According to an interview with former Sony President Kunitake Ando, during a 2001 golf trip to Hawaii, Steve Jobs surprised him and his team with VAIO laptop running on Mac OS X. It’s no secret that Steve Jobs at the time shared a passion for Sony and was known to be close with Sony’s co-founder Akio Morita. In fact, after his return to Apple in 1997, Steve Jobs attempted to model parts of Apple, including factories and their now iconic stores, after Sony. While the story might sound too far fetched, besides his admiration at the time for Sony, Steve Jobs and his top lieutenants were known to go to Hawaii once a year for a retreat where they relaxed and freely bounced ideas between one another. As we now know, the partnership never came to be, with Sony turning down the proposal but the facts around it might be even more intriguing than the reasoning.
Sony Mobile
Rumours are becoming more certain now as the ‘Sirius’ and ‘Castor’ devices appear with the FCC communications body in the US. Just in time for Mobile World Congress in Spain too.
The FCC details reveal something we didn’t expect about the ‘Sirius’ smartphone – it’s compatible with the three major US carriers. Sony is keeping to its word then, the US won’t be left out at launch.
Leaks have appeared of what is claimed to be the ‘Sirius’ and the images certainly appear like an updated Sony model. Check out our full gallery on this.
Separately, another source indicates that the Sirius and Avatar models are different phones and confirms that the Sirius will appear at MWC while the Avatar is a different model due to take over the reigns as flagship in the second half of 2014. MWC is very soon so we will know for sure then.
The new flagship will be joined by a shiny new tablet codenamed Castor and this also passed through the FCC. Given the industry awards that Sony’s flagship smartphones and tablets receive, the judges might want to sit down for this.
Read on for a closer look.
A new report from Nikkei, the Japanese news service indicates that Sony may be looking to sell off its PC business. VAIO currently offers slim pickings of desktops and a wide range of notebooks and Ultrabooks. Despite having a very innovative line of computers like the Tap 20, Flip series and the powerful VAIO Z, Sony has never been a large player in the PC business and commands a 1.9% share of all PCs shipped during the January-September period of 2013.
Unlike HP, Lenovo, and Dell who cater to budget-conscious buyers, Sony has traditionally targeted the more premium segment of the PC industry which is primarily dominated by Apple. Moody recently cut Sony’s credit rating to junk, specifically pointing out the company’s personal computer division. This was as odd then as it is now, seeing how PC sales are a part of the Mobile Products & Communications segment, of which less than half of this is PC with smartphones and tablets instead dominating this segment, which has a 17.9% part of total sales in Sony Corp. So if the division does little for Sony’s bottom line, could the sale of VAIO be true?
Sony believes that the typical lifespan of a smartphone is between 18 months and two years eld. To that end, the Japanese giant is discounting software support on 12 Android smartphones which the company lists as EoL (End of Life). This means that the latest firmware update that Sony has released will be the final set of new features and/or bug fixes that the handset will receive. To be clear, this doesn’t mean that Sony is pulling down any of the software, meaning that if you’re running on Android 4.0 and Sony has released Android 4.1 for your device, you can still at anytime update your phone to the latest software Sony had to offer. So what phones are getting the cut?
Sony Mobile hasn’t said much since it first introduced major upgrade plans but now hints are coming in.
Vodafone Australia has unveiled update plans for four Sony phones on its website. The world’s third largest network and owner of US carrier Verizon indicates the Xperia M, SP, TX and Z are being tested for Jellybean updates. Read on for the details.
Own a Sony Xperia Z1 or Xperia Z Ultra but worried about being made fun of for running an old version of Android? Well Sony is here to rescue you with firmware 14.2.A.1.136 which brings the Xperia Z1 and Xperia Z Ultra to Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. The rollout will be a gradual one so don’t be surprised if your device hasn’t prompted you for an update quite yet. So what new things can you expect?
Promised in December and said to be delivered in January (and hey, January 30th is still January), Sony has finally released the QX10 and QX100 firmware 2.0. The new update which weighs in at 87MB brings full HD 1080(30p) recording to both cameras in MP4 format, versus the previous 720p. ISO is also seeing a big bump on each model with the QX10 ISO expanded from 1600 to 3200 and QX100 ISO expanded from 3200 to 12800. The QX100 is gaining a new Shutter Speed Priority (“S”) Shooting mode which grants you direct access to the lens shutter speed. Prior to the year ending, Sony also released a massive update for PlayMemories Mobile App which is required to control the attachable lens for your iOS or Android phone. The new update was able to improve connection start up time by approximately two folds compared to previous versions of the PlayMemories Mobile application. So how do you update your QX10 or QX100 to firmware 2.0? That step is a bit more complicated.
On Monday this week the Japanese branch of the investor ratings agency Moody reduced Sony Corp. stock from Baa3 to Ba1, leading to a tumble in the stock price.
This news has produced mixed reactions. Moody’s report predictably targets falling PC demand and the troubles that the TV division has had. Fortunately, these areas form a smaller part of Sony’s operating revenue than only a few years ago thanks to years of cost-cutting measures and a reorganisation that targeted higher growth-potential areas such as smartphones, tablets and the gaming sector. Additionally, newer streams of income have been sourced in insurance and medical devices.
What exactly did Moody’s evaluation take issue with?
After being on the market for a few months, it seems that Sony is finally turning its attention towards the Xperia Z Ultra, their mega smartphone Phablet. As a recap, the Sony Xperia Z Ultra offers a 1080p 6.4-inch display that might as well be a small tablet. In fact, it’s likely that thought process which led Sony to announce a Wi-Fi only edition of the Xperia Z Ultra yesterday which in turn makes the unit a tablet. Now, Sony has enlisted Spider-Man and released a clever new marketing spot in Japan that is simple and to the point. Are you listening Sony’s marketing team in the US? The clever ad and the making of it can be found, after the jump.
As promised by Sony, the Xperia Z1s, the companies current flagship Android smartphone with a powerful 20-megapixel image sensor is now available in the US for purchase through T-Mobile and their UnCarrier plan. At CES 2014, Sony promised to be more aggressive with the US market and the fact that they’ve shipped a phone two weeks after announcement is a good sign that they mean what they said. To make the pot sweeter for gamers, Sony is also offering a free year of PlayStation Plus to those who purchase the Xperia Z1s between January 13th and February 12th.
US residence rejoice. If you’ve been wanting an Android phone from Sony but haven’t been too pleased at paying full price for an unlocked version then the following will cheer you up. Announced at CES 2014, the Sony Xperia Z1s is officially available through T-Mobile stores. What makes this announcement different than past initiatives from Sony is the time frame between announcement and release which was just a matter of weeks. Traditionally, Sony has announced phones at CES, only to arrive in US market a good 6 to 8 months later.
The Sony Xperia Z Ultra is a fantastic tablet smartphone phablet. Beautiful in design and rich in power. As a recap, the Android-powered phablet offers a monstrous 6.4-inch display with a 1080p resolution on Qualcomm’s latest 2.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800, with 2GB RAM, 16GB internal memory, and 4G LTE connectivity. In fact, the unit is regarded highly enough that Google recently launched their own version, the Sony Xperia Z Ultra Google Play Edition which is spec for spec the same as the original, minus any custom software that Sony offers on the Android unit. Seeing how big the unit is, Sony has decided to offer it with a Wi-Fi only option, making it a true tablet.
During CES 2014, Sony showed off its Smart Tennis Sensor. Designed to be stuck inside the bud of a tennis racket, the sensor is capable of detecting your:
- Shot count
- Impact position
- Swing type
- Swing speed
- Ball speed
- Spin rate
While only shown off on Android, today Sony revealed that they will be releasing the sensor with a compatible iOS and Android app upon launch. Sony thinks that these types of sensors are a natural extension of the wearable gadget era and boom that we’re about to enter and they want to be there from the start. The video below gives you an example of the sensor’s functionality and speed.
Sony hasn’t made this Windows Phone ambitions a secret and has even gone on record about it:
We don’t want to be a single OS manufacturer, I don’t think it’s a viable position in the long-term.
While Windows Mobile has a long way to go and is a distant third behind iOS and Android, the fact that so much of Microsoft’s future hangs upon it meets that it’s likely a platform that will viable for years to come. Microsoft is also a company with deep pockets, capable of out spending their competitors in marketing and R&D. While neither necessarily translate to success, it can turn into a great payday for a company like Sony who already creates Windows 8 desktops and Ultrabooks. Now Russian blogger Eldar Murtazin has chimed in on the matter with his own two cents.
We’re weeks into 2014 and we still don’t have firm plans from Sony on the next Xperia flagship. But there are many rumours.
Xperia Z2, ‘Avatar’, ‘Sirius’ – which is which? There is a glaring detail about one of these rumours that connects with how Sony launched the Z1 S. The latest news on the ‘Sirius’ helps tell them apart.
Read on to find out why the next Sony flagship is still hidden from view.
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