there is more there than meets the casual glance. Other than the Facebook, Google news, Gmail, NYT, CNBC, Rueters, NPR, etc. one might expect, there are games, slide shows, webcams, weather apps, horoscopes, etc....and there is a little jewel called the Chumby RSS reader. You can add the app as many times as you want to any and all your channels and plug in the RSS urls for you favorite blogs, news sources, tech news, cooking, humor, or whatever, and have them stream as long as you want. In fact, you can have all your chosen apps play as long or as short as you want. You can have up to 100 apps in a channel...and unlimited channels. The UI is pretty intuitive, and easy to set up online with your laptop or computer. There are several "themes" you can put for your home screen and they offer different options according to what you find most useful for your needs. I've installed four of these devices throughout my home so I can have instant and easy access to what interests me everywhere I go in the house. I haven't tried plugging in a USB thumb drive, but it can be done. Great device!

I bought Sony Dash as a replacement for an Internet Radio by Aluratek, which I got for Aeroplan Bonus Miles.

Pros:
- Great bright & responsive touch screen
- Nice look
- Instant access to weather widget & online radio
- Good selection of news apps
- Very easy to configure

Cons:
- Speakers could be of a much better quality. OK for low-bitrate internet radio, but that's it
- 90% of the apps are useless
- Netflix app doesn't work in Canada
- No last.fm or grooveshark app.

Summary:

Nice product, but with a lot of limitations. I use it in kitchen with numerous news apps, some funny pics apps like icanhascheezburger and also stream online radio. Great for checking weather conditions as well. My suggestion would be to go to Sony Style store and check it out for yourself before you buy it. IMHO it's good buy for 99$ - just make sure you understand what you want from this little gadget.

This device does work great for a kids room or for use as an extra multimedia option! The device does take a little while to load the 1st time it's plugged in!(about 3 to 4 mins) However once it's on it works as described! The only drawback is having to sign up and requires you to register at sony 1st before some of the features can be used like pandora for example needs to be linked to the device, but that's not difficult to do! Youtube works great! Every time you plug it in it has to download the menu theme which I found kinda strange! Speaking of that... The menus could be simplified a little more by sony!!!However it does take a little getting used to!(just like anything else really) Price? I think it is kinda over priced for what it has to offer! (could get a netbook) for almost that price! The uniqueness is what drew my attention to it & having a big size/bright clock & weather info for several places at once makes it great for even the less technologically oriented people! The other reason would be the online radio from shoutcast!!! Well the dash is stereo sound, but it's about as loud as any other am/fm clock radio! Can wake up to your pandora! Which is great! (can't wake up to youtube tho) Streamed movies look awesome in the 7" display! it will load your music & pics through the usb, but will not load videos from a memory card though which is strange since it can stream video very well! Hopefully a future update will fix that or enable it! Overall the device is good, but for some a computer might be better for alot of this! Would I recommend the device to be bought? Yes! That's if price isn't much of an issue, but I wish I would of gotten an android tablet for the price! Oh! I forgot to mention that web surfing isn't really possible with the Sony dash!!! Has the potential, but Sony didn't include that capability! Hope this helps possible buyers to make their choice on getting it or not.

This is a very versatile internet viewer. Sony says there are 1,500 apps available. Most of the apps are from Chumby Industries, makers of the Chumby One, the new Chumby 8 and the Insignia Infocast devices. Play games, listen to internet music, watch videos from Amazon and Netflix (plus others), even Sony movies. It does so many things, and is a great alarm clock as well. A great product, well worth the money.

The only negative is that it doesn't use batteries, and has to be plugged in all the time. There are reports that Sony may be working on this drawback.

This is a nice product when used as a wake up station and bedside super enhanded alarm clock. You can watche youtube videos and Netflix well. Is is specially nice at streaming audio. Are startions on Shotcast like Sleepbot and CyroSleep that are well suited for imsomniacs. The internal audio is not great and use it with external speakers. Pandora and all the custom content is there. You can also play videos and music on a USB stick - and this is a really nice extra. Wake up to all the news you need with over 1000 apps for content you can select. All features work at the same time... so you can read news while listening to music. Also are games and lots of special apps available and you can customize multiple channels with the type of content you want availble and choose the themes on hos it will be displayed.