Sony Corp.

New NEX-FS100 Firmware Inbound March 22nd

by Sohrab Osati | Mar 20, 2012 | 0 comments

Come March 22nd, Sony’s camera division is releasing a new firmware update for the NEX-FS100. The NEX video camera is already a darling to videographers as it gives them a Super 35mm sensor that shoots 1080p60 content at up to 28Mbps. Like most recent cameras and camcorders from Sony, the NEX-FS100 is capable of recording on SD and Memory Stick flash cards. Now, a new firmware update for the NEX-FS100 will add and improve a host of features on the high def camcorder like added 50Hz recording system (PAL): 1920×1080 50p, 50i, 25p and 1280×720 50p. After the jump, the full list of updates.

The Weekend Box Office: Sony Pictures’ ’21 Jump Street’ Opens On Top

by Chris Quibol | Mar 19, 2012 | 10 comments

After a few weeks of absence, Sony Pictures once again dominates the box office, this time with the Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill-lead “21 Jump Street.” The film opened very strong, earning over $36 million for the weekend; however, this is the first weekend that the box office was down compared to last year. Still, the one major new release in “21 Jump Street” managed to find success, besting “Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax,” which sat on top for two straight weeks.

Hit the jump for a full rundown of this week’s box office results.

Sony Music Unlimited Now Available in Canada

by Sohrab Osati | Mar 19, 2012 | 19 comments

Sony, who is no stranger to the entertainment industry, with music division Sony/BMG and film division Sony Pictures, is once again looking to expand their digital footprint. Having launched the now-defunct Qriocity service in 2010 which would be renamed to Sony Music Unlimited and Video Unlimited in 2011, the company has done their best to stay aggressive and offer both services on and in as many devices and countries as possible. Music Unlimited is Sony’s response to iTunes and Pandora by allowing owners to subscribe to a catalog of over 10 million songs which can now be accessed on a vast array of devices like Sony tablets, Sony Xperia smartphones, PlayStation 3, PS Vita, Bravia televisions, Blu-ray players and many non-Sony Android smartphones. Within an eventual expansion to iOS devices, which includes iPhones and iPads, Sony’s been quite aggressive with their device rollout which now includes hundreds of millions of devices which are capable of accessing Sony’s music service. With so many capable devices, where does this put Music Unlimited’s availability in different countries?

Sony Mobile Looks to Patent ‘Head Control’

by Sohrab Osati | Mar 19, 2012 | 0 comments

Companies like Sony often apply for patents that may never be used though they help give you insight in the direction the company might be moving towards. In the case of Sony Mobile, which acted under the name of Sony Ericsson in 2010, the company had applied for a ‘head control’ patent which would help users navigate their smartphone with different head movements. The patent, which has yet to be approved, would be based on a new generation of Bluetooth headsets with motion-sensing technology. Then, the user could create their own custom commands like nodding to answer a phone call while a left to right head movement could indicate the closing of a program.

Playstation Store Update (03-13-12)

by Chris Quibol | Mar 14, 2012 | 19 comments

This week’s Playstation Store update has something for everybody. While Playstation Plus members have been able to experience the wonder that is Journey for the past week, now everyone can experience the critically acclaimed indie game from developer thatgamecompany. Playstation also kicked off their annual “Spring Fever” sales event, with 30-50 percent off full downloads of games from the Call of Duty series, available for a limited time. On the PS Vita front, augmented reality game Reality Fighters and popular racing franchise Ridge Racer are now available for full download. If you’re lacking on money this week, check out the PS3 demo for Shoot Many Robots, a four-player run-n-gun shooter from Ubisoft.

Hit the jump for this week’s full update.

Should You Buy the PlayStation Vita Cradle? (video)

by Sohrab Osati | Mar 5, 2012 | 20 comments

I’m a sucker for docks when it comes to purchasing new gadgets like my iPad or PlayStation Vita. In my mind, there is something very Feng Shui about devices having their own place on my desk and even better when the dock is capable of charging and synchronizing the gadget with a Mac or PC. Enter the PlayStation Vita Cradle from Sony. This simple and sleek dock is designed to give people like me, who hate having cords laying around on their desks, some sanity. Priced appropriately at $19.99, the PlayStation Vita Cradle is a very minimalistic dock with no lights and no buttons. Instead, the metallic brush finished dock opts to display a PlayStation logo on the front with a USB 2.0 and line out on the back.

The dock itself serves a few different purposes, with the most simple one being the capability to watch movies on your PS Vita at just the right angle. In order to get more milage from your dock, you’ll then have to plug in the USB cable and power brick which came with your PS Vita. Once plugged into an outlet, the PlayStation Vita Cradle can then elegantly power your Vita, perfect for having it next to your bed and or in an office setting. Still, my favorite feature is to skip out on the power brick all together and opt for using only the PS Vita’s USB cable. When the PlayStation Vita’s Cradle is plugged into your Mac or PC with a USB cable (which came with your Vita), you can now charge your device and synchronize content back and forth with the Content Manager Assistant program from Sony. Milage from that program will vary but that’s for another article. While on the topic of the dock itself, Sony also took into consideration the weight and size of the Vita and has appropriately weighted down the dock, giving it a solid feel.

Sir Howard Stringer Comments on Kaz Hirai Becoming President and CEO of Sony

by Sohrab Osati | Feb 21, 2012 | 32 comments

As of April 1st, 2012, long-time Sony employee Kaz Hirai (pictured on the right), who currently leads Sony’s consumer electronics division and is widely credited for turning the PlayStation division back towards profitability following the launch of the PlayStation 3, will be stepping up and taking reigns of Sony as the new President and CEO. Kaz will be replacing current and long-time President and CEO Sir Howard Stringer. Stringer, who was originally brought into the company as an outsider who would help transform Sony from its Japanese-centric structure to a more global entity, has struggled in the past few years to keep up with the likes of Apple and Samsung. While many blame Sir Howard Stringer for Sony’s losses and fall in many categories, I believe that such an assumption paints a very simplistic view of the last 10 years for Sony.

With the transfer of power happening in less then two months time, Sir Howard Stringer took it upon himself to address the matter and his thoughts on his replacement.

“Three years ago, I started to work with the Board on succession plans, and in February, 2009 we named a new generation of leaders to be my management team. Among them was Kaz Hirai, who had distinguished himself through his work in the PlayStation ® and networked entertainment businesses. Kaz is a globally-focused executive for whom technology and the cloud are familiar territory, content is highly valued, and digital transformation is second nature. I believe his tough-mindedness and leadership skills will be of great benefit to the company and its customers in the months and years ahead. I look forward to helping Kaz in every way I can so that succession leads inevitably to success. It was my honor to recommend him to the Board for the positions of President and CEO, because he is ready to lead, and the time to make this change is now.”

Valentine’s Day Tech Gift Guide

by Allegra Osati | Feb 13, 2012 | 15 comments

With Valentine’s Day upon us, we geeks at times are a little less likely to reach for the roses and box of Godiva chocolate and more likely to look for a pink USB drive. Will he or she appreciate the USB drive, or would they instead long for some beautiful roses and the taste of sweet dark chocolate? That, unfortunately, I cannot answer, though I can confirm that it is a safe choice. However, seeing how the geek shall inherent the earth, wouldn’t you rather get them something that powers up, chirps, and glows? If you answered yes to that, then go ahead and make the jump because after the break, we show you some great, under-$100 Valentine’s Day tech gifts.

Sony Cuts 100 U.S. Jobs with ‘Fit for the Future’ Initiative. More Cuts to Come?

by Sohrab Osati | Feb 8, 2012 | 5 comments

Sony’s already reported a less than stellar Q4 earnings which resulted in the company raising their loss for the full year. Prior to Sony’s financial earnings, Sony had already begun restructuring many parts of their operations, including TV manufacturing. A major TV restructuring will hopefully allow Sony to better compete with South Korean rival Samsung, while better fending off US-made Vizio, who famously makes lower quality TVs. Under the new plans, Sony is splitting their TV operations into three separate businesses starting on November 1st, 2011. These three new departments include LCD TVs, outsourcing, and next-gen TVs.

Now AllThingsD has learned that, over the last several weeks, Sony has been quietly cutting their U.S. workforce as well. The electronic giant has so far cut 100 U.S. jobs, under a new plan called “Fit for the Future.” It’s predicted that more cuts will come in the future though no significant numbers of cuts is expected (i.e., the cuts won’t be in the multi-thousands). Besides cutting jobs under this new program, which will help bring the company’s costs lower, Sony is also evaluating ways to make their brand more profitable, which can come in the ways of a tighter supply chain and inventory management. Tim Cook famously brought this to Apple in the early 2000s which helped the Cupertino-based company significantly lower their costs while having more of the products people wanted on store shelves.

Under this new program, Sony also wants to improve its relationship with consumers by expanding their reach in social media and interactivity with owners and would-be buyers. Sony is also continuing their retail store rebranding, which they started last April by ending the ‘SonyStyle’ name in favor of just ‘Sony‘. Speaking of retail stores, Sony also wants to increase the number of reps they have available in other retail outlets like Best Buy to ensure proper representation of their brand.

During a press event next month, Sony is expected to lay out more information on their “Fit for the Future” initiative.

Sony Reports $2.1 Billion Quarterly Net Loss

by Sohrab Osati | Feb 2, 2012 | 4 comments

Just a week ago, Apple announced another record-breaking quarter, with a revenue of $46.33 billion and net quarterly profit of $13.06 billion. This again reaffirmed Apple is the world’s most profitable company with $97.6 billion in cash and marketable securities, up $16 billion from the prior quarter. Sony, who was once known as the leading electronic manufacturer in the world, was seen in the eyes of late Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, as the company to beat and imitate. Now, Sony has followed up with their own quarterly earnings report, and, despite being in many of the same consumer segments as Apple, the company posted greater-than-expected losses for this past quarter while raising their loss for the full year.

For the October-December quarter, Sony Corp. reported a net loss of 159 billion yen ($2.1 billion), primarily due to strong competition from rival Samsung, resulting in lower TV sales while flooding in Thailand delayed the launch of many highly-anticipated Sony cameras, including the NEX-7, Alpa A65, and A77. This has resulted in the company modifying their original original forecast of a 90 billion yen ($1.2 billion) loss to be a 220 billion yen ($2.8 billion) loss for the full year through March. Sony incurred expenses of 8.9 billion yen ($114 million) for direct damage to their Thailand manufacturing facilities.

Sony’s quarterly sales were $23 billion, down 17.4% when compared to last year. Sony’s bread and butter, the consumer products and services division, which oversees products like the PlayStation 3, Bravia televisions and tablets also saw a 24% drop in sales, resulting in a loss of over $1 billion. Sony also recorded equity in net loss for S-LCD of 66 billion yen ($846 million) after ending their joint venture with Samsung.

The burning question now remains, despite a lowered sales and earning forecast for the most recent quarter: Will Sony able to capitalize on the new year? The answer may in fact be yes as the company continues to shed off unwanted divisions and to restructure externally. Most recently, Sony sold their remaining stake of their Samsung S-LCD venture. Despite the loss, Sony can now start off with a cleaner record while they believe that, due to them no longer manufacturing LCD screens and instead, opting to buy them (like other competitors) from Samsung, they will be able to lock in more favorable prices. Sony has also begun full production of their entire NEX and Alpha lines of cameras while PlayStation sales have continued to be on the rise. Sony also recently purchased the remaining shares of the Sony Ericsson venture and has planned to bring the entire mobile division in-house to better utilize Sony’s strengths and services. Dealing with all this will be their new appointed president and CEO, Kaz Hirai, who will take helm of the company starting on April 1st. Is 2012 poised to be the year of Sony? Only time will tell but they seem to be positioned better then any other time in recent history.

Kaz Hirai Comments on Becoming Sony President and CEO

by Sohrab Osati | Feb 1, 2012 | 8 comments

Early this morning, we wrote about the breaking news which would have current Sony president and CEO, Sir Howard Stringer, step down to chairman position starting April 1st while current deputy president, Kaz Hirai, would replace him as the new Sony president and CEO. Kaz Hirai, who’s been with the company for over 20 years, is best known for turning around the Playstation division. Upon the announcement of his new position, Kaz Hirai was quick to point out that he is ready to take the helm of the company and begin focusing on the core business that make up Sony, most notably, “to drive the growth of our core electronics businesses – primarily digital imaging, smart mobile and game; to turn around the television business; and to accelerate the innovation that enables us to create new business domains.” Mr. Hirai was also willing to acknowledge the struggles of Sony, noting that Sony is going through “challenging” times but was optimistic about the company’s future, believing that a proper foundation has been laid in the last few years that will help Sony achieve a dominant role once again.

After the jump, Kaz Hirai’s full comments.

Kazuo Hirai to Replace Sir Howard Stringer as Sony President and CEO

by Sohrab Osati | Feb 1, 2012 | 10 comments

It’s been a rumor long and coming but after a vote at Sony’s Japanese headquarters, it has been officially announced that current Sony deputy vice president and long time head of PlayStation, Kazuo Hirai, will be replacing current Sony CEO and president, Sir Howard Stringer, starting April 1st. After the completed transition, starting on June, Sir Howard Stringer will remain on the board of Sony.

Since his time as CEO, Sir Howard Stringer has seen Sony’s stock lose more than half its value. Though the easy thing is to assume that this was his doing, it sometimes goes unsaid that Sony could be in even a worse position had it not been for him. Under Stringer, Sony was able to close down my plants and end entitlement programs and divisions, something which is very hard to do and highly frowned upon in the Japanese culture. It’s also been the vision of Sir Howard Stringer to make as many Sony devices internet capable so that they may communicate with and other. This plan finally came into fruition at CES 2012 where Sony announced that their Video Unlimited, Music Unlimited and PlayMemories software and services could be accessed on more than 200 million Sony devices. Sony now believes it’s in a place to battle services like iTunes.

Still, in the last five years, Sony has given up any presence in the music industry to Apple and the iPod and they were once again seen as playing catchup to the iPhone. I would however dispute this as no one had an answer to the iPhone for the first two to three years of the devices life and till now, no other hardware manufacture has been or would have been able to go, toe to toe with Apple without a proper OS behind, which Google would finally provide. The bigger culprit though is Samsung who is in the same position as Sony. A company who makes electronic devices like televisions, computers and smartphones and much like Sony, relies on Microsoft and Google to provide the OS for their device. Sony, who once was known for making exciting laptops and television sets has seen the Korean electronic eat away at the companies TV business, while gaining on the likes of Acer in the laptop market, whom are all hold double digit market shares, unlike Sony who is still in the single digits. Samsung was also in the same position as Sony when it came to smartphones, having to rely on Google’s Android to compete with Apple and but has been able to make gain considerable market share, though their solution simply seems to be copy what Apple is doing with minor tweaks.

2011 was internally dubbed as the year of Sony and the year the company’s strategic plans would pay off. Sony was however met with huge losses, due to the devastating earthquakes and tsunamis that struck Japan which left many of the company’s factories damaged or offline for months. Months later, Sony’s PlayStation and Qriocity Network (now dubbed Sony Entertainment Network with services like Video and Music Unlimited) would be put under assault by hackers which would force Sony to take the service down for over a month as the company improved network security. Tragedy would again strike as Thailand was hit with devastating floods, just as the company was beginning to launch its highly anticipated series of Alpha and NEX cameras. The company has just recently been able to start proper production again, after having missed out on months of sales.

Now the 51-year-old former PlayStation head will be taking helm of the Japanese giant. Having grown up in both the U.S. and Japan, Kaz Hirai is fluent in both English and Japanese with a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts from the International Christian University in Tokyo. Having been able to turn around the PlayStation division, one of Sony’s last lucrative divisions (besides Sony Pictures), Kaz Hirai becoming the new President and CEO of Sony hardly comes as a surprise. Many now hope that his dual-cultural upbringing will give him the ability to deal with the Japanese side of Sony which has primarily been focused on hardware with little thought to software and Sony’s American division which is influenced by the likes of Apple and Microsoft who believe in the user experience and interface. Mixing in his understanding of the East with the needs of the West, it is believed that Kaz will also be able to better navigate the more political and cultural end of Sony Japan as well, as he is Japanese-born. Is 2012 the year of Sony?

Sony to Help Olympus and Their Financial Woes

by Sohrab Osati | Jan 24, 2012 | 18 comments

If you think Sony’s had some financial woes in recent years, then you haven’t heard of this little big company called Olympus. The famous and long-time camera maker, among other things recently posted a $1.6 billion account loss with further internal turmoil which has members suing the leadership. Step in Sony who is rumored to be the company to be coming to the aid of Olympus. Sony, who already owns 0.03% stake in Olympus, is expected to help the company with a much-needed cash injection and management restructuring. Details are yet to be released but rumors point to a press conference next week that should shed further light on this situation. Lets talk after the jump.

Apple Confirms Sony As iPhone 4S Image Sensor Producer

by Sohrab Osati | Jan 23, 2012 | 6 comments

Almost a year prior to the iPhone 4S announcement, we ran a story about how Sony might be the supplier to offer a new 8 megapixel camera in Apple’s next generation iPhone. As the iPhone 4S became official and the specs were revealed, the story began to seem more and more true. However, Sony’s CEO, Sir Howard Stringer would eventually question why the company would want to supply its competitor with some of their best optics. Not to be outdone, Sony’s executive deputy president, Kaz Kirai, would eventually sit down with Walt Mossberg to discuss all things Sony where the topic of the image sensor would surface.

Walt: Why did you sell your camera sensors to Apple?

Hirai: Can you really define who your competitors are, these days?

We sell to Apple. We buy from Samsung. We sell to Samsung.

Though Kaz didn’t officially confirm the speculation, it seemed clear that the company was indeed supplying the iPhone 4S image sensor. Now, we have the final piece of this puzzle as Apple has come out and published a list of 156 suppliers (PDF) representing 97% of the company’s procurement expenditures. In that list, Sony Corporations is listed as one of those companies. Seeing how Sony doesn’t manufacture much, it seems fairly clear that the story has come full circle with a confirmation that Sony is indeed supplying Apple which has already shipped nearly 20 million handsets.

With the iPhone being on store shelves for only four months, this should prove to Sony that striking manufacturing deals like this is extremely important to the companies bottom line and that they can then take this easy earned cash (opposed to having a superior camera and then having to advertise that their camera is better then the iPhone which A. people don’t buy a phone just for a camera difference and B. It’s not like Sony actually advertises) and reinvest the money back into the company.

Kazuo Hirai to Replace Sir Howard Stringer as Sony President

by Sohrab Osati | Jan 6, 2012 | 11 comments

To say that Sony’s had a rough year last year, let a lone the past decade would be an understatement. To also say that all of this has been the fault of their current CEO and President Sir Howard Stringer would also be unfair. The man whose been hard at working at revitalizing Sony’s TV division and putting together their digital strategy with Music and Video Unlimited is reportedly stepping down as President while Kazuo Hirai is takes overs. Kaz who is currently deputy president currently heads the group’s consumer businesses and prior to this lead the PlayStation division. Meetings are expected to take place next month, in order for a vote to go through and confirm the changes.

Just in November, Sir Howard Stringer denied any reports of him stepping down, insisting that he would fight for his position. It is believed that Stringer will remain chairman and chief executive officer after the transition.