Sony Corp.

Sony’s Q1 Earnings Top $35 Million Net Profit, Mobile and TV Up a Healthy Dose

by Sohrab Osati | Aug 1, 2013 | 5 comments

Sony has just come out with their first earnings report of 2013 which spans the April-June quarter with some encouraging news. While a far cry from the $8-12 billion net profit that Apple tends to make or the low billions from Samsung, Sony brought in an operating profit of 36.36 billion yen ($369.68 million) with a net profit of $35 million. This comes well ahead of the 25.3 billion yen profit that many analysts were expecting for the battered company. This also places the company well ahead of the year prior which saw them post an operating profit of 6.3 billion yen.

According to Sony thanks to their mobile division which consists of their Android smartphones and tablets and surprisingly television sales, the company was able to beat expectations while the PlayStation division held the company down with lower sales. Lets talk details.

Sony and Panasonic to Create 300GB Optical Discs

by Sohrab Osati | Jul 30, 2013 | 14 comments

It’s hard to imagine that Blu-ray has already been out for nearly a decade. After a two year war with Toshiba’s losing HD DVD, the Sony backed format would eventually become the victor, thanks in part to the PlayStation 3. With discs cable of holding 50GB, though a 400GB and 1TB were shown off years ago with little news on them since, it’s easy to see why the PS4 and Xbox One are using the medium to help bring HD games to your living room. Even with 50GB of space available on each Blu-ray disc, the industry and consumers to an extent are already running into a roadblock, especially if you consider 4K films which even at compressed rates can be around 300GB and uncompressed a whopping 3TB that the time for thinking of a new format medium has come. To that end, Sony and Panasonic are hoping to create a new 300GB optical disc.

Sony Targets Surgeons with 3D Head-Mounted Display

by Sohrab Osati | Jul 23, 2013 | 0 comments

Nearly two years ago, Sony unveiled the Personal 3D Viewer (HMZ-T2) at CES, designed to give an immersive 720p 2D/3D experience on two 1280×720 0.7-inch OLED panels which are mounted in front of each eye with an integrated 5.1 Surround Sound headphone system that is built into the Head Mounted Display. Since then, the company has ever so slightly updated the product that targets the high end consumer. In the last two years, Sony has also had a new CEO, Kaz Hirai, who has been helping turn things around at Sony. Part of Hirai’s strategy has been to get more bang out of the R&D money that Sony uses. This has seen the company expand into the medical field and deploy their highly-sought-after image sensors and lens for use in different medical devices. Now, Sony is doing this again with the Personal 3D viewer, dubbed the Sony 3D Head-Mounted Display, which is designed to give surgeons a better look inside of you.

New Sony Patent Would Allow You to Tag Photos With Your Vital Signs

by Sohrab Osati | Jul 19, 2013 | 0 comments

Sony has just filed a brand new and somewhat bizarre patent application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Under the new patent, camera sensors on a given device would be able to tag movies and photographs with your vital signs. Think how current photos from smartphones and GPS enabled cameras place a meta data with the photos location. Now replace or add to that GPS coordinates your vital signs. This means that in edition to GPS coordinates, your photos can contain data like body temperature, pulse rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate, blood oxygen level, and skin conductance.

Sony Video Unlimited Now Allows Access to Purchased Content on Multiple Devices

by Sohrab Osati | Jul 17, 2013 | 4 comments

In edition to Vidzone for the PlayStation 3 which brings access to over 55,000 music videos, Sony continues to beef up its media presence on PlayStation devices. Till now, unlike iTunes which ties your purchases to your account, allowing you to redownload your content on your Mac, PC, and iOS device, Video Unlimited has tied your purchases to the device. That means that if you bought a movie on the PS3, it would stay on the PS3 unless you actually transferred it to say the PS Vita by connecting the two devices. In fact, after your download, the said content would disappear from your download list. PS3 to PS3 would even be trickier and PS3 to PS4? Who knows! That is, till now.

Sony Defeats Patent Troll WiLAN

by Sohrab Osati | Jul 17, 2013 | 0 comments

For those who follow the tech industry on a regular basis, you’re surely aware of the ‘patent troll’ problem that plagues the industry. For those not familiar, there are many companies who either buy patents from other companies or file for any and all type of patents and due to the broken system in the US, are in return granted such patents. Once granted, instead of actually producing any products or services with the given patents, the companies begun to sue any and all that they can if they feel like they can extract any money from the case. At best, a company shells out millions of dollars towards lawyers when they could have invested the money into the company and at worst, companies simply close up shop if they cannot afford to fend off such abuse.

Now thanks to a federal judge, Sony and others will have one less thing to worry about from patent licensing firm WiLAN.

Sony Entertainment Network to Allow Carrier Billing in the UK

by Sohrab Osati | Jul 3, 2013 | 0 comments

Sony is looking at new ways of making access and purchasing of their content easier. To achieve that goal, Sony Network Entertainment and Sony Computer Entertainment will be incorporating Boku into their payment structure in the UK. With the new payment system, you’ll be able to make purchases from SEN content which includes the PlayStation Network (PS3, PSP/Vita) by establishing your cellphone carrier as your billing destination.

Sony Music Unlimited Update for iOS Brings Offline Mode, 320 Kbps Streams

by Sohrab Osati | Jun 25, 2013 | 0 comments

Despite the Sony Music Unlimited service having little traction with consumers, Sony continues to improve the service with updates to the vast platforms it covers which include iOS, Android, Sony televisions, Blu-ray players, and PlayStation consoles like the PS3 and PS Vita. The latest round of updates comes for iOS users which includes iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad though the service lacks a native iPad app. The Sony Music Unlimited 1.3 software once live will give iOS users access to offline mode which allows them to download entire albums or tracks and listen without the reliance of an internet connection.

Sony Open SmartWatch Project Allows Access to Watch Firmware

by Sohrab Osati | Jun 17, 2013 | 0 comments

For better or worse, developers always want access to more. More API’s, more SDK content, and the holy grail if possible, more control over the devices firmware. Be it an iOS or Android device, firmware is usually one of the areas thats blocked off from developers in order to keep device performance at a certain threshold. Many of the devices we own are capable of more if the firmware is tweaked but such things can equally have a negative consequence like diminished battery life.

Much in the way that PlayStation is betting on indie developer, so is Sony by granting devs access to the SmartWatch firmware with the Open SmartWatch Project.

PlayStation Marketing Kicks Off; Greatness Awaits

by Sohrab Osati | Jun 14, 2013 | 0 comments

One of the themes from the PlayStation E3 press conference this year was “greatness awaits.” The new tagline for the gaming division of Sony could be seen outside of the LA Convention Center as a beacon for PlayStation fans. To followup with the theme, Sony has released a new minute and a half trailer that’s all about greatness. Better yet, the ad itself is not PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, or PlayStation Vita centric. Instead, the ad is all about gaming and gamers. After the jump, greatness awaits you.

Sony Laser Light Source Projector with 3LCD Gets Release Date

by Sohrab Osati | Jun 4, 2013 | 0 comments

Two weeks after CES, the Sony Laser Source Projector with 3LCD was announced. Unlike other high end projectors that Sony makes, this units replaces the old bulb based technology with a 3LCD laser; a world first.. This ensures that no bulb replacement is required in the projectors lifetime while offering a consistent 4,000-lumen. The projector also packs a 1900 x 1200 resolution and has up to 20,000 hours maintenance free time, thanks to its lack of bulb. Now, the unit has an official model number and release date.

Should You Buy ‘Fuse?’

by Sohrab Osati | Jun 3, 2013 | 2 comments

Fuse is the first multi-platform (PS3, Xbox 360) game from Insomniac Games, the long time PlayStation exclusive developer. Known previously for their more lighthearted Ratchet & Clank franchise and post-WWII sci-fi Resistance trilogy, Fuse is another take on the shooter genre. Previously titled Overstrike, Fuse tells the story of four agents known as Overstrike 9 and their mission is to stop Raven, an evil corporation, from gaining an alien substance called Fuse.

Like previous Insomniac Games, Fuse incorporates fantastical weapons, features local and split-screen online/campaign co-op, and humor that will bring you back for more. But chances are that the reviews you’ve read for Fuse paint a more bland and forgetful experience. While some have complained about yet another shooter, others have collectively predicted that the sky is falling and that Insomniac Games has lost their touch. Is Fuse truly a lackluster experience or is this a misunderstood game that’s worthy of your purchase? I’m here to tell you that it’s most definitely the latter and here is why.

Sony CEO on Possible Entertainment Sale, Xperia Z, PS4

by Brien Bell | May 31, 2013 | 1 comment

Kazuo Hirai, president and CEO of Sony, sat down with Jon Fortt of CNBC’s “Closing Bell” at the AllThingsD Digital Conference yesterday to address rumors that the company was “looking a spinoff 15 to 20%” of their Entertainment division, including Sony Pictures and Sony Music.

Sony NEX-FS700 Gains 4K RAW

by Sohrab Osati | May 24, 2013 | 2 comments

The Sony NEX-FS700 has no shortage of features. The sub $10,000 camera which is priced well below a RED camera is able to shoot Super Slow Motion (120-240 fps Full HD or 480 up to 960 fps with reduced resolution) right out of the box. Most desired from the camera however is its capability to shoot 4K. Set for a June release, Sony will begin to ship a new NEX-IFR5 interface unit for the NEX-FS700 which allows the camera to make full use of the internal big sensor and 3G-SDI output. According to Sony, the NEX-IFR5 interface receives the uncompressed bit-stream carrying RAW sensor data, metadata, timecode and start/stop commands from the NEX-FS700U via 3G-SDI. The FS700 RAW files are recorded to the AXS memory cards in the AXS-R5 RAW recorder, where they can be screened and converted using Sony’s free RAW Viewer software.

Sony SBH50 Bluetooth Headset Gets Announced, Gains NFC and OLED Display

by Sohrab Osati | May 22, 2013 | 1 comment

During their CES 2013 keynote, Sony made it clear that NFC will play a big role in their upcoming slate of new products which ranges from tablets, to smartphones, and televisions. The bet is that consumers will be vowed by NFC capabilities like being able to pair devices easily and transfer music from your smartphone to your house stereo with a tap and a click. While big devices will be the hub that support NFC like a 5.1 home theater system, it’s truly on smaller devices where NFC shows its true potential. The Sony SBh50 is the newest premium Bluetooth headset from Sony. A followup to the Smart Wireless Headset Pro, the SBH50 features stereo audio and incorporates a mic and remote with a small OLED display. The headset functionality of the SBH50 is as you would expect though Sony wants to emphasize the premium nature of it, with superior clarity. What makes the SBH50 different than other headsets on the market is the mentioned OLED display.