The (rather confusing) Sony Ericsson PC Suite

I usually blog to warm myself up so I can start writing more, and boy o boy do I need warming up right now with 4 articles to go. So I took screenshots of the Sony Ericsson PC Suite installation when I installed it on a loaner Fujitsu laptop, similar to when I featured the Motorola Phone Tools Setup last November.

The PC Suite comes with the Sony Ericsson W550i Walkman phone.

Anyway here are the rather mixed results:

First we get our intro screen to choose a language:

then we get our ‘what do you wanna install screen’, where it seems logical to choose the PC Suite first.

preparing to install:

and further on..

and voila..

we always say yes to this..

choose complete..

…

and finally..

which results in this. However, this is just the PC Suite GUI (graphical interface), and none of those applications are installed yet. Sony Disc2Phone was the most interesting to me, I went ahead and clicked that.

Now here’s where it gets tricky. Just as I realized I wanted to install Disc2Phone, suddenly this window pops up:

which I’m obliged to continue, since apparently my PC has detected the connected new gizmo. So here I go..

Since the thing is already connected, I just keep clicking next..

next..

and finally it detects the phone as a Modem first..

then a storage device second..

When I attached my phone at some point earlier on, I chose “file transfer” mode, and so this popup confirms it:

Windows starts trying to get into the action again, with this:

which mixes in with the installation that’s still going on:

and finally:

BUT a message comes out: “This application has not been installed yet. You can install it from the Sony Ericsson installation CD or download it from www.sonyericsson.com/support.”

HUH?!?!? Anyway, I press Ok, and then I look at My Computer and see that the phone is considered a ‘removable disk’ anyway.

Ok. Now thing is, I actually do know what happened there, and aside from the weird messages, I know we’re in good shape. But if you’re a newbie, you’d no doubt be confused. I know I would too if I wasn’t paying as much attention. Anyway, now that I finished up Windows recognizing the phone, I now want to install Disc2Phone, purely because it’s the only app that sounds like I might need it, and whose purpose I wasn’t really sure of. Sounds logical, eh?

Anyway..

argh..

yeah sure..

go on..

well good for you.

wait, I thought I said yes to you already..

how many times do you want me to agree? Now I’m starting to doubt..

…

ok. I hope you’re sure this time.

Reboot. Of course. Do I expect anything less?

After rebooting..

Then.. waitaminit, you mean you haven’t installed yet? Ah oh yeah, the other one was just for .net. Geez.

Goodness..

yeah yeah sure..

ok already..

sigh..

ok. Hope this is for real.

After which no more weird messages. Sigh. So anyway, here’s what Disc2phone finally looks like:

I went ahead and installed Adobe Photoshop Album Starter Edition, again just to find out what it does, but have hardly used it either. Most likely it’s just one of those easy to make Album makers that SE hopes is a good add-on for W550i users.

Disc2phone at any rate, worked flawlessly when I ripped a Black Eyed Peas audio CD, merely by inserting the CD, making Disc2phone recognize the songs, and pressing “transfer”, after which all the 15 or so songs end up on your phone in 3 minutes or so. Pretty acceptable.

So there you go with my review of the SE PC Suite and Disc2phone installation. Honestly, it’s as confusing as hell, and I really do not envy SE’s customer support as it’s quite likely they’ll be getting calls for help from confused non – techies.

The installation suite gives you the feeling that they got it right the first time, then decided to add more software and didn’t upgrade the installation exe so that it got in the way of Window’s own “detected new hardware” SOP.

While it may seem trivial, I think it certainly needs some work if only for the amount of customer support calls SE won’t have to answer if they could get it right.